Doughboys on the Great War

Doughboys on the Great War PDF Author: Edward A. Gutiérrez
Publisher: University Press of Kansas
ISBN: 0700624449
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 320

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Book Description
“It is impossible to reproduce the state of mind of the men who waged war in 1917 and 1918,” Edward Coffman wrote in The War to End All Wars. In Doughboys on the Great War the voices of thousands of servicemen say otherwise. The majority of soldiers from the American Expeditionary Forces returned from Europe in 1919. Where many were simply asked for basic data, veterans from four states—Utah, Minnesota, Connecticut, and Virginia—were given questionnaires soliciting additional information and “remarks.” Drawing on these questionnaires, completed while memories were still fresh, this book presents a chorus of soldiers’ voices speaking directly of the expectations, motivations, and experiences as infantrymen on the Western Front in World War I. What was it like to kill or maim German soldiers? To see friends killed or maimed by the enemy? To return home after experiencing such violence? Again and again, soldiers wrestle with questions like these, putting into words what only they can tell. They also reflect on why they volunteered, why they fought, what their training was, and how ill-prepared they were for what they found overseas. They describe how they interacted with the civilian populations in England and France, how they saw the rewards and frustrations of occupation duty when they desperately wanted to go home, and—perhaps most significantly—what it all added up to in the end. Together their responses create a vivid and nuanced group portrait of the soldiers who fought with the American Expeditionary Forces on the battlefields of Aisne-Marne, Argonne Forest, Belleau Wood, Chateau-Thierry, the Marne, Metz, Meuse-Argonne, St. Mihiel, Sedan, and Verdun during the First World War. The picture that emerges is often at odds with the popular notion of the disillusioned doughboy. Though hardened and harrowed by combat, the veteran heard here is for the most part proud of his service, service undertaken for duty, honor, and country. In short, a hundred years later, the doughboy once more speaks in his own true voice.

Doughboys on the Great War

Doughboys on the Great War PDF Author: Edward A. Gutiérrez
Publisher: University Press of Kansas
ISBN: 0700624449
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 320

Get Book Here

Book Description
“It is impossible to reproduce the state of mind of the men who waged war in 1917 and 1918,” Edward Coffman wrote in The War to End All Wars. In Doughboys on the Great War the voices of thousands of servicemen say otherwise. The majority of soldiers from the American Expeditionary Forces returned from Europe in 1919. Where many were simply asked for basic data, veterans from four states—Utah, Minnesota, Connecticut, and Virginia—were given questionnaires soliciting additional information and “remarks.” Drawing on these questionnaires, completed while memories were still fresh, this book presents a chorus of soldiers’ voices speaking directly of the expectations, motivations, and experiences as infantrymen on the Western Front in World War I. What was it like to kill or maim German soldiers? To see friends killed or maimed by the enemy? To return home after experiencing such violence? Again and again, soldiers wrestle with questions like these, putting into words what only they can tell. They also reflect on why they volunteered, why they fought, what their training was, and how ill-prepared they were for what they found overseas. They describe how they interacted with the civilian populations in England and France, how they saw the rewards and frustrations of occupation duty when they desperately wanted to go home, and—perhaps most significantly—what it all added up to in the end. Together their responses create a vivid and nuanced group portrait of the soldiers who fought with the American Expeditionary Forces on the battlefields of Aisne-Marne, Argonne Forest, Belleau Wood, Chateau-Thierry, the Marne, Metz, Meuse-Argonne, St. Mihiel, Sedan, and Verdun during the First World War. The picture that emerges is often at odds with the popular notion of the disillusioned doughboy. Though hardened and harrowed by combat, the veteran heard here is for the most part proud of his service, service undertaken for duty, honor, and country. In short, a hundred years later, the doughboy once more speaks in his own true voice.

Doughboys, the Great War, and the Remaking of America

Doughboys, the Great War, and the Remaking of America PDF Author: Jennifer D. Keene
Publisher: JHU Press
ISBN: 9780801874468
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 324

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Book Description
How does a democratic government conscript citizens, turn them into soldiers who can fight effectively against a highly trained enemy, and then somehow reward these troops for their service? In Doughboys, the Great War, and the Remaking of America, Jennifer D. Keene argues that the doughboy experience in 1917–18 forged the U.S. Army of the twentieth century and ultimately led to the most sweeping piece of social-welfare legislation in the nation's history—the G.I. Bill. Keene shows how citizen-soldiers established standards of discipline that the army in a sense had to adopt. Even after these troops had returned to civilian life, lessons learned by the army during its first experience with a mass conscripted force continued to influence the military as an institution. The experience of going into uniform and fighting abroad politicized citizen-soldiers, Keene finally argues, in ways she asks us to ponder. She finds that the country and the conscripts—in their view—entered into a certain social compact, one that assured veterans that the federal government owed conscripted soldiers of the twentieth century debts far in excess of the pensions the Grand Army of the Republic had claimed in the late nineteenth century.

