One of the central events of modern history, World War I has been poorly presented in English language films. Torn between the powerful isolationist movement in the U.S. and a growing hatred of the "Hun", contemporary films were mainly propaganda calling citizens to arms. Spurred partly by a patriotism, the American film industry used the outbreak of the war and the government's interest in promoting patriotic sacrifice as a means to expand and take the lead in the film industry worldwide. More a business model than an art form, these early efforts claimed a place of respectability for film among the arts. Twenty years later, though films produced about the war were few, they were technically superior and generally carried conflicting messages about the war's mission and value, while focusing more on storyline than history. This study of English Language World War I films examines nearly 350 films from 1914 to 2014. Descriptions and critiques of each of the films are included, with stories and details about the actors and directors.

The Great War is a landmark history that firmly places the First World War in the context of imperialism. Set to overturn conventional accounts of what happened during this, the first truly international conflict, it extends the study of the First World War beyond the confines of Europe and the Western Front. By recounting the experiences of people from the colonies especially those brought into the war effort either as volunteers or through conscription, John Morrow's magisterial work also unveils the impact of the war in Asia, India and Africa. From the origins of World War One to its bloody (and largely unknown) aftermath, The Great War is distinguished by its long chronological coverage, first person battle and home front accounts, its pan European and global emphasis and the integration of cultural considerations with political.

This book shows the strong influence of judgements made of Wilson by the British diplomatists during the early years of his national prominence (1912-1914) on the way the British dealt with Wilson at the Paris Peace Conference. It also shows the strong effect which practitioners of the so-called "Old Diplomacy" had on Lloyd George on this key issue of wartime and peace diplomacy. It shows that the British diplomatists viewed Wilson as a very successful American politician, but not as a prophet, or saviour. The religious imagery used by certain historians and more junior British diplomats, such as Harold Nicolson and John Maynard Keynes does not reflect the views of their more senior colleagues.

Off to the sidelines of the brutal western front of World War I was a nasty little campaign by British and India troops sent to secure Persian oil fields. Explaining what and how this happened in the early decades of the twentieth century goes beyond being just another history of a distant campaign in the 1914 to 1918 war. The highs and lows of what many British military planners in London considered to be a minor campaign in a distant theatre of operations proved to be a long, costly conflict the results of which still influence events today. Oil and the Creation of Iraq describes how the policies of allied military leaders of the time resulted in pushing the Ottoman government into partnership with Germany and Austria during World War I, resulting in its disintegration and loss of its Middle Eastern territories. The book then describes how the political and economic aims of the nations involved in the Mesopotamian campaign influenced the fighting and subsequent creation of Iraq, a new nation with few defensible boundaries, but one sitting atop an almost inexhaustible supply of oil and gas.

The First World War was a truely global event that changed the course of history in many participating as well as non-participating countries. In East Asia, the war stimulated the further rise of Japan as the leading power in the region during the war, yet also its radicalization and social protests after 1918. In China and Korea it stimulated nationalist eruptions, demanding freedom and equality for the (semi)colonized countries and the people living within their borders. All in all, the present book offers a consice introduction of the history of the First World War and its impact in East Asia.

Recent studies of the British Army during the First World War have fundamentally overturned historical understandings of its strategy and tactics, yet the chain of command that linked the upper echelons of GHQ to the soldiers in the trenches remains poorly understood. In order to reconnect the lines of communication between the General Staff and the front line, this book examines the British army's commanders at battalion level, via four key questions: (i) How and where resources were found from the small officer corps of 1914 to cope with the requirement for commanding officers (COs) in the expanding army; (ii) What was the quality of the men who rose to command; (iii) Beyond simple overall quality, exactly what qualities were perceived as making an effective CO; and (iv) To what extent a meritocracy developed in the British army by the Armistice. Based upon a prosopographical analysis of a database over 4,000 officers who commanded infantry battalions during the war, the book tackles one of the central historiographical issues pertaining to the war: the qualities of the senior British officer. In so doing it challenges lingering popular conceptions of callous incompetence, as well more scholarly criticism that has derided the senior British officer, but has done so without a data-driven perspective. Through his thorough statistical analysis Dr Peter Hodgkinson adds a valuable new perspective to the historical debate underway regarding the nature of British officers during the extraordinary expansion of the Army between 1914 and 1918, and the remarkable, yet often forgotten, British victories of The Hundred Days.

