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Books > Humanities > History > World history > From 1900 > First World War
On His Majesty's Secret Service
The Duke of Wellington famously said that the art of war was
discovering what you don't know by what you do-guessing what was on
the other side of the hill. The best way to know what was over that
hill was to send someone to look for you. The duke was no stranger
to scouts, spies and intelligence officers and knew their value. As
important as the spying itself was the need to stop enemy agents
employed in the same work. By the later 19th century the means by
which intelligence work could be undertaken was as a result of
developments in communication, transport and technology in all its
forms becoming more sophisticated. Countermeasures likewise became
more difficult and complex. The decision made by many governments
was to formalise the operations of espionage and counterespionage
agents into dedicated services. This book, by a member of the
British Secret Service, offers an essential insight into
intelligence activities during the Great War. The narrative
includes the riveting personal experiences and anecdotes of other
agents, touches upon the methods used including codes and locating
minelayers, and gives an overview of the secret service
organisations operating at that time; it concludes with an
examination of the 'Casement Affair.' For those interested in the
world of the proto-Bond against Imperial Germany this is a highly
entertaining read.
Leonaur editions are newly typeset and are not facsimiles; each
title is available in softcover and hardback with dustjacket; our
hardbacks are cloth bound and feature gold foil lettering on their
spines and fabric head and tail bands.
The two decades between the first and second world wars saw the
emergence of nuclear physics as the dominant field of experimental
and theoretical physics, owing to the work of an international cast
of gifted physicists. Prominent among them were Ernest Rutherford,
George Gamow, the husband and wife team of Frederic and Irene
Joliot-Curie, John Cockcroft and Ernest Walton, Gregory Breit and
Eugene Wigner, Lise Meitner and Otto Robert Frisch, the brash
Ernest Lawrence, the prodigious Enrico Fermi, and the incomparable
Niels Bohr. Their experimental and theoretical work arose from a
quest to understand nuclear phenomena; it was not motivated by a
desire to find a practical application for nuclear energy. In this
sense, these physicists lived in an 'Age of Innocence'. They did
not, however, live in isolation. Their research reflected their
idiosyncratic personalities; it was shaped by the physical and
intellectual environments of the countries and institutions in
which they worked. It was also buffeted by the political upheavals
after the Great War: the punitive postwar treaties, the runaway
inflation in Germany and Austria, the Great Depression, and the
intellectual migration from Germany and later from Austria and
Italy. Their pioneering experimental and theoretical achievements
in the interwar period therefore are set within their personal,
institutional, and political contexts. Both domains and their
mutual influences are conveyed by quotations from autobiographies,
biographies, recollections, interviews, correspondence, and other
writings of physicists and historians.
Mersey to mud - war and Liverpool men Like many large cities,
Liverpool raised a number of battalions in the Great War. Notable
among them were the Pals, the Liverpool Irish and Scottish, but
this book concerns the wartime history of the 9th Battalion - The
Kings. Originally formed in 1859 for volunteers from the Liverpool
newspaper and print industries, it was, by the outbreak of World
War 1, an experienced part of the Territorial Force, but no
previous experience could prepare the battalion for war on the
Western Front. Once in the line, the exacting toll of modern
warfare caused immediate casualties, including the commanding
officer invalided home and another quickly killed in action. The
King's endured gruelling life and death in the trenches to the full
measure. In the course of the war the battalion fought at Aubers
Ridge, Loos, the Somme, Third Ypres, Cambrai and Arras. This moving
history of the battalion is essential reading for military students
and genealogists since it includes a substantial Decoration Roll.
When on May 15, 1918 a French lieutenant warned Henry Johnson of
the 369th to move back because of a possible enemy raid, Johnson
reportedly replied: "I'm an American, and I never retreat." The
story, even if apocryphal, captures the mythic status of the Harlem
Rattlers, the African-American combat unit that grew out of the
15th New York National Guard, who were said to have never lost a
man to capture or a foot of ground that had been taken. It also, in
its insistence on American identity, points to a truth at the heart
of this book--more than fighting to make the world safe for
democracy, the black men of the 369th fought to convince America to
live up to its democratic promise. It is this aspect of the storied
regiment's history--its place within the larger movement of African
Americans for full citizenship in the face of virulent racism--that
"Harlem's Rattlers and the Great War" brings to the fore.
