London

Available for over a year

Professor Christopher Clark unpicks the complex sequence of events during the July Crisis, leading to outbreak of the First World War, from the perspective of the key centres of decision-making. As events unfolded in July 1914, all eyes were on the British and how they would react. In the final programme of his series, Professor Christopher Clark analyses British decision-making during the July Crisis. At the centre of the events in London was the Foreign Secretary Sir Edward Grey. Of all the politicians who walked the European political stage in 1914, he was the most baffling. Professor Clark shows how the last-minute British decision to enter the war on the side of France and Russia, and to declare war on Germany, was a decision of world-historical import that transformed a local conflict into a global struggle. Christopher Clark is Professor of Modern History at the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of St Catharine's College. He is the author of Kaiser Wilhelm II, Iron Kingdom and - most recently - of the highly acclaimed and award-winning The Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went To War in 1914. Producer: Melissa FitzGerald A Blakeway production for BBC Radio 4