The History Book Club discussion
THE FIRST WORLD WAR
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ENTENTE POWERS
Here is a new book covering one of the Entente Powers during the Great War, Romania:
by Glenn E. TorreyDescription:
Despite a strategically vulnerable position, an ill-prepared army, and questionable promises of military support from the Allied Powers, Romania intervened in World War I in August 1916. In return, it received the Allies’ formal sanction for the annexation of the Romanian-inhabited regions of Austria-Hungary. As Glenn Torrey reveals in his pathbreaking study, this soon appeared to have been an impulsive and risky decision for both parties.
Torrey details how, by the end of 1916, the armies of the Central Powers, led by German generals Falkenhayn and Mackensen, had administered a crushing defeat and occupied two-thirds of Romanian territory, but at the cost of diverting substantial military forces they needed on other fronts. The Allies, especially the Russians, were forced to do likewise in order to prevent Romania from collapsing completely.
Torrey presents the most authoritative account yet of the heavy fighting during the 1916 campaign and of the renewed attempt by Austro-German forces, including the elite Alpine Corps, to subdue the Romanian Army in the summer of 1917. This latter campaign, highlighted here but ignored in non-Romanian accounts, witnessed reorganized and rearmed Romanian soldiers, with help from a disintegrating Russian Army, administer a stunning defeat of their enemies. However, as Torrey also shows, amidst the chaos of the Russian Revolution the Central Powers forced Romania to sign a separate peace early in 1918. Ultimately, this allowed the Romanian Army to reenter the war and occupy the majority of the territory promised in 1916.
Torrey’s unparalleled familiarity with archival and secondary sources and his long experience with the subject give authority and balance to his account of the military, strategic, diplomatic, and political events on both sides of the battlefront. In addition, his use of personal memoirs provides vivid insights into the human side of the war. Major military leaders in the Second World War, especially Ion Antonescu and Erwin Rommel, made their careers during the First World War and play a prominent role in his book.
And for those interested here is his early book covering a very interesting subject about Romania's war effort:
by Glenn E. TorreyDescription:
At the beginning of the First World War, Henri Mathias Berthelot was recognized as one of France's most brilliant younger generals. His sharp intelligence, prodigious organizational talents, and verbal skills had made him the trusted assistant to a succession of French chiefs of staff including Brugere, Lacroix, and finally Joffre. As the latter's 'right arm' in implementing Plan XVII in 1914, he shared responsibility for the earliest defeats of the French Army, but also for the remarkable recovery that followed. His career as a field commander began with a reverse at Soissons (January 1915) but acclaimed successes followed, including the Labyrinth (Artois 1915) and Mort Homme (Verdun 1916) and also the second Battle of the Marne in which he commanded the French V Army (July-September 1918). Following the war, he contributed to the reintegration of Alsace and Lorraine into France in his role as military governor of Metz (1919-1921) and Strasbourg (1923-1926). Simultaneously, he played an influential role on the Conseil Superieure de Guerre in its debates over the defense of France which eventually produced the Maginot Line.
While, unfortunately, Berthelot's military career in France has not received the attention it deserves, his service in Romania as head of two French military missions (October 1916-March 1918) and (October 1918-May 1919) made him a national hero in that country. Arriving in Bucharest in the midst of a demoralizing defeat at the hands of the Central Powers in 1916, Berthelot's indomitable optimism and will to resist energized the Romanian political and military leadership. With the assistance of Berthelot, the Romanian army was rebuilt, a new Austro-German assault brilliantly repulsed in 1917, and the consequences of the Russian Revolution for Romania blunted. At the end of the war, when Allied leaders vacillated over allowing the Romanians to occupy the territory promised by the Allies in the Treaty of Alliance of 1916, Berthelot encouraged them to act on their own. His advocacy of Romania's revindications and his forceful promotion of her as the major instrument of French policy in Southeastern Europe alienated his superiors and eventually led to his recall.
Little Montenegro was one of the Allies during WWI, but how many people know where it is.
Montenegro meaning "Black Mountain" is a country in Southeastern Europe. It has a coast on the Adriatic Sea to the south-west and is bordered by Croatia to the west, Bosnia and Herzegovina to the northwest, Serbia to the northeast, Kosovo to the east and Albania to the south-east. Its capital and largest city is Podgorica, while Cetinje is designated as the Prijestonica, meaning the former Royal Capital City.
Montenegro was ruled by its Bishops until 1696, and then by the House of Petrović-Njegoš until 1918. From 1918, it was a part of Yugoslavia. On the basis of an independence referendum held on 21 May 2006, Montenegro declared independence on 3 June of that year.
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by Roy A. Prete (no photo)Synopsis:
In the first of three projected volumes, Prete crafts a behind-the-scenes look at Anglo-French command relations during World War I, from the start of the conflict until 1915, when trench warfare drastically altered the situation. Drawing on extensive archival research, Prete argues that the British government's primary interest lay in the defence of the empire; the small expeditionary force sent to France was progressively enlarged because the French, especially Commander-in-Chief Joseph Joffre, dragged their British ally into a progressively greater involvement. Several crises in Anglo-French command relations derived from these competing strategic objectives. New information gleaned from French public and private archives - including private diaries - enlarge our understanding of key players in the allied relationship.
