The History Book Club discussion

This is a thread devoted to the discussion of the FIRST WORLD WAR (people, locations, events, books and other publications, battles, historic sites, maps, research information, urls, etc.)

Please feel free to add any and all discussion information related to this topic area in this thread.

Bentley

As everyone is aware, The First World War by John Keegan has garnered the most membership votes thus far so this will be the next spotlighted thread selection. This next discussion will begin on February 21, 2010.

John Keegan


The First World War

John Keegan


Synopsis of book: (Amazon Review)

"Despite the avalanche of books written about the First World War in recent years, there have been comparatively few books that deliver a comprehensive account of the war and its campaigns from start to finish.

The First World War fills the gap superbly. As readers familiar with Keegan's previous books (including The Second World War and Six Armies in Normandy) know, he's a historian of the old school.

He has no earth-shattering new theories to challenge the status quo, no first-person accounts to tug on the emotions--what he does have, though, is a gift for talking the lay person through the twists and turns of a complex narrative in a way that is never less than accessible or engaging.

Keegan never tries to ram his learning down your throat. Where other authors have struggled to explain how Britain could ever allow itself to be dragged into such a war in 1914, Keegan keeps his account practical.

The level of communications that we enjoy today just didn't exist then, and so it was much harder to keep track of what was going on. By the time a message had finally reached the person in question, the situation may have changed out of all recognition.

Keegan applies this same "cock-up" theory of history to the rest of the war, principally the three great disasters at Gallipoli, the Somme, and Passchendaele.

The generals didn't send all those troops to their deaths deliberately, Keegan argues; they did it out of incompetence and ineptitude, and because they had no idea of what was actually going on at the front.

While The First World War is not afraid to point the finger at those generals who deserve it, even Keegan has to admit he doesn't have all the answers.

If it all seems so obviously futile and such a massive waste of life now, he asks, how could it have seemed worthwhile back then?

Why did so many people carry on, knowing they would die? Why, indeed.

--John Crace, Amazon.co.uk

This is a site which deals very well with some of the primary World War One Battlefields.

Warning:

If you are very sensitive, you may not want to peruse this site. As with all research war sites, this can be very sad.

WORLD WAR ONE BATTLEFIELDS:

http://www.ww1battlefields.co.uk/inde...

I like this site about the Great War:

http://www.firstworldwar.com/index.htm

Susanna wrote: "I like this site about the Great War:

http://www.firstworldwar.com/index.htm"

An excellent site..thank you for posting it to this thread.

WORLD WAR I - WIKIPEDIA:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_I

ARMY ART OF WORLD WAR I:

http://www.secstate.wa.gov/history/pu...

THE HERITAGE OF THE GREAT WAR (EVEN HAS MUSIC FROM THAT WAR ERA)

http://www.greatwar.nl/

THE WORLD WAR I DOCUMENT ARCHIVE:

http://wwi.lib.byu.edu/index.php/Main...

THE GREAT WAR SOCIETY - 1914 - 1918

http://www.the-great-war-society.org/

WORLD WAR I: TRENCHES ON THE WEB:

http://www.worldwar1.com/

IMPERIAL WAR MUSEUM:

http://www.iwm.org.uk/

BBC - THE WAR TO END ALL WARS:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/special_re...

ROYAL ENGINEERS MUSEUM:

http://www.remuseum.org.uk/corpshisto...

WORLD WAR I - SOLDIERS REMEMBERED - WASHINGTON STATE:

http://www.secstate.wa.gov/history/ww1/

US WORLD WAR I LINKS:

http://freepages.military.rootsweb.an...

WORLD WAR I - MAPS OF THE GREAT WAR:

http://www.tech2classroom.com/Edw11/E...

BROOKWOOD MILITARY CEMETARY:

http://wyrdlight.com/brookcwgc/cemete...

LIST OF BOOKS ABOUT WORLD WAR I:

http://wyrdlight.com/brookcwgc/cemete...

