In a letter home to his mother, he describes how, despite fierce fighting earlier from both sides, Allied and German soldiers ceased firing and came together on the battlefield to celebrate the holiday. They sang carols, exchanged gifts, and even lit Christmas trees. But as the holiday came to a close, they returned to their separate trenches to await orders for the war to begin again.John Hendrix wonderfully brings this story to life, interweaving fact and fiction along with his detailed illustrations and hand-lettered text. His story celebrates the humanity and kindness that can persist even during the darkest periods of our history. Back matter includes a glossary, additional information about World War I and the Christmas Truce and its aftermath, and an archival photograph taken during the Truce.

    Convinced that right was on their side and fearful of the enemies that encircled them, they threw themselves resolutely into battle. Yet, despite the initial halting of a brutal Russian invasion, the Central Powers' war plans soon unravelled. Germany's attack on France failed. Austria-Hungary's armies suffered catastrophic losses at Russian and Serbian hands. Hopes of a quick victory lay in ruins.For the Central Powers the war now became a siege on a monstrous scale. Britain's ruthless intervention cut sea routes to central Europe and mobilised the world against them. Germany and Austria-Hungary were to be strangled of war supplies and food, their soldiers overwhelmed by better armed enemies, and their civilians brought to the brink of starvation. Conquest and plunder, land offensives, and submarine warfare all proved powerless to counter or break the blockade. The Central Powers were trapped in the Allies' ever-tightening ring of steel. Alexander Watson's compelling new history retells the war from the perspectives of its instigators and losers, the Germans and Austro-Hungarians. This is the story not just of their leaders in Berlin and Vienna, but above all of the people. Only through their unprecedented mobilisation could the conflict last so long and be so bitterly fought, and only with the waning of their commitment did it end. The war shattered their societies, destroyed their states and bequeathed to east-central Europe a poisonous legacy of unredeemed sacrifice, suffering, race hatred and violence. A major re-evaluation of the First World War, Ring of Steel is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the last century of European history.

    In the depths of the Great War, with millions dead and no imaginable end to the conflict, societies around the world began to buckle. The heart of the financial system shifted from London to New York. The infinite demands for men and matériel reached into countries far from the front. The strain of the war ravaged all economic and political assumptions, bringing unheard-of changes in the social and industrial order.A century after the outbreak of fighting, Adam Tooze revisits this seismic moment in history, challenging the existing narrative of the war, its peace, and its aftereffects. From the day the United States enters the war in 1917 to the precipice of global financial ruin, Tooze delineates the world remade by American economic and military power.Tracing the ways in which countries came to terms with America’s centrality—including the slide into fascism—The Deluge is a chilling work of great originality that will fundamentally change how we view the legacy of World War I.

    After eight months of terrible fighting, they would fail.Turkey regards the victory to this day as a defining moment in its history, a heroic last stand in the defence of the nation's Ottoman Empire. But, counter-intuitively, it would signify something perhaps even greater for the defeated Australians and New Zealanders involved: the birth of their countries' sense of nationhood.Now approaching its centenary, the Gallipoli campaign, commemorated each year on Anzac Day, reverberates with importance as the origin and symbol of Australian and New Zealand identity. As such, the facts of the battle – which was minor against the scale of the First World War and cost less than a sixth of the Australian deaths on the Western Front – are often forgotten or obscured. Peter FitzSimons, with his trademark vibrancy and expert melding of writing and research, recreates the disaster as experienced by those who endured it or perished in the attempt.

    With an unrivaled combination of depth and global reach, Pandora's Box reveals how profoundly the war shaped the world to come.Jorn Leonhard treats the clash of arms with a sure feel for grand strategy, the everyday tactics of dynamic movement and slow attrition, the race for ever more destructive technologies, and the grim experiences of frontline soldiers. But the war was much more than a military conflict, or an exclusively European one. Leonhard renders the perspectives of leaders, intellectuals, artists, and ordinary men and women on diverse home fronts as they grappled with the urgency of the moment and the rise of unprecedented political and social pressures. And he shows how the entire world came out of the war utterly changed.Postwar treaties and economic turbulence transformed geopolitics. Old empires disappeared or confronted harsh new constraints, while emerging countries struggled to find their place in an age of instability. At the same time, sparked and fueled by the shock and suffering of war, radical ideologies in Europe and around the globe swept away orders that had seemed permanent, to establish new relationships among elites, masses, and the state. Heralded on its publication in Germany as a masterpiece of historical narrative and analysis, Pandora's Box makes clear just what dangers were released when the guns first fired in the summer of 1914.

    Named Rags for his disheveled appearance, the little stray quickly finds a home with Donovan and a place in his heart. Although the Army did not have an official canine division, Rags accompanies Donovan to the battlefield, making himself a useful companion delivering messages and providing a much-appreciated morale boost to the soldiers. News about Rags spreads and soon the little dog's battlefield exploits become the stuff of legend. But during a fierce battle near the end of the war, both Rags and Donovan are wounded. Severely injured, Donovan is sent back to the United States. And the little dog with the big heart refuses to leave his best friend's side.

