In the summer of 1917 three Wisconsin National Guard companies came together to form the 150th Machine Gun Battalion of the now famous 42nd "Rainbow" Division. As true comrades, they relied on one another for support as they fought in every major battle of the American Expeditionary Forces, including the landmark battle of Chateau Thierry, which cost the unit dearly. As one of Wisconsin's most celebrated units, a soldier coming from the battalion was selected to represent the state at the unveiling of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Washington, D.C., in 1921. Today, the 150th is all but forgotten, in part because their unit history was never written. Through letters, diaries, and other recollections, Larson tells us the story of these Guardsmen's experiences. He traces the path of their wartime service and considers the impact of war's trauma and tedium on their lives.

Explores the international consequences of the ending of the First World War

The Austro-Hungarian and the Ottoman Empire collapsed in the wake of the war and the boundaries of Europe were redrawn. Many subsequent international crises in the late twentieth century can be traced back to decisions taken in these critical years. The text deals with all the peace treaties and international agreements worked out between 1919 and the Locarno Pact of 1925. Erik Goldstein also looks at the international organizations and practices which came into existence at this time, including the establishment of a Permanent Court of International Justice, the creation of an International Labor Organization, the principle of war crimes, and the idea of arms control.

This book presents a unique insight into an extraordinary period of European history that had far-reaching significance for British cinema and for the way history itself is represented. The work collected in this volume draws from the best knowledge, enthusiasm and critical insight of leading scholars, archivists and historians specialising in British cinema. The editors are experts in the field of British silent cinema; in particular, its complex relationship to the Great War and its afterimage in popular culture. As the Great War continues to fade from living memory, it is a significant task to look back at how the cinema industry responded to that conflict as it unfolded, and how it shaped the war's memory through the 1910s and 1920s.

Oswald Boelcke was Germanys first ace in World War One with a total of forty victories. His character, inspirational leadership, organisational genius, development of air-to-air tactics and impact on aerial doctrine are all reasons why Boelcke remains an important figure in the history of air warfare. Paving the way for modern air forces across the world with his pioneering tactics, Boelcke had a dramatic effect on his contemporaries. The fact that he was the Red Barons mentor, instructor, squadron commander and friend demonstrates the influence he had upon the German air force. He was one of the first pilots to be awarded the famous Pour le Merite commonly recognised as the Blue Max. All of this was achieved after overcoming medical obstacles in his childhood and later life with a willpower and determination. Boelcke even gained the admiration of his enemies. After his tragic death in a midair collision, the Royal Flying Corps dropped a wreath on his funeral, and several of his victims sent another wreath from their German prison camp. His name and legacy of leadership and inspiration live on, as seen in the Luftwaffes designation of the Tactical Air Force Wing 31 Boelcke. In this definitive biography RG Head explores why Oswald Boelcke deserves consideration as the most important fighter pilot of the 20th century and beyond; but also for setting the standard in military aviation flying. This book will appeal to enthusiasts of the German air force, military aviation in general and World War One in particular.

Three invaluable and exciting accounts of the German U-Boats of the Great War
Following the success of the original Leonaur volume concerning the U-Boat War 1914-1918, the Leonaur editors have brought together three more interesting and vital accounts for the sake of good value and because, in view of their comparatively small size, they are unlikely to see individual re-publication in modern times. Here, in volume two, the first account is the journal of a U-Boat Commander at war and its author eloquently describes his patrols and his attacks on merchant shipping. K nig's account of the 'Deutschland' may be a revelation to many. K nig captained an unarmed commercial submarine until his vessel was eventually commissioned into the Imperial German Navy. It plied a highly successful and lucrative submersible merchant trade to the still neutral United States of America under the waters of a hostile Atlantic Ocean patrolled by the Royal Navy. The final piece in this trilogy of U-Boat accounts is an interesting and immediate account which draws the reader inside the close community of the submariners and contains much vital detail, dialogue and inevitable humour. A tour-de-force for submarine enthusiasts, this special Leonaur edition is available in softcover and hardcover with dust jacket.

The twelve essays in this book explore in depth for the first time the publishing and reading practices which were formed and changed by the First World War. Ranging from an exploration of British and Australian trench journals and the reading practices of Indian soldiers to the impact of war on the literary figures of the home front in Britain, these essays provide crucial new historical information about the production, circulation and reception of reading matter during a period of international crisis.

