The four bloody Isonzo battles are detailed as well as Conrad’s failed Straf offensive during May 1915. The Austro-Hungarian Army is devastated by the surprising Brusilov offensive June through September and the absence of effective command leadership. The German ally is forced to become involved in order to prevent total defeat, just as it had in 1914 and 1915. Romania’s disastrous entry into the war and a German-led victorious campaign is described. The rapidly declining home front situation is causing increasing starvation and a stirring among the various ethnic groups.

The resumption of unrestricted submarine warfare in February 1917 caused the United States to sever relations with Germany, though President Wilson held out hope for peace until learning that the German foreign secretary, Zimmermann, sought to turn Mexico against the US and use it as an intermediary to turn Japan against the Allies. Amid these tensions Nicholas II was overthrown and succeeded by a Provisional Government, ultimately led by Kerensky, which made the fateful decision to keep Russia in the war. In April 1917, days after the United States declared war, Germany gave Lenin transportation home from Switzerland, hoping he would foment a second revolution and knock Russia out of the war. Following the Bolshevik Revolution of November 1917, Lenin indeed concluded an armistice with the Central Powers, but only after his appeal for a general peace “without annexations or indemnities” failed. The net result of the United States replacing tsarist Russia gave the Allies an ideological cohesion they had lacked previously. While Wilson characterized their war as a fight for universal rights and freedoms, the entry of the United States gave them millions of fresh troops to go with the capital, munitions, and supplies they were already receiving from American sources.