Please don't post grouchy comments like this on HN. The guidelines make it clear we're trying for something better here. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

He was referencing a book that made that case if you "squint". If you read that as actually a serious "this caused world war 1" statement rather than. This looks to have gotten some dominoes rolling that may have contributed to WW1 then that says more about you than it does about the article itself.

> Blaming some railroad bankruptcy for starting WW1 is where I stopped reading.

What a weird reason to stop reading an article.