The Great War

What This Book Covers

1. Prologue
2. Chapter One - One Gun, Two Corpses
3. Chapter Two - Serbia Says Sorry (Kinda)
4. Chapter Three - Germany’s Blank Check of Death
5. Chapter Four - Russia Trips Over Itself
6. Chapter Five - Belgium, You Good?
7. Chapter Six - Trenchlines and Landmines
8. Chapter Seven - Blood in the Colonies
9. Chapter Eight - Gallipoli and Other Nightmares
10. Chapter Nine - Gas, Rats, and Madness
11. Chapter Ten - America Sits, Then Stands
12. Chapter Eleven - Collapse
13. Chapter Twelve - Versailles: The Dumbest Treaty

Excerpt

PROLOGUE BEFORE THE BULLET, before the trenches, before the gas masks and the mud — Europe was a powder keg with a cigar in its mouth. The 19th century had been a party. Steamships, telegraphs, railroads, factories, cameras, and colonies. The kings and kaisers of Europe had carved up Africa like it was a dessert tray, drawn borders with zero input from the people who lived there, and built glittering capitals on the backs of global exploitation. The world was getting richer. At least the parts they cared about. But underneath the marble and medals was a continent soaked in gasoline. Every major power had picked a side, but the alliances were brittle and barely understood. Britain, France,...