The 'shark killers' of the U. S. fleet
The United States of America entered the First World War in April 1917, though its support for the allied war effort had, of course, been immensely influential in terms of the provision of material up to that point. The direct intervention of America in the war, with its vast resources of military personnel and equipment, backed by a huge manufacturing capacity, was inevitably pivotal. This account, part history, part anecdotal and part first hand account, was written shortly before the end of the conflict and describes in some detail the endeavours of the United States Navy during the war at sea in general and, more particularly, how it dealt with the omnipresent menace of the, 'German Shark'-the U Boats of the German Navy. This hidden undersea threat bore directly on America's role in the war. Men and vitally needed supplies had to traverse the Atlantic in merchant vessels to reach Europe. They were perilously exposed to the depredations of the German submarine force whose task it was to prevent them reaching their destinations. This well written and engaging book takes the reader to war on the United States Navy destroyers and with the navy pilots of early military aircraft whose task it was to pursue and destroy U-Boats in order to protect the vulnerable convoys of merchantmen on the high seas. Many interesting engagements, duels and sinkings are described in compelling detail from first hand experience. An essential book for all those particularly interested in submarine and anti-submarine warfare or the Great War generally.
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.

Ranging from soldiers reading newspapers at the front to authors' responses to the war, this book sheds new light on the reading habits and preferences of men and women, combatants and civilians, during the First World War. This is the first study of the conflict from the perspective of readers.

Letters from under the Guns
Observation Posts, a special Leonaur book, brings together two books by Dawson concerning warfare as experienced by the men in the trenches during the First World War on the Western Front. 'Carry On' and its sequel 'Living Bayonets' are based on the author's time as an artillery officer and principally comprise his letters to his family. Dawson was an intelligent, thoughtful correspondent who in fine prose has left posterity an intimate 'gunner's' view of the Great War making this book an essential source work for students of the period. This good value 'two-in-one' Leonaur edition enables collectors to own these uncommon and related accounts in a single, value-for-money volume.
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.

In April 1917, the United States embarked on its first overseas war - with no history of conscription, an army smaller than Bulgaria's, just two hundred agents in its federal Bureau of Investigation, and a political culture that saw little role for the federal government other than delivering the mail. Uncle Sam Wants You tells the dramatic story of the mobilization of the American homefront in World War I. In the absence of a strong federal government, Americans mobilized the Progressive Era's vibrant civil society by drawing on a political culture that stressed duty, obligation, and responsibility over rights and freedoms. In clubs, schools, churches, and workplaces, Americans governed each other during the war. But the heated temper of war quickly unleashed coercion on an unprecedented scale, making wartime America the scene of some of American history's most drastic political violence. Solving this problem prompted Americans to turn over increasing amounts of power to the federal government, giving rise to the modern American state of the twentieth century. Whether they were some of the four million men drafted under the Selective Service Act or the tens of millions of homefront volunteers - or counted themselves among the thousand of conscientious objectors, anti-war radicals, or German enemy aliens, Americans of the World War I era created a new American state - and new ways of being American citizens. Based on a rich array of sources bringing together political leaders and ordinary Americans, Uncle Sam Wants You offers a vivid and provocative new interpretation of American policial history.

How does a democratic government conscript citizens, turn them into soldiers who can fight effectively against a highly trained enemy, and then somehow reward these troops for their service? In "Doughboys, the Great War, and the Remaking of America, " Jennifer D. Keene argues that the doughboy experience in 1917-18 forged the U.S. Army of the twentieth century and ultimately led to the most sweeping piece of social-welfare legislation in the nation's history--the G.I. Bill.

Keene shows how citizen-soldiers established standards of discipline that the army in a sense had to adopt. Even after these troops had returned to civilian life, lessons learned by the army during its first experience with a mass conscripted force continued to influence the military as an institution. The experience of going into uniform and fighting abroad politicized citizen-soldiers, Keene finally argues, in ways she asks us to ponder. She finds that the country and the conscripts--in their view--entered into a certain social compact, one that assured veterans that the federal government owed conscripted soldiers of the twentieth century debts far in excess of the pensions the Grand Army of the Republic had claimed in the late nineteenth century.