LIST OF PEOPLE ASSOCIATED WITH WORLD WAR I:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_...

BBC-WORLD WAR ONE:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwar...

WORLD WAR I - SCHOOLS

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/worldwar...

RESEARCHERS FIND SUNKEN WORLD WAR I SUB:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/20...

EYEWITNESS TO WORLD WAR I:

http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/w1...

WORLD WAR I: BY JENNIFER D. KEENE (GOOGLE)

http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=08...

ANSWERS.COM:

http://www.answers.com/topic/world-war-i

PBS: THE GREAT WAR:

http://www.pbs.org/greatwar/

WORLD WAR I BY NEIL HEYMAN: (GOOGLE)

http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=60...

WORLD WAR I:

http://www.teacheroz.com/wwi.htm

WORLD WAR I:

http://www.historyonthenet.com/WW1/ww...

WORLD WAR I:

http://www.worldwar1.nl/

WORLD WAR I: COLOR PHOTOS:

http://www.worldwaronecolorphotos.com/

ABOUT.COM - WORLD WAR I
http://history1900s.about.com/od/worl...

DOCUMENTS OF WORLD WAR I:

http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/...

INTERNET MODERN HISTORY SOURCEBOOK:

http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/mo...

ENCYCLOPEDIA BRITANNICA:

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/t...

ENCARTA:

http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_7...

WORLD WAR I NET:

http://www.worldwar-1.net/

WORLD WAR I POETRY:

http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/ww1lit/educa...

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS:

http://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/wwi...

THE CORNER:

http://www.thecorner.org/hist/wwi/ind...

ART OF THE FIRST WORLD WAR:

http://www.art-ww1.com/gb/guide/3guid...

WESTERN FRONT ASSOCIATION:

http://www.wfa-usa.org/new/links.cfm

SONNETS OF WORLD WAR I:

http://www.sonnets.org/wwi.htm

WORLD WAR I:VIRTUAL LIBRARY

http://vlib.iue.it/history/mil/ww1.html

THE WAR TIMES JOURNAL:

http://www.richthofen.com/ww1sum/

Fairly good account of Verdun situation:

The Battle of Verdun 1916 - the greatest battle ever

http://www.wereldoorlog1418.nl/battle...

DOUAUMONT OSSUARY:

http://www.verdun-douaumont.com/en/in...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douaumon...

http://www.webmatters.net/france/ww1_...

The above link contains a lot of familiar photos of the sites and various other First World War locations

Verdun Tourism site:

http://www.verdun-tourisme.com/fiche-...

An official US version:

Some original photos are quite good:

Source cites the following:
This brochure has been prepared by the Information Division, United States Army Garrison, Verdun, as a supplementary text in conjunction with the Verdun Battlefield briefing and tour given by this headquarters.

Our aim is to provide a comprehensive, readable text with accompanying maps for the visitor to become familiar with the events surrounding the Battle of Verdun. Historians and students of military history will likely find technical omissions, however, none have been omitted that would have a material effect on the account.

This headquarters is indebted to the exploratory research of Majors George S. Long and John F. Hunt, who began this project in 1959. This brochure was printed through the courtesy of the United States Army, Europe, Publications and Training Aids Center.

Battlefields of Verdun

http://www.vahs.org/wwi/contents.htm

Some color photos of 1916 Verdun battle areas but in French:

http://www.vahs.org/wwi/contents.htm

Not a bad source especially regarding the great figures of the war: a who's who:

http://www.cheminsdememoire.gouv.fr/p...

BBC:

Verdun hosts sombre WWI ceremony

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/7722457.stm

A couple of good video presentations of German trenches and Douaumont:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7712908...

This is a pretty good youtube video on Verdun.

Source and details:

This is a brief demo Eagle Films created for a War museum concerning the brutal and bloody WW-I battle of Verdun. It was one of about twenty multimedia projects that were to be produced under the supervision of Philip Cook.
Category: Film & Animation
Tags: War WW-I battle museum director Philip Cook Eagle Films

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4oabxo...

