If anyone cares to know how we got from Sarajevo to today I recommend two books, Barbara Tuchman's, "The Guns of August" the commencement, and "Paris 1919" by Margaret MacMillan. Both are highly readable. The first shows how the war started in spite of the fact no country really wanted it; the latter discusses the the machinations of hammering out the Treaty of Versailles which was the underlying cause, ultimately, for WWII.