    Convinced Germany will head straight for Paris, he sends his wife, daughter, mother and younger son to Beaufort, a small village in northern France. But when war erupts two months later, the German army invades neutral Belgium, sweeping south towards Paris. And by the end of September, Beaufort is less than twenty miles from the front. During the years that follow, with the rumbling of guns ever present in the distance, three generations of women come together to cope with deprivation, fear and the dreadful impacts of war. In 1917, Helene falls in love with a young Canadian soldier wounded in the battle of Vimy Ridge. But war has a way of separating lovers and families, of twisting promises and dashing hopes, and of turning the naive and innocent into the jaded and war-weary. As the months pass, Helene is forced to reconcile dreams for the future with harsh reality. Lies Told in Silence examines love and loss, duty and sacrifice, and the unexpected consequences of lies.

    In truth, what happened seems almost like a fairy tale, and if I hadn't been through it myself, I would scarce believe it. Just imagine: While you and the family sang carols before the fire there in London, I did the same with enemy soldiers here on the battlefields of France! The Christmas Truce of 1914 is one of the most extraordinary incidents not only of World War I but of all military history. Providing inspiration for songs, books, plays, and movies, it has endured as an archetypal image of peace. Yet much about the historic event remains shrouded in myth and legend. In this fictional letter -- illustrated in authentic detail by Wendy Edelson -- award-winning author Aaron Shepard draws from firsthand accounts of soldiers at the front to portray the truce in its true nature and spirit. TEACHERS AND LIBRARIANS -- A READER'S THEATER SCRIPT OF THIS BOOK IS AVAILABLE FREE ON AARON'S WEB SITE. ///////////////////////////////////////////////// Aaron Shepard's many books for young people have won honors from the American Library Association, the New York Public Library, the Bank Street College of Education, the American Folklore Society, and the National Council for the Social Studies. Wendy Edelson has been honored with the Pacific Northwest Book Award, the Moonbeam Children's Book Award, and the Mom's Choice Award. Her other illustrated books include Aaron's -The Baker's Dozen: A Saint Nicholas Tale.- ///////////////////////////////////////////////// -Among the many entries celebrating this event's centennial, librarians and teachers should welcome this historically accurate telling for ages 9 and up.- -- Kirkus Reviews (Web site), Aug. 11, 2014 -Beautifully and realistically illustrated.- -- Alex Baugh, The Children's War (blog) -Short but intense, heart-warming, full of hope, love, brotherhood, and friendship.- -- Veronica Marzini, LibriAmoriMiei (blog), Nov. 8, 2014 -A beautiful (and true) tale, with lovely illustrations . . . Great for a readaloud to children!- -- Beth Nolan Conners, Beth's Book-Nook Blog (blog), Nov. 12, 2014 -Delightful . . . A really beautiful rendition of those fantastic events when, in the midst of war, the spirit of Christmas overruled the fighting and peace reigned on the battlefields.- -- Elaine Brent, Splashes Into Books (blog), Dec. 7, 2014 -Lovely . . . It evokes the time and place with vivid description and will certainly spark talk of why there is war . . . The artwork is stunning.- -- Lynne Vanderveen Smith, children's librarian -Great to use with readers of various ages, especially in a social studies or American history curriculum.- -- Karen Biggs-Tucker, co-author, -Transforming Literacy Teaching for the Era of Higher Standards-

    The very best stories from the ten volume set of Charley's War in a single a volume.Often heralded as the greatest British comic strip ever created, Charley's War tells the gripping story of an underage British soldier called Charley Bourne fighting during World War I.This single volume is a collection of the very best stories from the complete 10 Volume set of Charley's War, acting as a wonderful introduction to the greater series.Released to coincide with the 100th Anniversary of the outbreak of the First World War.

    One hundred years ago, there were fraternisations and truces in No-Man's-Land during the first Christmas of The Great War. Men and boys perished during the futile battles and one man's story reveals how he survived - hidden underground - to eventually tell his loved-ones the reason why he carried so much guilt.

    Like more than 175,000 other young men, Ezra chose his family--not because he was a coward or a pacifist, but because he was practical and because he felt his Christian faith called him to do so. HIDING EZRA is also a love story, as we see the girl of his dreams, Alma Newton, try to figure out how to extricate Ezra from his predicament. Finally, HIDING EZRA is the story of an adventure, a quest, and a chase as the authorities--including local boy Lieutenant Andrew Nettles--try to bring Ezra to military justice.

    The brave souls that leaped into these dangerous contraptions and pushed them to unexplored extremes became new American heroes: the race car driver and the flying ace.No individual did more to create and intensify these raw new roles than the tall, gangly Eddie Rickenbacker, who defied death over and over with such courage and pluck that a generation of Americans came to know his face better than the president’s. The son of poor, German-speaking Swiss immigrants in Columbus, Ohio, Rickenbacker overcame the specter of his father’s violent death, a debilitating handicap, and, later, accusations of being a German spy, to become the American military ace of aces in World War I and a Medal of Honor recipient. He and his high-spirited, all-too-short-lived pilot comrades, created a new kind of aviation warfare, as they pushed their machines to the edge of destruction—and often over it—without parachutes, radios, or radar. Enduring Courage is the electrifying story of the beginning of America’s love affair with speed—and how one man above all the rest showed a nation the way forward. No simple daredevil, he was an innovator on the racetrack, a skilled aerial dualist and squadron commander, and founder of Eastern Air Lines. Decades after his heroics against the Red Baron’s Flying Circus, he again showed a war-weary nation what it took to survive against nearly insurmountable odds when he and seven others endured a harrowing three-week ordeal adrift without food or water in the Pacific during World War II. For the first time, Enduring Courage peels back the layers of hero to reveal the man himself. With impeccable research and a gripping narrative, John F. Ross tells the unforgettable story of a man who pushed the limits of speed, endurance and courage and emerged as an American legend.

