First World War Books

Book Synopsis This multi-volume series in six parts is the first English-language translation of Der Weltkrieg, the German official history of the First World War. Originally produced between 1925 and 1944 using classified archival records that were destroyed in the aftermath of the Second World War, Der Weltkrieg is the inside story of Germany's experience on the Western front. Recorded in the words of its official historians, this account is vital to the study of the war and official memory in Weimar and Nazi Germany. Although exciting new sources have been uncovered in former Soviet archives, this work remains the basis of future scholarship. It is essential reading for any scholar, graduate student, or enthusiast of the Great War. This volume, the second to be published, covers the outbreak of war in July-August 1914, the German invasion of Belgium, the Battles of the Frontiers, and the pursuit to the Marne in early September 1914. The first month of war was a critical period for the German army and, as the official history makes clear, the German war plan was a gamble that seemed to present the only solution to the riddle of the two-front war. But as the Moltke-Schlieffen Plan was gradually jettisoned through a combination of intentional command decisions and confused communications, Germany's hopes for a quick and victorious campaign evaporated. Table of Contents Germany's Western Front: Translations from the German Official History of the Great War, 1914, Part 1 edited by Mark Osborne Humphries and John Maker List of Maps, Sketches, and Figures Foreword Acknowledgements Introduction Part I: The Battle of the Frontiers in the West 1. Introduction The Two-Front War and Comparison of Strengths The Outbreak of War The War's Duration and Economic Management 2. The Campaign Plan for the Western Front The Historical Development of the Operative Idea The Campaign Plan in 1914 3. The Deployment The German Deployment in the West Initial Border and Railway Security Operations in the West and the Occupation of Luxembourg The Capture of Fortress Liège The Strategic Reconnaissance The Execution of the German Deployment in the West 4. The Beginning of Major Operations The German OHL before the Start of the Advance The Advance of the German Wheeling Wing, 18-20 August The Right Wing (First, Second, and Third Armies) 5. The Battle of the Frontiers The OHL before the Start of the Battle of the Frontiers The Battles of Mons and Namur The Operations of First, Second, and Third Armies on 21 August The Operations of First, Second, and Third Armies on 22 August Second and Third Armies, 23 August The Capture of Namur First Army's Operations on 23 and 24 August The OHL during the Frontier Battles 6. The Pursuit 1. The Operations of the German Right Wing until 27 August Second Army on 25 August Third Army on 25 and 26 August Second Army on 26 August First Army's Pursuit of the British from 25 to 27 August Second and Third Armies on 27 August The OHL during the Pursuit-Operations to 27 August 7. Review Part II: From the Sambre to the Marne 8. The OHL at the Beginning of the New Phase of Operations 9. Operations on the Meuse and Aisne 1. Third Army's Battle North of the Aisne, 28-30 August 2. The Operations of Third and Fourth Armies on the Aisne, 31 August and 1 September 10. The Operations of First and Second Armies to the Oise 1. The Operations of First Army on the Somme and Avre, 28-30 August 2. The Battle at St. Quentin The Beginning of the Battle, 28 August The Battle on the Right German Flank on 29 August The Battle on the Left German Flank on 29 August Continuation and Conclusion of the Battle on 30 August 11. The OHL, 29-30 August 12. The Pursuit by the German Right Wing to the Marne, 31 August-2 September 1. First Army's Crossing of the Oise (31 August) 2. Second Army's Halt (31 August) 3. First Army's Advance across the Aisne 4. Second Army's Advance on the Aisne 5. First Army's Pursuit Battle South of the Aisne 6. Second Army's Crossing of the Aisne 7. Third Army's Pursuit East of Reims 13. The OHL, 31 August-2 September 14. The Pursuit of the German Right Wing across the Marne on 3-4 September 1. First Army Crosses the Marne 2. Second Army's Advance towards the Marne 3. Third Army's Pursuit Battles up to the River Vesle 4. First Army's Operations South of the Marne 5. Second Army's Pursuit across the Marne 6. Third Army Reaches the Marne 15. The OHL, 3-4 September Appendices Appendix 1 Comparison of the Organization of German, French, British, and Belgian Units Appendix 2 The Strength of the Mutual Forces on the Western Front on 22 August 1914 Bibliography Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisWorld War I, given all the rousing “Over-There” songs and in-the-trenches films it inspired, was, at its outset, surprisingly unpopular with the American public. As opposition increased, Woodrow Wilson’s presidential administration became intent on stifling antiwar dissent. In his absorbing new book, Eric Chester reveals that out of this turmoil came a heated public discussion on the theory of civil liberties—the basic freedoms that are, theoretically, untouchable by any of the three branches of the U.S. government. The famous “clear and present danger” argument of Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, and the “balance of conflicting interest” theory of law professor Zechariah Chafee, for example, evolved to provide a rationale for courts to act as a limited restraint on autocratic actions of the government. But Chester goes further, to examine an alternative theory: civil liberties exist as absolute rights, rather than being dependent on the specific circumstances of each case. Over the years, the debate about the right to dissent has intensified and become more necessary. This fascinating book explains why, a century after the First World War—and in the era of Trump—we need to know about this.

