"In this sense, the protagonists of 1914 were sleepwalkers, watchful but unseeing, haunted by dreams, yet blind to the reality of the horror they were about to bring into the world."

It took me awhile, but I finally got around to finishing the thick book The Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went to War in 1914 by Christopher Clark.

Being both fascinating and heart-rending, the book renders quite well and in detail the impossible situation humanity had gotten itself into and it's inability to avoid a terrible war resulting in massive destruction and costing millions of deaths.

For all the sacrifices, it would unfortunately turn out not to be the war to end wars.