This is an one of my favorite WW1 books. Geoffrey Wawro pulls no punches in wiping out the myth that the intervention of the US onto the battlefields of the Western Front was not THE decisive action that brought the war to a close in 1918.
Max Hastings is one of my favorite historians and he as written on a wide range of topics. In this book covering that critical first year of the war, he takes Barbara Tuchman’s spin in the classic The Guns of August and levels it up by looking at the entire war in 1914. This was a war that no one in Europe wanted, or quite frankly expected. And when it did begin, all the powers assumed it would be settled by a quick summer campaign. When it was not, there was a huge-“What now?” the really shows the tragedy of this war as no one had a clue what to do.
For anyone who’s had a chance to read one of the awesome books from Library of America this was their centennial edition of first hand accounts from the war covering a wide variety of topics and authors.
A magnificent little volume of “we were there” stories.
This is more of a British view of the campaigns of 1918 but is an excellent viewpoint of how the British Army evolved tactically for a new battlefield experience.
This is the classic account of the beginning of World War I, studied by JFK during the Cuban Missile Crisis as an example of how to blunder into war through miscommunication, miscalculation, and misunderstanding. It is combined with her volume on European history in the decades right before the war to show how Europeans thought there could never be another major war between the European powers.
The first major battle fought by American forces on the Western Front, the Attack on Cantigny by the U.S. Army’s 1st Infantry Division is a true coming of age story for the American military in the 20th century…when it went from being a frontier constabulary force to become the dominant army of 1918.
INTERNET RESOURCES
The U.S. Army Center for Military History World War I Centenary Commemorative site-This site has EVERYTHING you could want for the official history of the war. And it’s all downloadable in PDF format.
Army University Press Publications on World War I- Ok, this site is for only the most hardcore of grognards. Timothy T. Lupfer’s The Dynamics of Doctrine: The Changes in German Tactical Doctrine During The First World War is an amazing read, but not for the faint of heart.
The Price of Freedom: Americans at War
This Smithsonian website skillfully integrates Flash video and text to examine armed conflicts involving the U.S. from the Revolutionary War to the war in Iraq. Each conflict contains a brief video clip, statistical information, and a set of artifacts. There is also a Civil War mystery, an exhibition self-guide, and a teacher’s guide. The World War I section contains a short essay on the conflict as well as historic images and artifacts.
This Smithsonian website skillfully integrates Flash video and text to examine armed conflicts involving the U.S. from the Revolutionary War to the war in Iraq. Each conflict contains a brief video clip, statistical information, and a set of artifacts. There is also a Civil War mystery, an exhibition self-guide, and a teacher’s guide. The World War I section contains a short essay on the conflict as well as historic images and artifacts.
The Great War(PBS)
This site includes interviews, maps, an interactive timeline, and brief summaries of the series episodes.
This site includes interviews, maps, an interactive timeline, and brief summaries of the series episodes.
The Great War Society 1914-1918
A site for students and researchers that features numerous links to WWI topics
A site for students and researchers that features numerous links to WWI topics
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