Words from the Front
This poignant firsthand account of war on the Western Front during the Great War was written by the colonel of the 1st Battalion of the Royal Irish Rifles a famous regiment of the British Army with its origins in Ulster. This is an intimate narrative of the experience of trench warfare with its attacks, raids, skirmishes, the slow loss of valued officers and men and the very debilitating matter of existing within the muddy confines of trenches and dugouts perpetually subject to the menace of the snipers bullet or the barrage of hostile artillery. Filled with detail and anecdotes, this is a fine view of a senior regimental officer's war told in letter form and an interesting addition to any library of the history of the Great War and the war the infantry knew.

James D. Startt previously explored Woodrow Wilson's relationship with the press during his rise to political prominence. Now, Startt returns to continue the story, picking up with the outbreak of World War I in 1914 and tracing history through the Senate's ultimate rejection in 1920 of the Treaty of Versailles and the League of Nations. Woodrow Wilson, the Great War, and the Fourth Estate delves deeply into the president's evolving relations with the press and its influence on and importance to the events of the time. Startt navigates the complicated relationship that existed between one of the country's most controversial leaders and its increasingly ruthless corps of journalists. The portrait of Wilson that emerges here is one of complexity-a skilled politician whose private nature and notorious grit often tarnished his rapport with the press, and an influential leader whose passionate vision just as often inspired journalists to his cause.

How did Benito Mussolini come to fascism? Standard accounts of the dictator have failed to explain satisfactorily the transition from his pre-World War I 'socialism' to his post-war fascism. This controversial new book is the first to examine closely Mussolini's political trajectory during the Great War as evidenced in his journalistic writings, speeches and war diary, as well as some previously unexamined archive material. The author argues that the 1914-18 conflict provided the catalyst for Mussolini to clarify his deep-rooted nationalist tendencies. He demonstrates that Mussolini's interventionism was already anti-socialist and anti-democratic in the early autumn of 1914 and shows how in and through the experience of the conflict the future duce fine-tuned his authoritarian and totalitarian vision of Italy in a state of permanent mobilization for war. Providing a radical new interpretation of one of the most important dictators of the twentieth century, Mussolini in the First World War will appeal to anyone who wants to learn more about the roots of fascism in modern Europe.

When the United States went to war in April 1917 the Army's Air Service had one squadron of obsolete aircraft. By November 1918 the Air Service had aero squadrons which were specialized in air combat, observation, bombing, and photography. Each combat division habitually had an air observation squadron and a balloon company attached. This work also details the efforts of the Air Service to construct a massive system of supply, repair, and maintenance. Questions such as the training of flyers, observers, and balloonists are also explored.

The Irish Guards in the Great War - volume 1 - The first Battalion.The Entire Great War history of the 1st Battalion of the Irish Guards.Regimental histories are always fascinating for those who study the campaigns and battles in which regiments fought. This monumental work is a comprehensive unit account of a famous regiment during the First World War - and as such it will fascinate every military historian or genealogist. It is, of course, also much more. Written by Rudyard Kipling, whose son fought with the regiment, it benefits not only from being written by a great writer - which ensures that it suffers from none of the dryness usually associated with such tomes - but also, inevitably, is suffused with the humanity, humour and personality that is so familiar from his works of fiction. Mulvaney himself is just a step away within these pages - and that makes this history exceptional. Highly recommended!

The beginning of the age of independent armoured fighting vehicles
This fascinating book is essential reading for those who are interested in how the battle tank came into being and the first steps that led to the creation of the leviathans of the modern battlefield. Whilst this book contains elements of the progress of allied tanks in their first actions, its principal focus is upon the development of the tank itself, its associated equipment and the process of persuading a reactionary command structure as to its potential on the field of battle. This book benefits from the inclusion of diagrams of many of the types of battle tank together with specifications of engines, gearing etc. Available in soft cover and hard cover with dust jacket for collectors.

