In May 1915, Italy declared war on the Habsburg Empire. Nearly 750,000
Italian troops were killed in savage, hopeless fighting on the stony
hills north of Trieste and in the snows of the Dolomites. To maintain
discipline, General Luigi Cadorna restored the Roman practice of
decimation, executing random members of units that retreated or
rebelled.
With elegance and pathos, historian Mark Thompson relates the saga of
the Italian front, the nationalist frenzy and political intrigues that
preceded the conflict, and the towering personalities of the statesmen,
generals, and writers drawn into the heart of the chaos. A work of epic
scale, The White War does full justice to the brutal and
heart-wrenching war that inspired Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms.