1871-1918

Fifteen-year-old Jack is sent to 1914 Europe as a pawn in the battle between his long-lost father, who has built a time machine, and a secret network of scientists who want to prevent him from trying to use it to change history for the better. Includes historical notes.

Discusses how some of the Europe countries joined the fighting in World War I.

The Guns of August (1962), an account of the outbreak of World War I and the weeks of fighting leading up to the First Battle of the Marne in September 1914. Tuchman dramatizes the diplomatic debacles that precipitated the war and the intransigence of the German and French armies as they dogmatically adhered to their battle plans, with disastrous consequences. Interwoven with her vivid re-creation of the German march through Belgium into France and the fierce fighting on the Eastern Front are astute characterizations of the conflict's key military and political leaders, among them French General Joseph Joffre, German Kaiser Wilhelm II, and British First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill. The Guns of August can also be read as a cautionary study in the perils of brinksmanship, and Tuchman's searching observations about the irrational escalation of conflict among states made a deep impression on President John F. Kennedy, who famously drew on the book for insight during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

A history of the outbreak of World War I, from the breakdown of diplomacy to the dramatic battles that occurred before the war bogged down in the trenches.

Chronicles the lives of first cousins King George V of Britain, Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany, and Tsar Nicholas II of Russia with a focus on the years leading up to World War I and the aftermath.