With sweeping vision, historical precision, and unparalleled
research, this book will stand as the definitive study of the
369th. Though discussed in numerous histories and featured in
popular culture (most famously the film "Stormy Weather" and the
novel "Jazz"), the 369th has become more a matter of mythology than
grounded, factually accurate history--a situation that authors
Jeffrey T. Sammons and John H. Morrow, Jr. set out to right. Their
book--which eschews the regiment's famous nickname, the "Harlem
Hellfighters," a name never embraced by the unit itself--tells the
full story of the self-proclaimed Harlem Rattlers. Combining the
"fighting focus" of military history with the insights of social
commentary, "Harlem's Rattlers and the Great War" reveals the
centrality of military service and war to the quest for equality as
it details the origins, evolution, combat exploits, and postwar
struggles of the 369th.
The authors take up the internal dynamics of the regiment as
well as external pressures, paying particular attention to the
environment created by the presence of both black and white
officers in the unit. They also explore the role of women--in
particular, the Women's Auxiliary of the 369th--as partners in the
struggle for full citizenship. From its beginnings in the 15th New
York National Guard through its training in the explosive
atmosphere in the South, its singular performance in the French
army during World War I, and the pathos of postwar adjustment--this
book reveals as never before the details of the Harlem Rattlers'
experience, the poignant history of some of its heroes, its place
in the story of both World War I and the African American campaign
for equality--and its full importance in our understanding of
American history.
World War I was a global war originating in Europe that lasted from
1914 to 1918. Contemporaneously known as the Great War or "the war
to end all wars", it led to the mobilisation of more than 70
million military personnel, including 60 million Europeans, making
it one of the largest wars in history. This series of Eight volumes
provides year by year analysis of the war that resulted in the
death of more than 17 million deaths worldwide.
A remarkable man's view of three military disasters
This book is comprised of the journals of an intelligence officer
of the British Army written in often difficult circumstances as the
events he experienced unfolded around him. Readers will note that
while the focus of this book concentrates on notable events within
the Great War, they also happen to be some of the worst military
failures for the allies. Inviting himself into the war on the
Western Front as an interpreter, he experienced the irresistible
human wave of the German advance as it rolled back the outnumbered
BEF from Mons. His journal was compiled from brief notes during the
retreat and from memory whilst in hospital following a wound,
capture, brief imprisonment and escape. The second journal concerns
the disastrous Dardanelle's adventure-written 'in idle hours
between times of furious action.' The author was able to view the
events in which he was involved with clear insight and objectivity.
At one point he wryly reports an outraged officer complaining that
the Turks were walking about the Gallipoli Peninsula, 'as if they
owned the place ' The third journal was written in Mesopotamia on a
Fly-boat upon the River Tigris as Kut fell. The accounts within
Herbert's book are of undoubted and vital interest as source
material of the First World War. Herbert was an interesting
character. He was half brother to Lord Carnarvon of Tutankhamen
fame, he was pivotal in the cause of Albanian independence and was
offered its throne on two occasions and he was intimate with
several of the notable figures of his time including T. E Lawrence,
Belloc, Buchan, Mark Sykes and others. A talented Orientalist and
linguist-he spoke 8 languages fluently-he was also a serving member
of the British Parliament throughout the war whilst also fulfilling
his military duties. Perhaps most significantly Herbert achieved
all this whist under the handicap of being practically blind, an
affliction he had suffered from birth. Available in softcover and
hardcover with dust jacket.
