They left Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Michigan, and Stanford to drive ambulances on the French front, and on the killing fields of World War I they learned that war was no place for gentlemen. The tale of the American volunteer ambulance drivers of the First World War is one of gallantry amid gore; manners amid madness. Arlen J. Hansen’s Gentlemen Volunteers brings to life the entire story of the men—and women—who formed the first ambulance corps, and who went on to redefine American culture. Some were to become legends—Ernest Hemingway, e. e. cummings, Malcolm Cowley, and Walt Disney—but all were part of a generation seeking something greater and grander than what they could find at home. The war in France beckoned them, promising glory, romance, and escape. Between 1914 and 1917 (when the United States officially entered the war), they volunteered by the thousands, abandoning college campuses and prep schools across the nation and leaving behind an America determined not to be drawn into a “European war.” What the volunteers found in France was carnage on an unprecedented scale. Here is a spellbinding account of a remarkable time; the legacy of the ambulance drivers of WWI endures to this day.

This history of the American ambulance drivers corps during World War I is also a companion research reference to some of the greatest writers, editors, and philosophers of the 20th century. Young men from all parts of the country made starry eyed commitments to serving in Europe, finding a brutal reality for which Harvard or Yale had not prepared them. Among the most famous were John Dos Passos, Ernest Hemingway, E.E. Cummings, Edward Weeks, and Malcolm Cowley. Hansen (English, U. of the Pacific) has gathered together letters, writings, and research to provide the historical landscape responsible for some of the best war literature ever produced. Includes photographs. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR