I Was a Spy! The Classic Account of Behind-the-Lines Espionage in the First World War

I Was a Spy! The Classic Account of Behind-the-Lines Espionage in the First World WarI Was a Spy! by Marthe McKennaWinston Churchill
ISBN: 9781910860052
Published by Pool of London Press on September 19, 2015
Genres: History, Military, World War I, Europe, Germany, True Crime, Espionage, Political Science, Intelligence & Espionage, Social History
Pages: 288

The author and her family were overrun in Belgium at the outbreak of the war. Instead of completing her medical studies to become a physician, Marthe became a nurse in a hospital run by the Germans. She also fed information to the British who had set up an underground network as they retreated. Marthe proved to be intelligent, fast thinking, reliable and cautious.

An excellent nurse, she was honored with others for their efforts by the King of Württemberg. As the war continued the Germans were able to staff and monitor the occupied areas with troops whose job was to suppress resistance and locate spies. When she was finally captured for her participation in sabotage the Germans wanted to shoot her. However, her former supervisors at the hospital vouched for her work and reminded the review board that it would look awfully bad to be killing heroines with German medals. She escaped the firing squad, spending the remainder of the war in prison.

Well-written, the reader comes to appreciate the stress that accumulates back when communications were much slower than today.

Reviewed by Anne Merritt

1912: Wilson, Roosevelt, Taft and Debs–The Election that Changed the Country

1912: Wilson, Roosevelt, Taft and Debs–The Election that Changed the Country1912 by James Chace
ISBN: 9781439188262
Published by Simon and Schuster on November 24th 2009
Genres: United States, Political Science, Campaigns & Elections
Pages: 336

Len's Summary: The story of the bitterly fought four-party 1912 presidential race won with a 42% plurality by T. Woodrow Wilson. Socialist candidate Debs garnered a record number of votes (some 900 thousand) for the Socialist Party, and was later jailed for his vociferous opposition to American entry into WWI. Proof that George W. Bush was not America's first minority President. Indeed, Wilson never won 50% of the vote in either 1912 or 1916. The 1912 election set the stage for a remarkable spate of progressive measures than included, during Wilson's first term, the Clayton Anti-Trust Act, creation of the Federal Trade Commission, the Federal Income Tax, and the Federal Reserve System, as well as a constitutional amendment providing for the direct election of Senators.

The Lion and the Poppy: British Veterans, Politics, and Society, 1921-1939

The Lion and the Poppy: British Veterans, Politics, and Society, 1921-1939The Lion and the Poppy: British Veterans, Politics, and Society, 1921-1939 by Niall Barr
ISBN: 0313324743
Published by Praeger Publishers on August 1st 2005
Pages: 228

Len's Summary: The British Legion, dominated by the officer class, had a narrow agenda focusing mainly on domestic bread-and-butter issues and limited membership in the interwar years.

Theodore Roosevelt and World Order: Police Power in International Relations

Theodore Roosevelt and World Order: Police Power in International RelationsTheodore Roosevelt and World Order: Police Power in International Relations by James R. Holmes
ISBN: 1574888846
Published by Potomac Books on April 1st 2007
Pages: 336

Len's Summary: A new look at Roosevelt's "Big Stick" policies, the Roosevelt Corollaries to the Monroe Doctrine and American imperialism of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The author is a former naval officer and a Ph.D. graduate of the Fletcher School of International Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University.

Woodrow Wilson’s Western Tour: Rhetoric, Public Opinion, And the League of Nations

Woodrow Wilson’s Western Tour: Rhetoric, Public Opinion, And the League of NationsWoodrow Wilson's Western Tour: Rhetoric, Public Opinion, And the League of Nations by J. Michael Hogan
ISBN: 9781585445332
Published by Texas A&M University Press on August 1st 2006
Genres: United States, Political Science, International Relations
Pages: 212

Len's Summary: Analysis of Wilson's speeches in support of ratification of the Treaty of Versailles during his September 1919 tour of western states cut short by a crippling stroke. The author assesses the tour in the light of Wilson's own scholarly writings on government.

