Margaret MacMillan, Warden of St Antony’s College, Oxford, has been immersed in conflict over the past few months — ironically, since she is the multi award-winning author of two books with the word ‘peace’ in the title.

As a historian of the First World War, she had expected to be busy. She is preparing a series called 1914 Day-by-Day chronicling the road to war for BBC Radio 4.

The news reports of the events of 1914 will be broadcast by actors each day from July 1, starting with reaction to the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo.

Each week, two modern cartoonists will react to the 1914 events, with their work distributed via social media, bringing home to a new audience the frightening speed with which global war can descend.

The debate about how Britain should mark the 100th anniversary of the First World War started with a bang on January 2 as Michael Gove unleashed a campaign against the ‘myths of Blackadder’, saying Professor MacMillan’s work “demonstrated how those who fought were not dupes but conscious believers in king and country, committed to defending the western liberal order”.

News outlets took the opportunity to show the scenes in which Blackadder star Rowan Atkinson tries to avoid going ‘over the top’ to face almost certain death at Flanders, and Professor MacMillan was in demand as a talk-show guest for a few weeks, explaining that she had been misquoted.

She does not believe that the British foot soldiers were necessarily ‘lions led by donkeys” (as a German general is supposed to have remarked) and she will not be drawn into criticism of Mr Gove, saying mildly: “I was a bit annoyed, because I had not said that.”

The question of who was to blame for the millions of deaths is, she says, complicated. However, each country — not just Britain — saw itself as defending its homeland.

She adds: “I think we should not expect a single view of the war. It is good that we disagree about it, but I think we should get the foundations straight. I think Michael Gove has a passion for history and there are certainly some things we all have to agree on.”

One gets the impression she felt the controversy was a little childish, but overall, she is pleased that the issue is being debated. “Who could have imagined that nearly 100 years since the outbreak of the First World War it would be rousing such passions? Everyone is suddenly interested and I think that is a good thing.”

She also supports the varied programme of UK events which was eventually agreed to mark the anniversary.

“I like the fact that they are happening at different levels. There has been a lot of encouragement of grassroots commemorations. I like the idea of taking schoolchildren to France. There is even an app, I am told, that will tell you which people from your street went to war.”

Professor MacMillan is Canadian and she says the St Antony’s post is “probably the only job I would have moved for”, having left the University of Toronto to come here.

She has family links to the UK, partly as great grand-daughter to former Prime Minister and war leader Lloyd George, and partly because her sister is married to the broadcaster Peter Snow, making her the aunt of TV historian Dan Snow — who is also busy with war programmes at the moment.

She did her A-Levels in England and returned again as a post-graduate student at St Hilda’s and St Antony’s, researching the Indian Raj, before beginning her lifelong immersion in the First World War.

After wrestling with the end result in her acclaimed Paris 1919 — the story of the Paris Peace Conference —she has unravelled the war’s origins in her latest 700-page blockbuster, entitled The War That Ended the Peace.

The cause of the First World War has been hotly debated for years, not least in countless student essays. Why did she feel she had anything to add?

“There is still no agreement on how it started and I think I am good at telling stories, and I think I’m good at explaining to general readers why it might be important to understand things — perhaps because I’m interested in human nature.”

In searching for the origins of the conflict that left more than ten million dead and many more wounded, she looks at the actions of individuals, and their culture. The growth of nationalism and the glorification of the military, for example, made war seem more inevitable.

War was seen by some as a cure for decadency, not just in Germany, but also in Britain.

It took just 37 days from the assassination of Austrian heir to the throne Archduke Franz Ferdinand on June 28, with the collaboration of Serbian ultra-nationalists, for events to spiral out of control. Austria turned to its ally, Germany, for support against Serbia.

With France’s backing, Russia came to Serbia’s defence — and mobilized against Austria and Germany. Austria declared war on Serbia, and Germany lined up against Russia and France, which put out a distress call to Britain.

When Germany marched into neutral Belgium, Britains’s leaders felt it had no alternative but to enter a conflict that swept Europe into unimaginable catastrophe.

It is the back story that interests Professor MacMillan. She asks why moves towards peace failed, seeing it as a failure of diplomacy, as well as a failure of leadership by individuals. Kaiser Wilhelm, for example, was thrust on the throne by the early death of his father, Tsar Nicholas was facing strikes and insurrection at home.

All of them feared being seen as weak and unmanly, and the question of honour played highly with British politicians, whose alarm at the coming of war was outweighed by their need to keep their word.

“I am interested in the way we think about ourselves as nations. Perhaps because I am Canadian, I am slightly detached and I do not feel I have to defend anything,” she explained.

“Some people might say I like gossip too much. I have always been interested in people both as individuals, and as creatures of their time. We are all influenced by the eras in which we live.”

And that in itself has lessons, and warnings, for today.

“We so often think the war was inevitable because it had so many possible causes. But that is dangerous. If you start thinking war is inevitable, then in your own times you don’t resist it as strongly as you should,” she says.

Despite her recent brush with Michael Gove, she is optimistic that we will learn the lessons of history, and believes today’s leaders are generally better at seeing the other side’s point of view. “There are clear lessons we can learn, including not to necessarily believe the experts.”

Professor MacMillan thinks JF Kennedy’s ability to question military advice, for example, helped to avert the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.

“In the present crisis over Crimea, you feel the Americans have very much tried to keep in touch with Russia. Whether the Russians have learned, I do not know. Understanding the thinking of the other side is so important.”

She added: “Part of it is reassuring people. During the Cold War, rather than Nato having a military exercise near a border, they began to learn that you have to let the other side know when you are going to do it.

“It is sometimes very difficult to know what they are thinking, but you shouldn’t assume that the other side is going to behave just like you would in those circumstances.”

* The War That Ended Peace: How Europe Abandoned Peace for the First World War is published by Profile at £25. The BBC Radio 4 1914 news starts on July 1. Modern cartoons inspired by Professor MacMillan’s 1914 news will be exhibited at The Cartoon Museum, 35 Little Russell Street, London WC1A 2HH, alongside Never Again – The First World War in Cartoon and Comic Art exhibition (untilOctober 19).