Decisions for War focuses on the question: why did World War I happen?

Richard F. Hamilton is Professor Emeritus of Sociology and Political Science and Research Associate of The Mershon Center at Ohio State University. He is co-editor, with Holger Herwig, of The Origins of World War I (Cambridge, 2003). His previous books include Who Voted for Hitler? (1982) and The Bourgeois Epoch (1991).

1. The Great War: a review of explanations; 2. European wars: 1815-1914; 3. Austria-Hungary; 4. Germany; 5. Russia; 6. France; 7. Great Britain; 8. Japan; the Ottoman Empire; 9. Bulgaria, Romania, and Greece; 10. Italy; 11. The United States; 12. On the origins of the catastrophe; Recommended readings.