Read more less

Book SynopsisWorld War I, given all the rousing “Over-There” songs and in-the-trenches films it inspired, was, at its outset, surprisingly unpopular with the American public. As opposition increased, Woodrow Wilson’s presidential administration became intent on stifling antiwar dissent. In his absorbing new book, Eric Chester reveals that out of this turmoil came a heated public discussion on the theory of civil liberties—the basic freedoms that are, theoretically, untouchable by any of the three branches of the U.S. government. The famous “clear and present danger” argument of Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, and the “balance of conflicting interest” theory of law professor Zechariah Chafee, for example, evolved to provide a rationale for courts to act as a limited restraint on autocratic actions of the government. But Chester goes further, to examine an alternative theory: civil liberties exist as absolute rights, rather than being dependent on the specific circumstances of each case. Over the years, the debate about the right to dissent has intensified and become more necessary. This fascinating book explains why, a century after the First World War—and in the era of Trump—we need to know about this.

Read more less

Book SynopsisA journalist once called Under Secretary of War Robert P. Patterson “the toughest man in Washington” for his fervid efforts in managing U.S. mobilization in World War II. The World War I Memoirs of Robert P. Patterson: A Captain in the Great War recounts Patterson’s own formative military experiences in the First World War.Written in the years following the conflict, this is a remarkable rendering of what it was like to be an infantry line officer during the so-called Great War. Patterson started his military career as a twenty-seven-year-old, barely-trained captain in the American Expeditionary Forces (A.E.F.). He was part of the 306th Infantry Regiment of New York’s famous 77th “Statue of Liberty” Division from July to November 1918. In this detailed account, Patterson describes in understated yet vivid prose just how raw and unprepared American soldiers were for the titanic battles on the Western Front. Patterson downplays his near-death experience in a fierce firefight that earned him and several of his men from Company F the Distinguished Service Cross. His depiction of the brutal Meuse-Argonne battle is haunting—the drenching cold rains, the omnipresent barbed wire, deep fog-filled ravines, the sweet stench of mustard gas, chattering German machine-guns, crashing artillery shells, and even a rare hot meal to be savored.Dealing with more than just combat, Patterson writes of the friendships and camaraderie among the officers and soldiers of different ethnic and class backgrounds who made up the “melting pot division” of the 77th. He betrays little of the postwar disillusionment that afflicted some members of the “Lost Generation.”Editor J. Garry Clifford’s introduction places Patterson and his actions in historical context and illuminates how Patterson applied lessons learned from the GreatWar to his later service as assistant secretary, under secretary, and secretary of war from 1940 to 1947.Trade ReviewThis memoir illuminates key aspects of the war experience: the enthusiasm for fighting, tensions with officers, tedium with regard to noncombatant work, the variety of trench experiences, the sharp learning curve that the army underwent on the ground, and the confusing nature of combat for ground troops. As the centennial of the war approaches this well-annotated memoir that connects Patterson’s individual experiences to the larger U.S. experience of the war will appeal to general readers and specialists alike." - Jennifer D. Keene, author of World War I: The American Soldier Experience

Read more less

Book SynopsisOn November 5, 1917, Taylorville, Illinois native Clara Taylor stepped off a Trans-Siberian Railway train into a city then called Petrograd, Russia. Employed by the YWCA as an industrial expert, Clara had been sent to Russia to help establish Associations in Petrograd (now St. Petersburg) and Moscow. Her main charge while in Russia was to survey and report on factory conditions, but Clara only spent a fraction of her stay in Russia visiting factories; due to the vagaries of the political, social, and economic revolution—the upheaval of an entire culture—Clara and her colleagues spent most of their first year in Russia teaching English, home economics, book keeping, literature, and basketball, and sponsoring lectures, dances and sing-alongs for Russian working women. Clara’s letters, collected in this book, tell of both the mundane and the extraordinary: what the YW staff ate for dinner; how the Bolshevik suppression of free speech impacted Americans’ ability to communicate with those at home; shootings in the streets; bartering for pounds of sugar; conversing with nobility, with intellectuals, and with workers; attending the opera; and sight-seeing at monasteries. Together, Clara’s letters to her family—her “dearest ones at home”—tell a compelling story of one American woman’s experiences in Revolutionary Russia.

