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serenaac's review against another edition
3.0
http://savvyverseandwit.com/2015/02/the-trigger-by-tim-butcher-audio.html
librarianonparade's review
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.
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