Originally published as: The three emperors : three cousins, three empires and the road to World War One. London : Fig Tree, 2009

Three childhoods, three countries -- Wilhelm: an experiment in perfection, 1859 -- George: coming second, 1865 -- Nicholas: a diamond-studded ivory tower, 1868 -- Family ties, imperial contests -- Wilhelm emperor 1888-90 -- Young men in love 1891-94 -- Wilhelm anglophile 1891-95 -- Perfidious Muscovy 1895-97 -- Behind the wall 1893-1904 -- Imperial imperatives 1898-1901 -- A bright new century -- The fourth emperor 1904-4 -- Unintended consequences 1904-5 -- Continental shifts 1906-8 -- A Balkan crisis 1908-9 -- Edward's mantle 1910-11 -- Celebrations and warnings 1911-14 -- July 1914 -- Armageddon -- A war 1914-18

In the years before World War I, the great European powers were ruled by three first cousins: King George V, Kaiser Wilhelm II, and Tsar Nicholas II. Carter uses the cousins' correspondence and a host of historical sources to tell their tragicomic stories