The final years of Theodore Roosevelt's life have long been considered a dark, aberrant period in which a once-great statesman descended into contrarianism and ill health as his legacy was eclipsed by world events. This stirring narrative decisively puts the lie to such depictions of Roosevelt's twilight years, showing the characteristic dignity, intellectual brilliance, and youthful vigor with which he confronted both private hardships and the onset of the First World War.
It was a historical moment eerily reminiscent of our own: violence in the failed state of Mexico bleeding across the border, an insurgency brewing within the Republican party, and an eloquent and charismatic Democratic president facing a global conflict while bedeviled by constant and vitriolic partisan attacks. That president was Woodrow Wilson, and his committed adversary was Theodore Roosevelt, who would wage a personal and political battle against the administration until the day he died. This duel of American titans lies at the center of J. Lee Thompson's history, which is the first modern account of Roosevelt exclusively during the war years. This is a tale of politics and global conflict, but also a private story of true love and familial devotion: the love of Theodore and Edith Roosevelt and the deep bonds of affection they held for all their children--particularly sons Ted, Kermit, Archie, and Quentin, who all served bravely on the front. From public triumphs to personal tragedies, Thompson gives us a long-overdue look at the later life of one of American history's most indelible figures, as well as the inexorable process by which the US was drawn into the greatest war the world had yet seen.

British Images of Germany: Admiration, Antagonism & Ambivalence, 1860-1914 is the first full-length cultural history of Britain's relationship with Germany and the Germans in the key period before the First World War. Representing a recent about-face in scholarly appreciations of Anglo-German relations, Richard Scully reassesses the assumption that the relationship in the lead up to 1914 was increasingly fraught and reveals a more complex picture: that a longstanding sense of kinship felt by Britons for Germany and the Germans persisted right up to the outbreak of war, even surviving times of acute diplomatic tension. This innovative re-examination incorporates the reading of British images of Germany in maps, travel literature, fiction and political cartoons: forms which have never before been appreciated for the light they shed on this fascinating period of history

The single best work of reportage about the battlecruiser, ever, by a war correspondent who was with Beatty's Battlecruiser Squadron at Jutland. Filson Young: the Bob Woodward of battlecruisers.An excerpt: Here, then, was the ideal type for which Lord Fisher in our conversations had so often sighed; and I was secretly disappointed when, on my mentioning Fisher's name, Beatty merely smiled. And I was still more crestfallen when, a few days later, I spoke of Beatty enthusiastically to Lord Fisher, he gave me a blank, sour look and said: "Really? Never met him."I did not know the Navy as well in those days as I know it now, or I would have been less surprised than I was that the obviously ablest men in control of naval affairs were far from seeing eye to eye with one another, and even (what was more remarkable) neglected to make any real study of one another's aims and potentialities. Naval thought, where it existed, was divided into camps, each one regarding victory over the others as essential to victory over the Germans. Thus Lord Charles Beresford, whose best work in his retirement was his untiring public advocacy of naval efficiency, gave one in private a most alarming impression that the Navy was already practically in German control; and one of his mildest views of Lord Fisher was that he was a madman who, on the eve of war, had deliberately scrapped the majority of our cruisers. Winston Churchill was at one time probably one of the men most disliked by the Navy at large; but when one tried to discuss his administration seriously, one was told stories of his bad manners: as, for example, of his going on board a ship, entering the wardroom, ringing the bell and sending for the Commander - a solecism the gravity of which one must have lived in a wardroom to appreciate. And yet, one felt, it was not quite an argument against his efficiency as an administrator. But all the naval officer saw was a man to whose power our sacred naval traditions were committed, and who apparently knew or cared so little for the smallest of them that the greatest might well be in peril at his hands. The anti-Churchill camp was a very strong one. He, on the other hand, seemed to regard Lord Fisher as a dangerous genius to be caught, chained, tamed, and made careful use of; Lord Fisher regarded him (I am speaking of the two years before the war) as a politician to be fought or flattered, made or destroyed, according to his degree of adaptability to the great purpose.

The experiences of American soldiers in World War I differed enormously from those of European combatants. With the U. S. emerging from its previous isolation, soldiers arrived in the European theater late, fought briefly, and soon found themselves among the victors. Exposed for the first time to a foreign culture and bombarded by the messages of America's first concerted propaganda campaign, doughboys and other American participants struggled to make sense of their role and participation in the war.

Mark Meigs here juxtaposes more official views--as expressed in speeches and in The Stars and Stripes, army handbooks, and unit histories--with informal, widely disseminated sources, such as popular songs, jokes, and postwar fiction, together with the soldiers' own letters and journals. Optimism at Armageddon begins with an exploration of how Americans rationalized their involvement and goes on to examine the effects of veterans' experiences during the war, focusing on combat, cultural and sexual contact with their European hosts, and death and concludes with the doughboys' account of their return to American society.

The First World War had innumerable consequences for all aspects of society; universities and education being no exception. This book details the myriad impacts of the war on British universities: telling how universities survived the war, their contribution to the war effort and the changes that the war itself brought about. In doing so, the author highlights the changing relationship between universities and government: arguing that a transformation took place during these years, that saw universities moving from a relatively closed world pre-1914 to a more active and open role within the national economy and society. The author makes extensive use of original documentary material to paint a vivid picture of the experiences of British universities during the war years, combining academic analysis with contemporary accounts and descriptions. This uniquely researched book will appeal to students and scholars of the history of higher education, social history and the First World War.

