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Monash's Masterpiece: The battle of Le Hamel and the 93 minutes that changed the world
By Peter FitzSimons. 2018
The Battle of Le Hamel on 4 July 1918 was an Allied triumph, and strategically very important in the closing…
stages of WWI. A largely Australian force, commanded by the brilliant Sir John Monash, fought what has been described as the first modern battle - where infantry, tanks, artillery and planes operated together as a coordinated force.Monash planned every detail meticulously, with nothing left to chance. Integrated use of tanks, planes, infantry, wireless (and even carrier pigeons!) was the basis, and it went on from there, down to the details: everyone used the same maps, with updated versions delivered by motorbike despatch riders to senior commanders, including Monash. Each infantry battalion was allocated to a tank group, and they advanced together. Supplies and ammunition were dropped as needed from planes. The losses were relatively few. In the words of Monash: 'A perfected modern battle plan is like nothing so much as a score for an orchestral composition, where the various arms and units are the instruments, and the tasks they perform are their respective musical phrases.'Monash planned for the battle to last for 90 minutes - in the end it went for 93. What happened in those minutes changed for the rest of the war the way the British fought battles, and the tactics and strategies used by the Allies.Peter FitzSimons brings this Allied triumph to life, and tells this magnificent story as it should be told.Reflections on the Commemoration of the First World War: Perspectives from the Former British Empire (Routledge Studies in First World War History)
By David Monger; and Sarah Murray. 2021
The First World War’s centenary generated a mass of commemorative activity worldwide. Officially and unofficially; individually, collectively and commercially; locally,…
nationally and internationally, efforts were made to respond to the legacies of this vast conflict. This book explores some of these responses from areas previously tied to the British Empire, including Australia, Britain, Canada, India and New Zealand. Showcasing insights from historians of commemoration and heritage professionals it provides revealing insider and outsider perspectives of the centenary. How far did commemoration become celebration, and how merited were such responses? To what extent did the centenary serve wider social and political functions? Was it a time for new knowledge and understanding of the events of a century ago, for recovery of lost or marginalised voices, or for confirming existing clichés? And what can be learned from the experience of this centenary that might inform the approach to future commemorative activities? The contributors to this book grapple with these questions, coming to different answers and demonstrating the connections and disconnections between those involved in building public knowledge of the ‘war to end all wars’.The Oxford Illustrated History of the First World War: New Edition
By Hew Strachan. 2016
The First World War, now a century ago, still shapes the world in which we live, and its legacy lives…
on, in poetry, in prose, in collective memory and political culture. By the time the war ended in 1918, millions lay dead. Three major empires lay shattered by defeat, those of Germany, Austria-Hungary, and the Ottomans. A fourth, Russia, was in the throes of a revolution that helped define the rest of the twentieth century. The Oxford Illustrated History of the First World War brings together in one volume many of the most distinguished historians of the conflict, in an account that matches the scale of the events. From its causes to its consequences, from the Western Front to the Eastern, from the strategy of the politicians to the tactics of the generals, they chart the course of the war and assess its profound political and human consequences. Chapters on economic mobilization, the impact on women, the role of propaganda, and the rise of socialism establish the wider context of the fighting at sea and in the air, and which ranged on land from the trenches of Flanders to the mountains of the Balkans and the deserts of the Middle East. First published for the 90th anniversary of the 1918 Armistice, this highly illustrated revised edition contains significant new material to mark the 100th anniversary of the war.The Routledge Handbook of Balkan and Southeast European History
By Lampe, John R. / Brunnbauer, Ulf. 2016
Disentangling a controversial history of turmoil and progress, this Handbook provides essential guidance through the complex past of a region…
that was previously known as the Balkans but is now better known as Southeastern Europe. It gathers 47 international scholars and researchers from the region. They stand back from the premodern claims and recent controversies stirred by the wars of Yugoslavia’s dissolution. Parts I and II explore shifting early modern divisions among three empires to the national movements and independent states that intruded with Great Power intervention on Ottoman and Habsburg territory in the nineteenth century. Part III traces a full decade of war centered on the First World War, with forced migrations rivalling the great loss of life. Part IV addresses the interwar promise and the later authoritarian politics of five newly independent states: Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, Romania, and Yugoslavia. Separate attention is paid in Part V to the spread of European economic and social features that had begun in the nineteenth century. The Second World War again cost the region dearly in death and destruction and, as noted in Part VI, in interethnic violence. A final set of chapters in Part VII examines postwar and Cold War experiences that varied among the four Communist regimes as well as for non-Communist Greece. Lastly, a brief Epilogue takes the narrative past 1989 into the uncertainties that persist in Yugoslavia’s successor states and its neighbors. Providing fresh analysis from recent scholarship, the brief and accessible chapters of the Handbook address the general reader as well as students and scholars. For further study, each chapter includes a short list of selected readings.Writing the Great War: The Historiography of World War I from 1918 to the Present
