July 1914: Countdown to War

The definitive account of the month after Franz Ferdinand’s assassination, revealing how reckless statesmen directly led to World War I.

“Almost impossible to put down ... A punchy and riveting narrative.” —New York Review of Books

When a Serbian-backed assassin gunned down Archduke Franz Ferdinand in late June 1914, no one could have imagined the shocking bloodshed that would soon follow. Indeed, as acclaimed historian Sean McMeekin reveals in July 1914, World War I might have been avoid...