Never before have I read a book about the causes of ww1 like this one. Such detail as to the scenarios. Would recommend this book to anyone who wants to find out the causes of that war AWSOME!

Among the best ever written within the particular subgenre--of a quality equivalent to "Rise & Fall of the Third Reich" and "Guns of August."

The author clearly spent considerable time researching and crafting a cohesive story leading up to and through World War One. But through the layers of details, many which take tangents without parallel in other chapters, she is both insistent that there is no one single cause or party to blame for the war (which of course is superficially true, but even in her recounting, she reinforces the commonly held view that Germany/the Kaiser hold disproportionate responsibility), and regularly makes explicit and weak analogies to Republican policies today suggesting the U.S. could create an environment that would lead to another complex and widespread war. There is undeniable quality in her research and writing but the hypocritical political undertone is regularly unbearable.

A comprehensive history of the institutional inadequacies and personal biases and failures that led to the Great War. Excellent command of the many threads that comprised the noose which strangled Europe. One hundred years later we are still living with the consequences of the decisions made and acts taken.