Clark takes a primarily unbiased approach in describing the events and actors that led Europe into the First World War. Towards the end, you can't help but feel that Russia and France have not been given enough attention in WWI historiography for the role each played in 1914 and before. Sleepwalkers is a long book, but provides all the information you need to understand comparatively how the war broke out -- starting with the regicide of the Obrenović monarchy in Serbia and going through the July Crisis.

A lot of detail, sometimes hard to keep track of, but also a very coherent theoretical framework for understanding how the various pieces of the European alliance system worked and pushed the continent into war. It's not the story I thought I knew, but it sounds very convincing. Clark emphasises both the remoteness of the world order of the time, and the similarity of many of the motivations to those we see in international relations at the present day.
Despite the title, it doesn't appear that everyone was sleepwalking. Some saw war as a positive development.

Book tells the story of what went on in the halls of power in the various European powers ahead of the outbreak of World War I. I've never read or learned that much about WWI previously so found this a fantastic introduction to the period.

The Sleepwalkers: How Europe went to War in 1914 by Christopher Clark was quite impressive; at least to me who knew very little about how the First World War started. Of course, I became interested because this is the centenary of the beginning. I more or less read the book during the very same period - a century later- that the book covers: 28 June to 04 August 1914. The beginning and the cause of the beginning was certainly very complex, to say the least.

This was a wonderfully detailed yet broadly focused book on the many actors and actions that led to the first world war. The author did a superb job explaining how conflicting strategies and a lack of communication led to a war that few wanted.

This is a highly informative and brilliantly written account of the reasons why diplomacy failed in such a spectacular way in 1914. It clears up popular misconceptions and leaves the reader baffled by the sheer vastness of information provided. One of the most important books of our time and still surprisingly important and accountable for the problems the modern world and its societies are facing today.

On the one hand, a strong explanation of how WW I came to break out. It's like a good history seminar for seniors majoring in history on the subject with all the details.

On the other hand a tough book to get through. The writing is fine, but not especially graceful. There are other works of history whose writing does a much better job of making them readable by both a purely academic audience and also the in-between audience interested in something semi-popular that can be read.

Specific quibble: The book would have been hugely helped by a list of the major players up front. There are a lot of them, and many of them are not familiar names to 21st century US or British readers.