Explains the damage done to the German army in 1916 and its poor state at the end of the year. Then describes German remedial action before the major Entente offensive expected in spring 1917: introducing new tactics and improved training; Hindenburg Line withdrawal; increasing the number of divisions on the Western Front; new equipment and organisational structures.

Entente plans to exploit the precarious German situation by simultaneous offensives on the Western Front, Eastern Front and in Italy. After describing the Anglo-French part of this plan, the chapter outlines German foreknowledge of and countermeasures against the offensive. Gives a detailed account of the western battles – Arras including Vimy Ridge and Bullecourt; Nivelle offensive including Aisne, Chemin des Dames, Champagne and Oise; Messines. Links grand strategic, strategic, operational and tactical developments. Outlines events in Russia (Kerensky offensive) and Italy (Isonzo and Asiago), and summarises the overall results of the offensive.

More than a century on, the modern history of Dublin continues to be dominated by the Easter Rising of 1916. Although the Rising took place all over the city, its focal point was the General Post Office, on O’Connell Street. This chapter takes as its keynote a paradox that emerges in the literature of O’Connell Street. On the one hand, it is here that a rebellion led by poets and playwrights has produced a site with a solemn historical memory attached to it. At the same time, the street itself has long had a carnivalesque quality, made possible by its original design as a place in which fashionable citizens could promenade, and continuing today. This tension emerges in major works by Samuel Beckett, James Joyce, Seán O’Casey, and W. B. Yeats, as well as by more recent writers, including Roddy Doyle. The sense of paradox is heightened by the proximity of the Abbey Theatre, on the adjacent Abbey Street. Here, a living theatre culture carries on a tradition begun by Yeats and Lady Gregory in 1904, contributing to the distinctive character of this part of the city as a kind unruly ceremonial centre.

This chapter offers an assessment of the unique contribution to the historiography of the Easter Rebellion of 1916 in Ireland by F. X. Martin (1922–2000), Professor of Medieval History at University College Dublin. Martin gained his position in 1962 after an arduous contest with several rivals. A medievalist, whose previous research interests had been in Early Modern Ireland and Australian history, he nonetheless intervened memorably in the as yet uncharted waters of the history of the 1916 Rebellion and its aftermath.