Until the Last Trumpet Sounds: The Life of General of the Armies John J. Pershing by Gene Smith ISBN: 1630262471
Published by John Wiley & Sons on October 1st 1999
Pages: 384
Len's Summary: The new one-volume biography of General John J. Pershing Until the Last Trumpet Sounds by Gene Smith (John Wiley & Sons) was panned by The New York Times, but got a better review from historian Rod Paschall writing for MHQ. Black Jack’s best biographies are multi-volume — Frank Vandiver’s and Donald Smythe’s come to mind — so this one is a handy, quick reference that captures the fundamentals of Pershing’s life.
Kitchener
Kitchener by John Charles Pollock ISBN: 9780094803404
Published by Constable on February 3rd 2001
Genres: History, Europe, Great Britain, Biography & Autobiography, Historical, Military, Political, World War I
Pages: 598
Len's Summary: All about a resolutely old-fashioned Field Marshall — an officer anda gentleman. Reviewed in the Financial Times, April 21, 2001.
Helmuth von Moltke and the Origins of the First World War
Helmuth von Moltke and the Origins of the First World War by Annika Mombauer ISBN: 9780521791014
Published by Cambridge University Press on April 19th 2001
Genres: Biography & Autobiography, Historical, History, Europe, General, Military, World War I, World War II, Juvenile Nonfiction, Military & Wars
Pages: 325
Edith and Woodrow: The Wilson White House
Edith and Woodrow: The Wilson White House by Phyllis Lee Levin ISBN: 9780743211581
Published by Scribner on September 25th 2001
Genres: Biography & Autobiography, Historical, Presidents & Heads of State, History, United States, 20th Century
Pages: 606
Len's Summary: Ms. Levin, a journalist, sets out to prove that Edith Bolling Galt, Wilson’s second wife, set the agenda for the last, tragic years of his administration.
Who’s Who in World War One
Who’s Who in World War One by John M. Bourne ISBN: 9780415141796
Published by Routledge on 2001
Genres: Biography & Autobiography, Military, Reference, History, World War I
Pages: 316
Len's Summary: John Bourne is a leading British WWI and WWII scholar.
First Great Triumph: How Five Americans Made Their Country a World Power
First Great Triumph: How Five Americans Made Their Country a World Power by Warren Zimmermann ISBN: 9780374179397
on 2002
Genres: Biography & Autobiography, Reference, History, Military, United States, 19th Century
Pages: 562
Len's Summary: The author was a Foreign Service officer, our last Ambassador to Yugoslavia. He passed away in 2003. Zimmermann analyses America’s emergence onto the world stage through the careers of five friends and political allies: Theodore Roosevelt, John Hay, Alfred Thayer Mahan, Elihu Root and Henry Cabot Lodge. All but Mahan (a naval officer) were involved in national politics. the firm basis for the internationally activist administrations of Woodrow Wilson, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson and their successors that marked the American Century. Stongly Recommended.
Anthem for Doomed Youth: Twelve Soldier Poets of the First World War
Anthem for Doomed Youth: Twelve Soldier Poets of the First World War by Jon Stallworthy ISBN: 1841196355
Published by Constable on December 31st 2002
Genres: Biography & Autobiography, Literary, Literary Criticism, Poetry
Pages: 192
Len's Summary: Scrutinizes the lives of a dozen Great War poets.
Lloyd George: War Leader, 1916-1918
Lloyd George: War Leader, 1916-1918 by John Grigg ISBN: 9780713993431
Published by Allen Lane on 2002
Genres: History, Europe, Great Britain, Biography & Autobiography, Political, Military, World War I
Pages: 669
Len's Summary: The forth volume in a biography takes Lloyd George from his supplanting of Asquith in 1916 to the end of the war.
The Enemy’s House Divided
The Enemy's House Divided by Charles De Gaulle, Robert Eden ISBN: 0807826669
Published by University of North Carolina Press on November 11th 2002
Genres: Biography & Autobiography, Military, History, Europe, Western, World War I
Pages: 232
Len's Summary: Analyses Germany’s defeat in 1918, first published in 1924 (translation).