    It has become a ghostly war fought in a haze of memory, often seen merely as a distant preamble to World War II. In The Long Shadow critically acclaimed historian David Reynolds seeks to broaden our vision by assessing the impact of the Great War across the twentieth century. He shows how events in that turbulent century—particularly World War II, the Cold War, and the collapse of Communism—shaped and reshaped attitudes to 1914–18.By exploring big themes such as democracy and empire, nationalism and capitalism, as well as art and poetry, The Long Shadow is stunningly broad in its historical perspective. Reynolds throws light on the vast expanse of the last century and explains why 1914–18 is a conflict that America is still struggling to comprehend. Forging connections between people, places, and ideas, The Long Shadow ventures across the traditional subcultures of historical scholarship to offer a rich and layered examination not only of politics, diplomacy, and security but also of economics, art, and literature. The result is a magisterial reinterpretation of the place of the Great War in modern history.

    Consequently we struggle to truly grasp the impact this devastating conflict must have had on people's day-to-day lives. We resort to looking at the war from a distance, viewing its events in terms of their political or military significance. The Great War: The People's Story is different. Like the all-star ITV series it accompanies, it immerses the reader in the everyday experiences of real people who lived through the war. Using letters, diaries, and memoirs - many of which have never previously been published - Isobel Charman has painstakingly reconstructed the lives of people such as separated newly-weds Alan and Dorothy Lloyd, plucky enlisted factory-worker Reg Evans and proudly independent suffragist Kate Parry Frye. A century on, they here tell their stories in their own words, offering a uniquely personal account of the conflict.The Great War: The People's Story is both a meticulously researched piece of narrative history and a deeply moving remembrance of the extraordinary acts of extremely ordinary people.

    Readers meet 17-year-old Frenchwoman Emilienne Moreau, who assisted the Allies as a guide and set up a first-aid post in her home to attend to the wounded; Russian peasant Maria Bochkareva, who joined the Imperial Russian Army by securing the personal permission of Tsar Nicholas II, was twice wounded in battle and decorated for bravery, and created and led the all-women combat unit the “Women’s Battalion of Death” on the Eastern Front; and American journalist Madeleine Zabriskie Doty, who risked her life to travel twice to Germany during the war in order to report back the truth, whatever the cost. These and other suspense-filled stories of brave girls and women are told through the use of engaging narrative, dialogue, direct quotes, and document and diary excerpts to lend authenticity and immediacy. Introductory material opens each section to provide solid historical context, and each profile includes informative sidebars and “Learn More” lists of relevant books and websites, making this a fabulous resource for students, teachers, parents, libraries, and homeschoolers.

    The dying soldier shifts his head To watch the glory that returns; He lifts his fingers toward the skies Where holy brightness breaks in flame; Radiance reflected in his eyes, And on his lips a whispered name.   The poems in this anthology—all written by poets who served on the front line—draw readers into the horrors of life in the trenches, documenting events as they unfolded in excruciating detail and creating a body of work so vivid that it continues to haunt us one hundred years later. With First World War Poems from the Front, Paul O’Prey offers an in-depth exploration of the Great War poets, including powerful poems by Siegfried Sassoon, Wilfred Owen, Isaac Rosenberg, and Julian Grenfell, as well as two World War I nurses: Vera Brittain and Mary Borden. The poems are accompanied by a brief and accessible introduction and short biographical profiles that set them in context for readers new to the works.

    It takes a global perspective of this global conflict, proving insight into the actions and motivations of the participants and how each nation's story fits into the wider one.Coverage also includes: The origins of the war and a snapshot of what the world looked like at the beginning of the 20th centuryThe battles of Western Europe, and action in the Southern and Eastern FrontsThe war at home -- the civilian war, propaganda, opposition, politics, protests, and more 1918: The German spring offensive, the Allied success and the beginning of the endThe Treaty of Versailles, the League of Nations, and the effect on the future"First World War For Dummies" is the go-to source for readers seeking to learn more about the fundamental event of the 20th century.

    Thomas Otte reveals why a century-old system of Great Power politics collapsed so disastrously in the weeks from the 'shot heard around the world' on June 28th to Germany's declaration of war on Russia on August 1st. He shows definitively that the key to understanding how and why Europe descended into world war is to be found in the near-collective failure of statecraft by the rulers of Europe and not in abstract concepts such as the 'balance of power' or the 'alliance system'. In this unprecedented panorama of Europe on the brink, from the ministerial palaces of Berlin and Vienna to Belgrade, London, Paris and St Petersburg, Thomas Otte reveals the hawks and doves whose decision-making led to a war that would define a century and which still reverberates today.

     This stunning new book brings history to life as we see the war through the eyes of the young conscripted servicemen on all sides of the conflict. Introducing the advent of tanks, airplanes, air raids, submarines and gas attacks, we take a close look at the first modern war of the 20th Century. From the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo to the Treaty of Versailles we see for ourselves what life was like in the trenches, on the home front, at sea and in the air. This is more than just a history book; it is a fully illustrated journey into another age.We follow the fortunes of a group of young conscripts and volunteers to discover what life was really like in the trenches and how they coped with returning home after the horrors of the front line.

