A catastrophic war can emerge from a cascade of small, hasty decisions, each pressing the accelerator without seeing the abyss.
Tuchman describes the first weeks of World War I as trains that could no longer be stopped, rigid military plans, and messages misread between capitals. No leader initially wanted a war this huge, but each small decision pushed the situation further along, with no way back to peace.
Why it matters Political leaders still read this book today specifically to avoid the traps of rushed decisions during crises.