Class Work 1; term 4

Task 1: Read charts 1-6. "With reference to origin and purpose discuss the values and limitations of the charts for historians studying the causes of WWI"

The origin of this source is from the book Rise and Fall of the Great Powers: Economic and Military Conflict, which was written by Paul Kennedy and published in 1988 in London. The purpose of this source is to provide different statistics regarding the industry and power before, during, and after WWI. Because the origin of this source is a chart, it it a strength because there are solid numbers, and thus it can't really be opinionated. However, a limitation of this source may be that in chart 3, it doesn't explain what "per capita" means, and this is not a common term known to all people. Thus, there should be an explanation of this term so that the audience can better interpret the chart.

Task 2: Answer question 1 of "What caused the first World War?"

It seems that John Stoessinger's thesis is the most convincing, simply because it is different than all of the others. Some of the other thesis have very general ideas as to what caused the war, but in this case, he is actually explaining why his opinion is better than the others. However, just because his thesis is the most convincing doesn't mean that it is necessarily correct. It is just a convincing argument.

1- John Stoessinger

2- Eric Hobsbawm

3- Sydney Fay

4- Fritz Fishcer

5- Niall Ferguson