One of the most unusual members of the Entente Powers was Brazil. Why would they get involved in WWI? The article below gives us some insight."On October 26, 1917, Brazil declares its decision to enter the First World War on the side of the Allied powers.
As a major player in the Atlantic trading market, Brazil—an immense country occupying nearly one-half of the entire South American continent—had been increasingly threatened by Germany’s policy of unrestricted submarine warfare over the course of the first two years of World War I. In February 1917, when Germany resumed that policy after temporarily suspending it due to pressure from neutral nations such as the United States, President Woodrow Wilson responded by immediately breaking diplomatic relations with Germany; the U.S. formally entered the war alongside the Allied powers on April 6, 1917.
One day before the U.S. declaration of war, a German U-boat sank the Brazilian merchant ship Parana as it sailed off the coast of France. On June 4, Dominico da Gama, the Brazilian ambassador to the U.S., wrote to Secretary of State Robert Lansing declaring that Brazil was revoking its previous neutrality and severing its own diplomatic relations with Germany. "Brazil ever was and is now free from warlike ambitions," da Gama stated, "and, while it always refrained from showing any partiality in the European conflict, it could no longer stand unconcerned when the struggle involved the United States, actuated by no interest whatever but solely for the sake of international judicial order, and when Germany included us and the other neutral powers in the most violent acts of war."
Over the next few months, Brazil’s government actively sought to amend its constitution to enable it to declare war. This having been accomplished, the declaration was made on October 26, 1917. In an open letter sent to the Vatican but clearly intended to be read in countries around the world, the Brazilian foreign minister, Dr. Nilo Pecanha, justified his country’s decision to enter the epic struggle of World War I on the side of the Allies by pointing to Germany’s attacks on international trade and invoking the higher purpose of creating a more peaceful, democratic post-war world: "Through the sufferings and the disillusions to which the war has given rise a new and better world will be born, as it were, of liberty, and in this way a lasting peace may be established without political or economic restrictions, and all countries be allowed a place in the sun with equal rights and an interchange of ideas and values in merchandise on an ample basis of justice and equity."
Though Brazil’s actual contribution to the Allied war effort was limited to one medical unit and some airmen, its participation was rewarded with a seat at the post-war bargaining table. The fact that Brazil—according to the size of its population—had three official delegates at the Paris Peace Conference in 1919 angered Portugal, who had sent 60,000 soldiers to the Western Front and yet had only one delegate. Britain supported Portugal in the disagreement, while the U.S. backed Brazil; no change was made. This conflict illustrated how important it was considered for the nations of the world to have representation in Versailles, as it was there that the boundaries of the new, post-World War I world would be determined. On June 28, 1919, Brazil was one of 27 nations to sign the 200-page Versailles Treaty, alongside a number of other Latin American nations who had also declared their support for the Allies, including Bolivia, Cuba, Ecuador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru and Uruguay." (Source: http://www.history.com/this-day-in-hi...)
Brazilian Soldiers in WWI
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by Frederick R. Dickinson (no photo)Synopsis:
For Japan, as one of the victorious allies, World War I meant territorial gains in China and the Pacific. At the end of the war, however, Japan discovered that in modeling itself on imperial Germany since the nineteenth century, it had perhaps been imitating the wrong national example. Japanese policy debates during World War I, particularly the clash between proponents of greater democratization and those who argued for military expansion, thus became part of the ongoing discussion of national identity among Japanese elites. This study links two sets of concerns--the focus of recent studies of the nation on language, culture, education, and race; and the emphasis of diplomatic history on international developments--to show how political, diplomatic, and cultural concerns work together to shape national identity.
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by Jehuda L. Wallach (no photo)Synopsis:
Wallach provides a pioneering study of coalition warfare. Using World War I as a case study, Wallach examines such important aspects as Allied pre-war planning; the particularistic interests of coalition partners; human relations; the framework for coordination mechanisms within coalitions; the application of such concepts as a general reserve, unified command, and amalgamation of forces; logistical problems; war finance; and the transition from war to peace.
In the process, Wallach shows that coalition warfare is among the most difficult forms to develop and maintain successfully. Unfortunately, as recent post-Cold War experiences illustrate, coalition warfare is an ongoing military issue. As such, this book will be of great interest to military planners as well as students of the history of World War I.
Good recommendation, Jerome. If you are a reader of WWII history, you see the same problems with the allies......to paraphrase..."wartime coalitions make strange bed fellows".
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by Andrej Mitrović (no photo)Synopsis:
Mitrovic's volume fills the gap in Balkan history by presenting an in-depth look at Serbia and its role in WWI. Serbia did play a key role at the start of the conflict but British and American historians have paid little attention to the topic. As Mark Cornwall writes in his introduction, The Serbian experience is in fact of major significance for three notable reasons. First, in the interlocking development of the wartime continent, Serbia's plight is part of a European jigsaw that cannot be omitted if the whole is to be better understood. At the same time, it serves as a valuable case study of the war in microcosm. It contains all the ingredients of the conflict experienced elsewhere—appalling suffering, legendary sacrifice, war aims, political-military tensions, socio-economic and political upheaval—and some more peculiar to itself, such as mass migration, exile, guerrilla resistance, and the trauma of three years of foreign occupation.
