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Books > Humanities > History > World history > From 1900 > First World War
I cannot stop while there are lives to be saved
Edith Cavell
Nurse Edith Cavell was a British Nurse and humanitarian who became
famous during the First World War for not only nursing and saving
the lives of battle casualties with no regard for the nationality
of the combatants, but also for her work in assisting some 200
Allied soldiers to escape incarceration by the victorious German
Army in Belgium during the early stages of the conflict. This
middle aged nurse was discovered by the Germans, who considered her
actions treasonable, abetting the escape of troops who might return
to the battle front. Cavell was subsequently tried by court
marshal, sentenced to be executed and shot by firing squad in
October 1915, aged 50 years. The event was widely reported by the
world press and the effect on the public at large was electric
providing a propaganda triumph for the Allied cause and an equal
disaster for the German cause-although they considered their
actions fair and reasonable by the rules of war. Cavell's influence
on nursing in Belgium has been an enduring one. This book contains
two accounts brought together by Leonaur for interest and good
value. The first, The Martyrdom of Nurse Cavell by William Thomson
Hill, provides an overview of the Cavell story whilst the second,
With Edith Cavell in Belgium by Jacqueline Van Til, was written by
a young nurse who worked closely with Cavell and who had inside
knowledge and personal experience of the dramatic events as they
unfolded. Available in softcover and hardcover with dust jacket.
During World War I, American merchant ships were given oddly
colored paint jobs to distort their profiles at sea. Dubbed
"Razzle-Dazzle," these camouflage patterns were believed
responsible for dramatic decreases in Allied shipping losses. This
book examines the real (and more compelling) factors that made a
difference in the survivability of merchant shipping: the various
measures taken principally by the U.S. Navy, including the use of
convoys and destroyer escorts, along with some innovative naval
technologies. At the same time, advances in America's shipbuilding
industry and the development of the nation's first major on-the-job
training program enabled mass production of merchant ships at a
record pace.
Imprisoned in a remote Turkish POW camp during the First World War,
two British officers, Harry Jones and Cedric Hill, cunningly join
forces. To stave off boredom, Jones makes a handmade Ouija board
and holds fake seances for fellow prisoners. One day, an Ottoman
official approaches him with a query: could Jones contact the
spirits to find a vast treasure rumoured to be buried nearby?
Jones, a lawyer, and Hill, a magician, use the Ouija board - and
their keen understanding of the psychology of deception-to build a
trap for their captors that will lead them to freedom. The
Confidence Men is a nonfiction thriller featuring strategy, mortal
danger and even high farce - and chronicles a profound but unlikely
friendship.
More than 40 million Americans have served in the U.S. military
during wartime. Only 3500 have been awarded the Medal of Honor. Of
these, three have received the medal twice. One was recommended for
it a third time. Marine Corps Sergeant Major Daniel J. Daly was an
unlikely hero at five feet, six inches tall and 132 pounds. What he
lacked in size he made up for in grit. He received his first Medal
of Honor for single-handedly holding off enemy attacks during
China's Boxer Rebellion of 1900, the second for his daring, one-man
action during an ambush in Haiti in 1915. He was nominated for (but
not awarded) an unprecedented third medal in World War I for his
valor at Belleau Wood, where he led a charge against the German
stronghold with the battle cry, "Come on you sons of bitches, do
you want to live forever?" This first full-length biography
presents a detailed examination of a Marine Corps legend.
This book juxtaposes national anthems of thirteen countries from
central Europe, with the aim of initiating a dialogue among the
peoples of East-Central Europe. We tend to perceive a national
anthem as a particular mirror, involuntarily reflecting an image of
nation and homeland; but how does it represent the community for
whom it sounds? To answer this question, the book deploys a
comparative approach - anthems are presented in the light of those
of neighbouring countries, with the conviction that one of the key
features of true Europeanness is good relations between neighbours.
The development trajectory of the modern nation is the context in
which the book examines the history of such national symbols,
alongside the symbolic content of poetry, images of the homeland
and nation depicted in the anthems, as well as the sometimes longer
processes which led to the adoption and legal codification of
current state symbols. The Anthems of East-Central Europe will be a
great resource for researchers, journalists, college and university
students, politicians trying to impact emigrees from this region
and emigrees themselves.
This is a personal account written by a man reflecting on his time
as a young pilot with the Royal Flying Corps in France during the
First World War, who eventually became an ace. It is a story of
survival against the odds at a time when the conduct of air
operations depended so much on individual skills, innovation,
courage - and luck. Hugh White flew F.E.2D Scout aircraft with 20
Squadron as a reconnaissance patrol pilot aged just eighteen. By
his nineteenth birthday he was a flight commander and the most
experienced pilot on the squadron. He then became a flight
commander on 29 Squadron flying the S.E.5a which was Britain's best
fighter aircraft at the time. During the two years of flying, he
experienced and survived a series of escapades including a dramatic
mid-air collision with the enemy. Told by Hugh in his own words, he
gives a unique insight into war in the air. With the break-up of
his squadron and being reduced to a substantive rank - simply
because of his young age - Hugh's writing ends in 1919. From this
point, the story is continued by his younger son Chris. He
describes Hugh's life and RAF career from flying Bristol Fighters
in India during the 1920s, undertaking engineer training at Henlow,
to commanding 501 Squadron in the mid-1930s and becoming a
full-time technical officer until his retirement as an air
vice-marshal in 1955. This book includes a foreword by Air Marshal
Sir Frederick Sowrey (Hugh's nephew) which puts Hugh White's early
wartime service into context. It is a timely reminder, following
the centenary of the end of the First World War, of the
difficulties that young pilots faced at the time. A must-read for
those interested in wartime exploits.
