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Facing Total War
German Society, 1914-1918
Jürgen Kocka
Harvard University Press, 1984

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Faithful to Our Tasks
Arkansas's Women and the Great War
Elizabeth Griffin Hill
Butler Center for Arkansas Studies, 2017

The United States was a vital, if brief, participant in World War I—spending only eighteen months fighting in “the Great War.” But that short span marked an era of tremendous change for women as they moved out of the Victorian nineteenth century and came into their own as social activists during the early years of the twentieth century.

Faithful to Our Tasks provides the context for women’s actions and reactions during the war. It incorporates the mitigating factors and experiences of American women in general and compares Arkansas women’s Progressive Era actions with those of other southern women. The contextual underpinnings provide a rich tapestry as we attempt to understand our grandmothers and great-grandmothers’ responses to wartime needs.

Primary records of the World War I era, accessed in archives in central Arkansas, reveal that the state’s organized women were suddenly faced with a devastating world war for which they were expected to make a significant contribution of time and effort. “Club women” were already tackling myriad problems to be found in abundance within a poor, rural state as they worked for better schools, a centralized education system, children’s well-being, and improved medical care.

Under wartime conditions, their contributions were magnified as the women followed a barrage of directions from Washington, DC, within a disconcerting display of micromanagement by the federal government. The important takeaway, however, is that the Great War created a scenario in which Arkansas’s organized women—as well as women throughout the nation—would step forward and excel as men and governments stood up and took notice. After the war, these same organized women won the right to vote.

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Fighter Aircraft Combat Debuts, 1915–1945
Innovation in Air Warfare Before the Jet Age
Jon Guttman
Westholme Publishing, 2014
An International History of the Development, Competition, and Deployment of High-Speed, Maneuverable, Fighter Aircraft During the Era of the World Wars
Of all military aircraft, fighter planes hold a mystique all their own. Perhaps it is because fighters can afford the least compromise: when the goal is to seize and maintain control of the air, the confrontation is direct. During World War I, the concept of air superiority took hold and in the ensuing decades the development of fighter aircraft became an ongoing back-and-forth battle, with adversaries trying to gain an upper hand through innovations in aerodynamics, powerplants, and armament. Fighter Aircraft Combat Debuts, 1915–1945: Innovation in Air Warfare Before the Jet Age by prominent aviation expert Jon Guttman explores the first combats for a variety of fighters of World War I, the conflicts of the so-called "interwar years," and World War II—a thirty-year period that saw the birth of the fighter concept and its maturity on the threshold of the Jet Age. Most of the aircraft described are fairly well known to aviation historians and a few names, such as Sopwith Camel, Fokker Triplane, Messerschmitt Me-109, Mitsubishi Zero, North American Mustang, and Supermarine Spitfire, are familiar even to the most nonaviation- minded persons. Not so well-known are the circumstances of their combat debuts, in which some, such as the Zero, made their mark almost from the outset, but in which others, like the British Bristol F.2A, showed rather less promise than they would ultimately realize. While a certain amount of space must be devoted to the technical development of these famous fighters, these studies of first combats serve as a reminder that it is the human factor, with all its special quirks, that inevitably came into play when these deadly flying machines first fired their guns. Profusely illustrated, Fighter Aircraft Combat Debuts is an authoritative history of one of the most enduring subjects in military aviation.
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Fighting the Great War
A Global History
Michael S. Neiberg
Harvard University Press, 2006

Despair 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, Michael Neiberg offers a concise history based on the latest research and insights into the soldiers, commanders, battles, and legacies of the Great War.

Tracing the war from Verdun to Salonika to Baghdad to German East Africa, Neiberg illuminates the global nature of the conflict. More than four years of mindless slaughter in the trenches on the western front, World War I was the first fought in three dimensions: in the air, at sea, and through mechanized ground warfare. New weapons systems--tanks, bomber aircraft, and long-range artillery--all shaped the battle environment. Moving beyond the standard portrayal of the war's generals as "butchers and bunglers," Neiberg offers a nuanced discussion of officers constrained by the monumental scale of complex events. Diaries and letters of men serving on the front lines capture the personal stories and brutal conditions--from Alpine snows to Mesopotamian sands--under which these soldiers lived, fought, and died.

