William Englund, an experienced Moscow-based correspondent for The Washington Post, crafts a novel focusing on the pivotal month of March 1917—“the most critical month in Washington since the Civil War.” Englund structures his narrative history around two primary developments: the lead-up to U.S. involvement in the war in Europe, and the overthrow of czarist autocracy in Russia. Englund deftly alternates between these two primary narratives and interweaves additional stories and anecdotes to provide social, cultural, and political context for this pivotal time.