Secondly, the First World War was crucial as a stage in the construction of Serbian national mythology in the twentieth century. It enabled many Serbs to envisage themselves as a martyred people, their blood constantly spilled for the greater good. Out of the wartime Serbian 'Golgotha' (a favorite phrase from the Great War!), there finally emerged the dream of a South Slav or Yugoslav state with the Serbian kingdom at its core. It was a national trauma and sacrifice which nationalist Serbs might easily see as being repeated later in the century, in the wars of the 1940s and the 1990s. Thirdly, the Serbian story has a particular resonance for a British reader because of British participation in that trauma. At the time the British role in aiding or propagating or even betraying the Serbian cause was well publicized across Britain. Since then it has been a rather neglected subject, a sign of the amnesia, which can so easily creep into a reductionist official "national memory."
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by Robert Bowman BruceSynopsis:
By the beginning of the twentieth century, the United States had already become an international power and a recognized force at sea, but its army remained little more than a frontier constabulary. In fact, when America finally entered World War I, the U.S. Army was still only a tenth the size of the smallest of the major European forces. While most previous work on America's participation in the Great War has focused on alliance with Great Britain, Robert Bruce argues that the impact of the Franco-American relationship was of far greater significance. He makes a convincing case that the French, rather than the British, were the main military partner of the United States in its brief but decisive participation in the war-and that France deserves much credit for America's emergence as a world military power.
In this important new look at the First World War, Bruce reveals how two countries established a close and respectful relationship-marking the first time since the American Revolution that the United States had waged war as a member of a military coalition. While General Pershing's American Expeditionary Forces did much to buoy French morale and military operations, France reciprocated by training over 80 percent of all American army divisions sent to Europe, providing most of their artillery and tanks, and even commanding them in combat. As Bruce discloses, virtually every military engagement in which the AEF participated was a Franco-American operation. He provides significant new material on all major battles-not only the decisive Second Battle of the Marne, but also St. Mihiel, Cantigny, Reims, Soissons, and other engagements-detailing the key contributions of this coalition to the final defeat of Imperial Germany. Throughout the book, he also demonstrates that there was a mutual bond of affection not only between French and American soldiers but between the French and American people as well, with roots planted deep in the democratic ideal.
By revealing the overlooked importance of this crucial alliance, A Fraternity of Arms provides new insights not only into World War I but into coalition war-making as well. Contrary to the popular belief that relations between France and the United States have been tenuous or tendentious at best, Bruce reminds us that less than a century ago French and American soldiers fought side by side in a common cause-not just as allies and brothers-in-arms, but as true friends.
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by Guoqi Xu (no photo)Synopsis:
China's role in the First World War has been a curiously neglected topic. This 2005 book is a full-length study of China's involvement in the conflict from perspectives of international history, using largely unknown archival materials from China, France, Germany, UK, and USA. It explains why China wanted to join the war and what were its contributions to the war effort and the emerging world order in the postwar period. The book also demonstrates that China's participation in the First World War was not only a defining moment in modern Chinese and world history, but also the beginning of China's long journey toward internationalization. In this provocative book, Professor Xu adds a new dimension to our collective memory of the war, its tragedy and its significance, and restores the China war memory into its rightful place.
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by Elizabeth Greenhalgh (no photo)Synopsis:
Germany's invasion of France in August 1914 represented a threat to the great power status of both Britain and France. The countries had no history of cooperation, yet the entente they had created in 1904 proceeded by trial and error, via recriminations, to win a war of unprecedented scale and ferocity. Elizabeth Greenhalgh details the civil-military relations on each side, the political and military relations between the two powers, the maritime and industrial collaboration that were indispensable to an industrialized war effort and the Allied prosecution of war on the western front.
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by Nik Cornish (no photo)Synopsis:
This book is a clear introduction to the Russian Army of 1914-18 and the events on the Eastern Front during that period. It covers not only the three dominant events of Western literature (the battle of Tannenberg and the March and November revolutions) but expands on the facts and bitter realities of the horrific warfare that challenged Russia and all the nations. It contains many previously unpublished photographs depicting the Russian Army of that time. The author dispels some of the myths that have grown up around the army of the last Tsar, such as a lack of innovation and an inability to adapt to "modern" warfare. It also shows there was more to the Eastern Front than Tannenberg and the revolutions of 1917. Covered in this book are areas glossed over by other writers such as the nationalist formations and the Revolutionary units of the Provisional Government. Two chapters describe the Romanian and Caucasian theatres in more depth than usual.
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by Fiona K. Tomaszewski (no photo)Synopsis:
The Triple Entente of Great Britain, Russia, and France was the foreign policy prong of the Russian imperial government's reaction to the disastrous events of 1905, including the revolution and the near defeat in the Russo-Japanese War. This alignment with the two western, liberal powers was almost universally perceived within official Russian governing circles as a necessary, if ideologically distasteful, diplomatic relationship to offset the growing German threat on the continent. Maintaining the entente would help Russia retain its great power status. For the first time, Tomaszewski tells the official Russian side of the story, long inaccessible due to restrictions imposed by the relevant Russian archives during the Soviet era. In doing so, she sheds new light on the international scene as the crisis of World War One approached.