Generously illustrated, with many never-before-published photographs, this book is an impressive blend of analysis and narrative. Anyone interested in understanding the twentieth century must begin with its first global conflict, and there is no better place to start than with Fighting the Great War.

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Filmfront Weimar
Representations of the First World War in German Films from the Weimar Period (1919-1933)
Bernadette Kester
Amsterdam University Press, 2003
How was Germany's experience of World War I depicted in film during the following years? Drawing on analysis of the films of the Weimar era—documentaries and feature films addressing the war's causes, life at the front, war at sea, and the home front—Bernadette Kester sketches out the historical context, including reviews and censors' reports, in which these films were made and viewed, and offers much insight into how Germans collectively perceived World War I during its aftermath and beyond.
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The Fires of Patriotism
Alaskans in the Days of the First World War 1910-1920
Preston Jones
University of Alaska Press, 2013
In the early twentieth century, Alaska was facing an exciting future as the newest US territory. Yet just five years after its official designation, the country entered World War I and citizens were called to fight. Despite the threat of a looming economic collapse, Alaska sent more people per capita to war than any other state and displayed a patriotism that rivaled that of any of the states.

The Fires of Patriotism explores Alaska’s wartime experience, bringing to light new stories and new characters from a decade that shook the world. This multifaceted book explores the era through engaging stories and rare photos, offering a fresh perspective on World War I from a marginal land that forged its place in the greater unity of the country.
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The First World War and Popular Cinema
1914 to the Present
Paris, Michael
Rutgers University Press, 2000

The Great War played an instrumental role in the development of cinema, so necessary was it to the mobilization efforts of the combatant nations. In turn, after the war, as memory began to fade, cinema continued to shape the war's legacy and eventually to determine the ways in which all warfare is imagined.

The First World War and Popular Cinema provides fresh insight into the role of film as an historical and cultural tool. Through a comparative approach, essays by contributors from Europe, Australia, Canada, and the United States enrich our understanding of cinematic depictions of the Great War in particular and combat in general. New historical research on both the uses of propaganda and the development of national cinemas make this collection one of the first to show the ways in which film history can contribute to our study of national histories. The contributors to the volume monitor popular perceptions of the war, the reshaping of the war's legacy, and the evolution of cinematic clichés that are perpetuated in filmmaking through the century. Some of the films they discuss are All Quiet on the Western Front, Gallipoli, The Grand Illusion, The Big Parade, Battle of the Somme, J'Accuse, Regeneration, and many more. The First World War and Popular Cinema is a vital addition to film studies and history, two fields only recently united in a productive way.

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Five Days in October
The Lost Battalion of World War I
Robert H. Ferrell
University of Missouri Press, 2005
During American participation in World War I, many events caught the public’s attention, but none so much as the plight of the Lost Battalion. Comprising some five hundred men of the Seventy-seventh Division, the so-called battalion was entrapped on the side of a ravine in the Argonne Forest by German forces from October 2 to 7, 1918. The men’s courage under siege in the midst of rifle, machine-gun, mortar, and artillery fire (coming both day and night), with nothing to eat after the morning of the first day save grass and roots, and with water dangerous to obtain, has gone down in American history as comparable in heroism to the defense of the Alamo and the stand at the Little Big Horn of the troops of General George A. Custer.

Now, in Five Days in October, historian Robert H. Ferrell presents new material—previously unavailable—about what really happened during those days in the forest. Despite the description of them as a lost battalion, the men were neither lost nor a battalion. The name was coined by a New York newspaper editor who, upon learning that a sizable body of troops had been surrounded, thought up the notion of a Lost Battalion—it possessed a ring sure to catch the attention of readers.

