What was life really like for the ordinary soldier, sailor, airman, and civilian during World War I? Was it different for the British, French, and Americans than it was for the Germans? This work brings to life the military and civilian experiences of ordinary people on both sides of the war. Rich with information not available elsewhere, this engagingly written narrative focuses on the real details of living in wartime: how men were recruited and trained, the equipment they used, what they ate, trench warfare as a way of life, and the phenomenon of combat.

The life of seamen and the novel experience of the first airmen provide contrast to the life of the soldier in the trenches. Also described are the medical system for treating casualties, the life of a prisoner of war, and the experience of military nurses and the first women in uniform. This book also details how life on the home front changed in myriad ways, including the education of schoolchildren, the fevered prosperity of a wartime economy, and the change in women's traditional roles from homemaker to essential laborer.

Since January 28, 1975, Eduard "Billy" Meier has been at the center of an intense international controversy both within the UFO community of supporters and between believers and skeptics. Meier contends that he is in direct personal contact with aliens from the star cluster Pleiades. He even claims to have flown aboard the Pleiadian spacecraft with his alien contact, "Semjase", visiting other worlds. To support these amazing claims, he has produced thousands of pages of "contact notes" along with photographs, film footage, and Pleiadian rock and metal samples. The aliens allegedly contact Meier at a commune in Switzerland called the Semjase Silver Star Center, which in many ways resembles a religious cult with Meier as its leader. To help substantiate Meier's claims, his American supporters have subjected his photographs and samples to laboratory testing, touting the results as positive proof of Meier's honesty. Intrigued by this tantalizing story, renowned UFO researcher Kal K. Korff conducted his own in-depth investigation. Korff traveled to Switzerland, where he went undercover inside the Meier camp. The result is Spaceships of the Pleiades, a fascinating account of the most documented UFO case of all time, a work that includes many previously unpublished Meier photographs and evidence long suppressed by Meier and his supporters.

"This dictionary is a model of its genre in both form and content and will likely become for all large libraries the standard source on the subject in any language for decades to come." RQ