Woodrow Wilson’s Right Hand: The Life of Colonel Edward M. House

Woodrow Wilson’s Right Hand: The Life of Colonel Edward M. HouseWoodrow Wilson's Right Hand: The Life of Colonel Edward M. House by Godfrey Hodgson
ISBN: 9780300092691
Published by Yale University Press Genres: Biography & Autobiography, Political Science, International Relations, Diplomacy, United States
Pages: 335

Len's Summary: An important new biography of Wilson's alter ego and roving diplomatic emissary. How a Texas pol made to the center of the national and international political stages.

The Unfinished Peace after World War I: America, Britain and the Stabilisation of Europe, 1919-1932

The Unfinished Peace after World War I: America, Britain and the Stabilisation of Europe, 1919-1932The Unfinished Peace after World War I: America, Britain and the Stabilisation of Europe, 1919-1932 by Patrick O. Cohrs
ISBN: 9780521723435
Published by Cambridge University Press on February 11th 2008
Genres: Political Science, International Relations
Pages: 708

Len's Summary: An original and revisionist thesis arguing that the real peace settlement of WWI was not incorporated in Versailles, but rather in the London reparations settlement of 1924 (the Dawes Plan) and the Locarno security pact of 1925 which fostered German reintegration into the community of nations and laid the realistic foundations for a European security system.

Anti-Submarine Warfare in World War I: British Naval Aviation and the Defeat of the U-Boats

Anti-Submarine Warfare in World War I: British Naval Aviation and the Defeat of the U-BoatsAnti-Submarine Warfare in World War I: British Naval Aviation and the Defeat of the U-Boats by John Abbatiello
ISBN: 9781135989545
Published by Routledge on May 2nd 2006
Genres: Military, Naval, Political Science
Pages: 256

Len's Summary: Effective British innovation against a new and deadly weapon.

Nation, Memory and Great War Commemoration: Mobilizing the Past in Europe, Australia and New Zealand

Nation, Memory and Great War Commemoration: Mobilizing the Past in Europe, Australia and New ZealandNation, Memory and Great War Commemoration: Mobilizing the Past in Europe, Australia and New Zealand by Shanti Sumartojo, Ben Wellings
ISBN: 3034309376
Published by Peter Lang on April 23rd 2014
Pages: 329

Len's Summary: Social history.

The Deluge: The Great War, America and the Remaking of the Global Order, 1916-1931

The Deluge: The Great War, America and the Remaking of the Global Order, 1916-1931The Deluge: The Great War, America and the Remaking of the Global Order, 1916-1931 by Adam Tooze
ISBN: 0670024929
Published by Viking on November 13th 2014
Genres: Political Science, Military
Pages: 672

Len's Summary: Moving from WWI to the Third Reich, Tooze takes the position that economic super power America was not ready in 1918 for world leadership, that Clemenceau was justified in demanding huge reparations from Germany, and that the Great Depression, not Versailles, catapulted Hitler to power. The author teaches at Yale.

A Handful of Bullets: How the Murder of Archduke Franz Ferdinand Still Menaces the Peace

A Handful of Bullets: How the Murder of Archduke Franz Ferdinand Still Menaces the PeaceA Handful of Bullets: How the Murder of Archduke Franz Ferdinand Still Menaces the Peace by Harlan Ullman
ISBN: 1612517994
Published by Naval Institute Press on December 15th 2014
Genres: Political Science, International Relations, Diplomacy
Pages: 256

Len's Summary: A failure of diplomacy and statesmanship; drawing lessons and parallels from history to cope with today’s strategic issues.

The Great War for Peace

The Great War for PeaceThe Great War for Peace by William Mulligan
ISBN: 9780300173772
Published by Yale University Press on May 27th 2014
Pages: 456

Len's Summary: Finds the Great War’s legacy to be the creation of intellectual, cultural, social and political anti-war movements focused on conflict resolution. Concepts of peace and global order arising Phoenix-like from the fires of war. Covers the 15-year period from the Moroccan Crisis of 1911 to the Locarno Pact of 1925. Three stars.

