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The Trigger: The Hunt for Gavrilo Princip - the Assassin who Brought the World to War by Tim Butcher
lizmart88's review against another edition
2.0
This book, like the assassin it profiles, has noble ambitions: to look at primary research to revisit what led Principe to assassinate the Archduke. As a journalist, the author does an excellent job of researching and uncovering important primary documents that do shed light on some of the reasons leading up to the assassination. Notably, he uncovers primary school records that show the descent of Principe into radicalization.
However, the reason I gave this book two stars is that it fails to articulate the findings well. For the first six chapters it meanders through the author's recollections of the 1990s conflict, interspersed with following Principe's childhood journey walking to Sarajevo. This part lacks focus, is bloated with unnecessary details and anecdotes, and too often focuses on the authors experiences rather than the story of Principe's journey. Like many journalists writing history, the author fails to differentiate between the history and the personal. In this case, it took half the book to get to the point. While the first six chapters have moments of insight and genuinely interesting anecdotes, much of it is unnecessary.
If you can make it through the first half, the second half offers many insights and thought provoking discussion of Principe's motivations and actions. Unfortunately, it is still bloated with the author inserting himself unnecessarily into the narrative. While the conflict of 1990s certainly bears much relevance to this topic it felt like it overshadowed the focus on 1914.
However, the reason I gave this book two stars is that it fails to articulate the findings well. For the first six chapters it meanders through the author's recollections of the 1990s conflict, interspersed with following Principe's childhood journey walking to Sarajevo. This part lacks focus, is bloated with unnecessary details and anecdotes, and too often focuses on the authors experiences rather than the story of Principe's journey. Like many journalists writing history, the author fails to differentiate between the history and the personal. In this case, it took half the book to get to the point. While the first six chapters have moments of insight and genuinely interesting anecdotes, much of it is unnecessary.
If you can make it through the first half, the second half offers many insights and thought provoking discussion of Principe's motivations and actions. Unfortunately, it is still bloated with the author inserting himself unnecessarily into the narrative. While the conflict of 1990s certainly bears much relevance to this topic it felt like it overshadowed the focus on 1914.
redmarten83's review against another edition
5.0
I picked this book up expecting a history of the man who kick started WWI, I did get that from the book, but it was only a very small part of the book. Butcher gives much more than that. As he retraces the footsteps of the assassin, we end up getting more of a history of Bosnia during the time leading up to the first world war as well as the turmoil of the 90's. Along the way we are given some interesting insights to the current mood of the country and its citizens. This is sown together nicely with the thread of Gavrilo Princip's life.
librarianonparade's review against another edition
4.0
Gavrilo Princip's actions changed the world, and yet he himself left almost no historical footprint. He is a cipher, a mere cog in the wheel of history. He is the man who set the First World War in motion, nothing more. In himself he is almost unimportant; he simply needed to do what he did in order for history to follow its preordained path.
You'd think all that was true, from the way history and historians have treated Princip. Pick up almost any book on the First World War and you will read that the Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian Hapsburg Empire was assassinated in Sarajevo - and it might say very little more than that. Even the language used is telling - the Archduke 'was assassinated', almost a passive act. Not 'Princip assassinated the Archduke'. Princip's actions, his own history, his motivations, his worldview, his beliefs - these aren't relevant. A mere cog in the machine.
Tim Butcher sets out to overturn that, to retrace Princip's steps in his native Bosnia. And yet somehow, again, Princip slips through the cracks. This book isn't about the nineteen-year-old Gavrilo Princip. He is the framework on which the tale hangs, but it isn't really about him. It's about Bosnia; it's about the twentieht-century's murderous legacies; it's about the Bosnia War; and it's about Tim Butcher. Princip emerges from the shadows on occasion, but the sections of this book really devoted to him could be condensed into just a few chapters. More than anything else, this book is about Tim Butcher retracing his own steps as a young war reporter in Bosnia.
And yet, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Butcher is an engaging travel companion - he has a fine eye for the unusual and picaresque, a whimsical turn of phrase, and a touch of real poetry. On the occasions when Princip comes to life he leaves you longing for more, for a deeper understanding of how this one young man's actions changed the world. It is fascinating how this small neglected impoverished country could have so fundamentally altered the path of history, not just once with the First World War, but again later in the century with the Bosnia War, NATO's first military intervention after decades of preparing for war against Russia, an intervention which opened the gates to Kosovo, Afghanistan, Iraq. Bosnia served as a training ground for jihadists fighting on behalf of the Bosnian Muslims, experiences which would later come home to roost for the West.
If you pick this book up hoping for a straightforward biography of Gavrilo Princip, you will be disappointed. Princip's actions may yet be impacting upon history, but he himself left so little mark any biography would be a disappointment. But if you approach this book with a open mind and follow Butcher on his journey, I doubt you'll come away discontented.