    With one year still to complete at school, he decided to join the British army instead. Within four months he was leading 200 men to the front; within eight months he was dead. Published for the first time in their entirety, Wilbert’s letters paint a deeply moving portrait of a remarkable young man. Bright, optimistic and exuberant, his gentle character shines through ever word. Along with an introduction to Wilbert's life, the letters are accompanied by extensive, meticulously researched notes which are just a simple click away. They are there to add detail, context and colour for the reader who wants to understand more about particular aspects of the war. They include not just comments on military matters, but on a wide range other issues that together help paint a richer portrait of Wilbert and the times in which he was were living. In almost all cases, the notes provide direct links to resources that are freely available online. The links don't include Wikipedia (which can be easily accessed using the search facility in the Kindle), but they do include battalion diaries, recordings of old songs, war memoirs, military training manuals, official histories, trench maps, recordings of old war songs and much, much more. They enable every reader to embark on their own journey of historical discovery and exploration.

    Peek into secret files to learn the truth about the Red Baron and the mysterious Mata Hari. Then build your own Zeppelin balloon and mix up some invisible ink. It's all part of the true stories from the Top Secret Files of History. Take a look if you dare, but be careful! Some secrets are meant to stay hidden...

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    The British Expeditionary Force fought a mesmerizing campaign, outnumbered and outflanked but courageous and skillful, holding the line against impossible odds, sacrificing themselves to stop the last great German offensive of 1914. A remarkable story of high hopes and crushing disappointment, the campaign contains moments of sheer horror and nerve-shattering excitement; pathos and comic relief; occasional cowardice and much selfless courage--all culminating in the climax of the First Battle of Ypres.And yet, as Peter Hart shows in this gripping and revisionary look at the war's first year, for too long the British part in the 1914 campaigns has been veiled in layers of self-congratulatory myth: a tale of poor unprepared Britain, reliant on the peerless class of her regular soldiers to bolster the rabble of the unreliable French Army and defeat the teeming hordes of German troops. But the reality of those early months is in fact far more complex--and ultimately, Hart argues, far more powerful than the standard triumphalist narrative.Fire and Movement places the British role in 1914 into a proper historical context, incorporating the personal experiences of the men who were present on the front lines. The British regulars were indeed skillful soldiers, but as Hart reveals, they also lacked practice in many of the required disciplines of modern warfare, and the inexperience of officers led to severe mistakes. Hart also provides a more accurate portrait of the German Army they faced--not the caricature of hordes of automatons, but the reality of a well-trained and superlatively equipped force that outfought the BEF in the early battles--and allows readers to come to a full appreciation of the role of the French Army, without whom the Marne never would have been won.Ultimately Fire and Movement shows the story of the 1914 campaigns to be an epic tale, and one which needs no embellishment. Through the voices and recollections of the soldiers who were there, Hart strips away the myth to offer a clear-eyed account of the remarkable early days of 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.

    Robert Conroy. See the story unfold as this brave little canine makes a big difference in the lives of many World War I soldiers.

    The assassination set in motion the events that led to the outbreak of the First World War, one of the bloodiest conflicts in human history and a trauma that would bring down the Austro-Hungarian Empire, ending nearly eight centuries of Hapsburg rule and unleashing unrest across the European continent. By the end of that conflict, not only had the Austro-Hungarian Empire crumbled but the other two imperial rulers of Europe, Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany and Tsar Nicholas II of Russia, had lost their grip on power. The three great monarchies of Europe had fallen. Over in Britain, the first cousin of both the Kaiser and the Tsar, George V, successfully retained the crown.In this new book, Gareth Russell tells the story of the Austrian, German and Russian imperial families during the four years of the First World War and the political and personal struggles that brought about their ruin.

    From there he established himself as the de facto warlord of Outer Mongolia, the base for a fantastical plan to restore the Russian and Chinese empires, which then ended with his capture and execution by the Red Army as the war drew to a close.In The Baron's Cloak, Willard Sunderland tells the epic story of the Russian Empire's final decades through the arc of the Baron's life, which spanned the vast reaches of Eurasia. Tracking Ungern's movements, he transits through the Empire's multinational borderlands, where the country bumped up against three other doomed empires, the Habsburg, Ottoman, and Qing, and where the violence unleashed by war, revolution, and imperial collapse was particularly vicious. In compulsively readable prose that draws on wide-ranging research in multiple languages, Sunderland recreates Ungern's far-flung life and uses it to tell a compelling and original tale of imperial success and failure in a momentous time.Sunderland visited the many sites that shaped Ungern's experience, from Austria and Estonia to Mongolia and China, and these travels help give the book its arresting geographical feel. In the early chapters, where direct evidence of Ungern's activities is sparse, he evokes peoples and places as Ungern would have experienced them, carefully tracing the accumulation of influences that ultimately came together to propel the better documented, more notorious phase of his careerRecurring throughout Sunderland's magisterial account is a specific artifact: the Baron's cloak, an essential part of the cross-cultural uniform Ungern chose for himself by the time of his Mongolian campaign: an orangey-gold Mongolian kaftan embroidered in the Khalkha fashion yet outfitted with tsarist-style epaulettes on the shoulders. Like his cloak, Ungern was an imperial product. He lived across the Russian Empire, combined its contrasting cultures, fought its wars, and was molded by its greatest institutions and most volatile frontiers. By the time of his trial and execution mere months before the decree that created the USSR, he had become a profoundly contradictory figure, reflecting both the empire's potential as a multinational society and its ultimately irresolvable limitations.