The Armenian Genocide: Evidence from the German Foreign Office Archives, 1915-1916

The Armenian Genocide: Evidence from the German Foreign Office Archives, 1915-1916The Armenian Genocide: Evidence from the German Foreign Office Archives, 1915-1916 by Wolfgang Gust
ISBN: 9781782381433
Published by Berghahn Books on January 15th 2013
Pages: 786

Len's Summary: In translation from the original German published just in time for the centenary of the 1915 Armenian massacres.

Antiwar Dissent and Peace Activism in World War I America: A Documentary Reader

Antiwar Dissent and Peace Activism in World War I America: A Documentary ReaderAntiwar Dissent and Peace Activism in World War I America: A Documentary Reader by Scott Bennett, Charles Howlett
ISBN: 0803240112
Published by University of Nebraska Press on October 1st 2014
Genres: Political Science
Pages: 400

Len's Summary: Despite massive official propaganda and populist coercion, opposition to the war was rife.

The Young Atatürk: From Ottoman Soldier to Statesman of Turkey

The Young Atatürk: From Ottoman Soldier to Statesman of TurkeyThe Young Atatürk: From Ottoman Soldier to Statesman of Turkey by George Gawrych
ISBN: 9781780763224
Published by I.B.Tauris on May 22nd 2013
Genres: Turkey & Ottoman Empire, Political Science
Pages: 267

Len's Summary: Traces Ataturk’s path to power as founder of the Turkish Republic.

The United States, Revolutionary Russia, and the Rise of Czechoslovakia

The United States, Revolutionary Russia, and the Rise of CzechoslovakiaThe United States, Revolutionary Russia, and the Rise of Czechoslovakia by Betty Miller Unterberger
ISBN: 0890969310
Published by Texas A&M University Press on April 1st 2000
Genres: History, Military, World War I, Political Science, International Relations, General
Pages: 463

Len's Summary: A revised edition of the 1989 work based on newly available documentary sources. By the author of "Woodrow Wilson and Great Power Relations in Central Europe."

Managing Domestic Dissent in First World War Britain

Managing Domestic Dissent in First World War BritainManaging Domestic Dissent in First World War Britain by Brock Millman
ISBN: 9780714650548
Published by Psychology Press on 2000
Genres: History, Military, World War I, Political Science, Security (National & International)
Pages: 335

Len's Summary: Exaggerated fears among Britain’s ruling class?

War and Punishment: The Causes of War Termination and the First World War

War and Punishment: The Causes of War Termination and the First World WarWar and Punishment: The Causes of War Termination and the First World War by H. E. Goemans
ISBN: 9780691049441
Published by Princeton University Press on August 20th 2000
Genres: History, Military, World War I, Political Science
Pages: 355

Len's Summary: A scholarly examination of war aims, the interplay of domestic and international factors, how and why the combatants ended The Great War, but failed to make peace.

Woodrow Wilson

Woodrow WilsonWoodrow Wilson by Louis Auchincloss
ISBN: 9780670889044
Published by Penguin on 2000
Genres: Biography & Autobiography, Presidents & Heads of State, Political Science, Political Process, Leadership
Pages: 128

Len's Summary: A brief, well-crafted biography by one of America’s most acclaimed novelists and critics about one of America’s most complicated and controversial political personalities. Also available from Books on Tape at http://www.booksontape.com for $24.95.

German Anglophobia in the Great War, 1914-1918

German Anglophobia in the Great War, 1914-1918German Anglophobia and the Great War, 1914-1918 by Matthew Stibbe
ISBN: 9780521782968
Published by Cambridge University Press on May 3rd 2001
Pages: 282

Len's Summary: Scholarly analysis of German attitudes toward Great Britain during WWI and the related development of extreme right wing political networks in Munich and Berlin.

Caporetto 1917: Victory or Defeat?

