Winner of the International Book of the Year Award at the Political Book Awards 2014. Longlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize 2013. The First World War followed a period of sustained peace in Europe, during which people spoke confidently of prosperity, progress, and hope. However, in 1914, Europe plunged into a catastrophic conflict that cost millions of men their lives, drained economies, shattered empires and societies, and fatally undermined Europe's dominance in the world. It was a conflict that could have been avoided until the very last moment – so why did it happen? Beginning in the early nineteenth century and ending with the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the award-winning historian Margaret MacMillan uncovers the enormous political and technological changes, national decisions, and – equally important – the small moments of human confusion and weakness that led Europe from peace to catastrophe.