The Russian Origins of the First World War -- Sean Mcmeekin, Belknap Press of Harvard University Press --copyright 2011 --McMeekin in a major reinterpretation of WWI, rejects the standard notions of the war's beginning as either a Germano-Austrian preemptive strike or a "tragedy of miscalculation."  Instead he proposes the the key to the outbreak of violence lies in St. Petersburg.    It was Russian statement who unleashed the war through conscious policy decisions based on imperial  ambitions in the Near East......partitioning the Ottoman Empire to ensure control of the Straits between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean.    324 pages,  with notes, index, bibliography, some photos & many maps -- hardcover book with dj in like new condition buyer to pay 4.50 s&h