THE THREE EMPERORS: Three Cousins, Three Empires and the Road to World War One by Carter, Miranda - 2009

London: Fig Tree, 2009. Pp. 584, 32 plates, endpaper maps, 4 full page family trees, notes, bibliography, index; thick med. 8vo; maroon boards, spine lettered in gilt, tiny nick to bottom edge of upper board, top fore-corner of lower board faintly creased; dust wrapper; book label of David Levine, Sydney, on verso of upper free endpaper; Fig Tree/Penguin Books, London, 2009. First edition. *'In the years before the First World War, the great European powers, Britain, Germany and Russia, were ruled by three cousins: George V, King-Emperor of England, the British Empire and India; Wilhelm II, the last Kaiser; and Nicholas II, the last Tsar. Between them, they presided over the last years of Dynastic Europe and the outbreak of the most destructive war the world had ever seen' [wrapper blurb].