Maurice Neal was 15 when he joined the King's Royal Rifle Corps in 1906. By the time his regiment was shipped off to the Somme to fight in the First World War, he was a relatively experienced young sergeant. He and his men soon found themselves plunged into the full horror of trench warfare, daily enduring the shock of losing comrades and lying for hours in the mud surrounded by dead and injured fellow soldiers and deafened by the thunder of the bombs and guns. Throughout, Maurice kept a candid and beautifully-written diary of events: "Suddenly, a convulsion shakes him from head to foot and he lies still. The blood rapidly drains away from his face and hands. He turns ashen grey, and I realize that no more will Paddy sing to us...I look to the man on my right. He is making a gurgling noise and blood is oozing from his mouth - he does not live long. What are our orders? Are we to lie like this until a bullet accounts for us all?" Now, almost a century later, Maurice's diary can be published in full, thanks to the efforts of his granddaughter, Stephanie Hillier.

A rethinking of the factors which led to the American entry into the war. The complicated situation which led to the American entry into the First World War in 1917 is often explained from the perspective of public opinion, US domestic politics, or financial and economic opportunity. This book, however,reasserts the importance of diplomats and diplomacy. Based on extensive original research, the book provides a detailed examination of British, German, and American diplomacy in the period 1914-17. It argues that British and German diplomacy in this period followed the same patterns as had been established in the preceding decades. It goes on to consider key issues which concerned diplomats, including the international legality of Britain's economic blockade of Germany, Germany's use of unrestricted submarine warfare, peace initiatives, and Germany's attempt to manipulate in its favour the long history of distrust in Mexican-American relations. Overall, the book demonstrates thatdiplomats and diplomacy played a key role, thereby providing a fresh and original approach to this crucially important subject. JUSTIN QUINN OLMSTEAD is an Assistant Professor of History at the University of Central Oklahoma.

Remembering the First World War brings together a group of international scholars to understand how and why the past quarter of a century has witnessed such an extraordinary increase in global popular and academic interest in the First World War, both as an event and in the ways it is remembered. The book discusses this phenomenon across three key areas. The first section looks at family history, genealogy and the First World War, seeking to understand the power of family history in shaping and reshaping remembrance of the War at the smallest levels, as well as popular media and the continuing role of the state and its agencies. The second part discusses practices of remembering and the more public forms of representation and negotiation through film, literature, museums, monuments and heritage sites, focusing on agency in representing and remembering war. The third section covers the return of the War and the increasing determination among individuals to acknowledge and participate in public rituals of remembrance with their own contemporary politics. What, for instance, does it mean to wear a poppy on armistice/remembrance day? How do symbols like this operate today? These chapters will investigate these aspects through a series of case studies. Placing remembrance of the First World War in its longer historical and broader transnational context and including illustrations and an afterword by Professor David Reynolds, this is the ideal book for all those interested in the history of the Great War and its aftermath.

Over the last 30 years, hydrographical marine surveys in the English Channel helped uncover the potential wreck sites of German submarines, or U-boats, sunk during the conflicts of World War I and World War II. Through a series of systemic dives, nautical archaeologist and historian Innes McCartney surveyed and recorded these wrecks, discovering that the distribution and number of wrecks conflicted with the published histories of U-boat losses. Of all the U-boat war losses in the Channel, McCartney found that some 41% were heretofore unaccounted for in the historical literature of World War I and World War II. This book reconciles these inaccuracies with the archaeological record by presenting case studies of a number of dives conducted in the English Channel. Using empirical evidence, this book investigates possible reasons historical inconsistencies persist and what Allied operational and intelligence-based processes caused them to occur in the first place. This book will be of interest to scholars and researchers in the fields of nautical archaeology and naval history, as well as wreck explorers.

In one of the few book-length treatments of the subject, Nina Mjagkij conveys the full range of the African American experience during the "Great War." Prior to World War I, most African Americans did not challenge the racial status quo. But nearly 370,000 black soldiers served in the military during the war, and some 400,000 black civilians migrated from the rural South to the urban North for defense jobs. Following the war, emboldened by their military service and their support of the war on the home front, African Americans were determined to fight for equality. These two factors forced America to confront the impact of segregation and racism.

The Battle of the Somme epitomised the cruelty of the Western Front. 1 July 1916 witnessed the opening round of the British Army's attempt to break through an eighteen-mile front of heavily defended German lines straddling the River Somme in northern France. Preceded by an artillery bombardment of over 1,500 big guns that lasted a week, the inexperienced members of Lord Kitchener's New Army went 'over the top' and suffered the deadliest day in British military history. On the first day, British losses alone totalled nearly 20,000 dead. In the next four and a half months of combat, over 350,000 British soldiers would become casualties to one of the most intense, lethal, and futile engagements in history.