The Triple Entente went hand in hand with two policies of Stolypin, the Chairman of the Council of Ministers: draconian repression of the revolutionaries and sweeping domestic reforms. Acutely aware that serious failures in foreign policy would threaten the regime's existence, the imperial government designed both its foreign and its domestic policies to consolidate the autocracy for the twentieth century. Nicholas II gambled on the Triple Entente and its diplomatic alignment with the other two status-quo powers as the best means of preserving the peace in Europe and thereby preserving the imperial system as well.
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Release date: September 22, 2014
The Yanks Are Coming: A Military History of the United States in World War I
by H.W. Crocker III (no photo)Synopsis:
2014 marks the centenary of the beginning of that war, and in Crocker’s sweeping, American-focused account, readers will learn:
How George S. Patton, Douglas MacArthur, George C. Marshall (of the Marshall Plan), "Wild Bill" Donovan (future founder of the OSS, the World War II precursor to the CIA), Harry S. Truman, and many other American heroes earned their military spurs in "The Great War"
Why, despite the efforts of the almost absurdly pacifistic administration of Woodrow Wilson, American involvement in the war was inevitable
How the First World War was "the War that Made the Modern World"—sweeping away most of the crowned heads of Europe, redrawing the map of the Middle East, setting the stage for the rise of communism and fascism
Why the First World War marked America’s transition from a frontier power—some of our World War I generals had actually fought Indians—to a global superpower, with World War I generals like Douglas MacArthur living to see, and help shape, the nuclear age
"The Young Lions of the War" -- heroes who should not be forgotten, like air ace Eddie Rickenbacker, Sergeant Alvin York (memorably portrayed by Gary Cooper in the Academy Award�winning movie Sergeant York), and all four of Theodore Roosevelt’s sons (one of whom was killed)
Stirring, and full of brilliantly told stories of men at war, The Yanks Are Coming will be the essential book for readers interested in rediscovering America’s role in the First World War on its hundredth anniversary.
The Anzacs were one of the great fighting forces in both WWI and WWII. But this book looks at the homefront in Australia and New Zealand during WWI and the problems that the war brought to the population.In The Shadow of Gallipoli
by Robert Bollard (no photo)Synopsis
The fighting Anzacs have metamorphosed from flesh and blood into mythic icons; the war they fought in is distant and the resistance to it within Australia has been forgotten. This book corrects such historical amnesia by looking at what occured on the Australian home front during WWI, showing that the war was a disaster and many Australians knew it. It not only considers the wartime strike wave resulting from the discontent and dissent, such as the Great Strike of 1917, but also the impact of international political events, including the Easter Rising in Ireland and the Russian Revolution. Demonstrating that the first year of peace was tumultuous, as strikes and riots involving returned Anzacs shook Australia throughout 1919, this book uncovers the history that has been obscured by the shadow of Anzac
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Release date: November 4, 2014
Imperial Apocalypse: The Great War and the Destruction of the Russian Empire
by Joshua A Sanborn (no photo)Synopsis:
Imperial Apocalypse describes the collapse of the Russian Empire during World War One. Drawing material from nine different archives and hundreds of published sources, this study ties together state failure, military violence, and decolonization in a single story. Joshua Sanborn excavates the individual lives of soldiers, doctors, nurses, politicians, and civilians caught up in the global conflict along the way, creating a narrative that is both humane and conceptually rich.
The volume opens by laying out the theoretical relationship between state failure, social collapse, and decolonization, and then moves chronologically from the Balkan Wars of 1912-13 through the fierce battles and massive human dislocations of 1914-16 to the final collapse of the empire in the midst of revolution in 1917-18. Imperial Apocalypse is the first major study which treats the demise of the Russian Empire as part of the twentieth-century phenomenon of modern decolonization, and provides a readable account of military activity and political change throughout this turbulent period of war and revolution. Sanborn argues that the sudden rise of groups seeking national self-determination in the borderlands of the empire was the consequence of state failure, not its cause. At the same time, he shows how the destruction of state institutions and the spread of violence from the front to the rear led to a collapse of traditional social bonds and the emergence of a new, more dangerous, and more militant political atmosphere.
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by Anthony Clayton (no photo)Synopsis:
Anthony Clayton is an acknowledged expert on the French military and his book is a major contribution to the study and understanding of the First World War. He reveals why and how the French army fought as it did. He profiles its senior commanders - Joffre, Petain, Nivelle and Foch - and analyses its major campaigns both on the Western Front and in the Near East and Africa. Paths of Glory also considers in detail the officers, how they kept their trenches and how men from very different areas of France fought and died together. He scrutinises the make-up and performance of France's large colonial armies and investigates the mutinies of 1917. Ultimately, he reveals how the traumatic French experience of the 1914-18 war indelibly shaped a nation.
Another book for my TBR list which goes on and on and on and on.................
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by Edward McCullough (no photo)Synopsis:
The current dogma concerning the origins of the First World War supports the militarist myth that wars are caused by stupid, evil, aggressive nations on the other side of the world who refuse to get along with the intelligent, good, peaceful people on this side.
This book attempts to understand the real causes of war and to dissociate propaganda from historical fact. By reviewing the events of the pre-1914 period, the responsibility of Germany for the outbreak of the war is reconsidered.