World War I, Mass Death, and the Birth of the Modern US Soldier: A
Rhetorical History examines the United States government's postwar
ideological and rhetorical project in establishing permanent
national military cemeteries abroad. Constructed throughout Europe
where citizen-soldiers had fought and perished, and sacralized as
American sites, these burial grounds simultaneously linked the
nation's war dead back to American soil and the national purpose
rooted there, expressed the nation's emerging prominent role on the
world's stage, and advanced the burgeoning icon of the
"sacrificial, universal" US soldier. It draws upon untapped
archival and historical materials from the WWI and interwar
periods, as well as original on-site research, to show how the
cemeteries came to display and advance the vision of the modern US
soldier as "a global force for good." Ultimately, within the visual
display of overseas cemeteries we can detect the birth of "the
modern US soldier"-a potent icon in which divergent emotions,
memories, beliefs, and arguments of Americans and non-Americans
have been expressed for a century.
This book surveys historical and emerging global air and space
power issues and provides a multidisciplinary understanding of the
application of air and space power in the past and present, as well
as exploring potential future challenges that global air forces may
face. Bringing together leading and emerging academics,
professionals, and military personnel from Australia within the
field of air and space power, this edited collection traces the
evolution of technological innovations, as well as the ethical and
cultural frameworks which have informed the development of air and
space power in the 20th and 21st centuries, and contemplates its
future. It covers topics such as the insurgent use of drones, the
ethics of air strikes, the privatisation of air power, the
historical trajectory of air power strategy, and the sociological
implications of an 'air force' identity. While many of the chapters
use Australian-based case studies for their analysis, they have
broader applicability to a global readership, and several chapters
examine other nations' experiences, including those of the United
States, and the United Kingdom. This accessible, illuminating book
is an important addition to contemporary air and space power
literature, and will be of great interest to students and scholars
of air power, air warfare, military and international history,
defense studies, and contemporary strategic studies, as well as
military professionals.
• Designed to be concise yet comprehensive with the undergraduate
student in mind • Will serve as a companion to many secondary and
primary sources on Wilson • Contains primary source documents to
help bring the subject to life
The early 20th century saw the founding of the National Security
League, a nationalistic nonprofit organization committed to an
expanded military, conscripted service, and meritocracy. This book
details its history, from its formation in December 1914 through
1922, at which point it was a spent force in decline. Founded by
wealthy corporate lawyers based in New York City, it had secret
backers in the capitalist class, who had two goals in mind. One was
to profit immensely from the newly begun World War I. The other was
to control the working classes in times of both war and peace. This
agenda was presented to the public under the guise of preparedness,
patriotism, and Americanization. Although eventually convicted by
Congress of having violated election spending limits no sanctions
of any kind were ever applied. This history details the secret
machinations of an organization dedicated to solidifying the grip
of the capitalist class over workers, all undercover of American
pride.
Empires, Soldiers, and Citizens 2/e offers a vivid range of
eyewitness perspectives - from female munitions workers to Indian
troops in France - which explore the social, cultural, and military
dimensions of World War I. This second edition includes added
material to reflect the very latest historical thinking. * Combines
documents and themes that have proven successful in the first
edition with new sources and topics that are currently at the
forefront of historical debate and research * Now features 59 new
documents which illustrate the imperial dimensions of the conflict
and broaden the coverage of 'war culture' and developments in
Eastern Europe * Documents have been included which pay particular
attention to the experiences and perspectives of ordinary people,
whose voices are often underrepresented in broad accounts * The
bibliography has been expanded and completely updated, complemented
by a new series of maps and illustrations
The Forgotten Appeasement of 1920 examines a turning point in East
European history: the summer of 1920, when Lenin's Soviet Russia
decided to challenge the Versailles system and launch a military
attack on the continent. The outcome of this attack might have been
the occupation of all of Poland and East Central Europe, and a Red
Army sweep further west. This book probes the British-Soviet
negotiations and diplomatic operations behind the scenes. Professor
Nowak uses hitherto unexamined documents from Russian and British
archives to show how (and why) top British politicians were ready
to accept a new Russian imperial control over the whole of Eastern
Europe. Nowak unravels this previously untold story of that first
and forgotten appeasement, stopped only by the Polish military
victory over the Red Army. His excellent historical craftsmanship
and new sources contribute to the book's quality, filling up a
lacuna in contemporary historiography. This book will appeal to
researchers of geopolitical affairs and the Great Powers, the
history of Poland, and the political mentality of Western elites.
