NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - Drawing on exhaustive research, this
intimate account details how World War I reduced Europe's mightiest
empires to rubble, killed twenty million people, and cracked the
foundations of our modern world
"Thundering, magnificent . . . [A World Undone] is a book of true
greatness that prompts moments of sheer joy and pleasure. . . . It will
earn generations of admirers."--The Washington Times
On a summer day in 1914, a nineteen-year-old Serbian nationalist gunned
down Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo. While the world slumbered,
monumental forces were shaken. In less than a month, a combination of
ambition, deceit, fear, jealousy, missed opportunities, and
miscalculation sent Austro-Hungarian troops marching into Serbia, German
troops streaming toward Paris, and a vast Russian army into war, with
England as its ally. As crowds cheered their armies on, no one could
guess what lay ahead in the First World War: four long years of
slaughter, physical and moral exhaustion, and the near collapse of a
civilization that until 1914 had dominated the globe.**
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Praise for A World Undone
"Meyer's sketches of the British Cabinet, the Russian Empire, the aging
Austro-Hungarian Empire . . . are lifelike and plausible. His account of
the tragic folly of Gallipoli is masterful. . . . [A World Undone]
has an instructive value that can scarcely be measured"--Los Angeles
Times
"An original and very readable account of one of the most significant
and often misunderstood events of the last century."--Steve Gillon,
resident historian, The History Channel