It begins with a short account of the situation after the Franco-Prussian War, when France was isolated and Germany secure in the friendship of all the other Great Powers, and proceeds to describe how France created an anti-German coalition. The account of the estrangement of England from Germany attempts to correct the usual pro-British prejudice and to explain the real causes of this development. The centrepiece of the work is the creation of the Triple Entente.
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by Gordon Corrigan (no photo)Synopsis:
The popular view of the First World War remains that of 'Blackadder': incompetent generals sending brave soldiers to their deaths. Alan Clark quoted a German general's remark that the British soldiers were 'lions led by donkeys'. But he made it up. Indeed, many established 'facts' about 1914-18 turn out to be myths woven in the 1960s by young historians on the make. Gordon Corrigan's brilliant, witty new history reveals how out of touch we have become with the soldiers of 1914-18. They simply would not recognize the way their generation is depicted on TV or in Pat Barker's novels. Laced with dry humour, this will overturn everything you thought you knew about Britain and the First World War. Gordon Corrigan reveals how the British embraced technology, and developed the weapons and tactics to break through the enemy trenches.
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Jerome, Assisting Moderator - Upcoming Books and Releases
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by Elizabeth Greenhalgh(no photo)Synopsis:
A comprehensive new account of the French Army's critical contribution to the Great War. Elizabeth Greenhalgh revises our understanding not only of wartime strategy and fighting, but also of other crucial aspects of France's war, from mutinies and mail censorship to medical services, railways and weapons development.
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by John Gooch (no photo)Synopsis:
This is a major new account of the role and performance of the Italian army during the First World War. Drawing from original, archival research, it tells the story of the army's bitter three-year struggle in the mountains of Northern Italy, including the eleven bloody battles of the Isonzo, the near-catastrophic defeat at Caporetto in 1917 and the successful, but still controversial defeat of the Austro-Hungarian army at Vittorio Veneto on the eve of the Armistice. Setting military events within a broader context, the book explores pre-war Italian military culture and the interactions between domestic politics, economics and society. In a unique study of an unjustly neglected facet of the war, John Gooch illustrates how General Luigi Cadorna, a brutal disciplinarian, drove the army to the edge of collapse, and how his successor, general Armando Diaz, rebuilt it and led the Italians to their greatest victory in modern times.
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Jerome, Assisting Moderator - Upcoming Books and Releases
(last edited Aug 16, 2025 05:24PM)
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by David R. Woodward (no photo)Synopsis:
This is a definitive history of the American Army's role and performance during the First World War. Drawing from a rich pool of archival sources, David Woodward sheds new light on key themes such as the mobilisation of US forces, the interdependence of military diplomacy, coalition war-making, the combat effectiveness of the AEF and the leadership of its commander John J. Pershing. He shows us how, in spite of a flawed combat doctrine, logistical breakdowns and the American industry's failure to provide modern weaponry, the Doughboys were nonetheless able to wage a costly battle at Meuse-Argonne and play a decisive role in ending the war. The book gives voice to the common soldier through firsthand war diaries, letters, and memoirs, allowing us to reimagine their first encounters with regimented military life, their transport across the sub-infested Atlantic to Europe, and their experiences both in and behind the trenches.
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Release date: December 16, 2014
Canada's Great War, 1914-1918: How Canada Helped Save the British Empire and Became a North American Nation
by Brian Tennyson (no photo)Synopsis:
Canada's Great War, 1914-1918: How Canada Helped Save the British Empire and Became a North American Nation the major role that Canada played in helping the British Empire win the greatest war in history and, somewhat surprisingly, resulted in Canada s closer integration not with the British Empire but with its continental neighbor, the United States. When Britain declared war against Germany and Austria-Hungary in August 1914, Canada was automatically committed as well because of its status as a Dominion in the British Empire. Despite not having a say in the matter, most Canadians enthusiastically embraced the war effort in order to defend the Empire and its values.
In Canada's Great War, 1914-1918 historian Brian Douglas Tennyson argues that Canada s participation in the war weakened its relationship with Britain by stimulating a greater sense of Canadian identity, while at the same time bringing it much closer to the United States, especially after the latter entered the war. Their wartime cooperation strengthened their relationship, which had been delicate and often strained in the nineteenth century. This was reflected in the greater integration of their economies and the greater acceptance in Canada of American cultural products such as books, magazines, radio broadcasting and movies, and was symbolized by the astonishing American response to the Halifax explosion in December 1917. By the end of the war, Canadians were emerging as a North American people, no longer fearing close ties to the United States, even as they maintained their ties to the British Commonwealth.
Canada's Great War, 1914-1918will interest not only Canadians unaware of how greatly their nation s participation in the First World War reshaped its relationship with Britain and the United States, but also Americans unacquainted with the magnitude of Canada s involvement in the war and how that contribution drew the two nations closer together.
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by Meirion Harries (no photo)Synopsis:
In the Spring of 1917, America went to war with an innocent determination to re-make the world. When the smoke lifted in November 1918, the nation emerged with its sense of purpose shattered, its certainties shaken, and with a new and unwelcome self-knowledge. Seventy-five thousand American soldiers were dead, and back home a Pandora's box of suspicions and surveillance had been opened.