    Can he save his unit from a deadly attack by German machine-gun nests?Plucked off his sinking ship by a U-boat, Navy lieutenant Edouard Izak is sent to a POW camp deep in German territory. Can he engineer a daring escape? The soldiers of the all-African American Eighth Illinois face bitter racism and segregation. Can they overcome bigotry to fight with valor and distinction?These and other brave heroes risked their lives serving their country in World War I. You will never forget their courageous true stories.The Great War --The Tennessee crack shot: Army Corporal Alvin York --The flying fox: Royal Flying Corps Major William " Billy" Bishop --The "suicide club" hero: Army Private John "Jack" Barkley --The POW escapee: Navy Lieutenant Edouard Izac --The battlefield savior: Ambulance driver James "Jim" McConnell --The killer marksman: Army Lieutenant Samuel Woodfill --The ace of aces: United States Air Service Captain Eddie Rickenbacker --The immigrant doughboy: Army Private Abraham Krotoshinsky --The Fighting Eighth: The 8th Illinois National Guard/370th U.S. Army Infantry --The devil dog: Marine Gunner William Nice --WWW I glossary.

    In a truly global account, Lawrence Sondhaus traces the course of the campaigns in the North Sea, Atlantic, Adriatic, Baltic and Mediterranean and examines the role of critical innovations in the design and performance of ships, wireless communication and firepower. He charts how Allied supremacy led the Central Powers to attempt to revolutionize naval warfare by pursuing unrestricted submarine warfare, ultimately prompting the United States to enter the war. Victory against the submarine challenge, following their earlier success in sweeping the seas of German cruisers and other surface raiders, left the Allies free to use the world's sea lanes to transport supplies and troops to Europe from overseas territories, and eventually from the United States, which proved a decisive factor in their ultimate victory.

    While his recovery eludes him, his memory returns us to Minneapolis, to the Flats, a milling community on the Mississippi River, where Raimund and his brother Albert have sought respite from the oppressive hand of their older brother, now the master of the family farm and brewery. In Minnesota the brothers confront different forms of prejudice, but they also find a chance to remake their lives according to their own principles and wishes—until the war makes their German roots inescapable.Following these lives, The Bohemian Flats conjures both the sweep of irresistible history and the intimate reality of a man, and a family, caught up in it. From a nineteenth-century German farm to the thriving, wildly diverse immigrant village below Minneapolis on the Mississippi to the European front in World War I, and returning to twentieth-century America—this is a story that takes a reader to the far reaches of human experience and the depths of the human heart.

    It includes more than 300 pieces of equipment from handguns to zeppelins. Each weapon system is illustrated with a detailed profile artwork and a photograph showing the weapons system in service. Accompanying the illustrative material is detailed text that lists each weapon s service history, the numbers built, and its variants, as well as full specifications. Which tanks were first used at Cambrai? What was created in response to the request for a bloody paralyzer ? What was the range of the Paris gun? Encyclopedia of Weapons of World War I answers these questions and many more. Packed with artworks, photographs and information on each featured weapon, Encyclopedia of Weapons of World War I is a fantastic book for any general reader or military enthusiast.REVIEWS "This is a good single volume introduction to the weapons of the Great War, the first truly industrialized conflict, and a good starting point for any more detailed study of military technology of the period." History of War magazine

    When the British and German high commands of the First World War failed to gain ascendency after fours years of slaughter never before seen in human history, Monash used innovative techniques and modern technology to plan and win major battles, forcing Germany to capitulate.His obsessional, brilliant planning, coupled with a ruthless streak, caused him to break the German army in a succession of battles that led to the end of the Great War. Author Roland Perry brings to life the fascinating story of the man whom many have judged as the greatest-ever Australian. Monash: The Outsider Who Won A War draws on the subject's comprehensive letter and diary archive - one of the largest in Australia's history. The result is a riveting portrait that reaches to the heart of the true Monash character. It weaves together the many strands of his life as a family man, student, engineer, businessman, lawyer, renaissance man, teacher, soldier, leader, romantic and lover of the arts.

    Five fateful weeks later the Great Powers of Europe were at war.Much time and ink has been spent ever since trying to identify the "guilty" person or state responsible, or alternatively attempting to explain the underlying forces that 'inevitably' led to war in 1914. Unsatisfied with these explanations, Gordon Martel now goes back to the contemporary diplomatic, military, and political records to investigate the twists and turns of the crisis afresh, with the aim of establishing just how the catastrophe really unfurled.What emerges is the story of a terrible, unnecessary tragedy - one that can be understood only by retracing the steps taken by those who went down the road to war. With each passing day, we see how the personalities of leading figures such as Kaiser Wilhelm II, the Emperor Franz Joseph, Tsar Nicholas II, Sir Edward Grey, and Raymond Poincare were central to the unfolding crisis, how their hopes and fears intersected as events unfolded, and how each new decision produced a response that complicated or escalated matters to the point where they became almost impossible to contain.Devoting a chapter to each day of the infamous "July Crisis," this gripping step by step account of the descent to war makes clear just how little the conflict was in fact premeditated, preordained, or even predictable. Almost every day it seemed possible that the crisis could be settled as so many had been over the previous decade; almost every day there was a new suggestion that gave statesmen hope that war could be avoided without abandoning vital interests.And yet, as the last month of peace ebbed away, the actions and reactions of the Great Powers disastrously escalated the situation. So much so that, by the beginning of August, what might have remained a minor Balkan problem had turned into the cataclysm of the First World War.