The Citizen Soldiers explores the military reform movement that took its name from the famous Business Men's Military Training Camps at Plattsburg, New York. It also illuminates the story of two exceptional men: General Leonard Wood, the rambunctious and controversial former Rough Rider who galvanized the Plattsburg Idea with his magnetic personality; and Grenville Clark, a young Wall Street lawyer.

The Plattsburg camps strove to advertise the lack of military preparation in the United States and stressed the military obligation every man owed to his country. Publicized by individuals who voluntarily underwent military training, the preparedness movement rapidly took shape in the years prior to America's entry into the First World War. Far from being war hawks, the Plattsburg men emphasized the need for a "citizen army" rather than a large professional establishment. Although they failed in their major objective -- universal military training -- their vision of a citizen army was largely realized in the National Defense Act of 1920, and their efforts helped to establish selective service as the United States' preferred recruitment method in World War I, World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War.

Featuring a new preface by the author, this new edition of a seminal study will hit shelves just in time for the World War I Centennial.

Edwin Lutyens' Memorial to the Missing of the Somme at Thiepval in Northern France, visited annually by tens of thousands of tourists, is arguably the finest structure erected by any British architect in the twentieth century. It is the principal, tangible expression of the defining event in Britain's experience and memory of the Great War, the first day of the Battle of the Somme on 1 July 1916, and it bears the names of 73,000 soldiers whose bodies were never found at the end of that bloody and futile campaign. This brilliant study by an acclaimed architectural historian tells the origin of the memorial in the context of commemorating the war dead; it considers the giant classical brick arch in architectural terms, and also explores its wider historical significance and its resonances today. So much of the meaning of the twentieth century is concentrated here; the Thiepval Memorial to the Missing casts a shadow into the future, a shadow which extends beyond the dead of the Holocaust, to the Gulag, to the 'disappeared' of South America and of Tianenmen. Reissued in a beautiful and striking new edition for the centenary of the Somme.

This book gives students an informed insight into the British experience in the First World War. The contributors, all established First World War historians, have drawn on their own research and secondary sources to give a succinct account of politics, diplomacy, strategy and social developments during a period of dramatic change. Each chapter gives a concise account of its subject and the chapters are well supported by maps and tables. This is an important textbook for school students and undergraduates which bridges the gap between specialized research on the First World War and the needs of the student reader.

Lord Hankey (1877-1963) was a British civil servant and the first Cabinet Secretary, a top aide to Prime Minister David Lloyd George and the War Cabinet that directed Britain in World War One. Mostly derived from the author's diaries, which began in March 1915, this study describes how Lord Hankey contributed to the development of the British system of Cabinet Government during the war years. First published in 1961, the two-volume collection is a history of the Supreme Command of the War; the conduct of the war, the development of the Supreme Command from Balfour to Lloyd George, and the emergence of the Cabinet Secretariat from the Secretariat of the War Cabinet. It contains intimate glimpses of the statesmen, sailors and soldiers who guided affairs towards 1918. This is a fascinating first-hand examination of the people who influenced the conduct of the war, and will be of particular value to students interested in its diplomatic history.

Lieutenant John Huddleston Taber was a New Yorker assigned to the 168th ""Third Iowa"" Infantry Regiment of the American Expeditionary Force's 42nd ""Rainbow"" Division during World War I. His diary provides a detailed narrative of a young officer maturing through his war experiences, from the voyage across the submarine filled Atlantic, to training in France, to front line combat. In a clear, unaffected voice, Taber records his dealings with superiors and enlisted men, billets in French and German towns, life in the tenches, intense shelling, machine gun fire, gas warfare, leaves to Paris, the occupation of Germany, and his return to New York.

Based on a wide range of primary sources, this book shows the way in which diplomacy, economics, finance and strategy became intertwined during the First World War. The author examines the diplomatic, economic, financial and military relations between Britain and Russia and argues that the key to understanding the alliance is the British determination to win the war and the role Russia played in achieving this aim. British strategy is shown to be more the result of her relations with her allies, especially during the first years of the war, than a quarrel between East and West. This revision of the accepted interpretation of the strategy leads to a reassessment of the views of Lloyd George, Kitchener and Grey. The author concludes that in 1917 the British interest in Russia remained as it was earlier in the war: the maintenance of a powerful ally on the eastern front.

