First World War Books

Book SynopsisA history of the development of the concept of the human body as an integrated whole susceptible to damage but also available for treatment, largely in the wake of the catastrophic injuries seen in WWI.

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Book SynopsisLooking at the human impact of World War I, this text examines how the French remembered their war dead after the armistice. It argues that memory is more than just a record of experience and offers a perspective on how commemoration of WWI helped to shape post-war French society and politics.

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Book SynopsisBy the summer of 1917, Canadian troops had captured Vimy Ridge, but Allied offensives had stalled across many fronts of the Great War. To help break the stalemate of trench warfare, the Canadian Corps commander, Lieutenant-General Arthur Currie, was tasked with capturing Hill 70, a German stronghold near the French town of Lens.After securing the hill on 15 August, Canadian soldiers endured days of shelling, machine-gun fire, and poison gas as they repelled relentless enemy counterattacks. Through Their Eyes depicts this remarkable but costly victory in a unique way. With full-colour graphic artwork and detailed illustration, Matthew Barrett and Robert Engen picture the battle from different perspectives Currie's strategic view at high command, a junior officer's experience at the platoon level, and the vantage points of many lesser-known Canadian soldiers who made the ultimate sacrifice. This innovative graphic history invites readers to reimagine the First World War Trade Review“This innovative graphic history provides a new way of understanding the complexity and carnage of the First World War. Employing vivid graphics and authoritative history, Matthew Barrett and Robert C. Engen offer multiple and diverse perspectives to reclaim the Battle of Hill 70 for a new generation.” Tim Cook, author of Vimy: The Battle and the Legend“Creative and innovative, Through Their Eyes offers a new way to commemorate and connect to the history of the First World War.” Sean Carleton, University of Manitoba and the Graphic History Collective“Through Their Eyes presents a vivid depiction, both literally and figuratively, of the horrors of war. The authors view Hill 70 from the perspective of individuals at very different levels of status and responsibility, from the general to the frontline infantryman, interpreting scant evidence and imaginatively filling in the gaps.” Gary Sheffield, University of Wolverhampton“A multifaceted and nuanced look at a complex battle in an incredibly complex war. It will have you looking at photos and paintings of The Great War in a new light, considering both what was shown and what was left out.” Winnipeg Free Press“Through their Eyes provides inspiration for historians who wish to be both thorough researchers and gripping storytellers. It is the ‘permanent evolution’ history writing deserves.” Prairie History

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Book SynopsisThis analysis of the general subject of WWI prisoners of war focuses on the role of a non-governmental association in confronting the increasingly chaotic conditions of East Europe.Trade ReviewExtremely interesting and impressively researched. -- Arnold Krammer Journal of American Hsitory

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Book SynopsisOn January 24, 1915, a German naval force commanded by Admiral Franz von Hipper conducted a raid on British fishing fleets in the area of the Dogger Banks. This book provides a keen analytical description of the battle and its place in the naval history of World War I.Trade ReviewTobias Philbin has written a very entertaining and informative book on the Battle of Dogger Bank.It will be enjoyed by a wide audience including naval historians, strategists, and those interested inhow broader long-term decision-making determines the manner in which battles are fought, wonand lost. * The International Journal of Maritime History *The author's research in British and German archives and knowledge of secondary sources produces a significant work on the war at sea. * Stand-To *In all this is an interesting and stimulating book that is a useful contribution to the history of the First World War in the North Sea. * The Mariner's Mirror *Table of ContentsList of FiguresAcknowledgmentsPreface1. Decisions beyond the Battlefield2. Building the Battle Cruisers3. Prologue to War4. The Order of Battle5. The Engagement: Chase and Intercept6. The Engagement: Return7. Echelons of MistakesBibliographyIndex

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Book Synopsis-Carefully selected collection of articles from the Indiana Magazine of History, that details ordinary Hoosiers' involvement in the two world wars. Focuses on the personal stories of these brave men and women, and features their diaries, letters and memiors as source material. -Trade crossover that should appeal to general history readers and scholars alike.Trade ReviewFighting Hoosiers brings the reader into the worlds of ordinary citizens who suddenly found themselves fighting far from home under difficult conditions. * H-NET *Fighting Hoosiers brings the reader into the worlds of ordinary citizens who suddenly found themselves fighting far from home under difficult conditions. An amazing element of Fighting Hoosiers is not only the completeness of the diaries researched but the memories, such as that of Kenneth Baker of Rochester, Indiana, who, sixty-six years after serving in two world wars, was able to place his experiences on a yellow notepad from memory, which eventually found its way into print for posterity. This is a story of ordinary citizens making extraordinary contributions and a lasting impact on themselves, the lives of their families, and the country they loved both during the war and decades after. -- Terry Wettig - AF Air University Global College * H-Net (War) *Table of ContentsIntroduction / Dawn E. Bakken1. Pride, Patriotism, and the Press: The Evolving True Story of the First American Shot of World War I / Greta A. Fisher and Lauren E. Kuntzman2. On Convoy Duty in World War I: The Diary of Hoosier Guy Connor / Edited by Jeffrey L. Patrick3. A Hoosier Nurse in France: The World War I Diary of Maude Frances Essig / Alma S. Woolley4. 'Oatmeal and Coffee': Memoirs of a Hoosier Soldier in World War I / Kenneth Gearhart Baker, edited and introduced by Robert H. Ferrell5. Recollections of a World War II Combat Medic / Bernard L. Rice6. A Hoosier Soldier in the British Isles / Lawrence B. McFaddin7. 'A Fair Chance to Do My Part of Work': Black Women, War Work, and Rights Claims at the Kingsbury Ordnance Plant / Katherine TurkNotes

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Book Synopsis-Carefully selected collection of articles from the Indiana Magazine of History, that details ordinary Hoosiers' involvement in the two world wars. Focuses on the personal stories of these brave men and women, and features their diaries, letters and memiors as source material. -Trade crossover that should appeal to general history readers and scholars alike.Trade ReviewFighting Hoosiers brings the reader into the worlds of ordinary citizens who suddenly found themselves fighting far from home under difficult conditions. * H-NET *Fighting Hoosiers brings the reader into the worlds of ordinary citizens who suddenly found themselves fighting far from home under difficult conditions. An amazing element of Fighting Hoosiers is not only the completeness of the diaries researched but the memories, such as that of Kenneth Baker of Rochester, Indiana, who, sixty-six years after serving in two world wars, was able to place his experiences on a yellow notepad from memory, which eventually found its way into print for posterity. This is a story of ordinary citizens making extraordinary contributions and a lasting impact on themselves, the lives of their families, and the country they loved both during the war and decades after. -- Terry Wettig - AF Air University Global College * H-Net (War) *Table of ContentsIntroduction / Dawn E. Bakken1. Pride, Patriotism, and the Press: The Evolving True Story of the First American Shot of World War I / Greta A. Fisher and Lauren E. Kuntzman2. On Convoy Duty in World War I: The Diary of Hoosier Guy Connor / Edited by Jeffrey L. Patrick3. A Hoosier Nurse in France: The World War I Diary of Maude Frances Essig / Alma S. Woolley4. 'Oatmeal and Coffee': Memoirs of a Hoosier Soldier in World War I / Kenneth Gearhart Baker, edited and introduced by Robert H. Ferrell5. Recollections of a World War II Combat Medic / Bernard L. Rice6. A Hoosier Soldier in the British Isles / Lawrence B. McFaddin7. 'A Fair Chance to Do My Part of Work': Black Women, War Work, and Rights Claims at the Kingsbury Ordnance Plant / Katherine TurkNotes

