“Human, All Too Human”: The Descent into World War I

Excerpted from The Mighty Continent: A Candid History of Modern Europe (Creed & Culture), published on January 20, 2026.

For three reasons, over the years 1890 to 1914 the great powers of Europe gradu­ally lost their ability to manage the spread of rival nationalisms in the Balkans. The first reason was a radical shift in German foreign policy. The second was a new alliance system that arose in opposition to Germany’s Triple Alliance. And the third was a shocking new specter in international politics: state-sponsored terrorism.