This is another youtube video titled:

All You Need To Know About The Battle Of Verdun

Here is the link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6QS4r...

The following footage shows the villagers being forced out and the horror of the battle itself. There are some portions which are graphic. So I am placing a warning on this link:

The Hell of Verdun - 1916

BRITISH VIEW OF THE FIRST WORLD WAR: BBC

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/...

WORLD WAR I: (BBC)

The causes, events and people of the conflict dubbed the 'war to end all wars'.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwar...

A GUIDE TO WORLD WAR I BATTLEFIELDS:

http://www.greatwar.co.uk/index.htm

THE LONG LONG TRAIL (BRITISH ARMY IN WWI)

http://www.1914-1918.net/

CEF STUDY GROUP (PRETTY COMPREHENSIVE LIST OF SITES):

http://www.cefresearch.com/matrix/Uti...

THE INFLUENZA PANDEMIC OF 1918:

http://virus.stanford.edu/uda/

ORAL HISTORIES OF THE FIRST WORLD WAR:

http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/fi...

Some Recommendations: (In progress) - Please add your recommendations as well.

Cecil Lewis (A Memoir)

Lyn Macdonald (About the volunteer nurses -chronicle - interviews)

(A Memoir - sad autobiography)

(A Nurse's Account)

Irene Rathbone
(An account by a pacifist who worked on the front in France and in the London hospitals)

Helen Zenna Smith (Chronicles the experiences of six young Englishwomen who have paid to serve as volunteer ambulance drivers at the front lines in France during World War I)

William Arthur Bishop (WW1 Ace hero, Billy Bishop account, through his son's eyes)

Timothy Findley (Historical Fiction)

G.J. Meyer

(A Masterpiece)

[image error] (Sort of a preface to The Guns of August)

John Ziff

by John Ellis

by B.H. Liddell Hart

by Samuel Lynn Hynes

by Barbara Tuchman

by Paul Fussell

by

and by Robert K. Massie

Thank you so much Susanna..this is how we are building our respective reading lists. Great additions.

'Aussie Rick', would you believe it but WWI, mainly Western Front, is one of my favourite subjects. I have read a lot of the books suggested above and agree they are some of the best. I must confess that Lyn Macdonald is one of my favourite WWI authors and I still think that Martin Middlebrook's account of the Somme is still one of the best ever written covering that terrible battle. Can I also add a few more?

by Martin Gilbert by Martin Middlebrook

by Lyn Macdonald

Winston Groom Max Arthur Leon Wolff Gordon Corrigan

by Peter Hart by Joseph E. Persico

Now for some of my Australian recommendations and favourites:

The Great War by Les Carlyon

Anzac to Amiens A Shorter History of the Australian Fighting Services in the Great War by C.E.W. Bean

Monash The Outsider Who Won a War A Biography of Australia's Greatest Military Commander by Roland Perry

Some other naval titles could include:
Andrew Gordon Peter Hart Keith Yates

And a few aviation titles:
Peter Hart Adrian Hellwig

Rick of course you can add as many as you like. This is a great way to build up the threads and talk about this period in our history.

Bentley

Here are a few good books covering the United States during WW1. The first two I have read, the others are waiting for me when I have time:



by Meirion Harries by Edward G. Lengel


by Byron Farwell by Gary Mead


For good books covering the Italian theatre during WW1 I would highly recommend this title:

by John R. Schindler

Followed by this book:

by Mark Thompson

Two other different & interesting titles are:

by Peter Rees

And;

by Neil Hanson

This is quite startling after all of these years:

92 years later - the Lost Army:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/artic...

http://www.ministers.sa.gov.au/news.p...

Some WW1 books covering a battle significant to Australians:

Robin S. Corfield

Fromelles by Patrick Lindsay and

by Paul Cobb

Thanks..it probably is better over here. I hope they are successful in their work at Fromelles. It must have been so sad for those families not to have found their loved ones at the time. They were all somebody's son, father, brother, cousin, neighbor...all of them had names and lives before Fromelles.

