Stone's book has become a virtual classic since it first appeared in 1975. The Western Front has had chroniclers and commentators almost past numbering, but the fighting between the Central Powers and Czarist Russia (backed briefly by Serbia and Romania, which soon collapsed) is far less known. Yet it was equally terrible - in some ways even more so, since physical conditions varied from scorching dusty summers to deep snow, while by Western standards many of the soldiers on both sides were poorly equipped and supplied. Casualties were frightening, and mass surrenders - particularly by the Russians and Austrians - were a regular feature. As is well known, Romanov Russia was brought to collapse and revolution in 1917, while AustroHungary followed much the same fate a year later. With two venerable empires erased from history and from the map, Eastern and Central Europe could never be the same again.