Despite acts of female heroism, popular memory, as well as official memorialization in monuments and historic sites, has ignored French women's role in the First World War. This book explores stories that were never told and why they were not. These include the experiences of French women in the war, the stories they themselves told about these experiences and how French society interpreted them.The author examines the ways French women served their country - from charity work, nursing and munitions manufacture to volunteering for military service and espionage. In tracing stories about war heroines, but also about villainesses like Mata Hari, this fascinating study shows what these stories reveal about French understanding of the war, their hopes and fears for the future. While the masculine war story was unitary and unchanging, the feminine story was multiple and shifting. Initially praised for their voluntary mobilization, women's claims of patriotism were undercut by criticisms as the war bogged down in the trenches. Were nurses giving solace or seeking romance? Were munitions workers patriots or profiteers? The prosecutions of Mata Hari for espionage and Hel'ne Brion for subversion show how attitudes to women's claim of patriotism changed. French women's relationship to the war called into question ideas about gender, definitions of citizenship and national identity.This book is the first study of women at war to treat both their experiences and its representations, which shaped nationalism, war and gender for the rest of the twentieth century. It makes an important contribution to the burgeoning history of collective memory and of the First World War.

This work explores the reasons for the Allied intervention into Russia at the end of the Great War and examines the military, diplomatic and political chaos that resulted in the failure of the Allies and White Russians to defeat the Bolshevik Revolution.

This book discusses British cinema's representation of the Great War during the 1920s. It argues that popular cinematic representations of the war offered surviving audiences a language through which to interpret their recent experience, and traces the ways in which those interpretations changed during the decade.

"Whiz-Bangs and Woolly Bears" is a story about a soldier of the Great War and his experiences as an artillery gunner in France. I used to listen carefully to his stories while we worked on his farm in Carleton County, New Brunswick. He had kept a diary during the war, and I later had a chance to look at it.

The short entries did not begin to describe the horrors of the Western Front in 1917 and 1918. As I grew older, I began to write him to ask about the details. He responded to questions about major battles in this example: "Passchendaele was just one glorious mudhole. We were there 42 days. Kept 24 men on the guns and lost 42 in the time, an average of one a day." This is the essence of what "Whiz Bangs and Woolly Bears" is about. It is a running discourse between a grandfather, Walter Ray Estabrooks and his grandson Hal Skaarup, now in the army as well.

Although the story is essentially about Walter Estabrooks, his experiences during the Great War, it is also about the fact that he lived to tell the tale. So many did not.

This book provides a thought-provoking and wide-ranging history of the whole of Europe between 1900 and 1945. Featuring six lively and stimulating chapters that have been specifically written for this volume, Europe 1900-1945 focuses on the political, economic, social, and cultural aspects of this time period. It also examines the international relations within Europe and the wider world. Particular care is taken to integrate developments in southern and eastern Europe (including the USSR) into the more familiar story of what occurred in western and central Europe. A guide to further reading, a chronology, and an index allow readers to follow up on interest in particular countries.

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.

British children were mobilised for total war in 1914-18. War dominated their teaching and school experience, it was the focus of their extra curricular activities and they enjoyed it as a source of entertainment in literature and play. Children were not shielded from the war because it was believed their support was vital for Britain's present and future.
The study of children's lives provides a unique perspective on British society during the First World War. It lets us get to the very essence of how Britain's adults perceived the war and allows us to explore the methods society used to communicate with itself. Children's connection to the war, however, was personal. Millions had a relative in the army and those that did not had friends, neighbours and teachers involved in the fighting. Their participation, therefore, while shaped by adults, was motivated by a desire to remain in touch with their absent fathers and brothers.

Karen Shelby addresses the IJzertoren Memorial, which is dedicated to the Flemish dead of the Great War, and the role the monument has played in the discussions among the various political, social and cultural ideologies of the Flemish community.

Why did Asquith take Britain to war in 1914? What did educated young men believe their role should be? What was it like to fly over the Somme battlefield? How could a trench on the front line be 'the safest place'? These compelling eye-witness accounts convey what it was really like to experience the first two years of the war up until the fall of Asquith's government, without the benefit of hindsight or the accumulated wisdom of a hundred years of discussion and writing. Using the rich manuscript resources of the Bodleian Libraries, the book features key extracts from letters and diaries of members of the Cabinet, academic and literary figures, student soldiers and a village rector. The letters of politicians reveal the strain of war leadership and throw light on the downfall of Asquith in 1916, while the experiences of the young Harold Macmillan in the trenches, vividly described in letters home, marked the beginning of his road to Downing Street. It was forbidden to record Cabinet discussions, but Lewis Harcourt's unauthorised diary provides a window on Asquith's government, complete with character sketches of some of the leading players, including Winston Churchill. Meanwhile, in one Essex village, the local rector compiled a diary to record the impact of war on his community. These fascinating contemporary papers paint a highly personal and immediate picture of the war as it happened. Fear, anger, death and sorrow are always present, but so too are idealism, excitement, humour, boredom and even beauty.