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Book SynopsisIn October 1917, an invasion force of some 25,000 German soldiers, accompanied by a flotilla of 10 dreadnoughts, 350 other vessels, a half-dozen zeppelins, and 80 aircraft, attacked the Baltic islands at the head of the Gulf of Riga. This work presents an account of a little-known but dramatic World War I battle for control of the Baltic Islands.Trade Review. . . Michael Barrett provides both the World War I enthusiast and the seasoned naval professional a detailed look at one of the past century's early forays into opposed amphibious landings. Oct. 1, 2008 -- Andrew G. Wilson * Naval History *In the end, what we have in Operation Albion is a thorougly researched, well organized, and very well-written history of an operation that deserves to be more widely studied.October 2008 -- Mark D. Karau * The Journal of Military HIstory *This book will remain the definitive account of this most unusual operation in World War I for some tiime to come.October 20 2008 -- Richard L. Dinardo * The NYMAS Review *Specialists in the history of the Great War and the operational history of any period, historians of Germany and of Russia, and anyone with a general interest in well-written military history will enjoy reading this book.March 2009 -- Jesse Kauffman * Stanford University *. . . the work is extremely well-researched and it fills a large void in the history of the First World War. I highly recommend the book, in particular to students and scholars of the period. April 2009 -- Mark D. Karau * University of Wisconsin *[Barrett's] book will remain the definitive account of this most unusual operation in World War I for sometime to come. April 2009 -- Richard L. DiNardo * USMC Command & Staff College *Michael Barrett deftly tells the tale of the most successful amphibious operation of World War I. . . . As a work of military history the book is exemplary. . . . In short, this book deserves its place in a series on twentieth-century battles. January 2009 * Russian Review *Attraverso il ricorso ad un ampio materiale documentario, in gran parte inedito e conservato presso i maggiori archivi militari statunitensi, tedeschi e russi, l'autore riporta alla luce in maniera brillante ed estremamente accurata un episodio significantivo, e tuttavia perlopiu dimenticati, della Prima Guerra Mondiale: la conquista, avvenuta nelle settimane centrali dell'ottobre del 1917, delle quatro principali isole baltiche - Osel, Dago, Worms, e Moon - situate all'ingresso del Golfo di Riga da parte dell'esercito e della marina tedesca.March 2009 * Ricerche Distoria Politica *The casual reader will find this book informative and entertaining. For the military professional, a careful reading will pay tremendous dividends, particularly for those interested in amphibious operations and staff planning.Vol. 1, No. 1, Spring 2010 * Marine Corps University Journal *Table of ContentsContentsList of MapsDates, Times, and NamesAcknowledgments1. Submarine UC-58, Tagga Bay, 28 September 19172. The Strategic Importance of the Baltic Islands3. The Decision to Mount Operation Albion4. The Islands and Their Defenses5. The Invasion6. Ösel, 12–13 October 1917: The Central Island7. Ösel, 12–16 October 1917: The Island's Ends8. The Capture of Moon and Dagö Islands9. The Naval Battle for the Baltic Islands10. Conclusion11. EpilogueAppendix: A Word on SourcesNotesBibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisAn important battle and turning point on the Eastern Front during World War ITrade Review[T]his book is a welcome addition to the literature . . . . * SLAVIC REVIEW *. . . Dowling's work represents a significant contribution to a critical theater of the First World War that is only beginning to receive the attention it merits. March 2009 -- Jeffrey R. Smith * Northwestern State University *Dowling provides a superb day-by-day account of the offensive itself, which fills a clear gap that has existed until now for an English-language operational history of the Russian army's most successful offensive in the First World War. Vol. 16 no. 4 (2009) * War in History *. . . Timothy Dowling, a specialist in German and Russian history, provides a welcome new perspective on World War I and the fighting on the much-neglected Eastern Front. April 2009 * Military Heritage *Dowling has produced a much needed examination of the Brusilov Offensive, restoring it to a place of importance alongside Verdun and the Somme, while reminding us that Brusilov deserves a position in the ranks with Foch, Petain, Ludendorff, and Haig.October 2009 * German Studies Review *Dowling has written a fine and important book, one that forces us to reconsider our view of the Russian army in World War I, and one that any student of the war can rad with profit. Vol. 42, 2009 * Central European History *Suprisingly little is written about the Eastern Front of the war. This book helps reduce the deficit in World War I literature by focusing on probably the worst combat crisis faced by Austria-Hungary and Germany on the front with Russia. Dowling's well-written book gives insight into Imperial Russia's most outstanding World War I commander, Alexsei Brusilov . . . He uses extensive sources and is objective in his handling of all involved parties . . . The book wholeheartedly deserves a place on the shelves of those interested in great commanders as well as all students of World War I and the Imperial Russian Army.January-February 2010 * Military Review *Dowling . . . presents a balanced account of this offensive that is especially valuable because he uses materials from the Austrian State Archive to illuminate the actions of the Central Powers. The author's focus is squarely on the military aspects of this campaign. July 2009 * Choice *This is a fine, detailed history of Russia's most spectacularly sucessful offensive of the Great War and a welcome addition to the short shelf of English Language treatments of the Eastern Front in WWI.August 2008 * The Journal fo the Western Front Association U.S. Branch *Dowling offers a useful addition to the literature on the military history of the Eastern Front during the First World War that should prove of value not only to military historians but also to others interested in fleshing out an often overlooked military historical context for the revolutionary upheavals of 1917. Vol. 88.4, October 2010 * Slavonic and East European Review *Table of ContentsContentsList of MapsIntroductionA Brief Biography of Aleksei A. Brusilov1. Russia in the First World War2. Making Preparations3. The Offensive Begins4. Stalemate and Renewal5. A Tale of North and South6. The Offensive Shatters7. ConsequencesNotesBibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisOnce assumed to be a driver or even cause of conflict, commemoration during Ireland''s Decade of Centenaries came to occupy a central place in peacebuilding efforts. The inclusive and cross-communal reorientation of commemoration, particularly of the First World War, has been widely heralded as signifying new forms of reconciliation and a greater maturity in relationships between Ireland and the UK and between Unionists and Nationalists in Northern Ireland. In this study, Jonathan Evershed interrogates the particular and implicitly political claims about the nature of history, memory, and commemoration that define and sustain these assertions, and explores some of the hidden and countervailing transcripts that underwrite and disrupt them. Drawing on two years of ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Belfast, Evershed explores Ulster Loyalist commemoration of the Battle of the Somme, its conflicted politics, and its confrontation with official commemorative discourse and practice durinTrade Review"In providing an incisive thick description of the centennial commemorations of the decimation of the 36th (Ulster) Division at the Battle of the Somme—a foundation myth of Ulster unionism—Jonathan Evershed deftly reveals how grassroots remodeling of Protestant-Loyalist social remembrance feeds into a culture war, which continues to unsettle Northern Ireland in a charged political climate that has too-readily been hailed as ‘post-conflict.'" —Guy Beiner, author of Remembering the Year of the French: Irish Folk History and Social Memory"Jonathan Evershed’s work demonstrates the value of an ethnographical study of commemorative practices in a divided society. Significantly, he engages with Loyalist social memory on its own terms, bringing intellectual curiosity and openness to his subject. This allows Evershed to provide a deeper understanding of the role of commemoration in the construction and assertion of Protestant, Unionist, and Loyalist identity and illustrates the multiple ways in which recourse to the past is freighted with the politics and economics of the present." —Roisín Higgins, Teesside University"The author draws on a theoretical framework strongly influenced by Jacques Derrida and locates his work in debates about memory . . . most of the book is centered around interviews with those invoived in loyalist commemoration and the author's own experience of these. . . . Evershed's book provides a template that other scholars should follow as they interrogate the diverse commemorative agendas of our centenary decade." —History Ireland"A rich, vivid, complex analysis, at once both empathetic and critical, that provides real insight into the contradictions of working-class loyalism, the invented tradition of the Somme commemorations as a central element of the 'culture war' of 'post-conflict' Northern Ireland, and the difficulties and possibilities of social transformation in the landscape of the post-industrial city." —Mark McGovern, Edge Hill University“. . . a thoughtful and provocative exploration of Loyalist discourses of memory in the new (post-Belfast Agreement) Northern Ireland. . . there is no denying that Evershed has written something introspective and unique.” —Irish Political Studies“For Evershed, it is important to understand what commemoration means to people who feel left behind, people who feel that the past was far better than an uncertain future. . . . The result is a book well-worth reading.” —Slugger O’TooleTable of ContentsForeword Acknowledgements List of Figures List of Tables List of Acronyms Introduction 1. (Re)theorising Commemoration 2. ‘What does it mean to follow a ghost?’: Locating ‘the field’ and the ethics of empathy 3. Policy, peacebuilding and ‘the past’ during the Decade of Centenaries 4. Peace as Defeat: Loyalism and ‘culture war’ in the ‘new’ Northern Ireland 5. ‘Our culture is their bravery’: Commemoration and the ‘culture war’ 6. The Golden Age: Memory work and Loyalism’s conflicted hauntology 7. Dupes no more? Loyalist commemoration and the politics of peacebuilding Postscript: All changed, changed utterly? Bibliography

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Book SynopsisTrade Review“This is a high-quality production with magnificent photographs...The text contains a serious discussion of the history and philosophy of war cemeteries (by no means confined to the Great War) and explores the differing aesthetics and objectives of the various warring nations.”—Richard Mawrey, The Historic Gardens Foundation Newsletter “A wonderful photographic voyage into a variety of European war cemeteries dating from the First World War to the present”—Jonathan Trigg, Church Monuments

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Book SynopsisA riveting history of the month that transformed the world’s greatest nations as Russia faced revolution and America entered the First World War.

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Book SynopsisShows how American artists, photographers, and graphic designers helped to shape public perceptions about World War I. This book considers how flag-based patriotic imagery prompted Americans to intervene in Europe in 1917, and contemplates the corrosive effects of the war on soldiers who lost their faces on the battlefield.Trade Review"An interesting and brief introduction to America's visual culture in the context of World War I." -- Susana Rocha Teixeira H-Net (H-Soz-u-Kult)Table of ContentsPreface and Acknowledgments 1. Art for War's Sake 2. Fixing Faces Notes List of Illustrations Index

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Book SynopsisFischer offers a captivating analysis of Europe's turbulent history during the first half of the twentieth century, from the optimism at the turn of the century to the successive waves of destruction of the First and Second World Wars. Written by a leading authority in this field, the book draws upon his areas of expertise Reflects the most recent scholarship in this period of history While laying stress onEurope''s major powers and the seminal events of the earlier twentieth century,Fischer pays due attention to the smaller European countries from the Atlantic to the Black Sea and the Baltic to the Mediterranean Extends beyond the political, sociological, and economic paradigms to include extensive references to the European cultural scene Organized both as a broad chronology and thematically, in order to allow for historical insights and entry into the key debates and literature Trade Review“Conan Fischer has written one of the finest short surveys of early twentieth-century Europe that I know, and one that will prove worthwhile to beginning students and advanced scholars alike.” (European History Quarterly, 1 January 2015) "The book also contains a sufficient number of maps and illustrations, an important consideration from the point of view of students. In short, this is certain to become a standard text for the teaching of 20th-century European history. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All undergraduate collections." (Choice, 1 September 2011)Table of ContentsList of Maps ix List of Figures x Foreword xi 1 The European Paradox 1 2 The Coming of War 7 2.1 A Balkans War 7 2.2 Why the War Need Not Have Spread 13 2.3 Why the War Spread 25 3 Fighting the War 40 3.1 The Opening Gambits: 1914 40 3.2 The Elusive Victory: 1915 47 3.3 The High Noon of Attrition: 1916 52 3.4 The Tipping Point: 1917 59 3.5 Defeat and Victory: 1918 66 4 Ending the War: Revolutions and Peacemaking 69 4.1 The Home Front in Wartime 69 4.2 Revolution in Russia 75 4.3 Revolution in Germany 90 4.4 The Legacy of War and the Treaty of Versailles 100 4.5 Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean 116 4.6 Western Upheavals 130 4.7 The Fascist Revolution in Italy 135 5 Revision and Recovery, 1919–1929 143 5.1 From Versailles to the Dawes Plan 143 5.2 From Locarno to the Young Plan 171 5.3 Economy and Society: A Faltering Recovery 180 5.4 A Contested Modernity 187 6 The High Noon of the Dictators 199 6.1 Economic Armageddon: The Great Depression in Europe 199 6.2 The Rise of the Nazis, 1919–1933 208 6.3 Hitler in Power, 1933–1939 221 6.4 Dictatorship beyond Germany 234 6.4.1 Challenges in the surviving democracies 235 6.4.2 Nationalists, Fascists, and Bolsheviks 248 7 The Return to War 271 7.1 From Global Disarmament to War: 1932–1939 271 7.2 The Reasons for War 278 7.3 From Poland to the Fall of France: September 1939–June 1940 286 7.4 From Vichy to Pearl Harbor: June 1940–December 1941 299 8 Europe Eclipsed 309 8.1 Competing Caesuras: 1940–1 or 1945? 309 8.2 Hitler’s War – from Triumph to Oblivion, 1941–1945 311 8.3 Holocaust 322 9 Europe: An Honorable Legacy? 327 Notes 331 Bibliography 358 Index 372