The trapped men actually belonged to companies from two battalions of the Seventy-seventh, and their exact placement was well known, reported by runners at the outset of the action and by six carrier pigeons released by their commander, Major Charles W. Whittlesey, during the five days his men were there. The causes of the entrapment were several, including command failures and tactical errors. The men had been sent ahead of the main division line without attention to flanks, and because of that failure, they were surrounded. Thus began a siege that took the lives of many men, leading to the collapse of the colonel of the 308th Infantry Regiment and, many believe, to the suicide of Major Whittlesey three years later.

This book grew out of Ferrell’s discovery of new material in the U.S. Army Military History Institute at the Army War College from the papers of General Hugh A. Drum and in the National Archives in College Park, Maryland. The Drum papers contain the court-martial record of the lieutenant of a machine-gun unit attached to the battalions, who advised Major Whittlesey to surrender, while the Seventy-seventh Division files contain full accounts of the taut relations between the Lost Battalion’s brigade commander and the Seventy-seventh’s division commander. By including this material, Ferrell gives a new accounting of this intriguing affair. Five Days in October will be welcomed by all those interested in a fuller understanding of the story of the Lost Battalion.
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Flying for the Air Service
The Hughes Brothers in World War I
David K. Vaughan
University of Wisconsin Press, 1998
Flying for the Air Service provides a realistic picture of the typical flying experiences of the pilots who flew for the fledgling American Air Service during World War I. The narrative describes two brothers from Boston, George and Gerard Hughes, as they progress from apprentice pilots to flight instructors and combat pilots. After completing their pilot training program together, both were assigned as instructors. Then George was sent to France with the 12th Aero Squadrom, where he flew two-place observation aircraft over the front lines. Gerard, meanwhile, remained in America, instructing students in Texas. Eventually Gerard joined his brother's squadron in France as the war ended. Through the detailed letters and narrative comments of these two pilots, we can see clearly the hazards and challenges that were faced by those who flew in the early years of American aviation.
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For All We Have and Are
Regina and the Experience of the Great War
James M. Pitsula
University of Manitoba Press, 2008
The First World War profoundly affected every community in Canada. In Regina, the politics of national identity, the rural myth, and the social gospel all lent a distinctive flavour to the city’s experience of the Great War. For many Reginans, the fight against German militarism merged with the struggle against social evils and the “Big Interests,” adding new momentum to the forces of social reform, including the fights for prohibition and women’s suffrage.James M. Pitsula traces these social movements against the background of the lives of Regina men who fought overseas in battles such as Passchendaele and Vimy Ridge. Skillfully combining vivid detail with the larger social context, For All We Have and Are provides a nuanced picture of how one Canadian community rebuilt both its realities and myths in response to the cataclysm of the “war to end all wars.”
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For King and Kanata
Canadian Indians and the First World War
Timothy C. Winegard
University of Manitoba Press, 2012

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Forgotten Veterans, Invisible Memorials
How American Women Commemorated the Great War, 1917–1945
Allison S. Finkelstein
University of Alabama Press, 2021
Investigates the groundbreaking role American women played in commemorating those who served and sacrificed in World War I

In Forgotten Veterans, Invisible Memorials: How American Women Commemorated the Great War, 19171945 Allison S. Finkelstein argues that American women activists considered their own community service and veteran advocacy to be forms of commemoration just as significant and effective as other, more traditional forms of commemoration such as memorials. Finkelstein employs the term “veteranism” to describe these women’s overarching philosophy that supporting, aiding, and caring for those who served needed to be a chief concern of American citizens, civic groups, and the government in the war’s aftermath. However, these women did not express their views solely through their support for veterans of a military service narrowly defined as a group predominantly composed of men and just a few women. Rather, they defined anyone who served or sacrificed during the war, including women like themselves, as veterans.
 
These women veteranists believed that memorialization projects that centered on the people who served and sacrificed was the most appropriate type of postwar commemoration. They passionately advocated for memorials that could help living veterans and the families of deceased service members at a time when postwar monument construction surged at home and abroad. Finkelstein argues that by rejecting or adapting traditional monuments or by embracing aspects of the living memorial building movement, female veteranists placed the plight of all veterans at the center of their commemoration efforts. Their projects included diverse acts of service and advocacy on behalf of people they considered veterans and their families as they pushed to infuse American memorial traditions with their philosophy. In doing so, these women pioneered a relatively new form of commemoration that impacted American practices of remembrance, encouraging Americans to rethink their approach and provided new definitions of what constitutes a memorial. In the process, they shifted the course of American practices, even though their memorialization methods did not achieve the widespread acceptance they had hoped it would.
 