The Gallipoli expedition was the bold and audacious plan of Winston
Churchill, amongst others, to force the Dardanelles narrows, by sea
and by land, to capture Constantinople from the Turks and to open
the Black Sea to ships taking supplies and arms for the Russians on
their immense German front. The campaign failed with catastrophic
loss of life on all sides, but again and again, unbeknown to the
Allies, they came close to achieving a goal that might have led to
victory overall. This book, first published in 1956, is still
regarded as the best and definitive account of the campaign. It won
the Sunday Times Best Book of the Year Award as well as the
inaugural Duff Cooper prize when the winner could choose who would
present the award. Appropriately enough, Moorehead chose Churchill
to make the presentation because the book demonstrated that the
faults were not in the conception of the plan. Indeed, long after
Churchill had resigned in disgrace, a new fleet was being assembled
to again attempt to force the Dardanelles in 1919, which was
cancelled when the war ceased and the Armistice was signed. Seen in
the new light that Moorehead revealed, the Gallipoli campaign was
no longer regarded as a blunder or a reckless gamble; it was the
most imaginative conception of the war, and its potentialities were
almost beyond reckoning. Certainly in its strictly military aspect
its influence was enormous. It was the greatest amphibious
operation which mankind had known up till then, and it took place
in circumstances in which nearly everything was experimental: in
the use of submarines and aircraft, in the trial of modern naval
guns against artillery on the shore, in the manoeuvre of landing
armies in small boats on a hostile coast, in the use of radio, or
the aerial bomb, the landmine, and many other novel devices. These
things lead on through Dunkirk and the Mediterranean landings to
the invasion of Normandy in the Second World War. In 1940 there was
very little the Allied commanders could learn from the long
struggle against the Kaiser's armies in the trenches in France. But
Gallipoli was a mine of information about the complexities of the
modern war of manoeuvre, of the combined operation by land and sea
and sky; and the correction of the errors made then was the basis
of the victory of 1945. "the story of one of the great military
tragedies of the twentieth century, which no writer has described
better than Alan Moorehead." Sir Max Hastings.
This important translation looks at World War I from the
perspective of German working-class women. The author demonstrates
the intimate connection between 'general' social history and
women's history while analyzing the dynamics between these
different levels of interpretation. She asks:
- How did women view the war and whom did they hold responsible for
it?
- How did military leaders and politicians perceive women at work,
in the home, and
on the streets?
This book explores the ways in which the people themselves
interpreted their world and their lives -- a perspective often
neglected by historians but one becoming increasingly relevant in
Germany today. Essential reading for all those interested in War
Studies, German Studies, History and Women's Studies and an
excellent text for course use.
World War I and Propaganda offers a new look at a familiar subject.
The contributions to this volume demonstrate that the traditional
view of propaganda as top-down manipulation is no longer plausible.
Drawing from a variety of sources, scholars examine the complex
negotiations involved in propaganda within the British Empire, in
occupied territories, in neutral nations, and how war should be
conducted. Propaganda was tailored to meet local circumstances and
integrated into a larger narrative in which the war was not always
the most important issue. Issues centering on local politics,
national identity, preservation of tradition, or hopes of a
brighter future all played a role in different forms of propaganda.
Contributors are Christopher Barthel, Donata Blobaum, Robert
Blobaum, Mourad Djebabla, Christopher Fischer, Andrew T. Jarboe,
Elli Lemonidou, David Monger, Javier Pounce,Catriona Pennell, Anne
Samson, Richard Smith, Kenneth Andrew Steuer, Maria Ines Tato, and
Lisa Todd.
This book (hardcover) is part of the TREDITION CLASSICS. It
contains classical literature works from over two thousand years.
Most of these titles have been out of print and off the bookstore
shelves for decades. The book series is intended to preserve the
cultural legacy and to promote the timeless works of classical
literature. Readers of a TREDITION CLASSICS book support the
mission to save many of the amazing works of world literature from
oblivion. With this series, tredition intends to make thousands of
international literature classics available in printed format again
- worldwide.
World War I was a global war originating in Europe that lasted from
1914 to 1918. Contemporaneously known as the Great War or "the war
to end all wars", it led to the mobilisation of more than 70
million military personnel, including 60 million Europeans, making
it one of the largest wars in history. This series of Eight volumes
provides year by year analysis of the war that resulted in the
death of more than 17 million deaths worldwide.
Contrary to popular belief, Woodrow Wilson coordinated foreign and
defense policies. Wilson viewed Imperial Germany as a threat to
U.S. national security and acted accordingly. His urgent desire to
mediate an end to World War I was driven by geo-political concerns.
Forced into the war by tertiary issues, he decided to throw a great
deal of weight upon the scale by intervening decisively in the
Great War in order to dominate the postwar peace conference. There
he intended to dictate "a scientific peace" and to create a League
of Nations to insure collective security.
