Expansion and Stalemate tells the gripping story of the year World War I became impossible to escape. What began as a conflict many expected to end quickly had hardened into a vast war of trenches, submarines, poison gas, failed invasions, collapsing fronts, and mobilized societies. From the Second Battle of Ypres and the shocking introduction of chemical warfare to the Gallipoli disaster, Italy's entry into the war, the sinking of the Lusitania, and the struggles on the Eastern and Balkan fronts, this book reveals how the war expanded across continents while remaining brutally unresolved.