Economy

as newspapers tried to outdo each other with graphic descriptions of alleged German war crimes.

Oh, Germany did commit atrocities, but the real ones paled in comparison with what the gutter press came up with. Britons couldn't get enough of the stuff and the sales pitch sent outraged young men to the recruitment offices, eager to fight on the side of good and teach evil a lesson.

Grey's job was easy by comparison, he only had to convince a roomful of MPs. The people were a much harder sell, they couldn't understand why anyone would start a war over a dead Archduke from a tottering empire like the Austro-Hungarian empire. They didn't understand the dominoes toppling, as treaty followed treaty and nations declared war on each other because of them. Nobody understood what was happening or why.