Caporetto 1917: Victory or Defeat?Caporetto 1917 Victory or Defeat by Mario Morselli
ISBN: 0714650730
Published by Frank Cass Publishers on September 30th 2001
Genres: History, Military, General, Political Science, Security (National & International)
Pages: 171

Len's Summary: Given a mediocre review in War in History, April 2003.

Between War and Peace: Woodrow Wilson and the American Expeditionary Force in Siberia, 1918-1921

Between War and Peace: Woodrow Wilson and the American Expeditionary Force in Siberia, 1918-1921Between War and Peace: Woodrow Wilson and the American Expeditionary Force in Siberia, 1918-1921 by Carol Wilcox Melton
ISBN: 9780865546929
Published by Mercer University Press on 2001
Genres: History, Military, World War I, Europe, Russia & the Former Soviet Union, World, Political Science, Security (National & International)
Pages: 269

Len's Summary: A controversial chapter in American diplomacy that still colors Russian-American relations even though Wilson’s intervention was aimed at blocking Japanese expansionism…

The Dynamics of Military Revolution, 1300-2050

The Dynamics of Military Revolution, 1300-2050The Dynamics of Military Revolution, 1300-2050 by MacGregor Knox, Williamson Murray
ISBN: 9780521800792
Published by Cambridge University Press on August 27th 2001
Genres: History, Revolutionary, World, Renaissance, Modern, General, Political Science, Political Freedom, Technology & Engineering, Military Science
Pages: 203

Len's Summary: Chapters by Brigadier Jonathan Bailey on Western Front battlefields and the genesis of modern warfare, and Dr. Holger Herwig on the battle fleet revolution of 1885-1914. Recommended by WFA and TGWS member Bob Denison.

Britain, France, and the Financing of the First World War

Britain, France, and the Financing of the First World WarBritain, France, and the Financing of the First World War by Martin Horn
ISBN: 9780773522930
on March 26th 2002
Genres: History, Military, World War I, Political Science, International Relations, General
Pages: 249

Len's Summary: A good analysis of a neglected area ofimportance in understanding WWI. I plan to review this for a future issue of StandTo!

The New World Power: American Foreign Policy, 1898-1917

The New World Power: American Foreign Policy, 1898-1917The New World Power: American Foreign Policy, 1898-1917 by Robert E. Hannigan
ISBN: 9780812236668
Published by University of Pennsylvania Press on November 27th 2002
Genres: History, United States, 20th Century, Political Science, International Relations, General
Pages: 365

Len's Summary: A survey and analysis of America’s increasing involvement in world affairs through four administrations in two the decades beginning with the Spanish American War and ending with the declaration of war against Imperial Germany in 1917. This is an era often ignored by today’s diplomatic historians. Editor-in-Chief Len Shurtleff will review this monograph for Stand To!

The First Cold War: The Legacy of Woodrow Wilson in U.S. – Soviet Relations

The First Cold War: The Legacy of Woodrow Wilson in U.S. – Soviet RelationsThe First Cold War: The Legacy of Woodrow Wilson in U.S. - Soviet Relations by Donald E. Davis, Eugene P. Trani
ISBN: 082621388X
Published by University of Missouri on August 26th 2002
Pages: 360

Len's Summary: An important new study of American-Russian relations during the Wilson administration with an introduction by my former boss, Larry Eagleburger. Trani is best known for his study of the Harding administration.

The Politics of War: The Story of Two Wars Which Altered Forever the Political Life of the American Republic

The Politics of War: The Story of Two Wars Which Altered Forever the Political Life of the American RepublicThe Politics of War: The Story of Two Wars Which Altered Forever the Political Life of the American Republic by Walter Karp
ISBN: 9781879957558
Published by Franklin Square Press on 2003
Pages: 384

Len's Summary: Reprint of a 1979 monograph which takes an unvarnished and unflattering look at how domestic politics shaped the foreign policy of the Progressive Era and America emergence after 1898 as a world power. Recommended by the editors of American Heritage.

Europe’s Last Summer: Who Started the Great War in 1914?