    Letters from the Trenches reveals what people really thought and felt during the conflict and covers all social classes and groups from officers to conscripts, servicewomen to conscientious objectors. Jacqueline Wadsworth skilfully uses the letters to tell the human story of the First World War what mattered to Britain s soldiers, sailors and airmen and their feelings about the war; how the conflict changed people; and how life continued on the Home Front.Voices within the book include Sergeant John Adams, 9th Royal Irish Fusiliers, who wrote in May 1917: 'For the day we get our letter from home is a red Letter day in the history of the soldier out here. It is the only way we can hear what is going on. The slender thread between us and the homeland.'Private Stanley Goodhead, of the Manchester Pals Battalion, wrote home in 1916: 'I came out of the trenches last night after being in 4 days. You have no idea what 4 days in the trenches means...The whole time I was in I had only about 2 hours sleep and that was in snatches on the firing step. What dugouts there are, are flooded with mud and water up to the knees and the rats hold swimming galas in them...We are literally caked with brown mud and it is in all our food, tea etc.'"

    Spanning many ranks and walks of life, 12,000 men fought bravely with the Post Office Rifles. By the war’s end, 1,800 of them had been killed. Those same men who not long before had been sorting and delivering mail, found themselves hoping their own letters would get through to their loved ones at home, and relying on the letters and parcels sent to them for their own much needed morale-boosts. Using the personal stories and letters of the men who joined the Post Office Rifles, this is a moving account of how the war touched the lives of ordinary men—how it changed communities, how women took up men’s working roles, and, of course, the vital role the mail played in the war. Love letters, letters from the front line, much-welcomed parcels of food and cigarettes, and sad letters of condolence—together these tell the story of the fallen heroes.

    Hull compares wartime decision making in Germany, Great Britain, and France, weighing the impact of legal considerations in each. She demonstrates how differences in state structures and legal traditions shaped the way the three belligerents fought the war.Hull focuses on seven cases: Belgian neutrality, the land war in the west, the occupation of enemy territory, the blockade, unrestricted submarine warfare, the introduction of new weaponry, and reprisals. A Scrap of Paper reconstructs the debates over military decision-making and clarifies the role law played--where it constrained action, where it was manipulated, where it was ignored, and how it developed in combat--in each case. A Scrap of Paper is a passionate defense of the role that the law must play to govern interstate relations in both peace and 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.

    Published in conjunction with an exhibition of these illustrations at the University of Chicago Library’s Special Collections Research Center, this catalog draws from illustrated books, magazines, and prints to present a wide range of perspectives on themes essential to a deeper understanding of the war in France: patriotism, nationalism, propaganda, and the soldier’s experience, as well as the mobilization of the French national home front as seen through fashion, music, humor, and children’s literature. With a text by noted historians Neil Harris and Teri J. Edelstein and featuring more than one hundred reproductions of the vivid and colorful work of French illustrators, En Guerre reaffirms the persuasive role that art can play in the service of political and military power.

    Nothing could be further from the truth. British Prisoners of War merely exchanged one barbed-wire battleground for another.In the camps the war was eternal. There was the war against the German military, fought with everything from taunting humour to outright sabotage, with a literal spanner put in the works of the factories and salt mines prisoners were forced to slave in. British PoWs also fought a valiant war against the conditions in which they were mired. They battled starvation, disease, Prussian cruelties, boredom, and their own inner demons. And, of course, they escaped. Then escaped again. No less than 29 officers at Holzminden camp in 1918 burrowed their way out via a tunnel (dug with a chisel and trowel) in the Great Escape of the Great War. It was war with heart-breaking consequences; more than 12,000 PoWs died, many of them murdered, to buried in shallow unmarked graves.Using contemporary records - from prisoners' diaries to letters home to poetry - John Lewis-Stempel reveals the death, life and, above all, the glory of Britain's warriors behind the wire. For it was in the PoW camps, far from the blasted trenches, that the true spirit of the Tommy was exemplified.

    York (1887--1964) -- devout Christian, conscientious objector, and reluctant hero of World War I -- is one of America's most famous and celebrated soldiers. Known to generations through Gary Cooper's Academy Award-winning portrayal in the 1941 film Sergeant York, York is credited with the capture of 132 German soldiers on October 8, 1918, in the Meuse-Argonne region of France -- a deed for which he was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor.At war's end, the media glorified York's bravery but some members of the German military and a soldier from his own unit cast aspersions on his wartime heroics. Historians continue to debate whether York has received more recognition than he deserves. A fierce disagreement about the location of the battle in the Argonne forest has further complicated the soldier's legacy.In Alvin York, Douglas V. Mastriano sorts fact from myth in the first full-length biography of York in decades. He meticulously examines York's youth in the hills of east Tennessee, his service in the Great War, and his return to a quiet civilian life dedicated to charity. By reviewing artifacts recovered from the battlefield using military terrain analysis, forensic study, and research in both German and American archives, Mastriano reconstructs the events of October 8 and corroborates the recorded accounts. On the eve of the WWI centennial, Alvin York promises to be a major contribution to twentieth-century military history.