Foch: Supreme Allied Commander in the Great War
Foch: Supreme Allied Commander in the Great War by Michael S. Neiberg ISBN: 9781574886726
Published by Brassey's on October 1st 2003
Genres: Biography & Autobiography, Military, History, Europe, France, World War I
Pages: 124
The Kaiser: New Research on Wilhelm II’s Role in Imperial Germany
The Kaiser: New Research on Wilhelm II’s Role in Imperial Germany by Annika Mombauer, Wilhelm Deist ISBN: 0521824087
Published by Cambridge University Press on November 17th 2003
Genres: History, Europe, General, Biography & Autobiography, Historical, World, Military, World War I, Modern, 20th Century
Pages: 299
Len's Summary: Analyses a complex political system and a complex ruler under severe wartime stress.
Tunnelmaster and Arsonist of the Great War: The Norton-Griffiths Story
Tunnelmaster and Arsonist of the Great War: The Norton-Griffiths Story by Tony Bridgland ISBN: 0850529956
Published by Pen & Sword Books on October 1st 2003
Genres: Biography & Autobiography, Historical, Military, History, World War I
Pages: 224
Len's Summary: In the United States, order from Casemate Publishing.
Brothers in War
Brothers in War by Michael Walsh ISBN: 9780091908843
Published by Ebury Press on 2007
Genres: Biography & Autobiography, Military, Political, History, World
Pages: 426
Len's Summary: First published by Crown in cloth in 2006 this is the story of Beechey family, who endured with dignity and courage the loss of five sons in WWI. Based on family letters and diaries. Also available from Amazon UK on DVD and audio cassette, or used from Barnes & Noble. Compared by some reviewers to the story Saving Private Ryan.
Femme Fatale: Love, Lies, and the Unknown Life of Mata Hari
Femme Fatale: Love, Lies, and the Unknown Life of Mata Hari by Pat Shipman ISBN: 0060817283
Published by William Morrow on July 31st 2007
Pages: 450
Len's Summary: A pot boiler about the much pawed over life and career of a WWI female double agent resurrecting the possibility that Mata was a victim.
Architect of Victory: Douglas Haig
Architect of Victory: Douglas Haig by Walter Reid ISBN: 1841585173
Published by Birlinn Publishers on February 1st 2007
Genres: Biography & Autobiography, Military, Political, Juvenile Nonfiction, Historical
Pages: 555
Len's Summary: A new sympathetic analysis of Haig’s still controversial leadership of the BEF. // A new biography sure to spark controversy. Available from Casemate Publishing.
Monash: The Outsider Who Won a War – a Biography of Australias Greatest Military Commander
Monash: The Outsider Who Won a War - a Biography of Australias Greatest Military Commander by Roland Perry ISBN: 1741668476
on 2007
Len's Summary: Reprint of a biographical history first published in 2004 examining the career of Lt. General Sir John Monash, commander of the Anzac Corps. Won a major Australian book prize despite mixed reviews.
The Last Fighting Tommy: The Life of Harry Patch, Last Veteran of the Trenches, 1898-2009
The Last Fighting Tommy: The Life of Harry Patch, Last Veteran of the Trenches, 1898-2009 by Harry Patch, Richard Van Emden ISBN: 0747591156
on June 5th 2010
Genres: History, General, Military, Biography & Autobiography, Historical
Len's Summary: The story of the last surviving (as of August 2007) British trench veteran of WWI. Van Emden is author of several books on WWI including The Trench, Boy Soldiers of the Great War, and Britain’s Last Tommies.
Medicine and Duty: The World War I Memoir of Captain Harold W. Mcgill, Medical Officer 31st Battalion C.E.F.