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Book SynopsisFischer offers a captivating analysis of Europe's turbulent history during the first half of the twentieth century, from the optimism at the turn of the century to the successive waves of destruction of the First and Second World Wars. Written by a leading authority in this field, the book draws upon his areas of expertise Reflects the most recent scholarship in this period of history While laying stress onEurope''s major powers and the seminal events of the earlier twentieth century,Fischer pays due attention to the smaller European countries from the Atlantic to the Black Sea and the Baltic to the Mediterranean Extends beyond the political, sociological, and economic paradigms to include extensive references to the European cultural scene Organized both as a broad chronology and thematically, in order to allow for historical insights and entry into the key debates and literature Trade Review“Conan Fischer has written one of the finest short surveys of early twentieth-century Europe that I know, and one that will prove worthwhile to beginning students and advanced scholars alike.” (European History Quarterly, 1 January 2015) "The book also contains a sufficient number of maps and illustrations, an important consideration from the point of view of students. In short, this is certain to become a standard text for the teaching of 20th-century European history. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All undergraduate collections." (Choice, 1 September 2011)Table of ContentsList of Maps ix List of Figures x Foreword xi 1 The European Paradox 1 2 The Coming of War 7 2.1 A Balkans War 7 2.2 Why the War Need Not Have Spread 13 2.3 Why the War Spread 25 3 Fighting the War 40 3.1 The Opening Gambits: 1914 40 3.2 The Elusive Victory: 1915 47 3.3 The High Noon of Attrition: 1916 52 3.4 The Tipping Point: 1917 59 3.5 Defeat and Victory: 1918 66 4 Ending the War: Revolutions and Peacemaking 69 4.1 The Home Front in Wartime 69 4.2 Revolution in Russia 75 4.3 Revolution in Germany 90 4.4 The Legacy of War and the Treaty of Versailles 100 4.5 Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean 116 4.6 Western Upheavals 130 4.7 The Fascist Revolution in Italy 135 5 Revision and Recovery, 1919–1929 143 5.1 From Versailles to the Dawes Plan 143 5.2 From Locarno to the Young Plan 171 5.3 Economy and Society: A Faltering Recovery 180 5.4 A Contested Modernity 187 6 The High Noon of the Dictators 199 6.1 Economic Armageddon: The Great Depression in Europe 199 6.2 The Rise of the Nazis, 1919–1933 208 6.3 Hitler in Power, 1933–1939 221 6.4 Dictatorship beyond Germany 234 6.4.1 Challenges in the surviving democracies 235 6.4.2 Nationalists, Fascists, and Bolsheviks 248 7 The Return to War 271 7.1 From Global Disarmament to War: 1932–1939 271 7.2 The Reasons for War 278 7.3 From Poland to the Fall of France: September 1939–June 1940 286 7.4 From Vichy to Pearl Harbor: June 1940–December 1941 299 8 Europe Eclipsed 309 8.1 Competing Caesuras: 1940–1 or 1945? 309 8.2 Hitler’s War – from Triumph to Oblivion, 1941–1945 311 8.3 Holocaust 322 9 Europe: An Honorable Legacy? 327 Notes 331 Bibliography 358 Index 372

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Book SynopsisDespair at Gallipoli. Victory at Vimy Ridge. A European generation lost, an American spirit found. The First World War, the deadly herald of a new era, continues to captivate readers. In this lively book, Neiberg offers a concise history based on the latest research and insights into the soldiers, commanders, battles, and legacies of the Great War.Trade ReviewAn excellent, concise and balanced history of World War I. Neiberg's ability to present the complex events of the war in such a readable narrative is very impressive. Fighting the Great War is a valuable contribution to the literature on the conflict. -- Edward M. Coffman, author of The Regulars: The American Army, 1898-1941This superbly well organized book provides a highly readable and reliable general history of a war that continues to command our attention. -- Holger Herwig, author of The First World War: Germany and Austria-Hungary, 1914-1918A searching study of the war to end all wars. * Kirkus Reviews *Neiberg melds an analysis of the strategic issues facing belligerents during World War I with an understanding of the tactical challenges of conducting war in a modern industrial world...By including appraisals of the other fronts Neiberg also shows why the western front was the crucible of victory and defeat...This book reflects the remarkable development of the historiography of World War I that has occurred over the past decade. -- Frederic Krome * Library Journal *In recounting the events of WWI with skill and clarity, Neiberg...achieves a fine balance of narrative and analyses--no easy feat in a one-volume study. And Neiberg also goes considerably further afield than do many one-volume accounts. * Publishers Weekly *Michael Neiberg dissects the resulting carnage on both sides with chilling precision. -- Tony Maniaty * The Australian *An authoritative, compelling, and brief narrative of World War I in its military and political aspects. To provide a comprehensive account of the battles and leaders of World War I in a book fewer than four hundred pages is a major achievement. Michael S. Neiberg has accomplished that feat in a lucid, fast-paced treatment of the conflagration that raged across the entire world from 1914 to 1918 in Fighting the Great War: A Global History...Neiberg has a good eye for the relevant anecdote and offers fresh judgments about many of the key figures in this great conflict, such as Erich Ludendorff and Douglas Haig. He is also adept at explaining battles and their significance. There are few better introductions to the complex issues and enduring historical problems that grew out of the war than Neiberg's book. Balanced in its judgments, crisp in its prose, and powerful in its evocation of a formative moment in world civilization, Fighting the Great War is a significant scholarly contribution. -- Lewis L. Gould * Magill Book Reviews *Michael S. Neiberg's military history Fighting the Great War...shows the global reach of the war machine. Neiberg refuses to conclude that the war was futile or pointless, though he provides lots of evidence of strategic and tactical failures on both sides of the line. -- Jay Winter * Times Literary Supplement *Tackling a topic such as the First World War in a multivolume history is a major achievement; doing it justice in a single book is exceptional. Michael S. Neiberg's Fighting the Great War is just that kind of a book. On 364 pages, divided into thirteen chapters, the author narrates the momentous events and battles on all fronts--the Western in France and Belgium; the Eastern in Russia and Austria-Hungary; the Middle Eastern in Turkey, Mesopotamia, and Palestine; and the African in South Africa and German South West Africa...Neiberg's book is a clear, concise, and remarkably balanced study of the war that shaped the twentieth century...It is an excellent analysis of the political and military forces that drove the conflict to its bitter conclusion. -- Bianka J. Adams * Armed Forces & Society *In a fine general history of the First World War, Michael S. Neiberg attributes the massive bloodletting on the Western front to political leaders who insisted that the armed forces remain on the offensive, not to obtuse military officers as many others have. -- Mark Moyar * Historical Journal *The author of this book has written a lucid account of the military aspects of World War I. Based largely on secondary sources, his work takes the reader through the conflict's major campaigns and presents a number of crisp judgments on the era's leaders...[G]eneral readers will find the book a stimulating and accessible introduction to the conflict that shaped the course of the twentieth century. -- Neil Heyman * Historian *Table of ContentsList of Illustrations Timeline of Major Events

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Book SynopsisIn an illuminating study that blends diplomatic, military, technology, and business history, Winkler shows how U.S. officials during World War I discovered the enormous value of global communications. Winkler sheds light on the early stages of the global infrastructure that helped launch the U.S. as the predominant power of the century.Trade ReviewThe fight for mastery of global telecommunications in the midst of the First World War is a subject of the deepest importance that had lain undiscovered until now. Jonathan Winkler has reconstructed the complex nexus of strategy, technology, and diplomacy with admirable clarity. It is a fundamental contribution that demonstrates the need for a whole new field of historical inquiry. -- Matthew Connelly, author of Fatal Misconception: The Struggle to Control World PopulationIn a landmark book, Winkler shows how most of the issues of the information economy--and its handmaiden, information security--were thrust upon the United States by World War I, when the nation found that British domination of the cable infrastructure, combined with London's strategic grasp of its possibilities, reduced the U.S. to a humiliating dependence. How America tried to escape from the shackles of the British monopoly on communications makes a fascinating tale. -- Richard R. Fernandez, The Belmont Club (fallbackbelmont.blogspot.com)As children of the information age, we appreciate the vital role of communications in national security planning. Jonathan Winkler takes us back to an era when the principles of informational warfare were first being thrashed out--in foreign ministries, in military headquarters, under the sea, and in the atmosphere. A fascinating tale of technology, diplomacy, and intrigue. -- H. W. Brands, University of Texas, AustinWinkler tells a story that should figure into all future accounts of U.S. participation in World War I. -- Ernest R. May, Harvard UniversityBy examining the ways in which World War I sparked official recognition of the commercial and strategic importance of cable and radio, Winkler illuminates a vital, but neglected, chapter in the history of global communications. This is a thoroughly researched, well-written, and engaging study. -- Emily S. Rosenberg, University of California, IrvineWinkler's book provides a lesson in the evolutionary nature of technological change. Winkler explores the first global internet--the international telegraph cable system that began shrinking Planet Earth at the end of the 19th century. -- Austin Bay * austinbay.net *This story involves not only the history of communication, but also diplomatic, military, technology, and business history. While investigating interrelated developments in these fields, Winkler recreates the global communication network in place at the outbreak of the war and shows how each side engaged in the first real information war. Finally, he analyzes US officials' reaction to this new warfare and the policies they adopted to redress this nation's shortcomings in the field of global communication. A well-researched, highly readable work that makes a valuable contribution to a number of historical areas. -- T. A. Aiello * Choice *Thanks to Winkler's careful work in military and civilian records, the book recounts in detail how a small group of American officials, spurred into action by the war emergency, tried to increase their nation's control over global information networks...Winkler's outstanding original research and clear writing make Nexus a valuable contribution to the history of information warfare, a subject that will almost certainly attract greater interest in the years to come. -- Mark R. Wilson * Business History Review *This is a well-researched and important study assessing the role of global communication technologies and their control in wartime. It provides a cogent analysis of how the need to develop our own cable and radio links drove government policy. And it adds to the slowly growing number of studies that examine the increasingly central role of rapid and secure communication in both diplomatic and military policy in the 160 years since the development of the electric telegraph. -- Christopher H. Sterling * Journal of American History *Table of Contents* Maps and Figures * Introduction *1. The Information Network and the Outbreak of War *2. Neutrality and Vulnerability *3. Security and Radios *4. At War in Europe *5. In Pursuit of Cables to Asia and the Americas *6. Radio, the Navy and Latin America *7. The Quest for Independence *8. The Illusion of Success * Conclusion * Abbreviations * Primary Sources * Notes * Acknowledgments * Index