Chronicles one of the greatest sea tragedies of our time.

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 1914 Herbert Hoskins joined the Royal Warwickshire Regiment to fight in the First World War. As a captain, he soon found himself serving in the muddy, disease-ridden trenches of the Somme. Captain Hoskins' letters, carefully compiled by his grandson, reveal the horrific experiences Captain Hoskins and his men endured and the extraordinary courage and stoicism they displayed as they faced illness, treacherous weather and an indefatigable enemy during the most gruelling years of the conflict. The letters reveal not only the hardship they suffered but the indomitable spirit that helped Hoskins and his men - some of them - survive. A remarkable blend of tragedy and stiff upper lip British humour, Thank You Mister Bosh, That's Close Enough! is a moving account of the war that killed nine million men.

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 begin 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.

This book explores the historical background to Irish participation in the Great War, and the ways in which issues raised in 1914-18 still reverberate in contemporary Northern Ireland. The complications of Irish politics are such that Irish memory of the Great War has often been repressed. Nevertheless, Irish writers throughout the century have been preoccupied with the events and images of the Great War. The work of the Irish poets discussed here - from W. B. Yeats and Ireland's soldier-poets through to Seamus Heaney and contemporary Northern Irish writing - challenges reductive versions of history, and of the literary canon, in relation to Ireland and the First World War.

Featuring over 1,000 alphabetically arranged, biographical entries, Who's Who in World War One builds up a complete and vivid picture of the major figures of the Great War. The subjects are drawn not only from the political and military spheres of all thirty-two nations involved, but also from the social and cultural life of the period.
This book's breadth of coverage makes it the definitive biographical guide to the First World War;
* from the British air ace, Albert Ball, to the German foreign secretary, Richard von Kuhlmann
* from David Lloyd George to Rasputin
* from the British war poet Siegfried Sassoon to the Serbian assassin Trifko Grabez and the Emperor Wilhelm II.
Each entry provides biographical data and basic factual information about its subject's role in the Great War, and in the case of major figures there is also an assessment of their reputation in the light of current scholarship.
Maps, cross-referencing, a list of military ranks, a guide to further reading and a thorough introduction complete what is at once a comprehensive work of reference and a fascinating overview of a crucial period in twentieth century history.

eBook available with sample pages: 0203438817

The 'Macedonian question' has been much studied in recent years as has the political history of the period from the Balkan Wars in 1912-13 to the Treaty of Lausanne in 1923. But for a variety of reasons, connected with the political division of Greece and the involvement of outside powers, the events at and behind the Macedonian front have been side-lined. The recent commemorations of the centenary of the end of the First World War in the UK illustrate how by comparison with the enormous and moving emphasis on the western front, Macedonia has been not wholly but largely ignored. This volume illuminates this comparatively neglected period of Greek history and examines the strategic and military aspects of the war in Macedonia and the political, social, economic and cultural context of the war.

Over the past century, much attention has been paid to the literature written for adults in response to the First World War, but there has been comparatively little consideration of how the war influenced literature for young readers at the time. Based on extensive archival research, this study examines an array of wartime writing for young people and provides a new understanding of the complexities and nuances within children's literature of the period. In its discussion of nearly 150 primary sources from Britain, Canada, and the United States, this volume considers some well-known texts but also brings to light forgotten children's literature of the era, providing new insights into how WWI was presented to the young people whose lives were indelibly impacted by the crisis. Paying special attention to the varied ways in which child figures were depicted, it reflects on what these portrayals reveal about adult conceptualizations of youth, and it considers how these may have shaped young readers' own views of armed conflict, citizenship, and childhood. From the helpless victim to the heroic combatant, child figures appeared in many guises, exposing a range of adult concerns about nation, empire, and children's citizenship. Exploring everything from alphabet books for beginning readers, to recruitment materials for high school students, this book examines works from multiple genres and provides a uniquely comprehensive study of transatlantic children's literature produced during the first global war.

Even now, 100 years on from the conflict, the image of trenches stretching across Western Europe - packed with young men clinging to life in horrendous conditions - remains a powerful reminder of one of the darkest moments in human history. In this excellent study of trench warfare on the Western Front, expert Dr Stephen Bull reveals the experience of life in the trenches, from length of service and coping with death and disease, to the uniforms and equipment given to soldiers on both sides of the conflict. He reveals how the trenches were constructed, the weaponry which was developed specifically for this new form of warfare, the tactics employed in mass attacks and the increasingly adept defensive methods designed to hold ground at all cost. Packed with photographs, illustrations, annotated trench maps, documents and first-hand accounts, this compelling narrative provides a richly detailed account of World War I, providing a soldier's-eye-view of life in the ominous trenches that scarred the land.