It will also be of interest to university students and tutors,
scholars of history and international relations and - thanks to the
book's brisk and fascinating narrative - amateur historians and
history aficionados.
The motorised wheels of war begin to turn
In 1914 as the B. E. F was quickly hurried to the battle lines-by
whatever means possible-British troops were amused to see familiar
commercial vehicles trundle past, resplendent with their colourful
advertisements for household products. The French civilian
population was equally amused, bemused and occasionally confused by
this incongruous sight. The Great War, with powered flying
machines, submarines, motor transport and tanks, was the first
major mechanised war. The invention of the internal combustion
engine metamorphosed the waging of war. Motor transport could
efficiently move both men and materials, the dispatch rider was no
longer the glittering aide-de-camp but a drab, goggled corporal on
a motorcycle, and weapons of destruction could be carried behind
the steel plating of motorised armoured cars and tanks. This
subject fascinates those interested in the history of modern
warfare and to mark the centenary of the outbreak of the First
World War in 1914, the Leonaur Editors have compiled this special
three-in-one book about the Great War from the perspective of 'the
motor.' The first title here is an excellent overview of the
subject, accompanied by useful illustrations and diagrams, which
covers each aspect of the motor at war. Next is a manufactures
catalogue with detailed views and elevations of the very commercial
vehicles that carried British troops to the front in 1914. The
final piece is an extract about motor transport and armoured
vehicles in the first decades of the 20th century. This is a useful
reference guide for all military vehicle enthusiasts.
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.
Glasgow men on the Western Front
As every student of the Great War is aware, the escalating scale of
the conflict on the Western Front required the formation of new
battalions-a new citizen army formed to be equal to the size of the
challenge. This is the unit history of one of them, The Seventeenth
Highland Light Infantry (Glasgow Chamber of Commerce) Battalion. As
its name suggests it was but one of many additional battalions
raised in Scotland which would bear the name of an old regiment of
the British Army in this case the 71st Foot, the HLI. Many of these
battalions, particularly those raised in large urban centres, took
on the character of their place and community of origin. This
battalion's sister unit, the Sixteenth, for example was styled,
'The Glasgow Boy's Brigade' Battalion. The Glasgow men were
dispatched to France and into the trenches with all its hardships,
grinding routine and frequent raiding. The battalion served through
the Battle of the Somme and went on the see action around Hulluch,
Beaumont-Hamel and the Ypres Salient among others. This invaluable
book also contains honours and award rolls making it invaluable for
genealogists. Available in softcover and hard over with dust
jacket.
The war was fought by the world's leading Christian nations, who
presented the conflict as a holy war. A steady stream of patriotic
and militaristic rhetoric was served to an unprecedented audience,
using language that spoke of holy war and crusade, of apocalypse
and Armageddon. But this rhetoric was not mere state propaganda.
Philip Jenkins reveals how the widespread belief in angels,
apparitions, and the supernatural, was a driving force throughout
the war and shaped all three of the Abrahamic religions -
Christianity, Judaism, and Islam - paving the way for modern views
of religion and violence. The disappointed hopes and moral
compromises that followed the war also shaped the political climate
of the rest of the century, giving rise to such phenomena as
Nazism, totalitarianism, and communism. Connecting remarkable
incidents and characters - from Karl Barth to Carl Jung, the
Christmas Truce to the Armenian Genocide - Jenkins creates a
powerful and persuasive narrative that brings together global
politics, history, and spiritual crisis. We cannot understand our
present religious, political, and cultural climate without
understanding the dramatic changes initiated by the First World
War. The war created the world's religious map as we know it today.
Writers at War addresses the most immediate representations of the
First World War in the prose of Ford Madox Ford, May Sinclair,
Siegfried Sassoon and Mary Borden; it interrogates the various ways
in which these writers contended with conveying their war
experience from the temporal and spatial proximity of the warzone
and investigates the multifarious impact of the war on the
(re)development of their aesthetics. It also interrogates to what
extent these texts aligned with or challenged existing social,
cultural, philosophical and aesthetic norms. While this book is
concerned with literary technique, the rich existing scholarship on
questions of gender, trauma and cultural studies on World War I
literature serves as a foundation. This book does not oppose these
perspectives but offers a complementary approach based on close
critical reading. The distinctiveness of this study stems from its
focus on the question of representation and form and on the
specific role of the war in the four authors' literary careers.
This is the first scholarly work concerned exclusively with
theorising prose written from the immediacy of the war. This book
is intended for academics, researchers, PhD candidates,
postgraduates and anyone interested in war literature.
This study examines the role of British newspapers during the July
Crisis of 1914. The author argues that decision-makers in Berlin
and London framed their policies on a reading of the British press,
which expressed deep skepticism about involvement in a general
European war after the Sarajevo murders. British newspapers and
journalists encouraged German hopes for British neutrality, as well
as the indecisive nature of Sir Edward Grey's foreign policy in
1914, helping spark the Great War.
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