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By the time of the Vietnam War era, the “Mexican American Generation” had made tremendous progress both socially and politically. However, the number of Mexican Americans in comparison to the number of white prisoners of war (POWs) illustrated the significant discrimination and inequality the Chicano population faced in both military and civilian landscapes. Chicanos were disproportionately “grunts” (infantry), who were more likely to be killed when captured, while pilots and officers were more likely to be both white and held as POWs for negotiating purposes. A fascinating look at the Vietnam War era from a Chicano perspective, “I’m Not Gonna Die in this Damn Place”: Manliness, Identity, and Survival of the Mexican American Vietnam Prisoners of War gives voice to the Mexican American POWs. The stories of these men and their families provide insights to the Chicano Vietnam War experience, while also adding tremendously to the American POW story. This book is an important read for academics and military enthusiasts alike.
 

Called upon for the first time to render military service outside the States, Negro soldiers (called Smoked Yankees by the Spaniards) were eager to improve their status at home by fighting for the white man in the Spanish-American War. Their story is told through countless letters sent to black U.S. newspapers that lacked resources to field their own reporters. The collection constitutes a remarkably complete and otherwise undisclosed amount of the black man’s role in—and attitude toward—America’s struggle for empire.

In first-hand reports of battles in the Philippine Islands and Cuba, Negro soldiers wrote from the perspective of dispossessed citizens struggling to obtain a larger share of the rights and privileges of Americans.

These letters provide a fuller understanding of the exploits of black troops through their reports of military activities and accounts of foreign peoples and its cultures.

An Account of the United States Marines’ Service in Two of the Most Important Battles Fought by American Forces in World War I
“The story of the marines in France is told with authority and interest.”—Booklist
“It is one of the books about the American war effort which is well worth keeping as well as reading.”—Outlook
“A well-written and complete account.”—Library Bulletin
In an area of woods smaller than New York City’s Central Park, the United States Marines made a desperate and dramatic stand against the might of the Imperial Germany Army’s final offensive in June 1918. Had the Germans broken through the lines as planned, there would have been no Allied forces between them and Paris. World War I had stagnated for nearly four years, and this last German push was a desperate, but powerful gamble to finally bring the war to a close. As at Guadalcanal during World War II, the enemy had not anticipated the ferocity and doggedness of the United States Marines. Leading this small expeditionary force was Brigadier General Albertus Wright Catlin. For most of the month of June the marines fought the Germans at close range, using their rifles effectively and engaging in hand-to-hand combat. Toward the end of the battle, Catlin was shot in the chest by a sniper and removed from the field. While recuperating, he began “With the Help of God and a Few Marines”, his account of the marines’ experience in France, including what became known as the Battle of Belleau Wood. First published in 1919, and considered among the finest American memoirs from World War I, it is notable for its description of what it means to be a United States Marine—an account as relevant today as it was nearly a century ago—and its straightforward depiction of life and death on the Western Front in the last months of the war.

 Barbara von Haeften’s memoir provides us with a moving account of the life of her husband Hans Bernd von Haeften, a lawyer, diplomat, and member of the Kreisau Circle resistance group in Nazi Germany. The Kreisau Circle participated in the assassination attempt of Hitler on July 20, 1944, carried out by Claus von Stauffenberg and Werner von Haeften, Hans’s brother. The Circle had also developed extensive plans for a new government to be put into place after the removal of Hitler. Drawing on personal letters and clear memories, this biography describes the life and political activity of an extraordinary man who was executed in the struggle to save Germany from the disastrous consequences of Hitler’s regime, and it sheds light on Barbara von Haeften’s knowledge of and participation in the resistance movement.

When American troops arrived in Paris at the end of World War II, they were at first welcomed by the local population. However, the French soon began to resent the Americans for their brashness and display of wealth, while the Americans found the French and their habits equally irritating and incomprehensible: they bathed too little, drank too much, and were almost unfailingly unfriendly.

To bridge the cultural divide, the War Department commissioned humorist Leo Rosten to write this surprisingly candid guide that paired common complaints about the French with answers aimed at promoting understanding. From the fascinations of French nightlife to Gallic grooming and fashions, the guide sought to correct the misconceptions behind a litany of common complaints: Laissez-faire is not in fact a call to laziness, and the French do not play checkers in cafés all day—though they do extol the virtues of a leisurely lunch. The moral principles of the Frenchwoman ought not to be drawn from the few one might find loitering on the fringes of the camp.

Beyond their intended instructive purposes, the grievances included in the guide are at times as revealing of the preconceptions of the American servicemen as they are of the French, as well as offering fascinating insight into the details of daily life immediately after the war, including the acute poverty, the shortage of food and supplies, and the scale of destruction suffered by France during the six years of conflict. Illustrated throughout with charming cartoons and written in a direct, no-nonsense style, 112 Gripes about the French is by turns amusing and thought-provoking in its valiant stand against prejudice and stereotype.

On June 28, 1919, the Peace Treaty was signed in the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles, five years to the day after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo triggered Europe's precipitous descent into war. This war was the first conflict to be fought on a global scale. By its end in 1918, four empires had collapsed, and their minority populations, which had never before existed as independent entities, were encouraged to seek self-determination and nationhood.

Following on from Haus’s monumental thirty-two Volume series on the signatories of the Versailles peace treaty, The Makers of the Modern World, 28 June looks in greater depth at the smaller nations that are often ignored in general histories, and in doing so seeks to understand the conflict from a global perspective, asking not only how each of the signatories came to join the conflict but also giving an overview of the long-term consequences of their having done so.