The Day We Won the War: Turning Point at Amiens 8th August 1918 by Charles Messenger ISBN: 0297852817
Published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson on March 3rd 2009
Pages: 288
Len's Summary: The fateful day Ludendorff became convinced the German army was beaten. // Ninetieth anniversary analysis of the August 1918 break- through at Amiens which opened the victorious “100 days” ending World War I. The mixed arms attack of the British 4th Army also included troops from Australia, Canada and America.
The War on Hospital Ships, 1914-1918
The War on Hospital Ships, 1914-1918 by Stephen McGreal ISBN: 1844158586
Published by Pen & Sword Books on April 1st 2009
Pages: 272
Len's Summary: German submarine sinkings of unarmed hospital ships outraged the American, British and French publics and caused the UK to paint hospital ships in drab colors, defensively arm and sail them in protected convoys. // German sinkings of Entente hospital ships detailed.
Untold War: New Perspectives in First World War Studies
Untold War: New Perspectives in First World War Studies by Heather Jones, Jennifer O'brien, Christoph Schmidt-supprian ISBN: 9004166599
Published by Brill Academic Publishers on June 4th 2008
Genres: History, Military, World War I, Europe, General, Essays
Pages: 452
Len's Summary: Scholarly essays re-examining the global civil and military impact of the conflict; how the war changed societies. Contributors include prize-winning historians Alan Kramer and Dan Todman, with an introduction by John Horne. (I will be reviewing this for Stand To!) //Essays covering diverse themes such as combat, occupation, civil identity, juvenile delinquency, chaplains, art and remembrance across several countries: Germany, France, Britain, colonial Africa, Belgium and Romania. Fourth in the series of edited proceedings from conferences sponsored by the International Society for First World War Studies. Other titles are Uncovered Fields, Warfare and Belligerence, and Untold War.
Letters from Verdun: Frontline Experiences of an American Volunteer in World War I France
Letters from Verdun: Frontline Experiences of an American Volunteer in World War I France by William C. Harvey, Avery Wolfe ISBN: 1932033947
Published by Casemate Publishers on December 2009
Pages: 240
Len's Summary: The diary and letters of Avery Royce Wolfe recounting his service as a volunteer ambulance driver with the American Field Service near Verdun and with French occupation forces in the Rhineland from June 1917 to April 1919. Excellent photos taken by Avery Wolfe illustrate this volume. // Letters of a volunteer ambulance driver in the French army at Verdun and during the Ludendorff offensives of 1918. // Letters of an American volunteer ambulance driver in the French Army.
Cambrai 1917: The Myth of the First Great Tank Battle
Cambrai 1917: The Myth of the First Great Tank Battle by Bryn Hammond ISBN: 9780297845539
Published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson on November 4th 2008
Genres: History, Military, World War I, Great Britain
Pages: 500
Len's Summary: The author asserts that that innovative artillery tactics, not tanks (400 of them), were responsible for short-lived British successes at Cambrai. // The author sees the battle as a draw, but a nonetheless useful lesson leading toward more mobile warfare.
The Last Great War: British Society and the First World War
The Last Great War: British Society and the First World War by Adrian Gregory ISBN: 9780521728836
Published by Cambridge University Press on October 16th 2008
Genres: History, Europe, Great Britain, Modern, 20th Century, Military, General, World War I, Social History
Pages: 362
Len's Summary: A new social history. // A ground-breaking new cultural and social history of the British home front.
Survivors of a Kind: Memoirs of the Western Front
Survivors of a Kind: Memoirs of the Western Front by Brian Bond ISBN: 9781847250049
Published by A&C Black on December 20th 2008
Genres: History, General, Military, World War I, Modern, Personal Memoirs
Pages: 192
Len's Summary: An introduction to WWI memoirs as being of both literary and historical value. // An analysis of Western Front memoirs published by a range of British luminaries including Anthony Eden, Harold McMillan, General F. P. Crozier and several war poets including Edmund Blunden.