Would you believe that a Victorian (State in Australia) school teacher spent years research archives, pushing the Australian War Memorial and the Australian Government to dig in this location. He wrote a book and assisted other authors researching the battle until after a Inquiry they finally started probing the area and found the mass grave. One man's dedication to find these lost men has changed the lives of so many other people.

I have always believed that in many instances...one person's dedication can change everything in any given situation.

Some fiction:

by

by

by

by R.C. Sherriff

And another non-fiction:

by Modris Eksteins

Here are a few more of my favourites, I would highly recommend Malcolm Brown's series of books on the Western Front

and and and finally by Malcolm Brown

I found his book on the Somme and 1918 some of the best accounts I have read for some time. Another interesting account is:

by Richard Holmes

A recent addition to WW1 books is this account covering the development and use of tanks:

by Christopher Campbell

Thank you very much Aussie Rick. I noticed you have updated the photos...and I am amazed at the numbers of books...good to see you have left the light on by your reading chair because you have some serious reading to do (smile).

Bentley, you are doing a superb job at making this book club fun!

WWI is a minor obsession of mine. I visit the battlefields often. Also, I have read hundreds of memoirs and other first-hand accounts - the best are among the finest pieces of literature ever written. The following list may seem a bit off the beaten path, but these are in fact the best WWI memoirs ever written:







Desert Column (no cover image available)



Of Those We Loved (no cover image available)





Well, there are so many more, but this is a start. The first book, "There's a Devil in the Drum," is one of the best books of any genre I've ever read. Just an incredible read. And Hervey Allen's "Toward the Flame" is probably the best American memoir--it stands up right there with the best of the European memoirs.

'Aussie Rick' wrote: "'Aussie Rick', would you believe it but WWI, mainly Western Front, is one of my favourite subjects. I have read a lot of the books suggested above and agree they are some of the best. I must confes..."

Aussie Rick - if you haven't already, read Ion Idriess' The Desert Column, which I recommended in my last - other great Aussie memoirs are:

The Gallipoli Diary of Sergeant Lawrence of the Australian Engineers, 1st A.I.F., 1915 (no cover image available)



All just superb Australian accounts.

The most moving remembrance ceremony I have ever witnessed is The Last Post at the Menin Gate in Belgium. With Binyon's haunting poetry, bagpipes, and all, this never fails to induce chills . . . and tears:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pgtBP1...

And for the ANZACs:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mY_ezj...

Ed, I will respond at length tomorrow...had some dental work today and boy is it bothering me now. Thank you for your additions and I will get back on tomorrow to respond further.

Thx for your kind words too.

Bentley wrote: "Ed, I will respond at length tomorrow...had some dental work today and boy is it bothering me now. Thank you for your additions and I will get back on tomorrow to respond further.

Thx for your ..."

Get better soon, Bentley, dental work is never fun. :(

Ed wrote: "The most moving remembrance ceremony I have ever witnessed is The Last Post at the Menin Gate in Belgium. With Binyon's haunting poetry, bagpipes, and all, this never fails to induce chills . . . a..."

Hi Ed,

I agree with you, Last Post at Menin Gate is haunting and you can't help but weep. I toured the Gallipoli battlefield in 1990 and bawled my eyes out when they played Last Post at the Dawn Service as well. I've visited quite a few battlefelds and Commonwealth War Graves in Flanders and France and its heart wrenching sometimes reading the headstones.
I have taken note of your selections and will seek a few out that I don't already have, thanks for the information, much appreciated.

