1917. People have had enough of the war. Behind the scenes, uprisings are brewing, like the one that toppled the Tsar in Russia; on the front soldiers begin to mutiny as they did at Chemin des Dames in France. German submarine attacks in the Atlantic will finally pull the Americans into the war, but they arrive too late to help prevent the carnage of the Battle of Passchendaele.

All seems lost for the Allies. The Italians are defeated at Caporette, and a Bolshevik Russia pulls out of the war. But the American reinforcements are decisive, and the Allies emerge victorious. The Allies are unable to negotiate an honourable peace agreement, and the Treaty of Versailles, 20 years later, will have disastrous

The self-proclaimed 'Islamic State' is a jihadi militia active in the north and east of Syria, and in the west of Iraq, which has shocked the world with its cinematic staging of horrific acts of violence and its unexpected advances towards statehood. But why could IS expand so rapidly?

This episode examines the end of and the period immediately after World War II. It looks at Stalin's efforts to seize control of Poland and Eastern Europe, Democratic part bosses efforts to drop Henry Wallace from the 1944 presidential ticket, and British efforts to maintain their colonial holdings after the war.

The series is a re-examination of some of the under-reported and darkest parts of American modern history using little known documents and newly uncovered archival material, looking beyond official versions of events to the deeper causes and implications and exploring how events from the past still have resonant themes for the present day. This episode addresses the historical backround, consequences and reasons behind the use of atomic bombs against the Japanese in the second world war.

Eisenhower and the CIA played a great part in the shaping of the world in the 1950's; the development of the Cold war and the nerve-wrecking battle against communism, driven on by the U.S.