The last year of World War I and the early years that followed were molten with the collapse of societies, even civilizations. The period was the crucible from which came the misshapen world that fostered World War II and the Holocaust. In Crucible, British historian Charles Emmerson assembled a 700-page chronicle of people and events, flipping from Washington to Berlin, London to Ankara, Paris to Petrograd. It’s a monumental piece of scholarly reconstruction with finely wrought succinct character sketches of major figures; he has a gift for summarizing complexity with a few well-selected sentences. Crucible is enjoyable to read and informative, especially on lesser known aspects (such as the Kaiser’s Dutch exile). However, anyone looking for the big picture through the forest of events might be frustrated.