will be disappointed, but if you want to learn or refresh some very interesting facts about war history, this is a good book. Ferguson makes clear, very clear, that the inauguration of the 20th century was an unnecessary, baseless and monumentally destructive World War that could have been avoided. From there, he traces its consequences to the end of his book. You will have to judge for yourself how far he wanders away from his main thesis, or even if he does. The narrative leading up to the next World War is clarifying as well as edifying, to say the least.