Catastrophe: Europe Goes to War 1914

Catastrophe is a magisterial chronicle of the calamity that befell Europe in 1914 as the continent shifted from the glamour of the Edwardian era to the tragedy of total war. In 1914, Europe plunged into the 20th century’s first terrible act of self-immolation – what was then called The Great War. First released on the eve of the war’s centenary, Catastrophe seeked to explain both how the conflict came about and what befell millions of men and women during the first months of strife.

This book offers answers to the huge and fascinating question ‘what happened to Europe in 1914?’, through Max Hastings’s accustomed blend of top-down and bottom-up accounts from a multitude of statesmen and generals, peasants, housewives and private soldiers of seven nations. His narrative pricks myths and offers some striking and controversial judgements.