A reassessment of Churchill’s role in the conception, planning and execution of the Dardanelles fiasco, as well as an examination of the subsequent inquiry and the long-standing controversy over the operation. Bell previously wrote Churchill and Sea Power, and is an expert on the great man’s relationship with the Royal Navy. His account draws on a mass of archival material, and provides a more nuanced view of the people and politics that contributed to the decision-making process.
The author is oral historian at the Imperial War Museum in London and has access to large archives of original testimonies…. describing and enlivening the final battles of 1918.
The author does admit that his “emphasis as a British historian is on the British Army with an appreciative reflection on the massive contributions of victory made by the French, American and Belgian forces.”
Politics and personalities involved in the cease-fire agreements were complex and often cantankerous…. [and left] “an unpleasant taste in the mouth when one considers that men were being maimed and dying in huge numbers with every day that passed.”
Ironically, it didn’t take long before the business of “battlefield tourism” began to flourish…. [while veterans now] “had to fight to retain their self-respect in a society that did not seem to care one iota for their welfare.”
This is a rich and comprehensive book, one I can certainly recommend.
Neiberg takes a bottom-up approach toward understanding why America finally associated itself with the Entente in the fight against Germany. His major thesis is that Americans were way ahead of the government, and especially President Woodrow Wilson, in understanding that we had to be part of the war “to save civilization” and suppress Germany’s aggressive ambitions.
Memoirs, newspaper columns, magazine articles, private and public letters, and the speeches of Preparedness advocates show us the organic change taking place from 1914 to 1917 in our so-called isolationist population, and how the pressure from ordinary people, and his own advisers, dragged Wilson to a place he did not want to go. The chapter titled “Awaiting the Overt Act” is especially suspenseful, even if you know what’s coming next.
Neiberg’s refreshing viewpoint emphasizing the idealism, thoughtfulness, and good sense of the American public is certainly persuasive. Once again, his natural writing style makes this book an enjoyable as well as informative endeavor that I can recommend without hesitation.
Financing the First World War by Hew Strachan ISBN: 0199257272 on December 1st 2004 Pages: 278
Len's Summary: Key sections from Strachan's history To War revised and reprinted as individual essays on the gold standard, financial mobilization, budgets of the belligerents, taxation, domestic and foreign borrowing. First in a series of individual paperbacks be excerpted from Strachan's award-winning trilogy on The Great War still in progress. The author is a member of the panel which selects the winner of WFA's Annual Norman B. Tomlinson, Jr. Book Award.
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The Old Army: A Portrait of the American Army in Peacetime, 1784-1898 by Edward M. Coffman ISBN: 0195045556 Published byOxford University Press on December 8th 1988 Pages: 560
Len's Summary: This volume begins with the Spanish-American War and Philippine Insurrection and covers the major reforms instituted by War Secretary Elihu Root that created the modern general staff system and helped prepare the Army for World War One. Of particular interest to Western Front Association members is Coffman's analysis of the colonial Army's experience in the Philippines and later on the Western Front, as well as the postwar army.
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The Lights that Failed: European International History, 1919-1933 by Zara S. Steiner ISBN: 0198221142 on May 12th 2005 Pages: 850
Len's Summary: Challenges the assumption that the Versailles Treaty led to WWII. A second volume, Triumph of the Night, will examine the years from 1933 to the early 1940s.
Comments Off on The Great Game of Genocide: Imperialism, Nationalism, and the Destruction of the Ottoman Armenians
The Great Game of Genocide: Imperialism, Nationalism, and the Destruction of the Ottoman Armenians by Donald Bloxham ISBN: 9780199226887 Published byOxford University Press on 2007 Pages: 329
Len's Summary: A non- partisan account of the genocide and the impact of Ottoman relations with German, the Entente and America. Published to coincide with the 90th anniversary of the beginning of the massacre of Armenians, April 24, 1915, a newly relevant date given the impending negotiations for Turkish entry in the European Union.
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Field Marshal Sir Henry Wilson: A Political Soldier by Keith Jeffery ISBN: 9780199239672 Published byOxford University Press on January 1st 2008 Pages: 325
Len's Summary: The story of a passionate Irish unionist who was one of England's most influential soldiers before and during WWI. Wilson was BEF liaison to the French Army and Western Front corps commander before replacing Sir William Robertson as Chief of the Imperial General Staff in February 1918. He was assassinated by the IRA in 1922.
Len's Summary: Looks at all genres of WWI writing, including propaganda and poetry, and assesses their impact on post-war popular imagination. // Looks at all genres of WWI writing, including propaganda and poetry, and its impact on post-war popular imagination. Literary history.
Empires at War: 1911-1923 by Robert Gerwarth, Erez Manela ISBN: 019873493X on October 1st 2015 Pages: 304
Len's Summary: Looks beyond Europe and the Western Front to examine why this was a truly global conflagration leading to the dissolution of empires. It starts with the Italio-Ottoman war over Libya, and ends with the Greco-Turkish War, the Treaty of Lausanne and declaration of the Turkish Republic.
