Best of
World-War-I

1991

Dreadnought


Robert K. Massie - 1991
    Massie has written a richly textured and gripping chronicle of the personal and national rivalries that led to the twentieth century's first great arms race. Massie brings to vivid life, such historical figures as the single-minded Admiral von Tirpitz, the young, ambitious, Winston Churchill, the ruthless, sycophantic Chancellor Bernhard von Bulow, and many others. Their story, and the story of the era, filled with misunderstandings, missed opportunities, and events leading to unintended conclusions, unfolds like a Greek tratedy in his powerful narrative. Intimately human and dramatic, DREADNOUGHT is history at its most riveting.

Regeneration


Pat Barker - 1991
    Yet the novel is much more. Written in sparse prose that is shockingly clear—the descriptions of electronic treatments are particularly harrowing—it combines real-life characters and events with fictional ones in a work that examines the insanity of war like no other. Barker also weaves in issues of class and politics in this compactly powerful book. Other books in the series include The Eye in the Door and the Booker Award winner The Ghost Road.

Battleship Arizona: An Illustrated History


Paul Stillwell - 1991
    A full history of the famous warship's twenty-five year career, including riveting stories from the survivors of the attack on Pearl Harbor.

The Cruise of the Raider Wolf (War and Warriors Series)


Roy Alexander - 1991
     The Wolf has become a legendary figure—a name connected with strange happenings at sea; but to most people it is only a name. The actual cruise was a shadowy, mysterious affair; and for many reasons the history of the cruise has remained equally vague. Briefly, this raider slipped out of Germany in 1916, and for fifteen months roamed the seas of the world depending for fuel and food on the captures she made. Her very existence depended on these captures not becoming known. Ships encountering the Wolf therefore simply disappeared, their fate unknown. The raider roamed the Atlantic, Indian, Pacific oceans, even touched the Arctic and Antarctic seas. And she capped this unparalleled cruise by running the blockade back to Kiel. Incidentally, the Wolf was the only enemy warship to enter Australian or New Zealand waters. She mined the coasts of both these countries. After the raider’s return to Germany there was a world-wide blaze of publicity. The reception of the Wolf’s men in Berlin was one of the outstanding war events in the German capital. Then the Wolf disappeared from public notice as quickly as she became famous. One reason for this was that Captain Nerger, the raider’s commander, was not a publicity seeker and was not in particularly high favour in Germany. It was necessary to receive him with honour after he brought his ship back from such a cruise, but after that he was quietly moved to an obscure post and was heard of no more. The author was a prisoner aboard the raider for the last nine months of the cruise.

Glenn Curtiss: Pioneer of Flight


Cecil R. Roseberry - 1991
    C. R. Roseberry's biography begins with Curtiss's years in Hammondsport, New York, his experiments with designing and learning to fly his own airplanes, and his many firsts in aviation history. Establishing one of the first aviation schools, Curtiss also developed a highly successful aviation company and designed one of the most popular early American planes--the Curtiss JN-4 (the Jenny).More than just a biography, this is also a well-documented history of the development of aviation and the key figures associated with it during the first three crucial decades of this century. Through an examination of Curtiss's dealings with people such as Alexander Graham Bell, his original partner, and Wilbur and Orville Wright, his most important rivals, Roseberry provides insight into the overall development of flight in America.Aviation enthusiasts, historians, those interested in American technology and industry, and all who enjoy a good story will welcome this book.