In August 1914, the European powers plunged the world into a war that would kill or wound 37 million people, tear down the fabric of society, uproot ancient political systems & set the world on course for the bloodiest century in human history. On the eve of the 100th anniversary of that terrible year, Ham takes the reader on a journey into the labyrinth, to reveal the complexity, the layered motives, the flawed & disturbed minds that drove the world to war. What emerges is a clear sense of what happened & why. ` To understand the past, ` Ham concludes, `and share that understanding, is the chief role of the historian. To understand the past is to liberate ourselves from its awful shadow & steel ourselves against it happening again.`