A highly complex & detailed analysis of the lead-up to the First World War.

Pros:
- you get detailed looks not only at the characters involved but also their personalities and backgrounds which led them to their decision making
- highly complex story telling that explains the national rationalities and their motivations
- the author takes in certain post-war analyses & weighs them against the contemporary evidence, not necessarily to dispel them but to provide nuance
- Maurice Paléologue
- the author reminds you frequently who individuals are because there’s a lot of characters to introduce

Cons:
- the story is not always provided chronologically, though this is not to the fault of the author. You’ll have the main story you’re following, then interjected with a historical background from 20 or even 30 years prior that can take you out of the story—these are needed for the full context, but it can be jarring due to the jumps in chronology
- again, not to the fault of the author, but there are a LOT of names and they are not at all easy to keep track of. Especially in the earlier chapters where the internal politics of Serbia are concerned.

My overall rating would be a 4.3 or 4.5; an excellent book on the subject matter and very enlightening for an extremely complex topic.