The Last Days of Innocence reveals how the fight to preserve freedom abroad led to the erosion of freedom at home. Drawing on American, British, and French archival material, the authors reveal unplanned and uncoordinated field efforts, as well as the unsavory activities of anti-dissent groups, from the Committee for Public Information to the Anti-Yellow Dog League, including a posse of children organized to listen for antiwar talk among families and friends. Here is the story of the fifty-billion-dollar war that gave birth to the Selective Service Act, threatened labor rights, stoked the fires of racial and religious intolerance, and concentrated the nation's wealth into fewer hands than ever before. The Last Days of Innocence tells the untold story of the war that rudely thrust Americans into an uncertain future--a war whose effects remain with us today.
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by Byron Farwell (no photo)Synopsis:
Our last-minute intervention in this European war would save the Allies in their hour of need and change forever the way Americans saw their country and the world. When the United States finally declared war on Germany on April 6, 1917, the British and French armies were at a point of total exhaustion; within two weeks the French troops had mutinied, leaving the Western Front practically undefended. In the same month, Lenin arrived in Moscow on the heels of the Russian Revolution and vowed to make peace with Germany. In the course of a few months the American army would grow from 200,000 ill-equipped and untrained men to over one million, but it was longer still before the French and British commanders took General Pershing and his recruits seriously.
Byron Farwell's informed and colorful narrative covers all phases of the American effort, from the home front, where the war introduced rapid technical and social changes that were difficult to absorb, to the desperate encounters in the front lines of Belleau Wood and the St. Mihiel salient, where American troops proved their valor and altered the course of the war. The author, whose previous books include Stonewall Jacksonand Queen Victoria's Little Wars paints a vivid and memorable picture of the intense national experience whereby America came of age in the twentieth century.
When I saw your book recommendation in post#29, it reminded me that I had read this book a couple of years ago. It is about the coming of age of the USA during WWI.Over Here: The First World War and American Society
by David M. Kennedy (no photo)Synopsis:
The Great War of 1914-1918 confronted the United States with one of the most wrenching crises in the nation's history. It also left a residue of disruption and disillusion that spawned an even more ruinous conflict scarcely a generation later.
Over Here is the single-most comprehensive discussion of the impact of World War I on American society. This 25th anniversary edition includes a new afterword from Pulitzer Prize-winning author David M. Kennedy, that explains his reasons for writing the original edition as well as his opinions on the legacy of Wilsonian idealism, most recently reflected in President George W. Bush's national security strategy. More than a chronicle of the war years, Over Here uses the record of America's experience in the Great War as a prism through which to view early twentieth century American society. The ways in which America mobilized for the war, chose to fight it, and then went about the business of enshrining it in memory all indicate important aspects of enduring American character. An American history classic, Over Here reflects on a society's struggle with the pains of war, and offers trenchant insights into the birth of modern America
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Thomas J. FlemingSynopsis:
In this sweeping historical canvas, Thomas Fleming undertakes nothing less than a drastic revision of our experience in World War I. He reveals how the British and French duped Wilson into thinking the war was as good as won, and there would be no need to send an army overseas. He describes a harried president making speech after speech proclaiming America's ideals while supporting espionage and sedition acts that sent critics to federal prisons. And he gives a harrowing account of how the Allies did their utmost to turn the American Expeditionary Force into cannon fodder on the Western Front.Thoroughly researched and dramatically told, The Illusion of Victory offers compelling testimony to the power of a president's visionary ideals-as well as a starkly cautionary tale about the dangers of applying them in a war-maddened world.
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by Justus D. Doenecke (no photo)Synopsis:
When war broke out in Europe in 1914, political leaders in the United States were swayed by popular opinion to remain neutral; yet less than three years later, the nation declared war on Germany. In Nothing Less Than War: A New History of America's Entry into World War I Justus D. Doenecke examines the clash of opinions over the war during this transformative period and offers a fresh perspective on America's decision to enter World War I.
Doenecke reappraises the public and private diplomacy of President Woodrow Wilson and his closest advisors and explores in great depth the response of Congress to the war. He also investigates the debates that raged in the popular media and among citizen groups that sprang up across the country as the U.S. economy was threatened by European blockades and as Americans died on ships sunk by German U-boats.
The decision to engage in battle ultimately belonged to Wilson, but as Doenecke demonstrates, Wilson's choice was not made in isolation. Nothing Less Than War provides a comprehensive examination of America's internal political climate and its changing international role during the seminal period of 1914--1917.
I sometimes get amused at the picture painted of Woodrow Wilson prior and during America's entry into WWI. To some celebrated historians, he was a self-centered, self-important man who pushed his ideas for a League of Nations to the point that his Fourteen Points were included in the Treaty of Versailles. To others,equally celebrated, he could do no wrong and his guidance at Versailles was necessary to keep the other allies in check. Who knows what the answer is.......he was a controversial figure.
Indeed he was, Jill. He is still revered for his 14 Points and getting the country through WWI. But like all presidencies, you can't expect perfection with his one-man push for the League and stubbornness. His domestic record was very strong before the war, too.
