This book is a very detailed look into the beginning of World War 1 and the first month of battles, from the invasion of Belgium to the Marne. Neither side gets off the hook easily: Tuchman portrays them all as humans, with all their foibles.

It's a very readable history, not too dry and filled with little tidbits, like Grand Duke Nicholas of Russia's propensity to smack his head on the doorways of the train cars they used for the military ops camp. (He was 6'5" or so.)

I hope future printings (I'm reading an early edition from the library) fixed some of the labelling issues in some of the battle maps (Tannenberg most notably.)