Famous, 1914-1918
Famous, 1914-1918 by Richard Van Emden, Vic Piuk ISBN: 1848841973
on March 1st 2010
Genres: History, Military, World War I, Great Britain
Pages: 350
Len's Summary: The stories of 20 of Britain’s most respected, best known and notorious celebrities in action on WWI. // Tells the stories of British celebrities and literati such as Basil Rathbone, C. S. Lewis, and J. R. R. Toiken who served in WWI.
Richthofen Jagdstaffel Ahead: REF Pilots Out-Performed and Out-Gunned Over the Western Front
Richthofen Jagdstaffel Ahead: REF Pilots Out-Performed and Out-Gunned Over the Western Front by Peter McManus ISBN: 9781906502003
Published by Casemate Publishers on December 1st 2008
Genres: History, Military, Aviation, World War I
Pages: 224
Len's Summary: A mediocre work on a familiar subject. // RFC 40 Squadron takes on a technically superior Flying Circus.
The Vertigo Years: Europe 1900-1914
The Vertigo Years: Europe 1900-1914 by Philipp Blom ISBN: 9780465020294
Published by Basic Books on November 2nd 2010
Genres: History, General
Pages: 488
Len's Summary: Europe between the death of Queen Victoria and the eruption of WWI in the throes of massive change. The continent was riddled with militarism, experiencing wide- spread political, economic and cultural upheaval, as well as astounding medical and technical advances. See also: The Proud Tower, Barbara Tuchman (1966), a lively, informative and well-crafted narrative history by the author of The Guns of August and The Zimmermann Telegram reprinted by Library of America in 2012. // The author contends that growing self-doubt among European elites led then to glorify war and welcome the cataclysm as the only way to cleanse their cultures of its sickness. Foretastes of disaster include Britain near-defeat in the Anglo-Borer War, Russia’s humiliation in the Russo-Japanese War and America’s 1907 Wall Street crash
The Imperial German Eagles in World War I: Their Postcards And Pictures
The Imperial German Eagles in World War I: Their Postcards And Pictures by Lance J. Bronnenkant ISBN: 9780764324406
Published by Schiffer Military History on April 2006
Genres: Biography & Autobiography, Military, History, Europe, Germany, World War I, Pictorial
Pages: 348
Len's Summary: Volume three of a valuable reference work that includes some Austro-Hungarian airman. // The second in a planned three-part series looks at the collectible Sanke, Liersch and NPG postcards featuring German WWI aviators. Available in April 2008.
The Other Side of the Wire Volume 2: The Battle of the Somme With the German XIV Reserve Corps, 1 July 1916
The Other Side of the Wire Volume 2: The Battle of the Somme With the German XIV Reserve Corps, 1 July 1916 by Ralph Whitehead ISBN: 1907677127
Published by Helion & Company on January 15th 2013
Pages: 656
Len's Summary: Second of two volumes following the XIV corps from the 1914 invasion to the Battle of the Somme in 1916. -- The Somme from the German perspective. // How the Germans created a formidable defensive system to meet the BEF offensive starting in July 1916.
The Western Front Experience: 1914-1918
The Western Front Experience: 1914-1918 by Gary Sheffield ISBN: 9781847329172
on February 7th 2012
Genres: History, Military, Pictorial, World War I
Pages: 63
Len's Summary: Billed as a basic guide to the Western Front; for the non specialist. // Heavily illustrated work describing the development of trench warfare spotlighting the appalling conditions endured by troops as well as specific actions and major battles. A coffee table book recommended by History Today.
The Will to Believe: Woodrow Wilson, World War I, and America’s Strategy for Peace and Security
The Will to Believe: Woodrow Wilson, World War I, and America's Strategy for Peace and Security by Ross A. Kennedy ISBN: 9780873389716
Published by Kent State University Press on March 13th 2009
Genres: History, Military, World War I, United States, General, 20th Century, Political Science, International Relations
Pages: 291
Len's Summary: A nuanced look at the debate surrounding Wilson’s national security policy and the shadow this casts across contemporary foreign policy formulation. // The author, an Assistant Professor of History at Illinois State University, takes a new, sophisticated look at how three competing groups — pacifists, liberal internationalists and Atlanticists — addressed national security issues during the Wilson Administration. // A fresh analysis of Wilson’s foreign policy focusing on three competing groups: pacifists, liberal internationalists, and Atlanticists.