War of the Nations: is a continuation of the story begun in Admirals and Generals. This fourth book describes in vivid detail what may have occurred in the United States Military under the Wilson Presidential administration. The Narration is by the son a career naval officer, born in Beaufort, South Carolina. He will also become an admiral and serve in the Army Navy Building and the White House, Washington D.C. The historical events of 1912 through 1920 are carefully followed. The Imagination of the author provides rich characters in powerful settings from the harbors of America to the ports of the European countries during the World War. The time old love story between men and women is woven throughout the book when the naval officer sons, marry the women of their dreams. The two sons have five children and so the naval officer now has grandchildren. Three generations of Navy men and women who loved them, learn to survive the entire period of history known as the war to end all wars. Scenes are set carefully with attention to accurate research of the low country of South Carolina as well as our Nation's Capital circa 1912-1920. The People's Standard History of the United States written by Edward S. Ellis and published by Western Book Syndicate and copyrighted by Woodfall Company have provided background materials, maps of the period and needed information on how the federal government was organized and functioned during this period of our history.

Two battles of the first year of conflict
This concise book contains two accounts, by H. W. Carless-Davis, of the conflicts of the first year of the Great War, brought together in one value for money volume because the short length of each account means that it is improbable that either would be republished individually in modern times. Each account includes a campaign overview, illustrations and maps, dispatches and in some cases first hand accounts from those who fought. The first account concerns, 'the Great Retreat' which took place in the late summer of 1914 after the British Army had fought its holding action against the advance of the attacking Germans. This was a long, fighting withdrawal which might have spelled disaster at an early stage of the war but for the professionalism of the B. E. F and Smith-Dorrien's inspired command at Le Cateau. The second piece covers the Battle of Ypres-Armentieres fought in October of 1914. Available in softcover and hardcover with dustjacket.

The essays collected here suggest some of the ways in which an interdisciplinary perspective may contribute to our understanding of the Great War. Contributors examine the relationship between the character of the war and the nature of belligerent societies, and present original research on the comparative history of the First World War. In 1914-1918, the front lines did not only separate warring nations, but also cut across belligerent societies and ultimately determined the social responses to the conflict. Indeed, the 'totalizing logic' of the First World War entailed the blurring of boundaries between combatants and non-combatants, soldier and civilian. Subjects included are operational and tactical evolution, social mobilization, military discipline and morale, prisoners of war, veterans and demobilization, religion and politics, war literature and cinema, memory and commemoration. Contributors: Pierre Purseigle; Patrick Porter; Dennis Showalter; Leonard V. Smith; Nicolas Ginsburger; Elise Julien; Paul Mulvey; Keith Grieves; Leen Engelen; Nicolas Beaupre; Jennifer D. Keene; Elizabeth Fordham; Vanda Wilcox; Heather Jones; Gearoid Barry.

The Irish Guards in the Great War - The 2nd Battalion of the Irish Guards - The entire First World War History.This, the second volume of Rudyard Kipling's history of the Irish Guards in the First World War, focuses attention on the activities of the Second Battalion and its total war service. This junior battalion first saw action in 1915 and it is in the first pages of the book that we read of the death of Kipling's son John. The battles of the Western Front are described in detail from the battalion's perspective and there is much within the narrative to remind us that this is the work of a master writer. This volume contains a comprehensive honour roll of the men of both 1st and 2nd Battalions and the Reserve Battalion of the Irish Guards who were killed in action or died of wounds or disease during the war; also included is a full list of those decorated - making this book an invaluable resource for genealogists.

Why did the British government declare war on Germany in August 1914? Was it because Germany posed a threat to British national security? Today many prominent historians would argue that this was not the case and that a million British citizens died needlessly for a misguided cause.
This book counters such revisionist arguments. Matthew Seligmann disputes the suggestion that the British government either got its facts wrong about the German threat or even, as some have claimed, deliberately 'invented' it in order to justify an otherwise unnecessary alignment with France and Russia. By examining the military and naval intelligence assessments forwarded from Germany to London by Britain's service attaches in Berlin, its 'men on the spot', Spying on the Kaiser clearly demonstrates that the British authorities had every reason to be alarmed. From these crucial intelligence documents, previously thought to have been lost, Dr Seligmann shows that in the decade before the First World War, the British government was kept well informed about military and naval developments in the Reich. In particular, the attaches consistently warned that German ambitions to challenge Britain posed a real and imminent danger to national security. As a result, the book concludes that the British government's perception of a German threat before 1914, far from being mistaken or invented, was rooted in hard and credible intelligence.

Far from the battlefront, hundreds of thousands of workers toiled in Bohemian factories over the course of World War I, and their lives were inescapably shaped by the conflict. In particular, they faced new and dramatic forms of material hardship that strained social ties and placed in sharp relief the most mundane aspects of daily life, such as when, what, and with whom to eat. This study reconstructs the experience of the Bohemian working class during the Great War through explorations of four basic spheres-food, labor, gender, and protest-that comprise a fascinating case study in early twentieth-century social history.