Europe’s Last Summer: Who Started the Great War in 1914?Europe's Last Summer Who Started the Great War in 1914 by David Fromkin
ISBN: 9780375411564
Published by Knopf on March 23rd 2004
Genres: History, Europe, General, Military, World War I, Political Science, Security (National & International)
Pages: 349

Len's Summary: By the author of A Peace to End all Peace on postwar redrawing of the map in the Mid East. Fromkin lays the blame for WWI on Germany. Little new here; the current work edited by Holger Herwig and Richard Hamilton, The Origins of World War I (Cambridge 2003) is far more enlightening.

Alfred Von Schlieffen’s Military Writings

Alfred Von Schlieffen’s Military WritingsAlfred Von Schlieffen's Military Writings by Robert Foley
ISBN: 0714649996
Published by Frank Cass Publishers on October 31st 2002
Genres: History, Military, General, Political Science, Security (National & International)
Pages: 280

The Burning Tigris: The Armenian Genocide and America’s Response

The Burning Tigris: The Armenian Genocide and America’s ResponseThe Burning Tigris: The Armenian Genocide and America's Response by Peter Balakian
ISBN: 9780060558703
Published by HarperCollins on September 30th 2003
Genres: History, United States, 20th Century, Modern, Political Science, International Relations, General
Pages: 528

Len's Summary: Covers the history of Turko-Armenian relations as well as the pogroms of 1915-16 with particular emphasis on American reactions and interventions. A History Book Club alternate selection.

The Wilsonian Moment: Self-Determination and the International Origins of Anticolonial Nationalism

The Wilsonian Moment: Self-Determination and the International Origins of Anticolonial NationalismThe Wilsonian Moment: Self-Determination and the International Origins of Anticolonial Nationalism by Erez Manela
ISBN: 9780198039150
Published by Oxford University Press on June 20th 2007
Pages: 352

Len's Summary: An examination of how Wilson’s policy of self-determination became a negative factor among disillusioned nationalist movements in Egypt, China, Korea and India.

Nexus: Strategic Communications and American Security in World War I

Nexus: Strategic Communications and American Security in World War INexus: Strategic Communications and American Security in World War I by Jonathan Reed Winkler
ISBN: 9780674725775
Published by Harvard University Press on June 30th 2008
Genres: History, United States, 20th Century, Military, World War I, Political Science, International Relations, Diplomacy
Pages: 357

Len's Summary: A new way of looking at evolving global strategy: the technology, economics and politics of commercial and military communications during WWI.

Woodrow Wilson and the American Myth in Italy: Culture, Diplomacy, and War Propaganda

Woodrow Wilson and the American Myth in Italy: Culture, Diplomacy, and War PropagandaWoodrow Wilson and the American Myth in Italy: Culture, Diplomacy, and War Propaganda by Daniela Rossini, Antony Shugaar
ISBN: 0674028244
Published by Harvard University Press on May 1st 2008
Genres: History, Europe, Italy, Military, World War I, United States, 20th Century, Political Science, International Relations, Diplomacy
Pages: 263

Len's Summary: A new look at Wilsonian diplomacy, or lack there of, through an examination of Italo-American relations during WWI and during the Paris peace conference.

The World on Fire: 1919 and the Battle with Bolshevism

The World on Fire: 1919 and the Battle with BolshevismThe World on Fire: 1919 and the Battle with Bolshevism by Anthony Read
ISBN: 9780393061246
on March 17th 2008
Genres: History, Europe, Russia & the Former Soviet Union, Modern, 20th Century, Political Science, Political Ideologies
Pages: 379

Len's Summary: International alarm over terrorism is nothing new. Read examines the “Reds under the bed” scare of 1918-1920 that threatened free speech in North America and Western Europe in the wake of the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia, the abortive Marxist uprisings in Germany, labor unrest in the UK and terror bombings in America. As with the current al-Qeada menace, liberal democratic governments of this era often overreacted to a shadowy and inchoate Red Menace.