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The Oxford Illustrated History of the First World War: New Edition by Hew Strachan ISBN: 0199663386 on May 1st 2014 Genres:Military, General Pages: 379
Len's Summary: First published in 2008 this new edition contains essays by several established historians.
Len's Summary: One of several new one-volume monographs surveying the war on all fronts. For non-specialists. Another recent and richly illustrated one volume treatment by the same title has been produced by Hugh Strachan from Viking Penguin (2004), also in paperback.
Len's Summary: Analyses post-war fiction of the “Lost Generation” and finds it less anti-war than anti-mobilization in reaction to the authors personal rejection for service with the US forces.
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.
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A History of the Great War: World War One and the International Crisis of the Early 20th Century by Eric Dorn Brose ISBN: 9780195181944 Published byOxford University Press on April 10th 2009 Pages: 433
Len's Summary: A new political history of the war.
Len's Summary: Draws on the writings of Hitler’s fellow soldiers of the List Regiment to offer a different view that that presented in Mein Kampf; challenges common wisdom that WWI was a seminal catastrophe for Gemany. See also: Corporal Hitler and the Great War.
Len's Summary: British oral historian Hart reexamines the failed Gallipoli campaign drawing on letters and memoirs of soldiers on both sides. Lively and very readable.
Len's Summary: Best remembered for his poetry which was published posthumously, Thomas (killed at the Battle of Arras in 1917) was appreciated by contemporaries for his prose.
Len's Summary: From the Ottoman Balkans and the 1878 Treaty of Berlin through the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne and beyond; a primer in Balkan politics. This arrived just in time for the centenary of the Balkan Wars.
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Spies in Uniform: British Military and Naval Intelligence on the Eve of the First World War by Matthew S. Seligmann ISBN: 9780199261505 Published byOxford University Press on February 9th 2006 Pages: 272
Len's Summary: The author argues the thesis that Great Britain had good and sufficient reason, based on solid intelligence, to suspect aggressive German intentions in the years leading up to 1914.
Len's Summary: A politico-military history delving into an important, but often ignored aspect of the Anglo-German naval race that preoccupied the Admiralty throughout the Edwardian period. A good companion to Planning Armageddon: British Economic Warfare and the First World War by Nicholas Lambert (Harvard, 2012).
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A Kingdom United: Popular Responses to the Outbreak of the First World War in Britain and Ireland by Catriona Pennell ISBN: 0198708467 Published byOxford University Press on September 24th 2014 Pages: 326
Len's Summary: In the days before public opinion surveys no statistical estimates of popular opinion were possible. This study attempts to approximate such a survey using diaries, journals, letters and newspaper accounts over the first five months of conflict. -- A wide variety of responses, not all positive, drawn from personal correspondence, diaries and the popular press.
Len's Summary: Based on interviews with leading participants in the uprising of February 1917 that toppled the House of Romanov. The author teaches at Notre Dame. -- Draws on new material available from interviews with participants.
Comments Off on The Month That Changed the World: July 1914
The Month That Changed the World: July 1914 by Gordon Martel ISBN: 9780199665389 Published byOxford University Press on July 1st 2014 Pages: 484
Len's Summary: Another look at the crucial weeks leading to war in 1914. // pages, ISBN 978 0 1996 6538 9, £22, $34.95. Step-by-step account of Europe’s slouch into war; a history of missed opportunities.
We are changing the WW1HA’s newsletter’s publication schedule to monthly. Publishing “Here and There with the WW1HA” twice a year provides too few opportunities to interact effectively with the membership! So, we’re going to go with shorter, monthly publications via our Constant Contact mailing list. My goal is that each issue will contain a brief comment from the President / Officers, a quick summary of WW1-related news, and a focus on a member and his/her research in each issue. What else should it include? You tell me: lavarennes@meuse-argonne.com.
Membership was very low at the beginning of the year, so we have formed a Membership Committee. The first action taken was to contact 2020-22 members who had not renewed in 2023. That was the low-hanging fruit. The second action will be to increase year-end renewal reminders and touch points with the membership—also low-hanging fruit. The third action will be to explore ways to reach beyond our current customers.
On 11 March we held our first quarterly Fireside Chat—with 27 participants—using Zoom. Again, this provided interaction with our members. We will be doing these quarterly and will be announcing the next one shortly. The top two responses of how/why members got excited about WW1 were 1) family involvement in the war and 2) aviation. How do we use this information to grow membership?
A small group of us are actively posting in the World War One Historical Association’s Facebook Group. Join us there.
Ed Klekowski is itching to do a Summer (third) issue of World War One Illustrated. He is working on the first Summer issue as we speak.
I have not made major changes to the website yet, because of the above-mentioned initiatives. That said, I did modernize the Chapters/Events Page to reflect our current activities.
I hope these efforts breathe new life into the Association, and I want to encourage you to do your bit. If you have a good idea, tell me about it. Better yet, step up and be willing to take a more active role.