Meticulously researched, Forgotten Veterans, Invisible Memorials utilizes little-studied sources and reinterprets more familiar ones. In addition to the words and records of the women themselves, Finkelstein analyzes cultural landscapes and ephemeral projects to reconstruct the evidence of their influence. Readers will come away with a better understanding of how American women supported the military from outside its ranks before they could fully serve from within, principally through action-based methods of commemoration that remain all the more relevant today.
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Freedom Struggles
African Americans and World War I
Adriane Lentz-Smith
Harvard University Press, 2011

For many of the 200,000 black soldiers sent to Europe with the American Expeditionary Forces in World War I, encounters with French civilians and colonial African troops led them to imagine a world beyond Jim Crow. They returned home to join activists working to make that world real. In narrating the efforts of African American soldiers and activists to gain full citizenship rights as recompense for military service, Adriane Lentz-Smith illuminates how World War I mobilized a generation.

Black and white soldiers clashed as much with one another as they did with external enemies. Race wars within the military and riots across the United States demonstrated the lengths to which white Americans would go to protect a carefully constructed caste system. Inspired by Woodrow Wilson’s rhetoric of self-determination but battered by the harsh realities of segregation, African Americans fought their own “war for democracy,” from the rebellions of black draftees in French and American ports to the mutiny of Army Regulars in Houston, and from the lonely stances of stubborn individuals to organized national campaigns. African Americans abroad and at home reworked notions of nation and belonging, empire and diaspora, manhood and citizenship. By war’s end, they ceased trying to earn equal rights and resolved to demand them.

This beautifully written book reclaims World War I as a critical moment in the freedom struggle and places African Americans at the crossroads of social, military, and international history.

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French and Germans, Germans and French
A Personal Interpretation of France under Two Occupations, 1914–1918/1940–1944
Richard Cobb
Brandeis University Press, 2018
The noted historian Richard Cobb presents an engaging synthesis of research, combined with highly original observations and analyses of the war years in France. The reader is given access to a unique private chronicle of the relations between occupants and occupés, which provides the “I was there” understanding that is a hallmark of Cobb’s well-known ability to humanize history. The author characterizes this work as “an essay in interpretation and imagination, an evocation drawing heavily on literary, or semi-literary, sources and even on autobiography, rather than a straight piece of history. The book is about people, individuals, rather than about institutions and administration.” A recognized classic is now back in print.
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Friends of Alice Wheeldon
Sheila Rowbotham
Pluto Press, 1986

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From Downing Street to the Trenches
First-hand Accounts from the Great War, 1914-1916
Mike Webb
Bodleian Library Publishing, 2014
As we look back on World War I on the occasion of its hundredth anniversary, we do so with the benefit of hindsight and the accumulated wisdom of a century of writing and thought. But what was it like to experience firsthand those first few years of war—to see an aerial view of the famous Battle of the Somme? How did key political figures make the difficult decision to go to war? And what did young men of the time believe their role ought to be?
           
From Downing Street to the Trenches gathers eyewitness accounts and photographs that vividly convey this lived experience. The letters of Prime Minister H. H. Asquith show the strain of wartime leadership and shed light on his later downfall, while letters home from the young Harold Macmillan are suffused with his experiences in the trenches and mark the beginning of his road to Downing Street. Although it was forbidden to record cabinet discussions, Secretary of State Lewis Harcourt’s unauthorized diary provides a window into the government of the time, complete with character sketches of some of the leading figures, including Winston Churchill. In addition to political figures, the book draws on many local records, including the diary of an Essex rector, written to record the impact of the war on his community and parish.
           
Filled with fear and sorrow but also suffused with hope for the future, the accounts collected here paint a highly personal and immediate picture of the war as it was happening to real people of the time.
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