Medicine and Duty: The World War I Memoir of Captain Harold W. Mcgill, Medical Officer 31st Battalion C.E.F. by Marjorie Barron Norris, Patrick Brennan ISBN: 1552381935
Published by University of Calgary Press on May 15th 2007
Genres: Biography & Autobiography, Military, Medical, Religious, History, Canada, Post-Confederation (1867-), World War I
Pages: 406
The Good Soldier: A Biography of Douglas Haig
The Good Soldier: A Biography of Douglas Haig by Gary Mead ISBN: 1843542803
Published by Atlantic Books on November 8th 2007
Pages: 608
Len's Summary: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1843542803/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1843542803&linkCode=as2&tag=worlwaroneh0a-20&linkId=4EELSZYVXBWWNG4O
Gertrude Bell Queen of the Desert, Shaper of Nations
Gertrude Bell Queen of the Desert, Shaper of Nations by Georgina Howell ISBN: 0374531358
Published by Sarah Crichton Books on April 29th 2008
Genres: Biography & Autobiography, Historical
Pages: 512
Len's Summary: Biography of a British “Arabist,” a contemporary of T. E. Lawrence who also worked with British intelligence in Cairo during WWI and lived after the war in Baghdad, her favorite city. A History Book Club selection for 2007. Favorably reviewed in the June 2007 Atlantic. This is the women who outlined Iraq’s borders and drafted its first constitution. See also Desert Queen, Janet Wallach, Doubleday, 1996, now in paperback from Knopf, 464 pages, ISBN 1 40009 619 7, $15.95.
The Meinertzhagen Mystery: The Life and Legend of a Colossal Fraud
The Meinertzhagen Mystery: The Life and Legend of a Colossal Fraud by Brian Garfield ISBN: 1597970417
Published by Potomac Books on January 1st 2007
Genres: Biography & Autobiography, Historical, Military, Science & Technology, History, Middle East, General, Nature, Birdwatching Guides
Pages: 386
Len's Summary: Lt. Colonel Richard Meinertzhagen (1878-1967) got his start as a politically- and socially-connected British Army intelligence officer chasing Paul von Lettow Vorbeck around the East Africa bush. Later, invalided out of Africa, he was assigned to MI7 in Cairo, and claimed authorship of the legendary “haversack ruse” of 1917. A committed Zionist, Meinertzhagen was a flamboyant player in the Middle East in the inter-war years, a noted ornithologist, founder of the post-war Anglo German Fellowship, and intimate of Winston Churchill, T. H. Lawrence and Chaim Weizmann. He also perpetrated scientific fraud, was a tireless self-promoter and may have even murdered his wife. Fittingly, this lively tale is authored by a past president of the Mystery Writers of America.
The Silent General: Horne of the First Army, a Biography of Haig’s Trusted Great War Comrade in Arms
The Silent General: Horne of the First Army, a Biography of Haig’s Trusted Great War Comrade in Arms by Don Farr ISBN: 9781874622994
Published by Helion & Company Limited on January 1st 2007
Genres: Biography & Autobiography, Military, History, World War I
Pages: 319
Len's Summary: Biography of a long overlooked British army commander Henry Sinclair Horne.
King, Kaiser, Tsar: Three Royal Cousins Who Led the World to War
King, Kaiser, Tsar: Three Royal Cousins Who Led the World to War by Catrine Clay ISBN: 0802716237
Published by Walker Books on July 10th 2007
Genres: Biography & Autobiography, Historical, Royalty, History, General, Europe, Great Britain
Pages: 416
Len's Summary: Narrative history first published in the UK by Gardners Books last year; written by the British producer/director of a television documentary of the same name. Based in part on royal letters and diaries.
Decorated Marines of the Fourth Brigade in World War I
Decorated Marines of the Fourth Brigade in World War I by George B. Clark ISBN: 9780786428267
Published by McFarland on January 18th 2007
Pages: 276
Len's Summary: A reference work on the Marine infantry of the AEF’s Second Division. // Biographies of each Marine medal winner in the AEF Second Division.
Happy Odyssey
Happy Odyssey by Adrian Carton De Wiart ISBN: 1844155390
Published by Pen & Sword Books on November 1st 2007
Pages: 287
Len's Summary: An autobiography by the highly decorated WWI officer who was the model for Brigadier Ben Ritchie Hook in Evelyn Waugh’s Sword of Honor trilogy.
