Europe, 1900-1914: a world in divergence, a pulsating era of creativity and contradictions. The main themes of the era: terrorism, globalization, migration, consumerism, the collapse of moral values, and the competition of superpowers. The twentieth century was not born in the trenches of the Somme but during the fifteen dizzying years that preceded World War I. In this short period, a new world order emerges in ultimately tragic contradiction with the old. These were the years in which the political and personal consequences of the Industrial Revolution were felt worldwide: Cities grew as never before as people left the countryside and their traditional identities, science created new possibilities and nightmares, education changed the perspective of millions, industrialized goods transformed daily life, industrial workers demanded a share of political power and women tried to change their place in society, as well as the very fabric of sexual relations. From the great hope for a new century embodied in the 1900 World's Fair in Paris to the shattering assassination of a Habsburg archduke in Sarajevo in 1914, historian Philipp Blom chronicles this extraordinary era year by year. Prime ministers and peasants, anarchists and actors, scientists and psychopaths coexist on the stage of a new century in this portrait of a rich, volatile age on the brink of disaster. Beautifully written and full of skillful narratives, The Vertigo Years vividly bring to life the wonders, terrors, and anxieties of the early twentieth century.