Read more less

Book SynopsisCatching the Torch examines contemporary novels and plays written about Canada's participation in World War I. Exploring such works as Jane Urquhart's The Underpainter and The Stone Carvers, Jack Hodgins's Broken Ground, Kevin Kerr's Unity (1918), Stephen Massicotte's Mary's Wedding, and Frances Itani's Deafening, the book considers how writers have dealt with the compelling myth that the Canadian nation was born in the trenches of the Great War.In contrast to British and European remembrances of WWI, which tend to regard it as a cataclysmic destroyer of innocence, or Australian myths that promote an ideal of outsize masculinity, physical bravery, and white superiority, contemporary Canadian texts conjure up notions of distinctively Canadian values: tolerance of ethnic difference, the ability to do one's duty without complaint or arrogance, and the inclination to show moral as well as physical courage. Paradoxically, Canadians are shown to decry the horrors of war while making use of its productive cultural effects.Through a close analysis of the way sacrifice, service, and the commemoration of war are represented in these literary works, Catching the Torch argues that iterations of a secure mythic notion of national identity, one that is articulated via the representation of straightforward civic and military participation, work to counter current anxieties about the stability of the nation-state, in particular anxieties about the failure of the ideal of a national ""character.Trade Review"Using McCrae as a point of entry, Gordon proceeds to argue that the works of literature she examines, including Jack Hodgin's Broken Ground , Frances Itani's Deafening , Joseph Boyden's Three Day Road , and Vern Thiessen's Vimy , among others, paradoxically disparage the mass destruction and loss of the First World War while simultaneously insisting on its cultural significance. As a result, instead of questioning the historical record, contemporary literary responses to the First World War, according to Gordon, endorse a national myth that 'promotes the collective by simply enlarging the category of the homogenous,' a tendency that is propelled by an anxiety about the instability of Canadian national identity. As a whole, Gordon's analysis is insightful and compelling." -- Alicia Fahey -- Canadian Literature" Catching the Torch , which examines numerous recently published novels and plays about Canadians' contributions to the First World War, underscores that war does not always take place during specific time periods or on specifically militarized fronts, but may require redefinition of temporal limits and settings to take into account the tales of traumatized veterans or, as was the case after the Great War, victims of influenza. It further insists that the stories of those previously excised from the canon, such as aboriginals, French Canadians, nurses, women volunteers serving on home fronts and battlefronts, and artists, are valid and valuable. Offering numerous insights into the ways contemporary Canadian writers commemorate their nation's participation in the Great War, this thoroughly researched and cogently argued book promises to be an invaluable resource for students and scholars of literature and history." -- Donna Coates, University of Calgary, editor (with Sherrill Grace) of Canada and the Theatre of War, vols. I and II"The work is ... highly convincing in its analysis of how depictions of the war function to shape concepts of the nation and authorial resistance to essentialist understandings of national characters.... The book's opening literature review will be helpful for many scholars, and, in its narrative development of critical understandings of the way in which the First World War figures in contemporary Canadian literature, Catching the Torch is unlikely to be superseded any time soon." -- James Gifford, Fairleigh Dickinson University, Vancouver -- BC StudiesTable of Contents Catching the Torch: Contemporary Canadian Literary Responses to World War I by Neta Gordon Acknowledgements Introduction: Contemporary Canadian First World War Narratives: Remembering Canada's Best Self Chapter One: The Dead Speak: Considering the Use of Prosopopoeia in Dancock's Dance, Mary's Wedding, and The Deep Chapter Two: The War and Concepts of Nation in Jack Hodgins's Broken Ground and Frances Itani's Deafening Chapter Three: Abandoning the Archivist: Commemorating the War Insider and Outsider in the World War One Novels of Alan Cumyn and Jane Urquhart Chapter Four: Other Canadians: The Representation of Alternate Versions of the War in Vimy, Unity (1918), Three Day Road, and A Secret Between Us Conclusion: Representations of the First World War and Wishing Notes Biblography Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisPrivate James Herbert (Herb) Gibson was 26 years old when he volunteered for service in the Canadian Expeditionary Force in the First World War. Born near Perth, Ontario and descended from Scottish settlers, Gibson enlisted against his father's wishes because he viewed the war as justified and felt he needed to do his part. ""Without fear and with a manly heart"" collects his personal letters and diaries as well as those sent to him by family and friends. They reveal his beliefs, hopes, realizations, and tragedies through an account of his contribution to the war. The letters trace Gibson's wartime service from 1916 to 1919 from his enlistment and training with the 130th (Lanark and Renfrew) Battalion to his service on the Western Front with the 75th Battalion. Gibson was wounded twice, first near Vimy during the Gas Raid of March 1917 and again more seriously during a night patrol in July 1918 which ended his war. He also had to deal with tragedy on the home front from afar. Gibson's religious beliefs significantly influenced and sustained him through his darkest hours. He felt himself a gentle man caught up ""on an errand the full consequences of which we did not realize.

Read more less