Views on Causes of the First World War

Both the World Wars were acts of personal grudge against countries that have few parallels in time in which they took place. The onus is on both the parties. Neither was Hitler just a crazy and power hunger dictator nor were the British, French and other leader's archetype of virtue and true defenders of democratic morals. Thus, Second World War can best be explained in terms of socio-economic factors. All the events that came forth were the result of actions taken by authoritative leaders and their back-room connections with each other. (The War in Brief)
"Eric Hobsbawm argues that the Second World War in the West can be:
...best understood, not through the contest of states, but as an international ideological civil war... And, as it turned out, the crucial lines in this civil war were not drawn between capitalism and communist social revolution, but between ideological families... between what the 19th century would have called 'progress' and 'reaction'--only that these terms were no longer quite apposite."(Chris Bambery).
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