A World Undone: The Story of the Great War, 1914 to 1918

by G.J. Meyer

He had become, in short, dangerous: a weak man determined to appear strong.

By the summer of 1914 the Balkans were a region in which nobody was satisfied and everyone found reason to be angry and afraid.

Never again must Vienna have reason to doubt the value of its alliance with Germany.

“I don’t believe we are heading for a great war. France and Russia are not ready for war.”

Not surprisingly, many of the men who were sworn to serve him regarded him not just as immature but as mentally unstable.

Re: Kaiser Wilhelm II, pre-1914.

Centuries earlier they had invented Prussia, a country so completely artificial that at the end of World War II it would simply and forever cease to exist.