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Book SynopsisIn 1918, the U.S. Army Signal Corps sent 223 women to France at General Pershing's explicit request. They were masters of the latest technology: the telephone switchboard. While suffragettes picketed the White House and President Wilson struggled to persuade a segregationist Congress to give women of all races the vote, these courageous young women swore the army oath and settled into their new roles. Elizabeth Cobbs reveals the challenges they faced in a war zone where male soldiers wooed, mocked, and ultimately celebrated them. The army discharged the last Hello Girls in 1920, the year Congress ratified the Nineteenth Amendment. When they sailed home, they were unexpectedly dismissed without veterans' benefits and began a sixty-year battle that a handful of survivors carried to triumph in 1979. What an eye-opener! Cobbs unearths the original letters and diaries of these forgotten heroines and weaves them into a fascinating narrative with energy and zest.Cokie Roberts, author of Capital DamesThis engaging history crackles with admiration for the women who served in the U.S. Army Signal Corps during the First World War, becoming the country's first female soldiers.New YorkerUtterly delightful Cobbs very adroitly weaves the story of the Signal Corps into that larger story of American women fighting for the right to vote, but it's the warm, fascinating job she does bringing her castto life that gives this book its memorable charisma This terrific book pays them a long-warranted tribute.Christian Science MonitorCobbs is particularly good at spotlighting how closely the service of military women like the Hello Girls was tied to the success of the suffrage movement.NPRTrade ReviewThis engaging history crackles with admiration for the women who served in the U.S. Army Signal Corps during the First World War, becoming the country’s first female soldiers. Operating switchboards in France, they juggled constantly shifting lists of codes and connections, worked fast amid artillery blasts, and mastered the ‘genteel diplomacy’ needed to communicate with officials in French as well as English. Their technical skill was matched by what one woman called the ‘great, unquenchable, patriotic desire to do my bit.’ Cobbs intercuts front-line activities with political battles on the home front: the women returned from victory to an America that did not yet grant them the right to vote. * New Yorker *Utterly delightful… It’s a little-known side-story of the war, but it’s not a little story: In Cobbs’s skillful handling, it becomes a big, multilayered tale of courage and long-delayed justice… Cobbs very adroitly weaves the story of the Signal Corps into that larger story of American women fighting for the right to vote, but it’s the warm, fascinating job she does bringing her cast of The Hello Girls to life that gives this book its memorable charisma… [These women] fought for years to gain the recognition they deserved as the forerunners of all women serving in the U.S. armed forces. This terrific book pays them a long-warranted tribute. -- Steve Donoghue * Christian Science Monitor *In the crisply written The Hello Girls: America’s First Women Soldiers, Elizabeth Cobbs details exactly what was asked of these women during the war, and reveals, with an authoritative, dispassionate, this-was-some-self-evident-nonsense lucidity, the dismaying extent to which their country failed them when it was over… Smartly, she also walks us through the sundry and simultaneous technical demands of switchboard operating, noting that women could connect five calls in the time it took a man to complete one. Cobbs is particularly good at spotlighting how closely the service of military women like the Hello Girls was tied to the success of the suffrage movement. -- Glen Weldon * NPR Books *Elizabeth Cobbs draws on a range of official documents, as well as letters and diaries, to tell the fascinating story of the forgotten women telephone operators who were a critical part of the war effort… The Hello Girls makes vividly visible a group of women who, until now, have been unjustly hidden. -- June Purvis * Times Higher Education *Cobbs shines a spotlight on the unique contributions of a group of remarkable American women, in the spirit of Hidden Figures (2016), in a book that belongs in every American-history collection. -- Carolyn Mulac * Booklist *In an informative history of women’s military work, Cobbs focuses on more than 200 telephone operators who supported combat soldiers in Europe soon after the United States entered the war in 1917… A fresh, well-researched contribution to military and gender history. * Kirkus Reviews *Cobbs shines a new light on the history of suffrage and women’s rights in the United States, using as a lens the servicewomen enlisted in the U.S. Army Signal Corps during World War I…Cobbs weaves the trials and triumphs of America’s first female soldiers (although they wouldn’t win the right to claim that distinction until 1979) with the fight for women’s rights and the rising waves of feminism. -- Chad E. Statler * Library Journal (starred review) *What an eye-opener! The Hello Girls tells the lost story of the women who braved the war in Europe to provide essential communications between U.S. commanders and fighters in the field. Cobbs unearths the original letters and diaries of these forgotten heroines and weaves them into a fascinating narrative with energy and zest. -- Cokie Roberts, author of Capital Dames: The Civil War and the Women of Washington, 1848–1868Writing with panache and acumen, Cobbs tells the colorful story of the women who served in the Army's Signal Corps in World War I, while opening fresh perspectives on communications technology, the nature of modern warfare, the nation's treatment of veterans, and the never-ending struggle of women for their full rights as citizens. The Hello Girls turns a good tale into a great tool for understanding some of history's grandest themes. -- David M. Kennedy, author of Over Here: The First World War and American SocietyThis splendidly written book reveals the bravery and grit of the nation's first women soldiers. During World War I, they were deployed to France, only to be denied recognition as veterans upon return. Their remarkable stories come alive in Cobbs's wonderfully absorbing narrative as does the world of contradictions in which they lived and served. -- Ellen Fitzpatrick, author of The Highest Glass Ceiling: Women's Quest for the American Presidency

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Book SynopsisA century after the Great War, the experiences of civilians and soldiers in the Middle East during those years have faded from memory. A Land of Aching Hearts traverses ethnic, class, and national borders to recover the personal stories of those who endured this cataclysmic event, and their profound sense of sacrifices made in vain.Trade ReviewA detailed account of the political and cultural events that occurred in the Middle East just before and during World War I. It concerns the way in which Arabs were caught up in Europe’s first major war of the twentieth century, and how this proved to be a turning point in Middle Eastern history, but one not of the Arab peoples’ own making…What is startling, though, is how so much of what World War I unleashed—struggles over identity, sectarian or otherwise, national border disputes, rights of minorities, the place of women in society—still reverberates to this day… Fawaz explores the war’s effect on the region’s ordinary people: fishermen, villagers, entrepreneurs, émigrés, soldiers and draft dodgers are woven into a rich tapestry. She takes us aboard ships and into train stations, along the lines outside bakeries and into crowded prison camps. These are the vantage points from which Fawaz observes the scope and scale of the war. In minute detail, she recounts the devastation it wrought, including the way common catastrophes of locusts, famine and disease were exacerbated by the exploits of Europeans, such as the prolonged Anglo-French naval blockade. Fawaz is always at pains to present the ingenuities and the tenacity of ordinary Arab people under these pressures… As Fawaz does, [historians] should draw on local sources, languages and experiences to restore the Middle East’s full complexity rather than reinforcing the blinkered, one-sided narrative of butchers and beheaders. -- Tom Finn * The Nation *Magnificent… [Fawaz] write[s] perceptively and sympathetically about a complex and sophisticated society unfamiliar to most Americans… [She] recounts the effects of the Great War upon a Middle East grown prosperous and relatively free during a period of industrialization and Ottoman political decline. -- Robin Darling Young * Commonweal *Intensely moving… [Fawaz] does an astounding amount of research into primary sources that haven’t to my knowledge been synthesized before to an extent this masterful. Great figures stride through the history of the Middle East in the years of the First World War and its aftermath… But the main focus of Fawaz’s book is the plight of ordinary people caught up in the often calamitous changes the war swept into the entire remains of the Ottoman Empire… Her book is a first-rate work of historical investigation, but it also functions as a kind of doleful question mark shadowing the present day, which has the dubious advantage of being able to see live video feed of the disruptions and sufferings being inflicted on the descendants of the same ordinary folk Fawaz so skillfully uncovers. -- Steve Donoghue * Open Letters Monthly *Drawing on poetry, plays, and works of contemporary fiction, Fawaz supplements traditional historical sources the better to capture the experience and popular memory of the Great War. The result is one of the finest social histories of war in the modern Middle East yet published. -- Eugene Rogan * Middle East Journal *[Fawaz] write[s] as vividly and knowledgeably about political developments as about land tenure. [She] bring[s] ordinary men and women as well as military and political leaders to life…The long devastating war that destroyed this last Muslim Empire also killed off many dreams and plans, and Fawaz pays homage to them by salvaging the stories of ordinary men and women whose lives were cut short or changed forever. -- Donna Robinson Divine * New Rambler *In A Land of Aching Hearts, Fawaz gives us, not a chronological account of the Great War in the Middle East, but rather a look at the war as it was experienced by and as it affected the peoples of the region, a seriously neglected subject… A Land of Aching Hearts would make interesting reading for anyone interested in the origins of the modern Middle East, the Great War, or the human experience of war. -- A. A. Nofi * Strategy Page *Fawaz argues that the Great War was a socially transformational experience that, like the contemporary political transformation, is fundamental to understanding the region’s societies today…Fawaz describes the era of modernity and change which began before the war, summarizes the war’s major military campaigns in the region, and touches on various individual accounts of the conflict. She also examines the impacts on daily life caused by the war, including widespread famine, increased crime, decreased wealth, increased unemployment, and the large scale evasion of conscription. * Publishers Weekly *World War I changed the history of Europe, but left an even more indelible impression on the Middle East. The conflicts that tear at the region today—the struggles over freedom, land, and identity—all have their roots in the Great War. In this landmark account, Fawaz paints a vivid picture of how the war swept over the Middle East and forever changed its face. Smart, well-written, and brimming with insight, A Land of Aching Hearts stands apart from other histories because it insists on the war's relevance for today’s world. -- Vali Nasr, author of The Dispensable Nation: American Foreign Policy in RetreatA profoundly impressive book that sets a new standard for the social history of World War I. A Land of Aching Hearts does justice to the history of the people of the Middle East by focusing upon a side of the war that has received little attention. From stories of battles, political infighting, and the machinations of profiteers to heartbreaking images of famine, poverty, and disease, Fawaz covers the entirety of the war experience. By placing local events within their regional and international contexts, she shows how a new Middle East emerged after the fighting ceased. -- Abdul-Karim Rafeq, College of William and MaryA magisterial account of the manifold ways in which exposure to, and participation in, the fighting shaped the lives of peoples and societies in the Arab world…Fawaz has produced an excellent account packed with information that will provide enduring value to scholars, students, and the general public. Current policymakers would also do well to engage with the book’s major themes as they grapple with a region in the renewed throes of upheaval…It is to be hoped that officials and onlookers from the region and beyond absorb the rich pickings offered by Fawaz of the conflict that effectively created the modern Middle East but also laid the foundations of many of its subsequent fissures. -- Kristian Coates Ulrichsen * International Journal of Middle East Studies *A fine history of the Middle East in the Great War which shows the extent of the suffering of the region, the mass hunger, the starvations, the plagues of locusts. -- Robert Fisk * The Independent *

