1914: the year the world ended. Paul Ham. 2014.

In August 1915, the European powers plunged the world into a war that would kill or wound 17 million people, tear down the fabric of society, uproot ancient political systems and set the world on course for the bloodiest century in human history.

That month, the largest armies ever assembled met on a vast battlefield. By the end of the year, they had fought themselves to a standstill, eyeballing each other across the Western Front.

Few years can be said to have transformed the world. The events of 1914 created the climate that led remorselessly to the Russian Revolution, Versailles, the rise of Nazism and the Cold War. The year shaped the 20th century.