The proud tower

In 'The Proud Tower', Barbara W. Tuchman vividly portrays the era from 1890 to 1914, focusing on the decline of the Edwardian aristocracy, the rise of Anarchism in Europe and America, Germany's self-image through figures like Richard Strauss, Diaghilev’s Russian ballet and Stravinsky’s music, the Dreyfus Affair, the Peace Conferences in The Hague, and the tragic culmination of Socialism with the assassination of Jean Jaurès on the eve of World War I.