For Germany, Austria and Hungary, World War I began with great hope for a quick and decisive outcome. They were convinced that the right was on their side and were afraid of the enemies who besieged them, and threw themselves firmly in battle.

However, despite the initial cessation of a brutal Russian invasion, the war plans of the central states were soon extinguished. The German attack on France failed.

The armies of Austria-Hungary suffered heavy losses in the hands of Russia and Serbia. The hopes for a rapid victory were devastating.

For the central powers, the war became a massive siege. Britain's harsh intervention has cut off sea routes to central Europe and mobilized the world against them.

Germany and Austria-Hungary were suffocated by the supplies of war and food, their soldiers were submerged by better armed enemies, and their civilians were taken to the brink of starvation. Invasion, looting, land assaults and naval wars have all proved incapable of confronting or breaking the blockade.

The central powers were stuck in the Alliance's hard-line alliance. The history of the new activist Alexander Watson revives the war from the perspective of its instigators and losers, the Austrians and Hungarian Hungarians.

This is not the story of their leaders in Berlin and Vienna, but above all people. Only through their unprecedented mobilization can the conflict last long and engulf a bitter struggle, and only as their commitment recedes.

The war shattered their societies, their nations were destroyed and Eastern and Central Europe left a poisonous legacy of sacrifice, suffering, hatred and unwarranted violence. A major re-evaluation of World War I, a steel ring is a basic reading for anyone seeking to understand the last century of European history..