This book reframes British First World War literature within Britain's history as an imperial nation. Rereading canonical war writers Siegfried Sassoon and Edmund Blunden, alongside war writing by Enid Bagnold, E. M. Forster, Mulk Raj Anand, Roly Grimshaw and others, the book makes clear that the Great War was more than a European war.

The collapse of the Habsburg Monarchy at the end of World War I ushered in a period of radical change for East-Central European political structures and national identities. Yet this transformed landscape inevitably still bore the traces of its imperial past. Breaking with traditional histories that take 1918 as a strict line of demarcation, this collection focuses on the complexities that attended the transition from the Habsburg Empire to its successor states. In so doing, it produces new and more nuanced insights into the persistence and effectiveness of imperial institutions, as well as the sources of instability in the newly formed nation-states.

Research into the impact of the First World War on European societies has recently begun on a major scale and Dr Waites has been one of the pioneers in this field in Britain. His book considers the War's effects on such major issues as popular images of class, the distribution of income and wealth in society, social relations within the working class, class consciousness and the educational experiences of children from different backgrounds. This study is noteworthy not only for its wide range of hitherto unpublished sources, but also for its attempt to bring social theory to bear upon the study of class relations in England during the first of this century's total wars.

An outstanding story of the aerial war and a daring escape from captivity
For the uninitiated this book's original title, 'My Escape from Donnington Hall, ' gave few clues as to the astonishing and unique nature of its contents. Its author was a young German, Gunther Pluschow. As an airman in German service at the outbreak of the First World War he was, unusually, serving in China flying a Rumpler-Taube aircraft from the East Asia naval station at Tsingtau that became besieged by joint Japanese and British forces. Pluschow's attempt to fly to safety, as it became obvious the position would fall, ended in a crash in rice paddies. He set out to walk back to Germany and the many adventures that followed would alone would qualify his story as a remarkable one. However, he was eventually captured and became a prisoner of war. Stories of wartime escape abound, but those who have been incarcerated in England have always been confounded by the difficulties of quitting an island.' In Pluschow's case this was exacerbated since in the east he had acquired a distinctive dragon tattoo; yet Pluschow he succeeded and is the only prisoner of war to escape from Britain and make the 'home run.' His remarkable narrative of his wartime adventures makes absolutely essential reading and is certainly beyond compare.
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.

World War I utterly transformed the lives of Jews around the world: it allowed them to display their patriotism, to dispel antisemitic myths about Jewish cowardice, and to fight for Jewish rights. Yet Jews also suffered as refugees and deportees, at times catastrophically. And in the aftermath of the war, the replacement of the Habsburg Monarchy and the Russian and Ottoman Empires with a system of nation-states confronted Jews with a new set of challenges. This book provides a fascinating survey of the ways in which Jewish communities participated in and were changed by the Great War, focusing on the dramatic circumstances they faced in Europe, North America, and the Middle East during and after the conflict.

An American journalist's view of the Great War
For the first thirty-three months of the Great War the United States of America was a neutral nation. This enabled her newspaper correspondents and other observers comparatively free access to the theatre of war in Europe, to witness and report to the American nation the progress of what was then the greatest conflict the world had ever seen. Journalist Granville Fortescue was a member of this elite cadre of war-zone reporters. This unique Leonaur volume, which brings together two of Fortescue's books on the Great War, will be of particular interest not only to those who are fascinated by the war as seen by an English language writer with access to 'enemy' held locations-something almost impossible for other English language speakers-but also to students of journalism who respect the work of the 'warcos' of all generations. Fortescue reports on all aspects of the conflict, both from behind and on the battle-line. He reports on Belgium under fire, the battles of Dinant and Mons, German perspectives on the war and home front, the bombardment of Rheims, the battle at Verdun, the war in the air and the coming of the tanks as well as many other interesting aspects of the First World War in Europe.
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.

Dunes, sandstorms, freezing crags and searing heat; these are not the usual images of World War I. For many men from all over the British Empire, this was the experience of the Great War. Based on soldiers' accounts, this book reveals the hardships and complexity of British Empire soldiers' lives in this oft-forgotten but important campaign.