     In the sweltering heat, the fate of Europe hangs in the balance. Germany is hurling her forces into a carefully planned invasion of Belgium and France. Bound by an 1839 treaty to protect Belgium from any invader, Britain came to its defence. With the British Expeditionary Force numbering just 120,000 men, and dwarfed by the vast manpower of Germany, Kaiser Wilhelm II remains unfazed by this ‘contemptible little army’. But the BEF was, man for man, the best trained army in Europe. It was led by tough and experienced officers who had learned their brutal trade in fierce colonial warfare. Their combat performance in 1914 would cement their place in history. Within days of the BEF’s deployment, the full weight of the German invasion crashed into the thin British line. Faced with overwhelming enemy numbers, and battling alongside unreliable French allies, the BEF was forced into The Great Retreat. ‘The Great Retreat’ is the story of this desperate battle for survival. While Germany was attempting to crush France in one fell swoop, the Allies desperately sought time and space so that they could mount a counterattack to stem the tide. 'The Retreat from Mons in 1914 is a controversial event in British military history, seen by some as a great achievement, by others little short of a disaster. In the excellent short book Spencer Jones provides a masterly account, offering a nuanced and convincing picture of one of the defining events of Britain's First World War'. - Gary Sheffield, Professor of War Studies at University of Wolverhampton Spencer Jones is a military historian. He received his PhD in 2009 and currently lectures at the University of Wolverhampton. He holds wide ranging interests in history, with a particular focus on the Anglo-Boer War and the First World War. His other books include ‘Stemming the Tide: Officers and Leadership in the British Expeditionary Force 1914’ and ‘From Boer War to World War: Tactical Reform of the British Army, 1902-1914’. Endeavour Press is the UK's leading independent publisher of digital books.

    But the art from this important collection often far exceeds this objective, giving voice to both the artist and the soldiers who are depicted. Art from the First World War contains more than fifty images chosen from among the Imperial War Museum’s impressive collection of works by war artists.Art from the First World War features some of the most well-known British artists of the twentieth century, from the brothers John and Paul Nash to William Orpen, Stanley Spencer, and John Singer Sargent, whose Gassed shows a line of wounded soldiers blinded by a mustard gas attack. On the occasion of the centenary, the Imperial War Museum is bringing this book out in a new edition.

     Our chosen moments are, inevitably, just a few drops in an ocean of millions of comparable stories of individual tragedy and heroism. We hope, however, that they may help readers to imagine what it must have felt like to live through those terrible years. Our chronological selection tells the story of a world-changing cataclysm from many different perspectives: military and civilian, male and female, old and young. Many different nationalities are represented. Even the role of animals in the war is touched on. The journey from the first moment to the last is sometimes harrowing, often heart-breaking, but always worthwhile. No book can come near to capturing the full intensity of what it meant to be caught up in the catastrophe of the First World War. But the least we can do, 100 years on from the conflict’s outbreak, is to try to imagine what it was like. We hope that this collection will help our readers to do so.

    Author William Graves, the General in charge of the expeditionary force, has to contend with Russian warlords, the Red Army, a roving brigade of Czechoslovakian troops, the need to protect the Trans-Siberian Railway, extreme weather conditions, and regular armies of the Japanese and British. These conflicting factions, plus the ill-defined nature of the mission are a recipe for a potential disaster. However, credit must be given to the level-headedness displayed by General Graves as he worked valiantly to keep a low-profile for American troops and avoid 'adding fuel to the fire.' After struggling for two years, American troops were withdrawn, with little to show for their efforts apart from the unfortunate loss of 189 soldiers. A related effort known as the North Russia Expeditionary Force experienced 235 deaths from all causes during their 9 months of fighting near Arkhangelsk.

    Could the newly arrived American troops be trusted? They were greenhorns, having seen practically no action. The surprise attack at Seicheprey on April 20 was spearheaded by the elite German stormtroopers (Stosstruppen) supported by aircraft, trench mortars, and heavy artillery and was designed as a propaganda coup against the "weak" newcomers. On the edge of the well-named Forêt de Mort Homme, the Connecticut boys of the 102nd Infantry Regiment bore the brunt. The Americans fell back in disarray in a fury of hand-to-hand fighting; one U.S. cook killed two Germans with his meat cleaver. "A delicate affair" is an actual label applied by one U.S. command report after the battle—and it was an affair with significance beyond its outcome, as the first engagement between U.S. and German forces. Relying entirely on primary sources throughout, the author uses the battle as a jumping-off point to describe how all battles developed in the war, through intelligence (or lack of it) and minute-by-minute command decisions.

