J. William Whitaker has released the second book in a series of historical fiction, The Toll of Folly. It is the sequel to his first work, Some Damn Fool Thing and explores from the perspective of four young Parisians as well as key historic figures the crucial days when The Great War broke out across Europe. 

History is a narrative built on the summed experience of lives over a prescribed period, and can be influenced by the selection and number of subjects and the time period studied. . It is similar to an integral in the Calculus.

Historical fiction is in some ways a derivative of this integral allowing the reader to focus on the individual lives that form the collective and the effect that the events of any period had on them. 

Through the Hebraic poetry of the Old Testament and the mystical prose of Tolstoy implying a divine calculus imposed on the long arc of history, we are reminded that the human condition is subject to dramatic cycles. Some have the good fortune to live in stable times where peace and prosperity nurture a virtuous cycle in which our better angels can thrive. Others however are far less fortunate having to deal with uncertainty and fear often brought on by such harsh intrusions as plague, famine or war. To some degree that is our lot at present.

The four protagonists of this book along with all their contemporaries had the misfortune to live at a flexion point in history when in the summer of 1914 war broke out across the continent. Gone within a matter of days were all the old customs, rules and assumptions that formed the basis of a world they knew and had been successful in. In their place came terrible new realities.  

Society was suddenly remade by the clash of great armies imbued with a fervor nurtured by vain glorious narratives of the need to subjugate newly   declared enemies. Generals now held sway over all, with everyone being required to support the armies as soldiers, or providers of goods and services that nourished war making  

With little warning the world changed from promise and optimism to one of daily uncertainty made ever worse by a new reality of unimagined destruction and horror. The Toll of Folly is a study of life suddenly disrupted where everything one knew and took for granted becomes threatened or irrelevant.  It is a study of four young and gifted Parisians and the millions of their contemporaries forced to confront with little or no respite loss and the all too present face  of death,  

At the onset of the war one of the protagonists finds himself in a battle line facing the German army in Lorrain, Two others are trapped in Germany and must develop the means to deal with the challenges of their tenuous  position while searching for a way to escape to France. The youngest finds  her musical studies no longer relevant for such times and sees in the faces of the wounded a new calling for her considerable talents.

In the ensuing days they are all forced to deal with the many consequences of foolish policy and bad decisions made by leaders on both sides, testing their resolve and challenging them to improvise crucial solutions. Then they find themselves reunited in a Paris abandoned by the government and threatened by engulfment by a massive German offensive. More importantly they discover important new aspects of their relationships to one another and the means to draw upon them to deal with the uncertainties they will certainly face.  

The Toll of Folly is a story bounded by history describing many of the men and events that played prominent roles in the days when the very survival of France depended on the outcome of a collision of troops within earshot of Paris,  Yet it  also  breaks from the historical narrative to provide a story of the hopes and dreams of  individuals, as well as their fears and uncertainties, Through these individuals who are forced to confront the difficulties of their daily lives  the writer of fiction can provide another perspective on age old questions relating to the origins of evil and suffering while exploring their effect on life’s most blessed aspects. In a world seemingly intent on destroying itself is there still a place for beauty, fidelity, honor and love?  

To find out, and discover more details on The Toll of Folly visit jwmwhitaker.com 

The seeds  for the dramatic response provoked by Wilhelm had been first sown some forty years previously when Prussia, under its formidable  chancellor Otto von Bismarck, launched a series of wars first against Austria and then France. Prussian victories removed catholic protection over swathes of German principalities thereby allowing the unification of Germany under the Prussian Hohenzollern rulers. In the aftermath of those wars, France lay prostrate divided by class warfare while most of the other continental powers were in eclipse, giving this new Germany significant strength.

Fortunately for France and others, Bismarck chose not to press what advantages he might have, turning instead inwardly to consolidate the many disparate German principalities into a functioning political unit. This was accomplished with Bismarck’s usual thorough competence, resulting in a nation with an ever expanding economy and population base that when coupled with German scientific excellence made the country the supreme power on the continent at the turn of the new century.

The tribes of Europe have long memories however, and the strength of Germany was a source of grave concern for many. Chief amongst them was France who weighed Germany’s ever increasing power against the longtime Prussian predilection for the use of its potent military as a primary means of diplomacy. Russia too had concerns, fearful that their barely defensible frontiers with this new power would prove too great a future temptation for German territorial expansion.

Many European nations of that era existed in unnatural collections of minor states and nationalities created by imperialistic conquests of an earlier age. Once acquired many of these empires were loath to relinquish the power inherent in their present positions. The rising arc of German might which was threatening to destroy the  continental balance of power had therefore drawn the eye of the rulers of history’s greatest colonial empire, Great Britain. A pacified continent in the aftermath of Napoleon’s defeat had given the British Navy a free hand to exercise its considerable power across the globe creating a trading hegemony unrivaled in human history. A strong Germany with a powerful navy threatened to disrupt the forces that Britain depended on for their supremacy and security.

 Thus as Europe entered the twentieth century the powers of Europe were keenly aware of the threat of an ever more powerful Germany and had begun to take measures to check it. Already an unlikely mutual defense alliance had been crafted between Republican France and Despotic Russia for the sole purpose of deterring more aggressive German foreign policy. Such a pact to the hard working German burgher or to the German war lords could only be construed as a cynical attempt by two unnatural partners to deny them their rightful place of preeminence.

Such an alliance and its ramifications served to bring out some of the worst in the German Kaiser, Wilhelm II. The grandson of Kaiser Wilhelm I who had been in power during the defeat of France in 1870, the younger Wilhelm was far less suited for rule than his stern, domineering and conservative  predecessor. The young Wilhelm on coming to power quickly ousted his more liberal mother, the daughter of Queen Victoria from her former home and soon thereafter ousted his mighty chancellor, Bismarck.

In their place the continent’s greatest power came under the rule of a man who often acted impetuously intent of demonstrating his power to domestic critics and potential foreign foes. That such actions, often driven by insecurity or vanity might have enormous international consequences often seemed less important to Wilhelm than in projecting an image of German power. That image, of a powerful nation ruled by a mercurial and arrogant leader was far too sobering to ignore and  ultimately drew Great Britain away from ties of kinship with Germany into explorations of an alliance with one of their oldest and most intractable enemies, France.

By March 31, 1905 that alliance was only in discussion and had yet to be fully consummated. All that remained was for the Kaiser to give the British a reason to defy years of bloodshed  and the distrust it engendered and make up with the French. On March 31, 1905 he did.

On that day the Kaiser, attired in full military regalia gave a bombastic speech in Tangier stating that Germany would ignore French claims and  insist on Moroccan independence and equal commercial opportunities for all trading nations. Such a speech was the loud call of the feared monster reawakening much to the consternation of the remainder of the continent. At a time when Britain had yet to align with France and Russian weakness had been exposed in a series of humiliating defeats by Japan the speech was also timely. There for all to see was German militarism reborn, demanding a unilateral change of the status quo while threatening France, who represented it in Morocco.

As related by William L. Shirer in his book the Collapse of the Third Republic, the mystic French poet Charles Peguy described the feeling in Paris that day best.

“By half past eleven that morning in the span of two hours like everyone else, I knew that a new period had begun in the history of my life, the history of my country, and the history of the world.”

What would follow would be nations reshaping their policies and individuals their lives in response to the spectre of a more militant Germany once more unleashed. Such acts once begun would prove ever more difficult to put aside.