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Book SynopsisTells a story of religion, soldiering, suffering, and death in the Great War. This book reveals the surprising frequency with which Americans who fought viewed the war as a religious challenge that could lead to individual and national redemption.Trade Review"With a dizzying array of interesting points, Ebel provides a list of new avenues of study... Faith in the Fight is an impressive book that all scholars of twentieth-century American religious history should read and that should be incorporated in all subsequent studies of WWI."--Paul Harvey, Religion in American History blog "Perhaps no word is more deeply associated with World War I than 'disillusionment.' In the compulsive attempts of the second half of the 20th century to tell secularization narratives, one prominent version had religious faith never recovering from the shell-shock it got in the trenches, 1914-18. Jonathan H. Ebel, in his well-researched and persuasively revisionist study Faith in the Fight, convincingly demonstrates that this loss-of-faith story is wrong, at least for Americans."--Books & Culture "One of Faith in the Fight's great strengths is its attention to the voices of the men and women on the front lines... Faith in the Fight helps us better understand the relationship between religion and war in the not-so-distant American past. It is also a book that illustrates the dangers inherent in the American penchant for sanctifying state violence. As Ebel masterfully demonstrates, Americans would do well to abandon a little of their faith in the fight."--Matthew Avery Sutton, Christian Century "Faith in the Fight illustrates the benefit of revisiting our current tidy categories of religion's decline in the face of modernity and secularism, and its readers are rewarded with a well written and fascinating glimpse of American soldiers and war workers' religious romanticism."--Sarah Miglio, Journal of Church and State "[W]ith his well-written and well-researched book ... Jonathan H. Ebel ... has made a stellar contribution to the interdisciplinary study of religion in American history."--Malcolm D. Magee, American History Review "Ebel's first book, which helps fill the vast empty spaces of American religious historiography, is a truly fine work that displays expert research and storytelling abilities... We should look forward to more of Ebel's work. His book on 'trench religion' will become the standard book on religious faith of the forgotten men and women during the forgotten war."--Matthew Lewis Sutton, Journal of Church History "Ebel has written an excellent book that deserves a wide readership... [T]he book is an excellent fit for graduate seminars and should interest scholars looking at the specific period or religion and war in general."--Steve Longenecker, Journal of American History "Faith in the Fight represents a valuable addition to the growing body of literature on the American experience of the Great War."--Edward Madigan, Religion, State and Society "Faith in the Fight raises interesting questions about American culture and life, and it offers some valid insights into that culture."--Fred R. van Hartesveldt, Anglican and Episcopal History Reviews "Faith in the Fight contributes a well researched and written addition to the understanding of a war that many Americans relegate to secondary or tertiary status... As we approach the World War I centennial, this is a masterful work that should reignite historiographical interest in this vital event in the nation's history."--David E. Settje, Lutheran Quarterly "[T]he book is an important contribution to the growing literature on war and American religion."--Jennifer Graber, Religious Studies ReviewTable of ContentsAcknowledgments ix INTRODUCTION 1 CHAPTER ONE: Redemption through War 21 CHAPTER TWO: Chance the Man-Angel and the Combat Numinous 54 CHAPTER THREE: Suffering, Death, and Salvation 76 CHAPTER FOUR: Christ's Cause, Pharaoh's Army 105 CHAPTER FIVE: Ideal Women in an Ideal War 127 CHAPTER SIX: "There Are No Dead" 145 CHAPTER SEVEN: "The Same Cross in Peace": The American Legion, the Ongoing War, and American Reillusionment 168 CONCLUSION 191 Notes 199 Selected Bibliography 235 Index 249

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Book SynopsisFaith in the Fight tells a story of religion, soldiering, suffering, and death in the Great War. Recovering the thoughts and experiences of American troops, nurses, and aid workers through their letters, diaries, and memoirs, Jonathan Ebel describes how religion--primarily Christianity--encouraged these young men and women to fight and die, sustainTrade Review"With a dizzying array of interesting points, Ebel provides a list of new avenues of study... Faith in the Fight is an impressive book that all scholars of twentieth-century American religious history should read and that should be incorporated in all subsequent studies of WWI."--Paul Harvey, Religion in American History blog "Perhaps no word is more deeply associated with World War I than 'disillusionment.' In the compulsive attempts of the second half of the 20th century to tell secularization narratives, one prominent version had religious faith never recovering from the shell-shock it got in the trenches, 1914-18. Jonathan H. Ebel, in his well-researched and persuasively revisionist study Faith in the Fight, convincingly demonstrates that this loss-of-faith story is wrong, at least for Americans."--Books & Culture "One of Faith in the Fight's great strengths is its attention to the voices of the men and women on the front lines... Faith in the Fight helps us better understand the relationship between religion and war in the not-so-distant American past. It is also a book that illustrates the dangers inherent in the American penchant for sanctifying state violence. As Ebel masterfully demonstrates, Americans would do well to abandon a little of their faith in the fight."--Matthew Avery Sutton, Christian Century "Faith in the Fight illustrates the benefit of revisiting our current tidy categories of religion's decline in the face of modernity and secularism, and its readers are rewarded with a well written and fascinating glimpse of American soldiers and war workers' religious romanticism."--Sarah Miglio, Journal of Church and State "[W]ith his well-written and well-researched book ... Jonathan H. Ebel ... has made a stellar contribution to the interdisciplinary study of religion in American history."--Malcolm D. Magee, American History Review "Ebel's first book, which helps fill the vast empty spaces of American religious historiography, is a truly fine work that displays expert research and storytelling abilities... We should look forward to more of Ebel's work. His book on 'trench religion' will become the standard book on religious faith of the forgotten men and women during the forgotten war."--Matthew Lewis Sutton, Journal of Church History "Ebel has written an excellent book that deserves a wide readership... [T]he book is an excellent fit for graduate seminars and should interest scholars looking at the specific period or religion and war in general."--Steve Longenecker, Journal of American History "Faith in the Fight represents a valuable addition to the growing body of literature on the American experience of the Great War."--Edward Madigan, Religion, State and Society "Faith in the Fight raises interesting questions about American culture and life, and it offers some valid insights into that culture."--Fred R. van Hartesveldt, Anglican and Episcopal History Reviews "Faith in the Fight contributes a well researched and written addition to the understanding of a war that many Americans relegate to secondary or tertiary status... As we approach the World War I centennial, this is a masterful work that should reignite historiographical interest in this vital event in the nation's history."--David E. Settje, Lutheran Quarterly "[T]he book is an important contribution to the growing literature on war and American religion."--Jennifer Graber, Religious Studies ReviewTable of ContentsAcknowledgments ix INTRODUCTION 1 CHAPTER ONE: Redemption through War 21 CHAPTER TWO: Chance the Man-Angel and the Combat Numinous 54 CHAPTER THREE: Suffering, Death, and Salvation 76 CHAPTER FOUR: Christ's Cause, Pharaoh's Army 105 CHAPTER FIVE: Ideal Women in an Ideal War 127 CHAPTER SIX: "There Are No Dead" 145 CHAPTER SEVEN: "The Same Cross in Peace": The American Legion, the Ongoing War, and American Reillusionment 168 CONCLUSION 191 Notes 199 Selected Bibliography 235 Index 249

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Book SynopsisExplores the vital role that prisoners of war play in American warfare and reveals the cultural contexts of warfare, the shaping of military policies, the process of state-building, the impacts upon the economy and environment of the conflict zone, their special place in propaganda, and the importance of public history in shaping national memory.Trade ReviewThis book is a masterpiece of contemporary scholarship. It does what Daniel Krebs and Lorien Foote say it is intended to do: examine the less-traveled roads with new understandings/visions of the American POW experience. No one can ask for more than that. I recommend it for every collection of American POW history." - Robert C. Doyle, author of Voices from Captivity: Interpreting the American POW Narrative"Useful Captives, in clear and convincing fashion, demonstrates how prisoners of war have impacted the cultural, political, and tactical dimensions of American military conflicts. Ranging from the colonial era to the War on Terror, the contributors have produced one of the most important studies on war captives in decades." - Glenn Robins, author of The Longest Rescue: The Life and Legacy of Vietnam POW William A. Robinson

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Book SynopsisA myth-busting popular history of the German Revolution focusing on the roles of women, workers and ordinary peopleTrade Review'An excellent work with the focus on the grassroots out of which developed the revolutionary mass movements of the sailors and workers bringing peace and democracy to Germany' -- Ottokar Luban, International Rosa Luxemburg Society'A rigourous analysis and narrative history of the working class in a place and time where the idea of the emancipation of humanity was a real possibility' -- Raquel Varela, Labor Historian, New University of Lisbon, IISG Honorary FellowTable of ContentsForeword by Mario Kessler Introduction: What German Revolution? 1. Industrialization and the Emergence of the German Working Class 2. The Rise of Popular Radicalism 3. War, Suffering and Resistance 4. The Road to the November Revolution 5. The Kaiser Goes, the Generals Remain 6. Provocation, Revolt and Repression 7. Women in the War and the Revolution 8. Death Agony of the Revolution Conclusion Notes Index

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Book SynopsisA fascinating voice from the past - the unpublished memoir of a WWI stretcher bearer

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Book SynopsisFighting the First World War consumed lives, material, and money. Millions died; more suffered. This work traces the financial contours of the war, which crippled France financially, leaving Britain, itself weakened, to contest international financial leadership with the United States, the principal beneficiary of the war.Trade Review"First-rate scholarship and methodology. This book adds substantially to our knowledge of the allied war effort during the First World War. It is exceptionally well-grounded and its documentary basis far exceeds any other book dealing with the related topics. Horn breaks new ground in the diversity of his sources and the detail with which he treats the topic This will be a welcome and useful addition to the field." Keith Neilson, Department of History, Royal Military College "This is a very fine, well-argued, and exceptionally well-grounded analysis of the financial aspects of the allied war effort... most useful addition to the scholarly literature."--The Economic History Review, August 2003

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Book SynopsisThe standard history of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment - the "Blue Puttees" - and their heroic efforts during World War I available again

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Book SynopsisA classic work, first published in 1922 and now back in print, presents a unique account of life at the front.