Balfour and Weizmann: The Zionist, the Zealot and the Emergence of Israel

Balfour and Weizmann: The Zionist, the Zealot and the Emergence of IsraelBalfour and Weizmann: The Zionist, the Zealot and the Emergence of Israel by Geoffrey Lewis
ISBN: 9781847250407
Published by A&C Black on May 31st 2009
Genres: History, Ancient, General, Europe, Great Britain, Middle East, Israel & Palestine, Political Science, International Relations, Diplomacy
Pages: 203

Len's Summary: Explores the relationship between the British Foreign Secretary and Chaim Weizmann the British chemist, Zionist and first President of Israel.

Four Hats in the Ring: The 1912 Election and the Birth of Modern American Politics

Four Hats in the Ring: The 1912 Election and the Birth of Modern American PoliticsFour Hats in the Ring: The 1912 Election and the Birth of Modern American Politics by Lewis L. Gould
ISBN: 9780700618569
Published by University Press of Kansas on April 9th 2008
Genres: History, United States, 20th Century, Political Science, Political Process, Campaigns & Elections
Pages: 254

Len's Summary: A snap shot of American politics on the eve of The Great War. Roosevelt, Wilson, Taft and socialist candidate Eugene Debs duke it out at the apogee of the Progressive Era.

Democracy’s Prisoner: Eugene V. Debs, the Great War, and the Right to Dissent

Democracy’s Prisoner: Eugene V. Debs, the Great War, and the Right to DissentDemocracy's Prisoner: Eugene V. Debs, the Great War, and the Right to Dissent by Ernest Freeberg
ISBN: 9780674057203
Published by Harvard University Press on May 31st 2008
Genres: Biography & Autobiography, Political, History, Military, World War I, United States, 20th Century, Political Science, Civil Rights
Pages: 380

Len's Summary: This is the story of an early 20th century conflict between the perceived demands of national security and the constitutional guarantee of free speech that led to the creation of the American Civil Liberties Union. Railway labor leader and five-time Socialist Party presidential candidate, Eugene Debs (1855-1926) is forgotten today, but won nearly a million popular votes in 1912 and 1920. Debs ran for President in 1920 from a jail cell convicted under the 1917 Espionage Act cell because of his outspoken opposition to American entry into WWI. He was pardoned in 1921 by President Warren G. Harding. The author teaches at the University of Tennessee.

Reconsidering Woodrow Wilson: Progressivism, Internationalism, War, and Peace

Reconsidering Woodrow Wilson: Progressivism, Internationalism, War, and PeaceReconsidering Woodrow Wilson: Progressivism, Internationalism, War, and Peace by John Milton Cooper Jr.
ISBN: 0801890748
Published by Woodrow Wilson Center Press on September 30th 2008
Genres: Biography & Autobiography, Presidents & Heads of State, History, United States, 20th Century, Political Science, International Relations, General
Pages: 376

Len's Summary: A series of essays reexamining Wilson’s policies and legacy.

Uncle Sam Wants You: World War I and the Making of the Modern American Citizen

Uncle Sam Wants You: World War I and the Making of the Modern American CitizenUncle Sam Wants You: World War I and the Making of the Modern American Citizen by Christopher Capozzola
ISBN: 0199734798
Published by Oxford University Press on April 12th 2010
Genres: History, Military, World War I, Law, Legal History, Political Science
Pages: 334

Len's Summary: America turns over unprecedented power to the Federal Government creating a new American state and a new citizen. One of a series of recent social and political histories reexamining the American home front society and politics in WWI. The author is Associate Professor of History at MIT.

Unlikely Allies: Britain, America and the Victorian Origins of the Special Relationship

Unlikely Allies: Britain, America and the Victorian Origins of the Special RelationshipUnlikely Allies: Britain, America and the Victorian Origins of the Special Relationship by Duncan Andrew Campbell
ISBN: 1847251919
Published by Bloomsbury Academic on February 1st 2008
Genres: History, United States, General, Political Science, International Relations, Europe, Great Britain
Pages: 320

Len's Summary: Putting aside residual antagonisms stemming from the War of 1812, America and Great Britain lay the basis for an alliance that survived two world wars and is still operative today.