The story of Russia's First World War remains largely unknown, neglected by historians who have been more interested in the grand drama that unfolded in 1917. In Russia's First World War: A Social and Economic History Peter Gatrell shows that war is itself 'revolutionary' - rupturing established social and economic ties, but also creating new social and economic relationships, affiliations, practices and opportunities. Russia's First World War brings together the findings of Russian and non-Russian historians, and draws upon fresh research. It turns the spotlight on what Churchill called the 'unknown war', providing an authoritative account that finally does justice to the impact of war on Russia's home front

America and World War I, the first volume in the new Routledge Research Guides to American Military Studies series, provides a concise, annotated guide to the vast amount of resources available on the Great War. With over 2,000 entries selected from a wide variety of publications, manuscript collections, databases, and online resources, this volume will be an invaluable research tool for students, scholars, and military history buffs alike. The wide range of topics covered include war films and literature, to civil-military relations, to women and war. Routledge Research Guides to American Military Studies will include concise, easy-to-use bibliographic volumes on different American military campaigns throughout history, as well as tackling timely subjects such as women in the military and terrorism.

During the Allied victory celebrations there were few who chose to raise a glass to the staff. The high cost of casualties endured by the British army tarnished the reputation of the military planners, which has yet to recover. This book examines the work and development of the staff of the British army during the First World War and its critical role in the military leadership team. Their effectiveness was germane to the outcome of events in the front line but not enough consideration has been paid to this level of command and control, which has largely been overshadowed by the debate over generalship. This has painted an incomplete picture of the command function. Characterised as arrogant, remote and out of touch with the realities of the front line, the staff have been held responsible for the mismanagement of the war effort and profligate loss of lives in futile offensives. This book takes a different view. By using their letters and diaries it reveals fresh insights into their experience of the war. It shows that the staff made frequent visits to the front line and were no strangers to combat or hostile fire. Their work is also compared with their counterparts in the French and German armies, highlighting differences in practice and approach. In so doing, this study throws new light upon the characteristics, careers and working lives of these officers, investigating the ways in which they both embraced and resisted change. This offers evidence both for those who wish to exonerate the British command system on the basis of the learning process but also for those critical of its performance, thus advancing understanding of British military history in the First World War.

The First World War quickly escalated from a European war into a global conflict that would cause fundamental changes in the Middle East, Africa, Asia and the Americas. Its end signalled the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire, which had controlled most of the Arab Middle East. Over the wartime period, millions of people across the Empire died as a result of warfare, epidemics, famines and massacres. However, for the Ottoman leaders their entry into the war was not just a response to a life-or-death struggle, but rather presented them with an opportunity to transform the empire into a new type of state. Syria in World War I brings together leading scholars working with original Turkish, Arabic, Armenian and German sources, to present a comprehensive examination of this key period in Syria's history. Together, the chapters demonstrate how the war represented a radical break from the past for the Syrian lands, which underwent crucial political, economic, social and cultural transformations. It contextualises various facets of the then Unionist ruler of Syria, Djemal Pasha, as well as exploring the impact of the Ottoman leaders' divergent policies on the Syrian lands and people, which would undergo a series of political, economic and ecological catastrophes whose traces are still evident in the region's collective memory. Introducing a significant body of new information and considerably expanding the parameters of current debates, Syria in World War I is of key interest to students and scholars of Middle East History, as well as History of the Late Ottoman Empire and World War I History.

Lord Hankey (1877-1963) was a British civil servant and the first Cabinet Secretary, a top aide to Prime Minister David Lloyd George and the War Cabinet that directed Britain in World War One. Mostly derived from the author's diaries, which began in March 1915, this study describes how Lord Hankey contributed to the development of the British system of Cabinet Government during the war years. First published in 1961, the two-volume collection is a history of the Supreme Command of the War; the conduct of the war, the development of the Supreme Command from Balfour to Lloyd George, and the emergence of the Cabinet Secretariat from the Secretariat of the War Cabinet. It contains intimate glimpses of the statesmen, sailors and soldiers who guided affairs towards 1918. This is a fascinating first-hand examination of the people who influenced the conduct of the war, and will be of particular value to students interested in its diplomatic history.