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Book SynopsisIn Verdun, English and French speakers lived side by side. Through their home-front activities as much as through enlistment, they proved themselves partners in the prosecution of Canada's war. Shared experiences and class similarities shaped responses based first and foremost in a sense of local identity.Fighting from Home paints a comprehensive, at times intimate, portrait of Verdun and Verdunites at war. Durflinger offers an innovative interpretive approach to wartime Canadian and Quebec social and cultural dynamics. It will appeal to anyone interested in the history of the Canadian home front during the Second World War.Trade Review"Fighting from Home is an essential contribution to Canadian military and social history. It very successfully reveals the heartfelt response of one community to a time of great challenge. Serge Durfinger's innovative work transforms this story of ordinary people in wartime into a nuanced analysis that will strike a chord with a broad audience." - Roch Legault, author of La Premiere Guerre Mondiale et le Canada: Contributions sociomilitaires quebecoises"Table of ContentsPrefaceIntroduction: Studying War at the Local Level1 Forging a Community2 Once More into the Breach3 City Hall Goes to War4 The People’s Response5 Institutions and Industry6 Family and Social Dislocation7 The Political War8 Peace and ReconstructionConclusionNotesSelect BibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisThe First World War's appalling death toll and the need for a sense of equality of sacrifice on the home front led to Canada's first experience of overseas conscription. While historians have focused on resistance to enforced military service in Quebec, this has obscured the important role of those who saw military service as incompatible with their religious or ethical beliefs. Crisis of Conscience is the first and only book about the Canadian pacifists who refused to fight in the Great War. The experience of these conscientious objectors offers insight into evolving attitudes about the rights and responsibilities of citizenship during a key period of Canadian nation building.Trade ReviewShaw's mammoth research has produced a well-written study that looks at the conscientious objectors (COs) created by Canada's Military Service Act of 1917. Summing Up: Recommended. -- J. L. Granatstein, Emeritus, Canadian War Museum * CHOICE, December 2009 Vol. 47 No. 04 *Table of ContentsAcknowledgmentsIntroduction1 The Responsibilities of Citizenship: Conscientious Objection and the Government2 Days of Anxiety: Conscientious Objection within the Historic Peace Churches3 An Insidious Enemy within the Gates: Objection among the Smaller Sects4 Exemption from Religion on Religious Grounds: Conscientious Objection outside Pacifist Denominations5 Holier than Thou: Images of Conscientious ObjectorsConclusionAppendixNotesBibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisThe First World War's appalling death toll and the need for a sense of equality of sacrifice on the home front led to Canada's first experience of overseas conscription. While historians have focused on resistance to enforced military service in Quebec, this has obscured the important role of those who saw military service as incompatible with their religious or ethical beliefs. Crisis of Conscience is the first and only book about the Canadian pacifists who refused to fight in the Great War. The experience of these conscientious objectors offers insight into evolving attitudes about the rights and responsibilities of citizenship during a key period of Canadian nation building.Trade ReviewShaw's mammoth research has produced a well-written study that looks at the conscientious objectors (COs) created by Canada's Military Service Act of 1917. Summing Up: Recommended. -- J. L. Granatstein, Emeritus, Canadian War Museum * CHOICE, December 2009 Vol. 47 No. 04 *Table of ContentsAcknowledgmentsIntroduction1 The Responsibilities of Citizenship: Conscientious Objection and the Government2 Days of Anxiety: Conscientious Objection within the Historic Peace Churches3 An Insidious Enemy within the Gates: Objection among the Smaller Sects4 Exemption from Religion on Religious Grounds: Conscientious Objection outside Pacifist Denominations5 Holier than Thou: Images of Conscientious ObjectorsConclusionAppendixNotesBibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisUncovers the forgotten story of the Canadian Siberian Expeditionary Force – sent to Russia in 1918 as part of an Allied intervention to defeat Bolshevism – despite the objections of many Canadians who were sympathetic to the goals of the Russian Revolution.Trade ReviewBenjamin Isitt’s fascinating study of the Canadian contribution to the military expedition to Siberia designed to crush Lenin’s nascent Communist state punches a large hole in how much of Canada’s chattering class conceives of the country. -- Nathan M. Greenfield * Time Literary Supplement Review *Short, inglorious, hugely unpopular at the time and largely forgotten now: most Canadians probably have no idea that, once upon a time, this country invaded Russia ... Isitt’s extensive analysis of why we were there – mostly trying to deprive revolutionary workers at home of an international beacon – is convincing, as is his ironic conclusion: the blatant class warfare of the expedition did more to incite radicalism at home than it did to suppress it in Russia. Less than six months after the Victoria mutiny, a rising tide of industrial unionism would spark the Winnipeg General Strike. -- Brian Bethune * Macleans.ca *The story of 4,200 Canadian soldiers sailing from British Columbia to the Russian Far East is told in From Victoria to Vladivostok, a fascinating account by the historian Benjamin Isitt. -- Tom Hawthorn * "Mutiny Suppressed, a Siberian Expedition Goes Bust," Globe and Mail *At a time where our mission in Afghanistan is evolving, and leaders come to grips with the 'Afghanization' of the military effort there; and, where the future of Canada’s and the international community’s involvement in Libya is being widely discussed ... this book highlights many lessons concerning strategic objectives, one being military intervention, and the necessity for public support for same. Highly recommended. -- Colonel Peter Williams * Canadian Army Journal, Vol 14.1, 2012 *Now the Vladivostok story can be known in detail from the excellent research of Benjamin Isitt, in his new book From Victoria to Vladivostok: Canada’s Siberian Expedition, 1917-19, a fascinating and wide-ranging account. -- Stephen Osborne * Geist 81 *[A] fascinating study of the canadian contribution to the military expedition to Siberia. -- Nathan M. Greenfield * Time Literary Supplement Review *Table of ContentsPrefaceIntroduction: Why Siberia?Part 1: Canada’s Road to Siberia1 1917: A Breach in the Allied Front2 Vladivostok: 19173 The Road to Intervention4 Mobilization5 Departure DayPart 2: To Vladivostok and Back6 Vladivostok: 19197 “Up Country” and Evacuation8 AfterwordConclusionAppendicesNotes; Bibliography; Index

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Book SynopsisIlluminates the challenges faced by Canada’s war-blinded veterans and outlines the history of the Sir Arthur Pearson Association of War Blinded, an advocacy group for all Canadian veterans and blind citizens.Trade ReviewVeterans with a Vision is a must read for historians interested in the social impact of war on Canadian society. It is well written, thoroughly researched, soundly organized, and poignantly relevant as Canada prepares to rehabilitate a new generation of veterans in the post-Afghanistan era. -- Alex Souchen, University of Western Ontario * Canadian Military History Journal *Durflinger successfully illustrates the important contributions made by war blinded veterans to the creation of national institutions and celebrates the men who achieved personal success in spite of their disability. In spite of minor reservations, Veterans with a Vision makes important contributions to the field of veterans’ studies, the development of the Canadian state, and will be a useful work for scholars of twentieth century Canada. -- Brian MacDowall, York University * Historire sociale - Social History, Vol. XLV, No 89 *Table of ContentsPrefaceIntroduction1 Canada’s First War Blinded, 1899-19182 The Sir Arthur Pearson Club of War Blinded Soldiers and Sailors, 1919-293 The Years of Struggle, 1930-394 Rehabilitating the Blinded Casualties of the Second World War, 1939-505 Older and Wiser: Canada’s War Blinded in the Aftermath of War, 1945-706 Twilight, 1971-2002ConclusionNotesSelect BibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisSoldiers found guilty of desertion or cowardice during the Great War faced death by firing squad. Novels, histories, movies, and television series often depict courts martial as brutal and inflexible, and social memories of this system of frontline justice have inspired modern movements to seek pardons for soldiers executed on the battlefield.In this revealing look at military law in the Canadian Expeditionary Force, Teresa Iacobelli brings to light not only the trials of 25 Canadian soldiers who were executed but also the untold cases of 197 men sentenced to death but spared. Looking beyond stories of callous generals and quick executions, Iacobelli reveals a disciplinary system capable of thoughtful review and compassion for the individual soldier.Published to coincide with the centennial anniversary of the outbreak of the First World War, Death or Deliverance reconsiders an important and unexamined chapter in the history of both a war and a nation.Table of ContentsIntroduction1 Competing Ideologies2 Military Law: An Overview3 The Crimes4 The Court Martial Process5 The Confirmation Process6 The Campaign for PardonsConclusionNotes; Bibliography; Index

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Book SynopsisUnwanted Warriors uncovers the history of Canada's first casualties of the Great War men who tried to enlist but were deemed unfit for service by medical examiners. Condemned as shirkers for not being in uniform, rejected volunteers faced severe ostracism. Nagging guilt, coupled with self-doubt about their social and physical worth, led many of these men to divorce themselves from society ... or worse.Nic Clarke draws on the service files of 3,400 rejected volunteers to examine the deleterious effects that socially constructed norms of health and fitness had on individual men and Canadian society. He considers the mechanics of the military medical examination, the psychical and psychological characteristics that the authorities believed made a fighting man, and how evaluations changed as the war dragged on. He also brings to light the experiences of those who deliberately claimed disability to avoid service a minority within the large population of rejected volunteTrade Review...highly recommended for students of the Great War. -- Mark Humphries, Wilfred Laurier University * Canadian Military History, Vol 27, Issue 2 *In Nic Clarke’s well-researched and well-written Unwanted Warriors: The Rejected Volunteers of the Canadian Expeditionary Force, the historian at the Canadian War Museum has provided his readers with an illuminating study pertaining to Canada and the First World War based largely on previously unexamined sources … Clarke provides his readers with a new way of looking at recruitment, loyalty, duty, casualties, and conscription in Canada between 1914 and 1919. -- Jordan A.S. Chase * Ontario History *This book is an interesting and very worthy addition to World War I historiography. -- Peter L. Belmonte, author of Forgotten Soldiers of World War I: America’s Immigrant Doughboys * Army History, No. 109 *Table of ContentsIntroduction1 Grading Blocks of Meat: The Fit and the Unfit2 No Longer Cause for Rejection3 An Imperfect System4 Clashing Concepts of Fitness5 Not Visibly Different: Describing the Rejected6 Uncounted Casualties: The Costs of Rejection7 Claiming Disability to Avoid Military ServiceConclusionAppendices, Notes, Bibliography

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Book SynopsisThis Small Army of Women restores a forgotten contingent of nursing volunteers to the historical record, showcasing their dedication amid the carnage of war and their sometimes uneasy relationship with nursing professionals.Trade ReviewLinda J Quiney’s This Small Army of Women documents the Canadian and Newfoundland volunteer nurses in WW1. The book is an interesting mix of facts, figures and analysis, interspersed with personal stories of these Voluntary Aid Detachment nurses – VADs. This Small Army of Women is another good addition to the recent scholarship on the role of medical women in the war. * Great War 100 Reads *Linda Quiney has written a carefully researched, lively, and accessible book. Both historians and general readers will value its compelling story of a group of courageous women whose accomplishments have been largely neglected in histories of the First World War. -- Mark J. Crowley, Harvard University * Michigan War Review Studies *Table of ContentsIntroduction 1 This Ardent Band of Ladies: Birth of the Canadian VAD Movement2 Enthusiastic and Anxious: Mobilizing the Voluntary Nursing Service3 Every Woman Is a Nurse: Framing the Image of the VAD4 No Time for Sentiment: Making a Useful Contribution5 Saying Goodbye: Forgetting, Remembering, and Moving OnConclusionAppendicesNotes; Bibliography; Index

