Despite the enormous amount of literature that has been published about the First World War, only a handful of books have ever been written about the incredibly important Eastern Front of that great conflict. But while British, French, and later American troops fought a relatively static war with Germans in Western Europe, huge armies of Austro-Hungarians and Germans clashed with Russians and later Romanians on a sprawling landscape well to the east. Vast plains, endless forests, giant marshlands and even a major mountain range were the setting for this desperate contest, from which there were no victors. Instead, three mighty empires disappeared into revolution, violence and chaos. Battles East: A History of the Eastern Front of the First World War records the story of this forgotten theater of war in text and in maps, from the first shots along the frontiers in August 1914 to the fighting over boundaries which characterized east-central Europe long after the armistice had been signed in the West.