This series aims to examine major historical topics through a mixture of narrative and analysis of the key issues involved. Each book is designed to introduce the reader to a wide range of contemporary sources and aims to encourage readers in the handling and assessment of original historical material. This particular volume is concerned with the origins and developments of the First World War. The author begins by assessing the July 1914 crisis during which the fate of Europe hung in a precarious balance, and the reasons why the great powers fell to war, looking also at the tensions existing within the international system since 1870 between the two power blocks. It analyzes the diplomatic, imperial, military and economic rivalries that existed between the great powers, and the arms race. The author then considers how these tensions produced a series of crises and confrontations between 1900 and 1914. He also assesses the question of historical explanation and causality. The book is illustrated with statistics, quotations, cartoons and photographs. Stewart Ross is also author of The Russian Revolution and China Since 1945 in the same series.