“The Blood That Is in Our Veins Comes from German Ancestors”: British Historians and the Coming of the First World War

Abstract

The rise of the Anglo-German antagonism before the First World War has become a commonplace in the historical literature. It has also been argued that the growth in the antagonism was accompanied by a rise in negativity in the British historiography’s treatment of Germany before 1914. Manfred Messerschmidt, for instance, has contended that British historical writings in the pre-1914 period tended to move in parallel with political trends—that is, that the British historians’ views of Germany assumed greater hostility as diplomatic tensions between the British and German governments escalated. According to Messerschmidt, a turning point can be detected in the 1894-1908 period when British historical works began to treat Germany in increasingly negative terms. Panikos Panayi, meanwhile, claims that negative images of Germany had become dominant in the British history books before 1914. As he writes: “In academic study, we can point to history where the focus upon the early history of England and the invasion of the Angles and Saxons died away as an area of interest, replaced by the history of modern Germany viewed as a threat.” As these views suggest, anti-Germanism was already firmly entrenched in the British historical profession before the start of the First World War in August 1914.