Each volume in the new American Presidents Reference Series is organized around an individual presidency and gathers a host of biographical, analytical, and primary source historical material that will analyze the presidency and bring the president, his administration, and his times to life. The series focuses on key moments in U.S. political history as seen through the eyes of the most influential presidents to take the oath of office. Unique headnotes provide the context to data, tables and excerpted primary source documents. Woodrow Wilson was born on December 28, 1856. He taught history and later political science at Bryn Mawr College, Wesleyan University, and Princeton University. In 1902 he was unanimously elected as president of Princeton. In 1910 he was elected governor of New Jersey. On the forty-sixth ballot at the 1912 Democratic National Convention, Wilson was nominated as the party's presidential candidate. Benefiting from Theodore Roosevelt's ticket-splitting third-party nomination, Wilson was elected the twenty-eighth president of the United States. Key events during the Wilson administration include the reduction of the tariff, enactment of the federal reserve system, creation of the Federal Trade Commission, his narrow reelection against Charles Evans Hughes, Wilson's Fourteen Points, and the League of Nations. On October 2, 1919, Wilson suffered a stroke, which left him incapacitated. Historians have concluded that his wife, Edith, conducted much of the affairs of state on behalf of the invalid Wilson. Woodrow Wilson died on February 3, 1924. This new volume on the presidency of Woodrow Wilson will cover his reformist-natured domestic policies, World War I, the Fourteen Points, and the League of Nations, the role of Edith Bolling Wilson in the Wilson presidency.

The World Crisis is considered by many to be Winston S. Churchill's literary masterpiece. Published across five volumes between 1923 and 1931, Churchill here tells the story of The Great War, from its origins to the long shadow it cast on the following decades. At once a history and a first-hand account of Churchill's own involvement in the war, The World Crisis remains a compelling account of the conflict and its importance. In the fifth and final volume of The World Crisis, Winston Churchill turns his attention to the 'forgotten war' on the Eastern Front. His focus is the great rivalry between Russia and the Austro-German alliance during the years of the First World War, from the tensions over Bosnia and Serbia that triggered the conflict through the terrible battles on the Eastern Front to the final collapse of the Russian forces that triggered the Revolution.

Because of the exceptionally high proportion of imports in Britain's food supply and the determined efforts of the enemy to sever the supply lines, efficient management of food resources was an essential element in the British national war effort. This volume was the first comprehensive study of this vital aspect of government strategy and fills a gap in the historiography of this period. This volume provides a balanced picture by drawing together the diverse elements that went into food policy: economic and social trends, international trade relations and labour issues. The author also traces the evolution of food policy during the pre-war planning period and the early part of the war, and analyses the roles of the United States and the labour organizations.

Recent research has largely destroyed the fallacy that most of the powers declared war in 1914 without any clear perception of why and to what ultimate end. War aims were the subject of frequent examination, although decisions to publicise the results depended on a number of factors affecting both national and alliance politics. This book is a collection of original essays by six distinguished scholars dealing with the problem of the major powers' political aims and military strategies during World War I. The contributors write from the viewpoint of their own special interests and research and so offer a broad spectrum of ideas on the main theme of the book.

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 origins of the First World War remain one of the greatest twentieth century historical controversies. In this debate the role of military planning in particular and of militarism in general, are a key focus of attention. Did the military wrest control from the civilians? Were the leaders of Europe eager for a conflict? What military commitments were made between the various alliance blocks? These questions are examined in detail here in eleven essays by distinguished historians and the editor's introduction provides a focus and draws out the comparative approach to the history of military policies and war plans of the great powers.

This volume covers the essential facts about Britain's role in the First World War, not only militarily but also from a domestic point of view: the political and economic organisation of Britain for war, the extension of state control, the problems set by shortages of shipping and food. The book goes beyond the military defeat of Germany and her Allies to the armistice of November 11, 1918, the Peace Conference and the Treaty of Versailles.

Anglo-American relations were transformed during the First World War. Britain was already in long-term economic decline relative to the United States, but this decline was accelerated by the war, which was militarily a victory for Britain, but economically a catastrophe. This book sets out the economic, and in particular, the financial relations between the two powers during the war, setting it in the context of the more familiar political and diplomatic relationship. Particular attention is paid to the British war missions sent out to the USA, which were the agents for much of the financial and economic negotiation, and which are rescued here from underserved historical obscurity.