First takeaway, there was a very small number of people, essentially in the dozens, who made the decisions in secret that launched the war.
Second, the European powers, all thought that they were getting weaker than there rivals. In Austro-Hungary and in Germany, this fear reached paranoiac levels. The Austrians thought that the existence of Serbia threatened their own existence, as they could unite the Balkan Slavs. The Germans had there own Slav paranoia, when they looked at the growing Russian population combined with recent industrialization. Both powers wanted war, Austria vs Serbia, where the plan was to dismantle Serbia and give parts away to Serbia's neighbors. Germany, which at the time bordered Russia as there was no Polish State.
Three, Austria and Germany could not go to war alone, they had to have the backing of the other. Once Germany gave Austria a blank check to back them, without knowing about the secret Austria plan to go beyond a punitive attack on Serbia to destroy Serbia, the war was on. Germany then demanded and received Austria backing for support against Russia, without knowing about the German plan to give Russia a knockout blow and set off a world war by bringing France and the worldwide British Empire against themselves.
So, lies, secret agendas within a tiny group dealt a huge blow against Western Civilization, which the German military plotters actually recognized and accepted as a risk of the war. Their paranoia lead the two German-speaking Empires in Central Europe to their own catastrophe. The Austro-Hungarian Empire ceased to exist, replaced by ethnic nation states. The German Empire lost a large chunk of geography in the East, replaced by the State of Poland and lost Alsace-Lorraine back to France permanently.
They created their own worst nightmares.
In Austria, the two powerful peace mongers, were the Emperor Franz Joseph and the assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand. The Emperor agreed to a punitive raid into Serbia. In Germany, the biggest peace monger was Kaiser Wilhelm. He turned pro-war to back Austria (not for the world war), because his friend the Archduke had been murdered. His military and Chancellor literally kept him out of the loop on the secret war agenda.
Great book, which ought to be read by everybody.
I don’t see enough blame laid at Britain’s feet for the arms race that led to WWI; they knew they had to crush Germany because the German fleet was building enough to rival their own.
By giving France a blank check, they stoked their dreams of revenge for the Franco-Prussian War. When the “war to make the world safe for democracy” was over, the sun still never set on the British Empire. They were the ultimate enemy of democracy for anyone who wasn’t British.