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Book SynopsisFor decades, people living in adjacent communities along the CanadaUS border enjoyed close social and economic relationships with their neighbours across the line. The introduction of new security measures during the First World War threatened this way of life by restricting the movement of people and goods across the border. Many Canadians resented the new regulations introduced by their provincial and federal governments, deriding them as outside influences that created friction where none had existed before. Engaging the Line examines responses to wartime regulations in several border communities, including Windsor, Ontario; Detroit, Michigan; and White Rock, British Columbia. This book brings to life the repercussions for these communities and offers readers a glimpse at the origins of our modern, highly secured border by tracing the shifting relationship between citizens and the state during wartime.Trade ReviewFor residents of Windsor, the entire border-crossing experience had changed dramatically since 1914, when immigration authorities limited their interrogations to visible and undesirable racial groups, criminals, prostitutes, and people with obvious mental and physical illnesses. Now a fifth-generation Anglo-Saxon Windsor resident with family living in Ypsilanti and a job in downtown Detroit could expect the same kind of attention. All of this, of course, was designed to ensure that Canadian men of military age did their duty and to keep the people of Windsor – by that point witnesses to the work of Detroit-based enemy terrorists – safe from German American raiders and saboteurs. * From Chapter 2 of Engaging the Line *Engaging the Line is a significant contribution to North American border studies. It reveals that the intensity of Canadian nationalism varied by location, which in turn indicates Canada’s differing regional histories and diversity and duration of settler experience. Its exploration of the regional nuances of “crossing culture” also adds to our understanding of the impact of war on the home front. -- Keith Regular * The Ormsby Review *Engaging the Line blends political, social, and cultural history in order to assess how global developments in the first decades of the twentieth century reshaped the boundary and relationship between the USA and Canada. -- Holly M. Karibo, Oklahoma State University * International Journal *Engaging The Line is a smart, crisp account of the First World War’s impact on border life. The topic is not merely timely but compelling … Engaging The Line is likeable and meticulously researched, a warm account of an era we left behind. -- Holly Doan * Blacklock’s Reporter *Table of ContentsIntroductionPart 1: Windsor, Ontario, and Detroit, Michigan1 “Brothers Once More”: Relations between Windsor and Detroit2 “Part and Parcel”: Administering the Windsor-Detroit BorderPart 2: St. Stephen, New Brunswick, and Calais, Maine3 The “Ties that Bind”: Relations between St. Stephen and Calais4 “A Very Convenient Arrangement”: Administering the St. Stephen–Calais BorderPart 3: White Rock, British Columbia, and Blaine, Washington5 “God Save the King”: Relations between White Rock and Blaine6 Booze and Bandits: Administering the White Rock–Blaine BorderConclusionNotesBibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisFor decades, people living in adjacent communities along the CanadaUS border enjoyed close social and economic relationships with their neighbours across the line. The introduction of new security measures during the First World War threatened this way of life by restricting the movement of people and goods across the border. Many Canadians resented the new regulations introduced by their provincial and federal governments, deriding them as outside influences that created friction where none had existed before. Engaging the Line examines responses to wartime regulations in several border communities, including Windsor, Ontario; Detroit, Michigan; and White Rock, British Columbia. This book brings to life the repercussions for these communities and offers readers a glimpse at the origins of our modern, highly secured border by tracing the shifting relationship between citizens and the state during wartime.Trade ReviewFor residents of Windsor, the entire border-crossing experience had changed dramatically since 1914, when immigration authorities limited their interrogations to visible and undesirable racial groups, criminals, prostitutes, and people with obvious mental and physical illnesses. Now a fifth-generation Anglo-Saxon Windsor resident with family living in Ypsilanti and a job in downtown Detroit could expect the same kind of attention. All of this, of course, was designed to ensure that Canadian men of military age did their duty and to keep the people of Windsor – by that point witnesses to the work of Detroit-based enemy terrorists – safe from German American raiders and saboteurs. * From Chapter 2 of Engaging the Line *Engaging the Line is a significant contribution to North American border studies. It reveals that the intensity of Canadian nationalism varied by location, which in turn indicates Canada’s differing regional histories and diversity and duration of settler experience. Its exploration of the regional nuances of “crossing culture” also adds to our understanding of the impact of war on the home front. -- Keith Regular * The Ormsby Review *Engaging the Line blends political, social, and cultural history in order to assess how global developments in the first decades of the twentieth century reshaped the boundary and relationship between the USA and Canada. -- Holly M. Karibo, Oklahoma State University * International Journal *Engaging The Line is a smart, crisp account of the First World War’s impact on border life. The topic is not merely timely but compelling … Engaging The Line is likeable and meticulously researched, a warm account of an era we left behind. -- Holly Doan * Blacklock’s Reporter *Table of ContentsIntroductionPart 1: Windsor, Ontario, and Detroit, Michigan1 “Brothers Once More”: Relations between Windsor and Detroit2 “Part and Parcel”: Administering the Windsor-Detroit BorderPart 2: St. Stephen, New Brunswick, and Calais, Maine3 The “Ties that Bind”: Relations between St. Stephen and Calais4 “A Very Convenient Arrangement”: Administering the St. Stephen–Calais BorderPart 3: White Rock, British Columbia, and Blaine, Washington5 “God Save the King”: Relations between White Rock and Blaine6 Booze and Bandits: Administering the White Rock–Blaine BorderConclusionNotesBibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisFor Home and Empire is the first book to compare voluntary wartime mobilization across the Australian, Canadian, and New Zealand home fronts. As communities organized to raise recruits or donate funds, their efforts strengthened communal bonds, but they also reinforced class, race, and gender boundaries. Which jurisdiction should provide for a soldier's wife if she moved from Hobart to northern Tasmania? Should Welsh women in Vancouver purchase comforts for local soldiers or for Welsh soldiers in the British Army? Should Maori volunteers enlist with their home regiment or with a separate battalion? Voluntary efforts reflected how community members understood their relationship to one another, to their dominion, and to the Empire. Steve Marti examines the motives and actions of those involved in the voluntary war effort, applying the framework of settler colonialism to reveal the geographical and social divides that separated communities as they organized for war.Trade ReviewSteve Marti’s lively and informative monograph For Home and Empire: Voluntary Mobilization in Australia, Canada, and New Zealand during the First World War will be a worthwhile addition to the reading list of anyone interested in understanding the impact of the Great War on the British Empire. -- Patrick H. Brennan * Canadian Journal of History *Marti weaves together multiple strands of historiography to present fresh insights into the wartime societies of Australia, New Zealand and Canada...[his] level of detail and meticulously supported arguments offer little room for critique. -- Jordan Beavis, University of Newcastle, Australia * Canadian Military History *Marti’s research is impressive and suggestive, and the comparative approach will add substantially to further efforts to understand the Great War in the British Dominions. -- J.L. Grantastein * CHOICE Connect *Table of ContentsIntroduction1 Dominion over War: Local Volunteers, Dominion Mobilization, and the Imperial War Effort2 Hands across the Sea: Greater Britain, New France, and the Ties to Home and Homeland3 Far from Home: Race and the Boundaries of Communal Mobilization4 Aliens or Allies: Southern and Eastern European Immigrants and the Bonds of Military Service5 As Obsolete as the Buffalo and the Tomahawk: Assimilation, Autonomy, and the Mobilization of Indigenous CommunitiesConclusionNotes; Bibliography; Index

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Book SynopsisAll Canadians are taught about Vimy Ridge. But that celebrated victory was just one battle among many to shape the country's experience of the First World War.Portraits of Battle brings together biography, battle accounts, and historiographical analysis to examine the lives of a cross-section of Canadians who served in the war. Contributors to this thoughtful collection consider the range of Canadians touched by war soldiers and their loved ones, deserters, nurses, Indigenous people, those injured in body or mind raising fundamental questions about the nature of conflict and memory.These portraits of the formerly faceless men and women honoured on war memorials fill in what is often missing from accounts of the Great War. In the process, they provide a more nuanced perspective on the complex legacy of that war in Canadian history.Trade Review"Portraits of Battle presents the past as a complex lived experience: a story of people from a broad range of backgrounds wrestling with their own notions of service, community, and sacrifice." -- Marc Milner, University of New Brunswick. * University of Toronto Quarterly. *Table of ContentsIntroduction / Peter Farrugia1 The View from Above: A Canadian Pilot in the Battle of Flers-Courcelette / Graham Broad2 “When Told to Advance, They Advanced”: War Culture and the CEF / Jonathan F. Vance3 The Voiceless Dead: Francis Jenkins, Regina Trench, and Living and Dying on the Western Front / Kyle Falcon4 “Going over the Ground Again”: Major Samuel Bothwell, 1st CMR, and Vimy Ridge / Peter Farrugia5 Soldier or Ward? Hill 70 and the Lived Experience of Private Wilfred Lickers / Evan J. Habkirk6 Talbot Papineau: The Life and Death of an Imperial Man / Geoffrey Hayes7 Fallen Sisters: Gender, Military Service, and Death in Canada’s First World War / Sarah Glassford8 Religion and the Great War: The Canadian Experience / Gordon L. Heath9 Replacing Leaders: Lieutenant Roy Duplissie and the Hundred Days Campaign from the D-Q to the Marcoing Line / Lee Windsor10 “Scars upon My Heart”: Arnold and Clarence Westcott, Brothers and Soldiers / Cynthia Comacchio11 Desertion and Punishment in the CEF during the 100 Days / Teresa IacobelliConclusion / Peter FarrugiaSelect Bibliography; Index

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Book Synopsis“Back him up! Buy Victory Bonds.” Boosters and Barkers examines the unrelenting financial demands of Canadian participation in the First World War, exploring the aims, methods, and implications of securing public support. Table of ContentsIntroductionPart 1: Getting the Money to Finance Canada’s War1 Business as Usual, 19142 Inching Toward Innovation, 1915–163 Crises and Victories, 1917–184 Legacies in Peacetime, 1919–20sPart 2: From Broadside to Vaudeville in the War-Loan Campaigns5 The Dominion War Loans, 1915–176 The First Victory Loan, 19177 Pandemic and Peace, 19188 Thrift, War Savings, Markets, and the Clean-Up Campaign of 19199 The Aftermath, 1919–20sPart 3: Newfoundland and the Canadian Connection10 Finance in Newfoundland and the Campaign of 1918Part 4: Consensus and Resistance11 The Limits of PatriotismPart 5: The Images, Sounds, and Words of the War Loans12 Selling through Posters, Cartoons, and Illustrations13 Selling through Film, Theatre, Music, and WordsConclusion Appendixes; Notes; Selected Bibliography; Index

