Fall of the Giants by Ken Follett

Fall of Giants (The Century Trilogy) - Book one of the Century Trilogy.  This book follows the experiences of several families from 1911 to 1924.  Gus Dewar, son of an American Senator travels throughout Europe to give President Woodrow Wilson intelligence.  English Earl Fitzherbert and his wife, Russian Princess Bea, are the owners of the land that is mined by Billy Williams in Wales.  Ethel Williams is a maid at their Welsh estate. Cousins Otto and Walter von Ulrich are German diplomats in England.  Walter falls in love with Fitz’s sister, Maud.  They are separated by the war. Grigori and Lev Peshkov work in a Russian Putilov Machine Works. They are saving up to go to America, but Lev gets in trouble and uses Grigori’s ticket.  Lev ends up in Wales and Grigori becomes a minor leader of the Bolsheviks.  All of these people interact and their actions are catalogued against the events leading up to World War I, the War itself and the years after.