> Can't remember whether I've mentioned this, but a friend of mine is
> writing a history diss on the City of London's role in WW I. They
> were against it. The City originally came into being to finance the
> monarchy's wars, but they'd moved on, and had much more of a stake in
> peaceful commerce with Germany. A group of bankers, says my friend,
> visited the PM, and, on the verge of tears, begged him not to go to war.
Polanyi also makes this argument in The Great Transformation.
Arno Mayer wrote a book, The Persistence of the Old Regime, arguing that given the bourgeoisie's opposition, WWI must be understood as the result of the vestigial hold of the aristocracy - with its inherited feudal war-for-territory mentality - on the state. He used a lot of cultural arguments about how the bourg still deferred to and emulated the nobles (like the obsession with horses and coats of arms.) Interesting book.
Seth