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Book SynopsisBy approaching an important foreign policy issue from a new angle, Jonathan Mercer comes to a startling, controversial discovery: a nation's reputation is not worth fighting for.Trade ReviewA book full of fascinating and suggestive insights into the cognitive processes relevant to international relations. -- Steve Rosen * American Political Science Review *Mercer's argument is a welcome addition to the theoretical literature because it represents the first clear statement of a non-rational, choice-based theory of reputations. -- Paul Huth * Security Studies *Mercer's startling challenge to accepted wisdom deserves wide attention. -- Patrick Morgan * The Mershon Review *This imaginative and provocative book is an important contribution to a long-neglected question and is essential reading for any historian or international relations theorist interested in the role of reputation in international politics. -- Jack Levy * International History Review *This excellent book is well written, detailed, and thought-provoking. * Choice *

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Book SynopsisBetween 1914 and 1922, millions of Europeans left their homes as a result of war, postwar settlements, and revolution. After 1918, the immense movement of people across Germany''s eastern border posed a sharp challenge to the new Weimar Republic. Ethnic Germans flooded over the border from the new Polish state, Russian émigrés poured into the German capital, and East European Jews sought protection in Germany from the upheaval in their homelands. Nor was the movement in one direction only: German Freikorps sought to found a soldiers'' colony in Latvia, and a group of German socialists planned to settle in a Soviet factory town.In The Impossible Border, Annemarie H. Sammartino explores these waves of migration and their consequences for Germany. Migration became a flashpoint for such controversies as the relative importance of ethnic and cultural belonging, the interaction of nationalism and political ideologies, and whether or not Germany could serve as a place of refuTrade ReviewIn this excellent book, Annemarie H. Sammartino offers a lively transnational investigation of how a shifting eastern border and mass migration contributed to a 'crisis of sovereignty' in Germany during and immediately after the First World War.... She succeeds brilliantly not only in showing how Weimar was weakened by its inability to control its eastern border or achieve ideological coherence in its conception of people, state and territory, but also in explaining how for the political right-wing, the deceptively simple criterion of race and longing for a utopian east together led to an abandonment of territorial frontiers and the adoption of a new, ultimately destructive national project based on boundaries of blood. -- Alexander Watson * German History *Sammartino's title hardly does justice to the scope of her short but inspiring, well-written, well-researched, and thought-provoking work. As she explains, borders define differences determined by various mixtures of history, culture, and geography. Sammartino tests Hannah Arendt's theory of totalitarianism as a transnational form of analysis through the lens of the fluidity of borders throughout eastern Europe during and after WWI. Where context defines borders, German victory in the East inspired hope in an expanded German state, whereas defeat redefined the East as a final frontier to escape the ignominy of Germany's postwar collapse.... Summing up: Highly recommended. * Choice *Table of ContentsIntroduction: The Crisis of Sovereignty 1. "German Brothers": War and Migration 2. "Now We Were the Border": The Freikorps Baltic Campaign 3. Socialist Pioneers on the Soviet Frontier: Ansiedlung Ost 4. "We Who Suffered Most": The Immigration of Germans from Poland 5. "A Flooding of the Reich with Foreigners": The Frustrations of Border Control 6. Anti-Bolshevism and the Bolshevik Prisoners of War 7. "A Firm Inner Connection to Germany": Naturalization Policy 8. Tolerance and Its Limits: Russians, Jews, and Asylum Conclusion: The Legacy of CrisisAppendix: Maps— German Gains in the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk March Prospective German Settlements in the Former Russian Empire German Territorial Losses after World War IBibliography Index

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Book SynopsisWillard Sunderland tells the epic story of the Russian Empire's final decades through the arc of the life of Baron Roman Fedorovich von Ungern-Sternberg, which spanned the vast reaches of Eurasia.Trade Review[The Baron's Cloak] demonstrates just how important an understanding of the multinational and frontier aspects of the imperial state are to a comprehensive view of its last years, and perhaps even more importantly, to the transition from tsarist to Soviet empire.... Perhaps most significant is this work's contribution to our understanding of the process of imperial collapse through its analysis ofthe faliure of Ungern's efforts in Mongolia, in particular his attempt to reunite the various nationalities of the Russian state and reinstate imperial rule by bringing them together under the banner of loyalty to the monarchy. * The Russian Review *The Baron's Cloak succeeds in drawing our gaze away from the metropolitan centres in which we conventionally chart the upheavals of the 'Russian Revolution' to a periphery that turns out to have been far from peripheral. The revolution was an intrinsically imperial affair. The Baron's Cloak—a vastmulti-ethnic and multi-confessional state pulled apart by messy conflicts across fractured frontiers; a new one forged and contested by men and women with their own multilayered local, regional and imperial identities. Willard Sunderland's innovative analysis of the dynamics which both destroyed the Russian Empire and shaped its Soviet successor is a triumph of scholarship and imagination. * Times Literary Supplement *A specialist on the Russian Empire and borderlands, the historian Willard Sunderland in The Baron's Cloak draws on his considerable talents as a storyteller to craft a fluidly written and engaging account of the twilight of the Russian Empire as it succumbed to the hard-hitting blows of war, revolution, and civil war. * Journal of Modern History *In this magnificent book, Willard Sunderland, Associate Professor of History at the University of Cincinnati, invites the reader to perceive the Russian Empire from a different perspective. Rather than surveying it from the vantage point of 'policies, structures, or ideologies, as historians usually do,' we should step into the shoes of imperial people and look for another set of truths.... The result is an engaging combination of micro-history, historical geography, and insightful travelogue. * Journal of Historical Geography *Many scholars have analyzed the peculiar dynamics that make up the vast, diverse world of the former Russian Empire and Soviet Union, but few have produced works as engaging and insightful as Willard Sunderland's book, The Baron’s Cloak.... Centered on one man, the Russian-German noble, Baron Roman Fedorovich von Ungern-Sternberg, Sunderland’s work is a brilliant portrait of the Russian Empire and its collapse in the face of revolution and civil war. With eloquence and wit, The Baron’s Cloak brings a complex historical epoch to life and provides a highly readable primer for anyone seeking to understand the Russian Empire and the legacies of imperial rule across Eurasia. * Origins *Rare is the book this creative, engaging, and written with such unpretentious grace. The baron of the title is Roman von Ungern-Sternberg.... After the Bolsheviks took power, Ungern-Sternberg attempted to establish an independent state in Mongolia — a monarchy that he himself would rule. In 1921, that dream was crushed by the Red Army, which captured and executed the baron. Sunderland does a remarkable job of blending Ungern-Sternberg's life story with an exquisite portrait of the far-flung reaches of the Russian empire, producing an utterly absorbing tale of one man encountering historic change in almost incomprehensibly complex surroundings. * Foreign Affairs *The result is a splendidly readable microhistory that brings together much excellent recent work on the multiethnic imperial history of Russia—a literature to which Sunderland has been a leading contributor to show how 'the personal experience of empire has much to tell us about the bigger picture.... In sum, this is an exemplary and engaging study that newcomers to Russian history and the broader history of empires will find accessible and interesting—and that more seasoned readers will find enormously insightful. It deserves a very wide readership. * World History Connected *This book is a genuine page-turner and a scrupulously researched microhistory, a finely-stitched tapestry that captures well the loosely construed unity, diversity, and plural identities of Russia's borderlands of empire.... The book has lucid and elegant prose, and a deep sense of place. The Baron’s Cloak is full of insight and logistical sophistication, and Sunderland proves equal to the task. The final result is a gripping Bildungsreise (educational journey) and a model text for how historians should interrogate sources, depict the back-stories of scenes, change course, reconstruct identities, and tentatively formulate new questions about world history. * American Historical Review *This work is an imaginative kind of history in how it reveals the historian's craft, a sort of 'laying bare his technique,' as the Russian formalists who emerged from this same period would have expressed it. Sunderland not only paraphrases or translates from archival documents but he often traces how those documents got to the archive and what sorts of notes and marginalia he finds in them. He also reminds us how incomplete the archival record on his subject is, and he does a very conscientious job of finding alternative sources to help us better enter [his subject's] many intersecting and overlapping worlds. The Baron's Cloak is beautifully written and a wonderful contribution to borderlands history, to the history of empire and nation, and to the history of war, revolution, and civil war. * Slavic Review *The Baron's Cloak offers an important new interpretation of key issues in the late imperial period from colonialism and modernization to Russification and nationalism. The Baron's Cloak is a delight to read, and Sunderland's ability to combine forceful argument with a careful historian's circumspection is admirable. * Ab Imperio *Table of ContentsPreface Timeline Introduction 1. Graz 2. Estland 3. St. Petersburg, Manchuria, St. Petersburg 4. Beyond the Baikal 5. The Black Dragon River 6. Kobdo 7. War Land 8. The Ataman's Domain 9. Urga 10. Kiakhta 11. Red Siberia Conclusion

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Book Synopsis"An important and fascinating study of the history of migration across Weimar Germany's eastern border that addresses a number of key aspects of the history of Weimar Germany."—Richard Bessel, University of YorkTrade ReviewIn this excellent book, Annemarie H. Sammartino offers a lively transnational investigation of how a shifting eastern border and mass migration contributed to a 'crisis of sovereignty' in Germany during and immediately after the First World War.... She succeeds brilliantly not only in showing how Weimar was weakened by its inability to control its eastern border or achieve ideological coherence in its conception of people, state and territory, but also in explaining how for the political right-wing, the deceptively simple criterion of race and longing for a utopian east together led to an abandonment of territorial frontiers and the adoption of a new, ultimately destructive national project based on boundaries of blood. -- Alexander Watson * German History *Sammartino's title hardly does justice to the scope of her short but inspiring, well-written, well-researched, and thought-provoking work. As she explains, borders define differences determined by various mixtures of history, culture, and geography. Sammartino tests Hannah Arendt's theory of totalitarianism as a transnational form of analysis through the lens of the fluidity of borders throughout eastern Europe during and after WWI. Where context defines borders, German victory in the East inspired hope in an expanded German state, whereas defeat redefined the East as a final frontier to escape the ignominy of Germany's postwar collapse.... Summing up: Highly recommended. * Choice *Table of ContentsIntroduction: The Crisis of Sovereignty 1. "German Brothers": War and Migration 2. "Now We Were the Border": The Freikorps Baltic Campaign 3. Socialist Pioneers on the Soviet Frontier: Ansiedlung Ost 4. "We Who Suffered Most": The Immigration of Germans from Poland 5. "A Flooding of the Reich with Foreigners": The Frustrations of Border Control 6. Anti-Bolshevism and the Bolshevik Prisoners of War 7. "A Firm Inner Connection to Germany": Naturalization Policy 8. Tolerance and Its Limits: Russians, Jews, and Asylum Conclusion: The Legacy of CrisisAppendix: Maps— German Gains in the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk March Prospective German Settlements in the Former Russian Empire German Territorial Losses after World War IBibliography Index

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