While the conflict began in 1914 with the assassination of an obscure nobleman in a faraway land, the Great War would eventually touch the lives of every American, as Edward Robb Ellis shows in this vivid history.

The author draws vigorous portraits of the era's leading figures, including Woodrow Wilson, the cerebral president; Teddy Roosevelt, the saber-rattling ex-president; Henry Cabot Lodge and Robert LaFollette, bitter Senate foes, the former favoring intervention, the latter never wavering from his conviction that the war was anathema; and many others. Ellis also focuses on working people and the growing labor movement that led to vicious confrontations such as the deadly massacre at John D. Rockefeller's Ludlow mine in Colorado.

Rich in human drama and telling detail, this is social history at its most compelling, written by a unique chronicler of our times.