Everyone at Versailles had an axe to grind. France for the destruction of much of its country; England for the loss of a generation of young men and protection of the Empire; and Italy just wanted the port city of Fiume. But Wilson only wanted peace with honor and the development of the League of Nations to outlaw war forever. Unfortunately, that was pretty naive and he engendered distrust from the allies. The treaty ended up being totally unworkable and as we know, it set the stage for WWII. Sometimes even the best of intentions have negative consequences.
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Americans do not take this fall from the pedestal very well and should realize that they have unreasonable and grandiose expectations of these men - who only can do their human best to solve the problems that others have begun. They all have had their limitations as men, they all have had their strengths and weaknesses but none of them have super powers.
When Barack Obama was so exalted and made to look like a super hero - I often wondered how long it would take for the same folks to become disenchanted. It seems to happen with most presidents unless their political party tried to make them iconic like the Republican party has done with Reagan and to a large extent as the Democratic party has done with Kennedy and FDR.
All of these men had huge faults along with their talents and great skills as all humans do. I think what folks should want in a president is somebody who has the constitutional will to face conflict and disagreement with grit and determination and get the job done - LBJ I think fit the bill the best from what I can see. But I am open to discussion.
Wilson to me seemed to detach from the noise around him and was absolutely focused and whether you liked him or not, liked his views or not - he was gritty and determined and relentless. And for that we should be grateful.
People have too high expectations for a president and Wilson was a good example of this. Bentley, you are right, he is human and has a lot of constraints on the office...checks and balances...our system is not built for grand changes, unless you have a big crisis (for foreign policy) like WWI.
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It is too bad but the climate seems to be rough these days. And you are right Bryan checks and balances do not allow for any grandiose designs on the part of any one party or individual. We only have human beings in office.
I think that Wilson was very well intentioned but naive to think that war could be outlawed. Civilization has been at war since the beginning unfortunately. He gave it his best try but his heart was broken when his own country turned its back on the League of Nations.I totally agree regarding LBJ, Bentley.....he was one tough cookie.
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I think we need an LBJ right now. But where would we get one? Pretty soon with the abuse and damage Americans and the press and even Congress dish out to the President - each one might need as part of their cabinet - the resident White House psychiatrist. Each incoming President would be able to hire their own.
I think there was a movie about that.....The President's Analyst, starring James Coburn.....and it was a comedy. The situation now days is not.
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...then someone can break into the doctor's office to steal the patient files of the president...oh wait, Nixon tried to do that with the psychologist of Daniel Ellsberg from the Pentagon Papers.You truly must have some hard skin to be in politics today. With the stroke, Wilson probably felt every attack personally.
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Jerome, Assisting Moderator - Upcoming Books and Releases
(last edited Mar 04, 2015 06:52AM)
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Release date: April 10, 2015
Russian Army in the Great War: The Eastern Front, 1914 - 1917
by David R Stone (no photo)Synopsis:
A full century later, our picture of World War I remains one of wholesale, pointless slaughter in the trenches of the Western front. Expanding our focus to the Eastern front, as David R. Stone does in this masterly work, fundamentally alters—and clarifies—that picture. A thorough, and thoroughly readable, history of the Russian front during the First World War, this book corrects widespread misperceptions of the Russian Army and the war in the east even as it deepens and extends our understanding of the broader conflict.
Of the four empires at war by the end of 1914—the Austro-Hungarian, Ottoman, German, and Russian—none survived. But specific political, social, and economic weaknesses shaped the way Russia collapsed and returned as a radically new Soviet regime. It is this context that Stone's work provides, that gives readers a more judicious view of Russia's war on the home front as well as on the front lines. One key and fateful difference in the Russian experience emerges here: its failure to systematically and comprehensively reorganize its society for war, while the three westernmost powers embarked on programs of total mobilization.
Context is also vital to understanding the particular rhythm of the war in the east. Drawing on recent and newly available scholarship in Russian and in English, Stone offers a nuanced account of Russia's military operations, concentrating on the uninterrupted sequence of campaigns in the first 18 months of war. The eastern empires' race to collapse underlines the critical importance of contingency in the complete story of World War I. Precisely when and how Russia lost the war was influenced by the structural strengths and weaknesses of its social and economic system, but also by the outcome of events on the battlefield. By bringing these events into focus, and putting them into context, this book corrects and enriches our picture of World War I, and of the true strengths and weaknesses, triumphs and successes of the Russian Army in the Great War.
The uncertain position of Romania as a member of the Entente Powers during WWI.The Romanian Battlefront in World War I
by Glenn E. Torrey(no photo)Synopsis:
Despite a strategically vulnerable position, an ill-prepared army, and questionable promises of military support from the Allied Powers, Romania intervened in World War I in August 1916. In return, it received the Allies' formal sanction for the annexation of the Romanian-inhabited regions of Austria-Hungary. As Glenn Torrey reveals in his pathbreaking study, this soon appeared to have been an impulsive and risky decision for both parties.
Torrey details how, by the end of 1916, the armies of the Central Powers, led by German generals Falkenhayn and Mackensen, had administered a crushing defeat and occupied two-thirds of Romanian territory, but at the cost of diverting substantial military forces they needed on other fronts. The Allies, especially the Russians, were forced to do likewise in order to prevent Romania from collapsing completely.
