I’ve just finished reading Barbara Tuchman’s magnificent 1962 Pulitzer prize-winning history of the first month of World War I, The Guns of August. I recommend it without hesitation. It is as fine a work of history as you will find; a superlative study in how the best laid plans of even the brightest are so often fraught with error. It will also give you a keen introduction into why World War II was simply the second round of a bout that began in August 1914.