The Last of the Doughboys

The Last of the Doughboys PDF Author: Richard Rubin
Publisher: HMH
ISBN: 0547843690
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 549

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Book Description
“Before the Greatest Generation, there was the Forgotten Generation of World War I . . . wonderfully engaging” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review). “Richard Rubin has done something that will never be possible for anyone to do again. His interviews with the last American World War I veterans—who have all since died—bring to vivid life a cataclysm that changed our world forever but that remains curiously forgotten here.” —Adam Hochschild, author of To End All Wars: A Story of Loyalty and Rebellion, 1914–1918 In 2003, eighty-five years after the end of World War I, Richard Rubin set out to see if he could still find and talk to someone who had actually served in the American Expeditionary Forces during that colossal conflict. Ultimately he found dozens, aged 101 to 113, from Cape Cod to Carson City, who shared with him at the last possible moment their stories of America’s Great War. Nineteenth-century men and women living in the twenty-first century, they were self-reliant, humble, and stoic, never complaining, but still marveling at the immensity of the war they helped win, and the complexity of the world they helped create. Though America has largely forgotten their war, you will never forget them, or their stories. A decade in the making, The Last of the Doughboys is the most sweeping look at America’s First World War in a generation, a glorious reminder of the tremendously important role America played in the “war to end all wars,” as well as a moving meditation on character, grace, aging, and memory. “An outstanding and fascinating book. By tracking down the last surviving veterans of the First World War and interviewing them with sympathy and skill, Richard Rubin has produced a first-rate work of reporting.” —Ian Frazier, author of Travels in Siberia “I cannot remember a book about that huge and terrible war that I have enjoyed reading more in many years.” —Michael Korda, The Daily Beast

Doughboy War

Doughboy War PDF Author: James H. Hallas
Publisher: Stackpole Books
ISBN: 146175089X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 364

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Book Description
This multilayered history of World War I's doughboys captures the experiences of American soldiers as they trained for war, voyaged to France, and faced the harsh reality of combat on the Western Front in 1917-18. Hallas uses the words of the troops themselves to describe the first days in the muddy trenches, the bloody battles for Belleau Wood, the violent clash on the Marne, the seemingly unending morass of the Argonne, and more, revealing what the doughboys saw, what they did, how they felt, and how the Great War affected them.

The Doughboys

The Doughboys PDF Author: Gary Mead
Publisher: Overlook Books
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 552

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Book Description
"As U.S. involvement continues to be a controversial factor in contemporary conflicts around the world, The Doughboys establishes the genesis of America's internationalist role in war and in peacetime held throughout most of the 20th century. Against the background of the entrenched isolationist sentiments of the early 1900s, The Doughboys examines how America overcame its reluctance to join what was seen as an Old World conflict and become involved in the First World War." "The Doughboys is a historical account of American soldiers whose valorous contributions in battle earned them a revered and lasting place in history."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

As I Saw It in the Trenches

As I Saw It in the Trenches PDF Author: Dae Hinson
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 0786498730
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 189

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Book Description
"Now that the United States has declared war upon the German Empire, and that men will more than likely be conscripted into the service, I shall feel embarrassed should I fail to be among the first to go to the training camp," wrote Dae Hinson of Leesville, Louisiana, in April 1917. His World War I memoir gives a compelling account of a young man's induction into the army, basic training, friendships formed and frontline combat in France with the 156th Infantry. Hinson vividly records his daily struggles for survival in the trenches amid gas attacks, exploding shells and the constant "rattle and fuss" of machine-gun fire.

Over There With Private Graham

Over There With Private Graham PDF Author: Bruce A. Jarvis
Publisher: Badgley Publishing Company
ISBN: 0998804568
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 572

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Book Description


The Lost Sketchbooks

The Lost Sketchbooks PDF Author: Rex Passion
Publisher: Komatik Press
ISBN: 0982821956
Category : World War, 1914-1918
Languages : en
Pages : 155

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Book Description
A young art student enlists as a combat engineer in World War One. He draws what he sees in a number of canvas-bound sketchbooks which he carries in his helmet. From the time he enters training camp, throughout many battles and until he returns to the U.S. after the Armistice, he is constantly drawing whatever is around him. Once he is home, he returns to art school and his sketchbooks are put away. Ninety years later, his son runs across them in his attic. The Lost Sketchbooks is the book that tells the story of his experiences in The Great War and finally shares his marvelous artwork with the world.

Yesterday There Was Glory

Yesterday There Was Glory PDF Author: Gerald Andrew Howell
Publisher: University of North Texas Press
ISBN: 1574417045
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 357

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Book Description
In 1946, World War I veteran and self-described “buck private in the rear rank” Gerald Andrew Howell finished a memoir of the experiences of his squad from the 39th Infantry Regiment, 4th Division, and their “moments of horror, tragedy, humor, amour, [and] promiscuity” in Europe. This was “the old Army as it used to be,” Howell explains—the saga of the “down-trodden doughboy.” A few months later Howell was dead, his manuscript unpublished. Jeffrey Patrick discovered the memoir and the author’s correspondence with publishers and took on the task of bringing it to publication at last. Yesterday There Was Glory is an unpretentious account of men at war, from training camp to the occupation of Germany. It includes graphic descriptions of the battlefield, of shell fire, gas attacks, and lice. “Between the attacks the men would lay in their wet holes and pray for relief. But no relief came,” Howell remembers. He recalls much more than the horrors of combat, however, chronicling the diverse collection of heroes, professional warriors, shirkers, and braggarts that made up the American Expeditionary Forces. Howell and his comrades longed for wounds that would allow them to escape the war, but resolutely engaged the Germans in hand-to-hand combat. They poked fun at their comrades, but were willing to share their last can of food. They endured difficult marches, pursued “mademoiselles” and “frauleins,” and even staged a “strike” to protest mistreatment by their officers. They were as “ribald as any soldiery in any army,” Howell admits, but “underneath this veneer, they were really patriotic, steadfast and sincere.” Patrick provides an editor’s introduction and annotations to explain terms and sources in the memoir. Howell’s account preserves the flavor of army life with conversations and banter in soldier language, including the uncensored doughboy profanity often heard but seldom recorded.

Dance of the Furies

Dance of the Furies PDF Author: Michael S. Neiberg
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674049543
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 331

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Book Description
By training his eye on the ways that people outside the halls of power reacted to the rapid onset and escalation of the fighting in 1914, Neiberg dispels the notion that Europeans were rabid nationalists intent on mass slaughter. He reveals instead a complex set of allegiances that cut across national boundaries.