Torrey presents the most authoritative account yet of the heavy fighting during the 1916 campaign and of the renewed attempt by Austro-German forces, including the elite Alpine Corps, to subdue the Romanian Army in the summer of 1917. This latter campaign, highlighted here but ignored in non-Romanian accounts, witnessed reorganized and rearmed Romanian soldiers, with help from a disintegrating Russian Army, administer a stunning defeat of their enemies. However, as Torrey also shows, amidst the chaos of the Russian Revolution the Central Powers forced Romania to sign a separate peace early in 1918. Ultimately, this allowed the Romanian Army to reenter the war and occupy the majority of the territory promised in 1916.
Torrey's unparalleled familiarity with archival and secondary sources and his long experience with the subject give authority and balance to his account of the military, strategic, diplomatic, and political events on both sides of the battlefront. In addition, his use of personal memoirs provides vivid insights into the human side of the war. Major military leaders in the Second World War, especially Ion Antonescu and Erwin Rommel, made their careers during the First World War and play a prominent role in his book.
Torrey's study fosters a genuinely new appreciation and understanding of a long-neglected aspect of World War I that influenced not only the war itself but the peace settlement that followed and, in fact, continues today.
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Release date: October 19, 2015
The Serbian Army in the Great War, 1914-1918
by Dusan Babac (no photo)Synopsis:
The Kingdom of Serbia waged war against Austria-Hungary and the other Central Powers from 28 July 1914 when the Austro-Hungarian government declared war, until the capitulation of Austria-Hungary. In the first two years of the war, Serbia defeated the Austro-Hungarian Balkan Army. The following year, her army was faced with the Axis invasion. Unwilling to surrender, the Serbian Army retreated through Albania and evacuated to Corfu where it rested, rearmed and reorganized. From there the army transferred to the Salonika Front, where it recorded successes by 1916. After a long lull, the struggle to penetrate the Front began in September 1918. Serbian and other Allied forces broke through the Front and Bulgaria was soon forced to surrender. The Serbian Army advanced rapidly and on 1 November 1918 Belgrade was liberated. Thanks to the Serbian military victories and diplomatic efforts, the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (later Yugoslavia) was created.
Serbia paid for her victory in the Great War in a disproportionately exorbitant manner: it is estimated that she lost close to one million inhabitants, of whom about 400,000 were conscripts and the rest civilians, which accounted for nearly a third of the total population, or close to 60% of the male population. No other country that participated in the Great War paid so dearly for its freedom.
The Serbian Army in the Great War, 1914–1918 offers readers a very thorough analysis of the Serbian Army of the period, including its organization, participation in military operations, weapons, equipment, uniforms, and system of orders and medals. This book is a synthesis of all available literature and periodicals, appearing for the first time in the English language. The book is well supported by around 500 illustrations, out of which more than 300 are contemporary photographs and other documents, while this is complemented by dozens of color plates of uniform reconstructions and color photographs of the preserved pieces of uniform, equipment and weapons. A special emphasis has been placed on the colors of Serbian uniforms from the period. The book is the result of two decades of research and will enable readers to gain a clearer picture of this subject.
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Release date: July 30, 2016
The Forgotten Ally: China in the Great War
by Christopher Arnander (no photo)Synopsis:
The Great War helped China emerge from humiliation and obscurity and take its first tentative steps as a full member of the global community. In 1912 the Qing Dynasty had ended. President Yuan Shikai, who seized power in 1914, offered the British 50,000 troops to recover the German colony in Shandong but this was refused. In 1916 China sent a vast army of labourers to Europe. In 1917 she declared war on Germany despite this effectively making the real enemy Japan an ally. The betrayal came when Japan was awarded the former German colony. This inspired the rise of Chinese nationalism and communism, enflamed by Russia. The scene was set for Japan's incursions into China and thirty years of bloodshed. One hundred years on, the time is right for this accessible and authoritative account of China's role in The Great War and assessment of its national and international significance
Jerome wrote: "Another:Release date: July 30, 2016
The Forgotten Ally: China in the Great War
by Christopher Arnander (no photo)..."OMG TBR THX
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The History Book Club
Books mentioned in this topic
More Precious than Peace: A New History of America in World War I (other topics)They Shall Not Pass: The French Army on the Western Front 1914-1918 (other topics)
How the War Was Won (other topics)
The Killing Ground: the British Army, the Western Front and the Emergence of Modern Warfare, 1900-1918 (other topics)
The Great War Generals on the Western Front, 1914-1918 (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
Justus D. Doenecke (other topics)Ian Sumner (other topics)
Tim Travers (other topics)
Robin Neillands (other topics)
Ian F.W. Beckett (other topics)
More...
The Entente Powers were known as the Allies of the War. They included:
Russian Empire/Republic · French Empire: France, Vietnam · British Empire: United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand, Newfoundland, South Africa · Italy · Romania · United States · Serbia · Portugal · China · Japan · Belgium · Montenegro · Greece · Armenia · Brazil
This thread can discuss any aspect of the involvement of the Entente powers in World War I.
This thread is a spot to discuss the following (people, locations, events, books and other publications, battles, historic sites, maps, research information, urls, etc.)
Please feel free to add any and all discussion information related to this topic area in this thread.
Source: Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allies_o...