Library of the 20th century

Back cover description of this book: "On the Western Front the armies soon became bogged down in the mud of Flanders; but on the wide plains and forests of Eastern Europe the three great Empires -- Russia, Germany, and Austria-Hungary -- grappled in a series of titanic but little-known battles involving millions of men and hundreds of miles of front. Shortly after the outbreak of war the Russian 'steamroller' had lurched into Prussia only to be hurled back amid the marshes of Tannenberg. for the next three years the fighting swung indeterminately back and forth. Alan Clark, already famous for his study of the Eastern Front during the Second World War, now describes the campaigns which provoked the downfall of three great empires." 127 ppg, loaded with maps and illustrations. It's been 35 years since I read this book but I kept it, so I must have enjoyed it.

"This is the frightening account of the murder at Sarajevo of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, and how this relatively minor event inexorably led to the bloodiest war in history." --from inside jacket flap.