Race and War in France: Colonial Subjects in the French Army, 1914-1918
Race and War in France: Colonial Subjects in the French Army, 1914-1918 by Richard S. Fogarty ISBN: 9781421407661
Published by Johns Hopkins University Press on December 5th 2012
Genres: History, Europe, France, Military, World War I, General, Strategy, Social History
Pages: 400
Len's Summary: Paperback version of an excellent social-military-political history first published by Johns Hopkins in 2008. How French egalitarianism was challenged by the conscription of more than half a million colonial troops during WWI, a “blood tax” levied on her African and Asian subjects. // An excellent scholarly analysis of colonial troops at war; a study of contradictory and paradoxical French policies on race, culture and religion in wartime drawing on individual experiences among the half million African, Arab and Asian soldiers who served France in WWI. Winner of the Phi Alpha Theta First Book Prize. The author teaches at SUNY Albany.
Pour la France: A Guide to the Formations and Units of French Land Forces 1914-18
Pour la France: A Guide to the Formations and Units of French Land Forces 1914-18 by Michael Cox, Graham Watson ISBN: 9781907677144
Published by Helion on 2012
Genres: History, France, Military, World War I
Pages: 539
Len's Summary: A unique English language guide to the French Army detailing its expansion from 43 infantry divisions in 1914 to140 infantry divisions in 1918; with a list of general officers and other useful detail. -- A rare English language guide to the French army. // Builds on the work on the first volume’s coverage of French regiments and divisions. // The first of two volumes including as well a listing of those divisions of the British, Italian and America armies coming under French command. A useful reference.
Big Gun Monitors: Design, Construction and Operations 1914-1945
Big Gun Monitors: Design, Construction and Operations 1914-1945 by Ian Buxton ISBN: 9781848321243
Published by Pen & Sword Books on January 1st 2012
Genres: History, Military, World War II, World War I, Naval
Pages: 256
Len's Summary: Designed and built specifically to provide heavy, shore bombardment particularly along the Flanders coast, these ships were also employed in WWII. A revision and update of a 1978 work. // The Royal Navy designed the first of these unusual vessels in late 1914 to bombard German coastal emplacements in Flanders. The earliest models mounted Bethlehem Steel 14-inch inch guns and turrets.
The Origins of World War I
The Origins of World War I by Richard F. Hamilton, Holger H. Herwig ISBN: 0521102189
Published by Cambridge University Press on December 11th 2008
Genres: World War I
Pages: 552
Len's Summary: Summary examination of the motivations of the leadership of 12 major and minor powers in going to war. // An abridged version of the collection of essays published by Cambridge as The Origins of World War I and edited by the same scholars. This version concentrates on the handful of men who made the decisions for war. The abridgement is even more readable than the original. The authors cut through the fog of nationalism and ex post facto justifications to the roots of the conflict. Affordable and highly recommended.
Pyrrhic Victory: French Strategy and Operations in the Great War
Pyrrhic Victory ISBN: 9780674034310 Published by Belknap Press on March 31, 2008
Genres: History, Military, World War I, Europe, France, Western
Pages: 592
The Second Battle of the Marne
The Second Battle of the Marne by Michael S. Neiberg ISBN: 9780253003546
Published by Indiana University Press on April 9th 2008
Genres: History, Military, World War I, Europe, General
Pages: 232
Len's Summary: Winner of the Annual WFA Norman B. Tomlinson, Jr. Book Prize for 2008, this book breaks new ground on a key battle in the last year of the war.
To Conquer Hell: The Meuse-Argonne, 1918
To Conquer Hell by Edward G. Lengel ISBN: 9780805079319
Published by Macmillan on January 8th 2008
Genres: History, Military, World War I, United States
Pages: 491
Len's Summary: A new history of this major battle, the most costly in American history, by a Professor of History at the University of Virginia. Draws on primary sources including memoirs and letters of US veterans. Professor Lengel was a speaker at the the WFA-USA National Seminar at Carlisle, Pennsylvania in September where he was awarded 2007 WFA Norman B. Tomlinson Book Prize for this book.
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
