Using original documents from the U.S. Army Military History Institute (including extracts from letters and diaries of serving soldiers, as well as from official reports and papers), this book recalls the experiences of Americans who fought in the First World War. Individual chapters cover different periods, from Enlistment to Victory, in a chronological fashion. The book also features topics such as weaponry, medical services and entertainment.

The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in 1914 ignited a bloody conflict among Europe's most powerful nations. As leaders in Europe bullied each other toward war, they had no idea that this war would become a global conflict. The United States entered World War I and sided with the Allies in their fight against the Central powers. Millions of people died during World War I; empires were destroyed, kings were dethroned, and entire countries disappeared. Author Zachary Kent details "the war to end all wars," including the doughboys of the United States, life on the home front, and the introduction of modern warfare.

Bringing together a diverse collection of primary source documents, this book illuminates the events and experiences of World War I from a variety of perspectives, from soldiers on the front lines to civilians supporting the war effort at home. Part of Bloomsbury's Voices of an Era series, this carefully curated collection highlight the wartime experiences of a diverse array of individuals from around the globe. In addition to covering major military innovations and turning points, documents explore how issues of gender, race,diplomacy, and empire building impacted individuals' experience of the Great War. Each of the 42 documents includes contextual information and thought-provoking questions to guide readers in their exploration of the text. In addition to high-interest sidebars, in-text glossary definitions, biographical snapshots of key figures, and a comprehensive chronology of the war, the book also includes a guide to evaluating and interpreting primary sources that bolsters readers' analytical and critical thinking skills. Although it was nicknamed "the war to end all wars," World War I heralded the start of modern-day conflicts. The human toll of the Great War was immense-an estimated 9 million soldiers died on the battlefield, while more than 5 million civilians died as the result of military actions, disease, or famine. In the wake of World War I, empires crumbled and new nations won their independence. Although the events and aftermath of World War I happened on an epic scale, the conflict is best understood through the human lens provided by these primary sources.

FOLLOWING THE DOUGHBOY FROM THE HOME FRONT TO THE WESTERN FRONT—AND MAPPING THE MANY MEMORIALS BUILT IN HIS HONOR It has now been a century since World War I began, but America’s role in this colossal struggle has been largely forgotten on both sides of the Atlantic. Historian and travel writer Mark D. Van Ells aims to change that. America and World War I follows in the footsteps of the Doughboy—as the U.S. soldier of the Great War was known—from the training camps of the United States to the frontlines of Europe. Tracing the totality of America’s experience from the factors that led the nation to enter the war in April 1917 to the armistice in November 1918, his riveting narrative describes a military buildup on a scale the world had never seen, as well as the war’s major battles and campaigns?and, throughout, it leads the traveler to the memorials erected in the Doughboys’ wake, as well as to the many places that remain unmarked and uncommemorated. Through their own words, we learn the feelings of those young men and women who served in the war. What were their private thoughts and fears? Their personal memories? Such eyewitness accounts, woven into the fabric of each chapter, give this absorbingly written book an immediacy and vividness that marks a new departure in guidebooks. Complete with photographs, the voices of the doughboys themselves, and up-to-date travel information, America and World War I is an indispensible guide for those who wish to explore this vital but neglected chapter in the American and European experience. • Major battles and battlefields • Memorials, museums, sites, cemeteries, and statues • How to get there • What to see • Eyewitness accounts • Maps • Then and now photographs

A collection of primary and secondary documents that offers students, scholars, and war buffs an extensive and easy-to-follow overview of World War I.

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. 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.

This compelling book explores Germany’s campaign of unrestricted submarine warfare in World War I, which marked the onset of total war at sea. Noted historian Lawrence Sondhaus shows how the undersea campaign, intended as an antidote to Britain’s more conventional blockade of German ports, ultimately brought the United States into the war. Although the German people readily embraced the argument that an “undersea blockade” of Britain enforced by their navy’s Unterseeboote (U-boats) was the moral equivalent of the British navy’s blockade of German ports, international opinion never accepted its legitimacy. Sondhaus explains that in their initial, somewhat confused rollout of unrestricted submarine warfare in 1915, German leaders underestimated the extent to which the policy would alienate the most important neutral power, the United States. In rationalizing the risk of resuming the unrestricted campaign in 1917, they took for granted that, should the United States join the Allies, German U-boats would be able to stop the transport of an American army to France. But by bringing the United States into the war, while also failing to stop the deployment of its troops to Europe, unrestricted submarine warfare ultimately led to Germany’s defeat. Because US manpower proved decisive in breaking the stalemate on the Western Front and securing victory for the Allies, Sondhaus argues that Germany’s decision to stake its fate on the U-boat campaign ranks among the greatest blunders of modern history.