Chronicles the major events and human interest stories of the 20th century. Includes many photos, illustrations, and an index.

"Today, 1913 is inevitably viewed through the lens of 1914: as the last year before a war that would shatter the global economic order and tear Europe apart, undermining its global pre-eminence. Our perspective narrowed by hindsight, the world of that year is reduced to its most frivolous features... In this illuminating history, Charles Emmerson liberates the world of 1913 from this "prelude to war" narrative, and explores it as it was, in all its...