This book looks at the role of popular music in constructing the myth of the First World War. Since the late 1950s over 1,500 popular songs from more than forty countries have been recorded that draw inspiration from the War. National Myth and the First World War in Modern Popular Music takes an inter-disciplinary approach that locates popular music within the framework of 'memory studies' and analyses how songwriters are influenced by their country's 'national myths'. How does popular music help form memory and remembrance of such an event? Why do some songwriters stick rigidly to culturally dominant forms of memory whereas others seek an oppositional or transnational perspective? The huge range of musical examples include the great chansonniers Jacques Brel and Georges Brassens; folk maestros including Al Stewart and Eric Bogle; the socially aware rock of The Kinks and Pink Floyd; metal legends Iron Maiden and Bolt Thrower and female iconoclasts Diamanda Galas and PJ Harvey.

The first battles of the skies
The author of this overview and analysis of the Allied air campaign during the years of the First World War was eminently qualified for the task. He was one of the first aviators on the 'British List, ' had been a balloonist before the war and, although he was not a combatant in the truest sense, flew during the conflict on reconnaissance over the battle lines of the Western Front and took part in night raiding with the Handley Page bombers of the RAF. His work considers the development and capabilities of aircraft in a military role and the early theories for their application in the Great War. This thorough history examines air to air combat as it progressed in each year of the conflict. Zeppelin and other air raids on England are considered together with the measures employed to counter them. Bomber operations at night and the roles of reconnaissance, artillery and balloon observation and the of the newly formed Royal Naval Air Service and the aircraft's role at sea are also given consideration here. This is a fine perspective from one who was at the heart of the events he has written about. An essential total view for all those interested in the early days of the war in the air. Available in softcover and hardcover with dust jacket.

Drawing on examples from Britain, France, and the United States, this book examines how scholars and scholarship found themselves mobilized to solve many problems created by modern warfare in World War I, and the many consequences of this for higher education which have lasted almost a century.

Although civilian internment has become associated with the Second World War in popular memory, it has a longer history. The turning point in this history occurred during the First World War when, in the interests of 'security' in a situation of total war, the internment of 'enemy aliens' became part of state policy for the belligerent states, resulting in the incarceration, displacement and, in more extreme cases, the death by neglect or deliberate killing of hundreds of thousands of people throughout the world. This pioneering book on internment during the First World War brings together international experts to investigate the importance of the conflict for the history of civilian incarceration.

The outbreak of World War I saw the collapse of socialist notions of class solidarity and reaffirmed the enduring strength of nationalism. The workers of the world did not unite, but turned on one another and slaughtered their fellows in what was then the bloodiest war in history. There have been many efforts to explain the outbreak of war in 1914, but few from so intimate a perspective as LeBon's. He examines such questions as why German scholars tried to deny Germany's obvious guilt in the war, and what explained the remarkable resolve of the French army to persevere in the face of unprecedented adversity.

To such questions, LeBon proposes answers built upon principles well articulated in the larger body of his work. He transforms the character of the debate by demonstrating how psychological principles explain more persuasively both the causes of German academic ignominy and the origins of French valor. Convinced as he was that only psychology could illuminate collective behavior, LeBon dismisses purely economic or political interpretations as ill-conceived and inadequate precisely because they fail to appreciate the role of psychology in the collective behavior of national statesmen, prominent scholars, and ordinary soldiers.

The Psychology of the Great War provides a bridge to study both crowd behavior and battlefield behavior by illustrating how ordinary people are transformed into savages by great events. This element in LeBon's thinking influenced Georges Sorel's thinking, as he had seen the same phenomenon in those who participated in general strikes and revolutions. And in a later period and different context, Hannah Arendt gave this strange capacity of the ordinary to be transformed into the extraordinary the name "banality of evil." The book will be of interest to social theorists, psychologists concerned with group behavior, and historians of the period.

Two views of the Great Retreat
Imperial Germany had long planned the conflict that was to become the First World War, but when the onslaught came there was little sign that the nations which would be embroiled were prepared for the storm. Germany advanced in the east and west where French and Belgian armies were forced to retire by overwhelming odds. The small British Army, the 'B. E. F', was rushed to the continent with most of its troops having less than a week between garrison life and the firing line. Under Sir John French, it was allocated the western end of the line, and at Mons it inflicted far more causalities on the enemy than its numbers would suggest. No army of its size, however, could stand against the German superiority in men (at least five to one) or artillery and machine guns. An envelopment was inevitable and so a stubbornly fought retreat was ordered. Near Le Cateau, the British turned at bay and Smith-Dorrien's determination to stand and fight undoubtedly saved the British Army from annihilation. Many people imagine the First World War as a stalemate of mud, wire and trenches, but in the first six months it was a great European war fought in much the same way that Napoleon, Wellington and Blucher had fought a century before. This Leonaur Original edition contains two concise accounts of the early campaign of the great conflict where the 'Contemptible Little Army' of the B. E. F earned undying fame in the history of military conflict.
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.