The first year of war on the Western Front
The quality of medical and nursing care available to British
soldiers on campaign had improved immeasurably since the days of
the Crimean War in the middle of the nineteenth century when
Florence Nightingale and her nurses had cared for wounded men who
could scarcely believe that her presence was not other worldly. By
the time of the First World War the organisation of medical care
had become a fixture of the military establishment, though, of
course, this was to be a war like no other. The reader joins the
author of this book in the first days of the conflict and through
the pages of her diary we follow her experiences on the Western
Front as she cared for the wounded from the actions on the Aisne
through the First Battle of Ypres and to the fighting to the middle
of 1915. This book was originally published anonymously during
wartime, but today most sources attribute the diary to Kathleen
Luard. Clearly she was a dedicated nurse and her writings take the
reader to the heart of a war of mud and attrition, revealing the
incredible work she and her colleagues undertook to care for their
beloved 'Tommies'-particularly on the ambulance trains which
collected the wounded from the front line to transport them to base
hospitals and close to the firing line in Field Ambulance stations
where her accounts of the plight of the wounded makes poignant and
touching reading. An essential source work of the Great war from
the female perspective.
Leonaur editions are newly typeset and are not facsimiles; each
title is available in softcover and hardback with dustjacket; our
hardbacks are cloth bound and feature gold foil lettering on their
spines and fabric head and tail bands.
WE ALL MADE HISTORY is a collection of personal stories from people
who were in the military. Many military have put their lives on the
line for you to be free. The real Heroes never returned. When you
see a veteran, shake their hand and thank them for their service.
This book presents for the first time the collected editorials
Taft produced under contract for the "Philadelphia Public Ledger"
from November 1, 1917 through July 5, 1921. These syndicated
editorials contain his reactions to U.S. participation and policy
during World War I, the Paris peace settlement, the League of
Nations controversy, and the national elections of 1918 and
1920.
The work is first and foremost a resource and reference
compilation. The collection assumes, and the introduction strongly
suggests, that the material represents poorly recognized
information that is yet to be properly and fully integrated into
the historical accounts and interpretations, and that Taft's career
beckons closer examination. The work implicitly casts Taft in a new
and more active light than previously depicted. This book will be a
valuable addition to any research library, and it should appeal to
scholars engaged in research in Taft, and in American political
history.
The passage of time has not slowed the production of books and
articles about World War I. This volume provides a guide to the
historiography and bibliography of the Dardanelles Campaign,
including the Gallipoli invasion. It focuses on military history
but also provides information on political histories that give
significant attention to the handling of the Dardanelles Campaign.
The opening section of the book provides background information
about the campaign, discusses the major sources of information, and
lays out the major interpretative disputes. A comprehensive
annotated bibliography follows. This book nicely complements the
two earlier volumes on World War I battles--The Battle of Jutland
by Eugene Rasor and The Battles of the Somme by Fred R. van
Hartesveldt.
Warren Harding fell in love with his beautiful neighbor, Carrie
Phillips, in the summer of 1905, almost a decade before he was
elected a United States Senator and fifteen years before he became
the 29th President of the United States. When the two lovers
started their long-term and torrid affair, neither of them could
have foreseen that their relationship would play out against one of
the greatest wars in world history--the First World War. Harding
would become a Senator with the power to vote for war; Mrs.
Phillips and her daughter would become German agents, spying on a
U. S. training camp on Long Island in the hopes of gauging for the
Germans the pace of mobilization of the U. S. Army for entry into
the battlefields in France. Based on over 800 pages of
correspondence discovered in the 1960s but under seal ever since in
the Library of Congress, "The Harding Affair" will tell the unknown
stories of Harding as a powerful Senator and his personal and
political life, including his complicated romance with Mrs.
Phillips. The book will also explore the reasons for the entry of
the United States into the European conflict and explain why so
many Americans at the time supported Germany, even after the U. S.
became involved in the spring of 1917. James David Robenalt's
comprehensive study of the letters is set in a narrative that
weaves in a real-life spy story with the story of Harding's not
accidental rise to the presidency.
World War I was a uniquely devastating total war that surpassed all
previous conflicts for its destruction. But what was the reality
like on the ground, for both the soldiers on the front-lines and
the women on the homefront?Drawing on intimate firsthand accounts
in diaries and letters, 'War Experiences in Rural Germany' examines
this question in detail and challenges some strongly held
assumptions about the Great War. The author makes the controversial
case for the blurring of 'front' and 'homefront'. He shows that
through the constant exchange of letters and frequent furloughs,
rural soldiers maintained a high degree of contact with their home
lives. In addition, the author provides a more nuanced
interpretation of the alleged brutalizing effect of the war
experience, suggesting that it was by far not as complete as has
been previously understood. This pathbreaking book paints a vivid
picture of the dynamics of total war on rural communities, from the
calling up of troops to the reintegration of veterans into society.
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