Your task is to read Holger Afflerbach’s essay ‘The Topos of Improbable War in Europe before 1914’ (2007), and to answer three questions relating to it:

1. Briefly summarise the main elements of the argument.
2. What evidence is used to support this argument?
3. How does this argument fit with what you know about the historiographical debate on the causes of the First World War?

Please note that you can choose to divide your answer into three sections if you wish, but that you should write in continuous prose. The overall word limit for this second part of TMA 01 is 600 words.

Note that more credit is available for your answers to Points 2 and 3 of this section than for the brief summary in Point 1. It is important that you pay close attention to what you are asked to do: you are required to summarise the main points of Afflerbach’s argument, and then to highlight some of the evidence he presents to make this argument. You will not be able to mention everything, and it’s acceptable to make a choice and give one or two examples. With regard to the third question, try to relate Afflerbach’s argument to the historiographical debate on the origins of the First World War.

https://www.open.ac.uk/libraryservices/resource/bookchapter:153184&f=36787&f=36787

chapter 6

pages 161 to 182