Barbara Tuchman, an American historian, had a considerable success in the 1960s with The Guns of August, a readable, rather biased and not very scholarly account of the outbreak of the first World War. This book, written as a sequel, is a kind of socio-political portrait of the era which immediately preceded it, the so-called Belle Epoque. Often depicted as a golden age, it was in fact one of deep social fissures, rampant inequality and the worship of wealth and privilege. American society is dissected as well as that of Western Europe and the great personalities of the age are trotted across the stage for our inspection. Not searching historical analysis, by any means, but a good and colourful read.