This history of the events leading up to World War I was fascinating. The author does not attempt to assign blame to any one country or person. Instead, the focus is on the individual decision makers whose collective choices brought about the terrible result. Specifically, what did they want and why did they want it, what did they believe and why did they believe it? The resulting picture is one of relatively rational choices which, taken together, produced a horrifically tragic result that no one wanted or anticipated.