In World War I, 104 African American doctors joined the United States Army to care for the 40,000 men of the 92nd and 93rd Divisions, the Army's only black combat units. The infantry regiments of the 93rd arrived first and were turned over to the French to fill gaps in their decimated lines. The 92nd Division came later and fought alongside other American units. Some of those doctors rose to prominence; others died young or later succumbed to the economic and social challenges of the times. Beginning with their assignment to the Medical Officers Training Camp (Colored) - the only one in U.S. history - this book covers the early years, education and war experiences of these physicians, as well as their careers in the black communities of early 20th century America.

The period immediately following the end of the First World War witnessed an outpouring of artistic and literary creativity, as those that had lived through the war years sought to communicate their experiences and opinions. In Germany this manifested itself broadly into two camps, one condemning the war outright; the other condemning the defeat. Of the former, Erich Maria Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front remains the archetypal example of an anti-war novel, and one that has become synonymous with the Great War. Yet the tremendous and enduring popularity of Remarque's work has to some extent eclipsed a plethora of other German anti-war writers, such as Hans Chlumberg, Ernst Johannsen and Adrienne Thomas. In order to provide a more rounded view of German anti-war literature, this volume offers a selection of essays published by Brian Murdoch over the past twenty years. Beginning with a newly written introduction, providing the context for the volume and surveying recent developments in the subject, the essays that follow range broadly over the German anti-war literary tradition, telling us much about the shifting and contested nature of the war. The volume also touches upon subjects such as responsibility, victimhood, the problem of historical hiatus in the production and reception of novels, drama, poetry, film and other literature written during the war, in the Weimar Republic, and in the Third Reich. The collection also underlines the potential dangers of using novels as historical sources even when they look like diaries. One essay was previously unpublished, two have been augmented, and three are translated into English for the first time. Taken together they offer a fascinating insight into the cultural memory and literary legacy of the First World War and German anti-war texts.

The course of events of the Great War has been told many times, spurred by an endless desire to understand 'the war to end all wars'. However, this book moves beyond military narrative to offer a much fuller analysis of of the conflict's strategic, political, economic, social and cultural impact. Starting with the context and origins of the war, including assasination, misunderstanding and differing national war aims, it then covers the treacherous course of the conflict and its social consequences for both soldiers and civilians, for science and technology, for national politics and for pan-European revolution. The war left a long-term legacy for victors and vanquished alike. It created new frontiers, changed the balance of power and influenced the arts, national memory and political thought. The reach of this acount is global, showing how a conflict among European powers came to involve their colonial empires, and embraced Japan, China, the Ottoman Empire, Latin America and the United States.

Using a collection of over one thousand popular songs from the war years, as well as around 150 soldiers' songs, John Mullen provides a fascinating insight into the world of popular entertainment during the First World War. Mullen considers the position of songs of this time within the history of popular music, and the needs, tastes and experiences of working-class audiences who loved this music. To do this, he dispels some of the nostalgic, rose-tinted myths about music hall. At a time when recording companies and record sales were marginal, the book shows the centrality of the live show and of the sale of sheet music to the economy of the entertainment industry. Mullen assesses the popularity and significance of the different genres of musical entertainment which were common in the war years and the previous decades, including music hall, revue, pantomime, musical comedy, blackface minstrelsy, army entertainment and amateur entertainment in prisoner of war camps. He also considers non-commercial songs, such as hymns, folk songs and soldiers' songs and weaves them into a subtle and nuanced approach to the nature of popular song, the ways in which audiences related to the music and the effects of the competing pressures of commerce, propaganda, patriotism, social attitudes and the progress of the war.

First published in 1933, this title presents the inner workings and diplomatic culture of the League of Nations in Geneva, at a time when the increasing strain of international relations was beginning to take its toll and disillusionment towards the League was growing. Written as a series of short sketches, Max Beer's communicates a variety of insights into the League of Nations. Delving into the machinations and bewildering configurations of diplomatic relations that predominated, while at the same time maintaining a very human perspective, this volume represents a unique resource for students of this period in European politics.