War Bird Ace: The Great War Exploits of Capt. Field E. Kindley
War Bird Ace: The Great War Exploits of Capt. Field E. Kindley by Jack S. Ballard ISBN: 9781585445547
Published by Texas A&M University Press on February 6th 2007
Genres: Biography & Autobiography, General, Military, History, World War I
Pages: 208
Len's Summary: Captain Kindley’s 12 victories tied him for ninth place among American air aces.
Chief of Staff, Vol. 1: The Principal Officers Behind History’s Great Commanders, Napoleonic Wars to World War I
Chief of Staff, Vol. 1: The Principal Officers Behind History's Great Commanders, Napoleonic Wars to World War I by David T. Zabecki ISBN: 9781591149903
Published by Naval Institute Press on 2008
Genres: Biography & Autobiography, Military, History, Strategy
Pages: 241
Len's Summary: First of two volumes examining the role of the military chief of staff.
Isaac Rosenberg: The Making of a Great War Poet: A New Life
Isaac Rosenberg: The Making of a Great War Poet: A New Life by Jean Moorcroft Wilson ISBN: 0810126044
Published by Northwestern University Press on February 9th 2009
Genres: Biography & Autobiography, General, Literary
Pages: 504
Len's Summary: Neither a moist-eyed patriot nor a disillusioned veteran, Rosenberg was killed in action with the BEF during the spring of 1918. Also available in paperback from Phoenix (March 2009). Rosenberg’s poems are still in print.
Hanging a Rebel: The Life of C.R.W. Nevinson
Hanging a Rebel: The Life of C.R.W. Nevinson ISBN: 0718830903 Published by Lutterworth Press on July 24th 2008
Genres: Art, History, Biography & Autobiography
Pages: 367
Len's Summary: The life of British war artist and futurist author D. R. W. Nevinson highlights the development of intellectual thought before and during the First World War.
Clausewitz’s On War: A Biography (Books That Changed the World)
Clausewitz's On War: A Biography (Books That Changed the World) by Hew Strachan ISBN: 9780802143631
Published by Grove Press on April 1st 2008
Genres: Biography & Autobiography, Historical, History, Military, Strategy
Pages: 238
Len's Summary: A premier military historian examines Clausewitz’s dense dicta on military strategy.
Harry’s War: A British Tommy’s Experiences in the Trenches in World War One
Harry's War: A British Tommy's Experiences in the Trenches in World War One by Harry Stinton, Virginia Mayo ISBN: 1844862550
Published by Conway on August 5th 2014
Pages: 224
Len's Summary: First publication of the memoirs of an infantry soldier’s combat service at Arras, Albert and Ypres before he was wounded in 1917.
Maxime Weygand: A Biography of the French General in Two World Wars
Maxime Weygand: A Biography of the French General in Two World Wars by Barnett Singer ISBN: 9780786435715
Published by McFarland on May 19th 2008
Genres: History, Military, World War II, World War I, Biography & Autobiography, General, France
Pages: 261
Len's Summary: Biography of General Foch’s chief of Staff in WWI who inherited command of a defeated French army in 1940. See also: Maxime Weygand and Civil-Military Relations in Modern France, Philip Charles et al, Harvard, 1997, 445 pages, ISBN 978 0674 4557 017, $33.50 from Barnes & Nobel; less from used booksellers.
Diary of a Night Bomber Pilot in World War I
Diary of a Night Bomber Pilot in World War I by Clive Semple, Wing Commander Alan Mawby ISBN: 1862274525
Published by The History Press on November 1st 2008
Genres: Biography & Autobiography, Military, History, World War I
Pages: 352
Len's Summary: Available from the Scholars Bookshelf.
Terror of the Autumn Skies: The True Story of Frank Luke, America’s Rogue Ace of World War I
Terror of the Autumn Skies: The True Story of Frank Luke, America's Rogue Ace of World War I by Blaine Pardoe ISBN: 1602392528
Published by Skyhorse Publishing on July 1st 2008
Genres: Biography & Autobiography, Military, History, World War I, Aviation
Pages: 320
Len's Summary: Biography of America’s first aviator to win the Medal of Honor.
