The personality and position of Karl Kautsky puts his unique book in the front rank of authoritative records, and settles, once for all, the question of the personal responsibility of William Hohenzollern for the outbreak of the Great War. Appointed by the German Republican Government to examine the secret archives of the German Foreign Office, Kautsky was able to study the documents which passed between the German authorities and the other parties to the great conspiracy, documents which passed through the hands of the ex-Kaiser and bear his notes and comments, which showed William Hohenzollern as the driving force behind the war-party in Germany, as a man determined not to let slip what seemed so favorable an opportunity of settling accounts with Russia — and, if necessary, the world.