'One of the first books one should read to try to understand this war and this century' - New York Times Book Review. It was a war that was supposed to end all wars and it began on the morning of June 28, 1914, in a garrison of the Austro-Hungarian Empire called Sarajevo. Officially, it would end almost five years later. Unofficially, it has never ended: The horrors we live with today were born in World War I. It left millions of civilians and military personnel maimed or dead. And it left us with new death technologies: tanks, airplanes, and submarines, reliable automatic weapons, poisonous gas, and chemical warfare. It introduced us to unrestricted warfare against civilians and mistreatment of captives. Most importantly, it changed our world. In its shadow, empires collapsed, monarchies fell, entire populations lost their national identities as political systems and geographical boundaries were redefined. Instabilities were institutionalized, hostilities established. Ways, strategies, codes of conduct, literature, education, and class distinctions - all witnessed a great change. In all these areas, the 20th century can be considered to have been born on the morning of June 28, 1914.