Major Sam Woodfill: The Greatest Soldier of WW I
Major Sam Woodfill: The Greatest Soldier of WW I by Ben Newell ISBN: 9781605637105
Published by PublishAmerica on September 1st 2008
Genres: Biography & Autobiography, General, History, Military, World War I
Pages: 184
Len's Summary: A biography of WWI medal of honor-winner Major Sam Woodfill, the career military man considered by John Pershing to be the outstanding soldier in the AEF.
Somme Mud: War Experiences of an Infantryman in France, 1914-1919
Somme Mud: War Experiences of an Infantryman in France, 1914-1919 by Edward P.F. Lynch, Will Davies ISBN: 1741668948
Published by Random House Australia on April 1st 2008
Genres: Biography & Autobiography, General, History, Military, World War I, World, Technology & Engineering, Military Science
Pages: 368
Len's Summary: Memoir of a British veteran first published in 2006. // War memoir of an Australian written in 1921 and only now published.
Stanley Spencer’s Great War Diary, 1915-1918
Stanley Spencer's Great War Diary, 1915-1918 by Stanley Spencer, Arthur Littlewood ISBN: 9781844157785
Published by Pen & Sword Military on 2008
Genres: Biography & Autobiography, General, History, Military, World War I
Pages: 176
Len's Summary: The editor provides a commentary for these recently-discovered letters from a VC winner. // Diaries of a British veteran. // Written by a veteran of the Royal Fusiliers and West Yorkshire regiments who served from 1915 on the Somme, at Moutaubon and Vimy.
Pershing: A Biography
Pershing: A Biography by Jim Lacey ISBN: 9780230614451
Published by St. Martin's Press on June 9th 2009
Pages: 224
Len's Summary: One of several recent biographies of “Black Jack” Pershing.
The Selected Papers of Sir Arthur Currie: Diaries, Letters, and Report to the Ministry, 1917-1933
The Selected Papers of Sir Arthur Currie: Diaries, Letters, and Report to the Ministry, 1917-1933 by Mark Humphries ISBN: 097834412X
Published by Military History on May 1st 2008
Genres: Biography & Autobiography, General, History, Canada, Military
Pages: 407
Len's Summary: The first complete collection of the papers of Canada’s top soldier of WWI. Currie was a land speculator and militiaman from British Columbia who rose to command the four divisions of the CEF. He is best remembered for the Canadian Corps successful 1917 attack at Vimy Ridge. Purchase directly from Wilfred Laurier University at www.wlu.ca or phone Andrew Thomson, at (519) 884-0710.
Lawrence of Arabia: Mirage of a Desert War
Lawrence of Arabia: Mirage of a Desert War by Adrian Greaves ISBN: 9780753823668
Published by Phoenix on August 5th 2008
Genres: Biography & Autobiography, Historical, Military, Political
Pages: 260
Len's Summary: Yet another book about T. E. Lawrence, part of a recent plethora sparked, no doubt, by the ongoing conflicts in the Middle East.
President’s Quarterly Update—April 2024
Dear Members and Friends,
I’m extremely pleased with the level of WW1HA’s activities, some of which may be unseen by you.
Our Journal, “World War One Illustrated,” is now published three times a year with an average length of 48 pages. Each issue is filled with high-quality articles covering a variety of topics, including the popular “My Kin in the Great War” series.
Our electronic newsletter, “Here and There with the WW1HA” is published monthly, with an assortment of Association events and articles covering WW1 topics.
Sal Compagno’s San Francisco Bay Area Chapter continues to hold monthly meetings via Zoom, while Mark Benbow’s Eastern Chapter is holding quarterly meetings.
As President, I am also hosting a quarterly “Fireside Chat” online. The last one emphasized WW1 poetry. The next one will emphasize WW1-era music.
If you’re already a member, I thank you for your membership and encourage you to take part in these activities. If you’re not a member, I ask you to join and participate in these activities. Participate in the events and consider submitting an article for the journal or newsletter.
Reach out to me with your comments: lavarennes@meuse-argonne.com.
Regards,
Randy Gaulke