Of late here in Australia we have seen an increase in first-hand accounts from Australian soldiers who served on the Western Front, I think family members are finding old manuscripts that have been buried or lost for years.

and by Will Davies

by G.D. Mitchell, Robert Macklin

by Alexander Stewart (not an Australian account but a good book)

by Michael Walsh
" 'Brothers in War' is the immensely powerful and deeply tragic story of the Beechey brothers, and how they paid the ultimate price for King and country. All eight went to fight in the Great War on such far-flung battlefields as France, Flanders, East Africa and Gallipoli. Only three would return alive. Even amid the carnage of the trenches, it was a family trauma almost without parallel. Their wives and sweethearts were left bereft, their widowed mother Amy devastated. It is a tragedy that has remained forgotten and unmarked for nearly 90 years. Until now. Kept in a small brown case handed down by the brothers' youngest sister, Edie, were hundreds of letters sent home from the front by the Beechey boys: scraps of paper scribbled on in the firing line, heartfelt messages written from a deathbed, exasperated correspondences detailing the absurdities of life in the trenches. From it all emerges the remarkable tale of the lost brothers. Tragic and moving, poetic in its intensity, "Brothers in War" reveals first-hand the catastrophe that was the Great War; all told through one family forced to sacrifice everything." - From the Publisher


This one is one of my favourites although its an account of a young pilot flying over the Weastern Front.
by Cecil Lewis

Ed wrote: "The most moving remembrance ceremony I have ever witnessed is The Last Post at the Menin Gate in Belgium. With Binyon's haunting poetry, bagpipes, and all, this never fails to induce chills . . . a..."

I've just watched those Youtube links, great!

Thank you Aussie Rick for not only posting the book cover and the author/photo link and doing it so well; but also for giving such a moving account for some of these books (helps folks understand a little bit about why you recommended them). That helps so much when someone has the time to give that added touch.

Bentley

Ed,

I just watched the youtube line for The Last Post at the Menin Gate in Belgium and it was extremely moving. Thank you for posting it. The bagpiper was probably the best I have ever heard (what unit was he from) and the sounds were unbelievable and so fitting for this kind of ceremony. Extremely powerful.

Ypres 2007 Remembrance Parade

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5sApk...

The Last Post Association

http://www.lastpost.be/

Poppyfield Menin Gate - 2009

http://www.lastpost.be/en/x/66

The Great War - Remembrance at Menin Gate:

http://www.greatwar.co.uk/events/meni...

Detailed Timeline of the Great War:

http://www.greatwar.co.uk/timeline/ww...

People:

http://www.greatwar.co.uk/people/ww1-...

Poets and Poems of the First World War

http://www.greatwar.co.uk/poems/index...

Annual Armistice Day Commemorations:

http://www.greatwar.co.uk/westfront/y...

Newsclips:

http://www.aftermathww1.com/oldestsco...

For The Fallen (1914) - Laurence Binyon

With proud thanksgiving, a mother for her children,
England mourns for her dead across the sea.
Flesh of her flesh they were, spirit of her spirit,
Fallen in the cause of the free.

Solemn the drums thrill; Death august and royal
Sings sorrow up into immortal spheres,
There is music in the midst of desolation
And a glory that shines upon our tears.

They went with songs to the battle, they were young,
Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow.
They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted;
They fell with their faces to the foe.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years contemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

They mingle not with their laughing comrades again;
They sit no more at familiar tables of home;
They have no lot in our labour of the day-time;
They sleep beyond England's foam.

But where our desires are and our hopes profound,
Felt as a well-spring that is hidden from sight,
To the innermost heart of their own land they are known
As the stars are known to the Night;

As the stars that shall be bright when we are dust,
Moving in marches upon the heavenly plain;
As the stars that are starry in the time of our darkness,
To the end, to the end, they remain.


Laurence Binyon

http://net.lib.byu.edu/english/WWI/po...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laurence...

Internet Archive of Binyon's work:

http://www.archive.org/search.php?que...

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg....

The Anzacs youtube was also moving Ed. Thx

Donald Black

The Gallipoli Diary of Sergeant Lawrence of the Australian Engineers, 1st A.I.F., 1915 by Cyril Lawrence

Desert Column by Ion L. Idriess

no bookcovers available on goodreads for these selections