    The anguish and privations are a bit further away, but there is still huge interest in the awful conditions and carnage endured by a generation of youth who sacrificed their lives for their country. The Old Front Line is a phrase first coined by the poet John Masefield when he looked back on the battle of the Somme from a distance of just one year, in 1917, and speculated how the Western Front might look in the future. Stephen Bull s copiously illustrated work part travel guide, part popular history a century on, answers his speculations. The main source material is new and contemporary photographs, as well as some from the intervening century. Taken together these provide a series of exciting vistas and informative details that tell the story of the battles and landscapes. Aerial photography, old and new ground shots and in a few cases even images taken underground provide an authoritative summary of the war on the Western Front. Following an introduction that sets the scene and looks at the early stages of the war, eight chapters examine the Western Front geographically, looking closely at the main areas of fighting and what is visible today: not just the iron harvest the scars left by trench and battle but also the cemeteries, war memorials and statues that remind the visitor starkly of the loss of a generation.REVIEWS " magnificent looks not only at the "iron harvest" but also at the scars of battle, preserved trenches and dugouts, and cemeteries and memorials, all of which remind the visitor of the carnage of four years of industrial warfare narrative takes the reader through these four years providing details necessary to compliment the photos and expand the readers understanding.World War I Historical Association..".makes the reader pause to consider how sites that once witnessed so much death and destruction have become so beautiful today"Journal of America's Military Past"

    Gardening activity during American involvement in World War I (1917-1919) is vital to understanding current work in agriculture and food systems. The origins of the American Victory Gardens of World War II lie in the Liberty Garden program during World War I. This book examines the National War Garden Commission, the United States School Garden Army, and the Woman's Land Army (which some women used to press for suffrage). The urgency of wartime mobilization enabled proponents to promote food production as a vital national security issue. The connection between the nation's food readiness and national security resonated within the U.S., struggling to unite urban and rural interests, grappling with the challenges presented by millions of immigrants, and considering the country's global role. The same message--that food production is vital to national security--can resonate today. These World War I programs resulted in a national gardening ethos that transformed the American food system.

    In an attempted blockade to cut off supplies, Germany began sinking Allied merchant vessels until by war's end just 351 U-boats sank more than 5,000 merchant ships, killing 15,000 sailors. This book recounts what it was like for both the military and civilians to experience a transatlantic voyage in a time of war and uncertainty, at risk from any number of dangers, including U-boats, mines, and enemy surface vessels. Attacks were frequent and tragedy all too common. This little-known chapter of the 20th century is explored here with engrossing narrative and a large quantity of rare and unpublished first-hand accounts, illustrations, and photographs.

    Revised from top to bottom, "The Sky Their Battlefield II (revised)" covers the carefully indexed contributions to the first air war of some 16,800 British, Commonwealth and US air personnel, with details of some 13,500 casualties described.

    The book opens the wardrobe in the years before the outbreak of war to explore the contrast between the stiff, mono-bosomed ideal of Edwardian womanhood and the gossamer gowns draped round her. It examines such contradictions as suffragettes battling social and legal restrictions while fashion literally hobbles women with narrow skirts and thigh-length corsets.

    War with Germany, so often imagined and predicted, finally broke out when people were least prepared for it. Here, among a crowded cast of unforgettable characters, are suffragettes, armed with axes, destroying works of art, schoolchildren going on strike in support of their teachers, and celebrity aviators thrilling spectators by looping the loop. A theatrical diva prepares to shock her audience, while an English poet in the making sets out on a midsummer railway journey that will result in the creation of a poem that remains loved and widely known to this day. With the coming of war, England is beset by rumour and foreboding. There is hysteria about German spies, fears of invasion, while patriotic women hand out white feathers to men who have failed to rush to their country's defence. In the book's final pages, a bomb falls from the air onto British soil for the first time, and people live in expectation of air raids. As 1914 fades out, England is preparing itself for the prospect of a war of long duration.

    The diary entries, which range from May 1917 until March 1918, were written by one Arthur Roberts while he served with the King's Own Scottish Borderers (KOSB). They went into great detail about what it was like for him during World War I; such as how he survived the Battle of Passchendaele, and one incident where he escaped unscathed when a German shell killed a dozen men around him. Yet Arthur Roberts was an otherwise unknown man, and little else was known about him. Now, Morag Miller and Roy Laycock have painstakingly researched Roberts' life history and filled in the gaps. From his birth in Bristol to his life in Glasgow and time at the front, they provide here much more than just a war memoir, but the unique history of one man's remarkable life.

      Some of the most dramatic and compelling efforts to rally the public during World War I came in the form of posters. Posters of the First World War collects more than one hundred posters from America, Britain, France, Germany, and Italy that showcase renewed concern among the warring nations with national character and conduct. Many of the recruitment posters liken the act of joining the military to becoming a man, introducing the now-familiar figures of Tommy in the trenches or the swarthy French poilu. Others are concerned with rationing or fund-raising, urging Americans, for instance, to “Beat back the Hun with Liberty Bonds!” In Germany, where a blockade prohibited the import of food and other necessities, posters suggest resourceful alternatives, encouraging children to collect nettles and fruit seeds for oil.             Many of the posters in this collection remain iconic, but others—while no less fascinating—have been largely forgotten. Posters of the First World War provides a rich slice of social history, pairing the posters with an explanation of what they were trying to achieve and their cultural and social significance.

    This book tells the story of the film, and how more than 100 knitters from the UK and USA were involved with creating the costumes. The book has over 70 patterns for all the family translated from, and inspired by, the clothes worn during WW1, along with facsimile patterns from the time. It is beautifully photographed in full colour throughout.