You'd think all that was true, from the way history and historians have treated Princip. Pick up almost any book on the First World War and you will read that the Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian Hapsburg Empire was assassinated in Sarajevo - and it might say very little more than that. Even the language used is telling - the Archduke 'was assassinated', almost a passive act. Not 'Princip assassinated the Archduke'. Princip's actions, his own history, his motivations, his worldview, his beliefs - these aren't relevant. A mere cog in the machine.
Tim Butcher sets out to overturn that, to retrace Princip's steps in his native Bosnia. And yet somehow, again, Princip slips through the cracks. This book isn't about the nineteen-year-old Gavrilo Princip. He is the framework on which the tale hangs, but it isn't really about him. It's about Bosnia; it's about the twentieht-century's murderous legacies; it's about the Bosnia War; and it's about Tim Butcher. Princip emerges from the shadows on occasion, but the sections of this book really devoted to him could be condensed into just a few chapters. More than anything else, this book is about Tim Butcher retracing his own steps as a young war reporter in Bosnia.
And yet, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Butcher is an engaging travel companion - he has a fine eye for the unusual and picaresque, a whimsical turn of phrase, and a touch of real poetry. On the occasions when Princip comes to life he leaves you longing for more, for a deeper understanding of how this one young man's actions changed the world. It is fascinating how this small neglected impoverished country could have so fundamentally altered the path of history, not just once with the First World War, but again later in the century with the Bosnia War, NATO's first military intervention after decades of preparing for war against Russia, an intervention which opened the gates to Kosovo, Afghanistan, Iraq. Bosnia served as a training ground for jihadists fighting on behalf of the Bosnian Muslims, experiences which would later come home to roost for the West.
If you pick this book up hoping for a straightforward biography of Gavrilo Princip, you will be disappointed. Princip's actions may yet be impacting upon history, but he himself left so little mark any biography would be a disappointment. But if you approach this book with a open mind and follow Butcher on his journey, I doubt you'll come away discontented.
sharon_geitz's review
4.0
Interesting read, hard to classify in some ways. A book as much about the Bosnian / Serbian conflicts of the 1990s as about Gavrilo Princip and the circumstances that lead to his assassination of the Archduke and the triggering of the First world war. Part history, part war memoir, part travel memoir. An examination of nationalism and its dangers, a cautionary tale. Interesting, insightful read.
aislingoh's review against another edition
5.0
I just loved this book. Read it! A fascinating mixture of history and travelogue.
It is a mixture between a biography of Gavrilo Princip, a general history of Bosnia, a travelogue of the author tracing the path of the assassin and the Yugoslav break up in the 90s.
The different threads of the storied weaved themselves well together and brought a more in depth understanding of all the stories. It really brought home how important this region is to the surrounding powers and the impact of nationalism in the area to the general history of Europe over the past century.
The hiking through the countryside worked as a device to describe Bosnia and let us imagine it through the eyes of Gavrilo and also allowed us to see the lasting ethnic differences and also the history of Bosnia. Told as a story rather than jut a dry history.
I thought the book benefited from the author’s obvious emotional attachment to the subject of the war in Bosnia as he had worked as a war correspondent in the area and this really added to the depth of the story at this time. The Srebrenica story in particular was heart-breaking and had me crying on the train on my morning commute. This is a moving and sad book that will stay with you after you have finished it.
This was fascinating and despite the troubled history of the region made me want to go to Sarajevo immediately and see where all these things happened.
An absolutely fascinating book if you are interested in the history of the region and its effects on wider Europe. Even if he did debunk the sandwich story which I always thought was a great one even if it is not true.
It is a mixture between a biography of Gavrilo Princip, a general history of Bosnia, a travelogue of the author tracing the path of the assassin and the Yugoslav break up in the 90s.
The different threads of the storied weaved themselves well together and brought a more in depth understanding of all the stories. It really brought home how important this region is to the surrounding powers and the impact of nationalism in the area to the general history of Europe over the past century.
The hiking through the countryside worked as a device to describe Bosnia and let us imagine it through the eyes of Gavrilo and also allowed us to see the lasting ethnic differences and also the history of Bosnia. Told as a story rather than jut a dry history.
I thought the book benefited from the author’s obvious emotional attachment to the subject of the war in Bosnia as he had worked as a war correspondent in the area and this really added to the depth of the story at this time. The Srebrenica story in particular was heart-breaking and had me crying on the train on my morning commute. This is a moving and sad book that will stay with you after you have finished it.
This was fascinating and despite the troubled history of the region made me want to go to Sarajevo immediately and see where all these things happened.
An absolutely fascinating book if you are interested in the history of the region and its effects on wider Europe. Even if he did debunk the sandwich story which I always thought was a great one even if it is not true.
sharon4d046's review
4.0
Interesting read, hard to classify in some ways. A book as much about the Bosnian / Serbian conflicts of the 1990s as about Gavrilo Princip and the circumstances that lead to his assassination of the Archduke and the triggering of the First world war. Part history, part war memoir, part travel memoir. An examination of nationalism and its dangers, a cautionary tale. Interesting, insightful read.
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