"First published in Great Britain in 2012 by Allen Lane, an imprint of Penguin Books"--Title page verso.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 563-666) and index.

pt. I. Roads to Sarajevo. I. Serbian ghosts : Murder in Belgrade ; 'Irresponsible elements' ; Mental maps ; Separation ; Escalation ; Three Turkish wars ; The conspiracy ; Nikola Pašic reacts -- The empire without qualities : Conflict and equilibrium ; The chess players ; Lies and forgeries ; Deceptive calm ; Hawks and doves -- pt. II. One continent divided. The polarization of Europe, 1887-1907 : Dangerous liaison: the Franco-Russian alliance ; The judgment of Paris ; The end of British neutrality ; Belated empire: Germany ; The great turning point? ; Painting the devil on the wall -- The many voices of European foreign policy : Sovereign decision-makers ; Who governed in St. Petersburg? ; Who governed in Paris? ; Who governed in Berlin? ; The troubled supremacy of Sir Edward Grey ; The Agadir Crisis of 1911 ; Soldiers and civilians ; The press and public opinion ; The fluidity of power -- Balkan entanglements : Air strikes on Libya ; Balkan helter-skelter ; The wobbler ; The Balkan Winter Crisis of 1912-13 ; Bulgaria or Serbia? ; Austria's troubles ; The Balkanization of the Franco-Russian alliance ; Paris forces the pace ; Poincar�e under pressure -- Last chances: d�etente and danger, 1912-1914 :The limits of d�etente ; 'Now or never' ; Germans on the Bosphorus ; The Balkan inception scenario ; A crisis of masculinity? ; How open was the future? -- pt. III. Crisis. Murder in Sarajevo :The assassination ; Flashbulb moments ; The investigation begins ; Serbian responses ; What is to be done? -- The widening circle : Reactions abroad ; Count Hoyos goes to Berlin ; The road to the Austrian ultimatum ; The strange death of Nikolai Hartwig -- The French in St Petersburg : Count de Robien changes trains ; M. Poincar�e sails to Russia ; The poker game -- The ultimatum : Austria demands ; Serbia responds ; A 'local war' begins -- Warning shots : Firmness prevails ; 'It's war this time' ; Russian reasons -- Last days : A strange light falls upon the map of Europe ; Poincar�e returns to Paris ; Russia mobilizes ; The leap into the dark ; 'There must be some misunderstanding' ; The tribulations of Paul Cambon.

An authoritative chronicle, drawing on new research on World War I, traces the paths to war in a minute-by-minute narrative that examines the decades of history that informed the events of 1914.