When war in Europe broke out in 1914, why did so many men from Victoria, BC, Canada, enlist enthusiastically? What did they feel about the war they were fighting? What were their personal values? Were they ever disillusioned in the trenches of the Western Front? To what extent did they enjoy combat? How did they regard the German enemy? And faced with artillery bombardment, execrable living conditions, and the fear of death or maiming, what helped them to carry on? In researching these questions, the author found that Victoria was a unique city in several ways and that some assumptions about Canadian soldiers' trench experience may not apply to volunteers from that city. Moreover, the culture of the time was different from that of Canada today so that the enthusiasm for military life and for "the empire" may seem bizarre to young people. Ideals of masculinity may seem outdated, and the concepts of personal honor and duty, which these men supported, may be obsolete. This essay tries to understand the culture of Canada and especially that of Victoria, BC, a century ago, a pertinent exercise considering the centenary of the outbreak of the Great War.

How does irony affect the evaluation and perception of the First World War both then and now? "Irony and the Poetry of the First World War "traces one of the major features of war poetry from the author's application as a means of disguise, criticism or psychological therapy to its perception and interpretation by the reader.

For nearly all of the Great War, the Jewish doctor Bernhard Bardach served with the Austro-Hungarian army in present-day Ukraine. His diaries from that period, unpublished and largely overlooked until now, represent a distinctive and powerful record of daily life on the Eastern Front. In addition to key events such as the 1916 Brusilov Offensive, Bardach also gives memorable descriptions of military personalities, refugees, food shortages, and the uncertainty and boredom that inescapably attended life on the front. Ranging from the critical first weeks of fighting to the ultimate collapse of the Austrian army, these meticulously written diaries comprise an invaluable eyewitness account of the Great War.

The worlds great navies grappling for dominance of the high seas
The Battle of Heligoland Bight was the first naval battle of the Great War, fought in the late summer of 1914 when the Royal Navy devised a plan to ambush German patrols operating in the northern North Sea. A sizeable force of British warships under the commands of Tyrwhitt, Keyes, Goodenough and Beatty were set to the task and the ensuing conflict resulted in the sinking of three German light cruisers and one destroyer. Three German light cruisers were also damaged. The British loss was light and the action is widely regarded as a victory for the British. The most significant outcome was a reluctance on the part of the Kaiser to further risk his battle fleet and it remained impotently confined to port. The actions in the South Pacific and South Atlantic that were the battles of Coronel and the Falkland Islands centred around the marauding naval squadron under the command of von Spee. The German squadron inflicted a humiliating and crushing defeat against a weaker force under Cradock off the coast of Chile and an outraged admiralty despatched a substantially stronger squadron under Doveton Sturdee to exact revenge. It caught up with von Spee's squadron as he was about to raid the base at Port Stanley in the Falkland Islands and practically annihilated it. These two small naval engagement histories have been brought together for good value by Leonaur. They are available in softcover and hardback with dustjacket.

The new histories of love and romance offered within this edited collection illustrate the many changes, but also the surprising continuities in understandings of love, romance, affection, intimacy and sex from the First World War until the beginning of the Women's Liberation movement.

German general Hermann Balck (1897--1982) was considered to be one of World War II's greatest battlefield commanders. His brilliantly fought battles were masterpieces of tactical agility, mobile counterattack, and the technique of Auftragstaktik, or "mission command." However, because he declined to participate in the U.S. Army's military history debriefing program, today he is known only to serious students of the war. Drawing heavily on his meticulously kept wartime journals, Balck discusses his childhood and his career through the First and Second World Wars. His memoir details the command decision-making process as well as operations on the ground during crucial battles, including the Battle of the Marne in World War I and his incredible victories against a larger and better-equipped Soviet army at the Chir River in World War II. Balck also offers observations on Germany's greatest generals, such as Erich Ludendorff and Heinz Guderian, and shares his thoughts on international relations, domestic politics, and Germany's place in history. Available in English for the first time in an expertly edited and annotated edition, this important book provides essential information about the German military during a critical era in modern history.