By Christoph Cornelissen and Arndt Weinrich. 2021
From the Treaty of Versailles to the 2018 centenary and beyond, the history of the First World War has been…
continually written and rewritten, studied and contested, producing a rich historiography shaped by the social and cultural circumstances of its creation. Writing the Great War provides a groundbreaking survey of this vast body of work, assembling contributions on a variety of national and regional historiographies from some of the most prominent scholars in the field. By analyzing perceptions of the war in contexts ranging from Nazi Germany to India’s struggle for independence, this is an illuminating collective study of the complex interplay of memory and history.Europe on the Brink, 1914: The July Crisis (Reacting to the Past™)
By John E. Moser. 2020
The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand on June 28, 1914 by a Serbian nationalist has set off a crisis in…
Europe. Since the Congress of Vienna in 1815, peace had largely prevailed among the Great Powers, preserved through international conferences and a delicate balance of power. Now, however, interlocking alliances are threatening to plunge Europe into war, as Austria-Hungry is threatening war against Serbia. Germany is allied with Austria-Hungary, while Russia views itself as the protector of Serbia. Britain is torn between fear of a German victory and a Russian one. France supports Russia but also needs Britain on its side. Can war be avoided one more time? Europe on the Brink plunges students into the July Crisis as representatives of the European powers. What choices will they make?The Second Line of Defense: American Women and World War I
By Lynn Dumenil. 2017
In tracing the rise of the modern idea of the American "new woman," Lynn Dumenil examines World War I's surprising…
impact on women and, in turn, women's impact on the war. Telling the stories of a diverse group of women, including African Americans, dissidents, pacifists, reformers, and industrial workers, Dumenil analyzes both the roadblocks and opportunities they faced. She richly explores the ways in which women helped the United States mobilize for the largest military endeavor in the nation's history. Dumenil shows how women activists staked their claim to loyal citizenship by framing their war work as homefront volunteers, overseas nurses, factory laborers, and support personnel as "the second line of defense." But in assessing the impact of these contributions on traditional gender roles, Dumenil finds that portrayals of these new modern women did not always match with real and enduring change. Extensively researched and drawing upon popular culture sources as well as archival material, The Second Line of Defense offers a comprehensive study of American women and war and frames them in the broader context of the social, cultural, and political history of the era.Indian Soldiers in the First World War: Re-visiting a Global Conflict (War and Society in South Asia)
By Ashutosh Kumar and Claude Markovits. 2021
This book explores the lives and social histories of Indians soldiers who fought in the First World War. It focuses…
on their motivations, experiences, and lives after returning from service in Europe, Mesopotamia, East Africa, and Palestine, to present a more complete picture of Indian participation in the war. The book looks at the Indian support to the war for political concessions from the British government and its repercussions through the perspective of the role played by more than one million Indian soldiers and labourers. It examines the social and cultural aspects of the experience of fighting on foreign soil in a deadly battle and their contributions which remain largely unrecognised. From micro-histories of fighting soldiers, aspects of recruitment and deployment, to macro-histories connecting different aspects of the War, the volume explores a variety of themes including: the material incentives, coercion and training which converted peasants into combatants; encounters of travelling Indian soldiers with other societies; and the contributions of returned soldiers in Indian society. The book will be useful to researchers and students of history, post-colonial studies, sociology, literature, and cultural studies as well as for those interested in military history, World War I, and colonial history.This is a comprehensive new operational military history of the Ottoman army during the First World War. Drawing from archives,…
official military histories, personal war narratives and sizable Turkish secondary literature, it tells the incredible story of the Ottoman army’s struggle from the mountains of the Caucasus to the deserts of Arabia and the bloody shores of Gallipoli. The Ottoman army, by opening new fronts, diverted and kept sizeable units of British, Russian and French forces away from the main theatres and even sent reinforcements to Austro-Hungary and Bulgaria. Against all odds the Ottoman army ultimately achieved some striking successes, not only on the battlefield, but in their total mobilization of the empire’s meagre human and economic resources. However, even by the terrible standards of the First World War, these achievements came at a terrible price in casualties and, ultimately, loss of territory. Thus, instead of improving the integrity and security of the empire, the war effectively dismantled it and created situations and problems hitherto undreamed of by a besieged Ottoman leadership. In a unique account, Uyar revises our understanding of the war in the Middle East.In the Shadow of the Great War: Physical Violence in East-Central Europe, 1917–1923
By Jochen Böhler, Ota Konrád, And Rudolf Kučera. 2021
Whether victorious or not, Central European states faced fundamental challenges after the First World War as they struggled to contain…
ongoing violence and forge peaceful societies. This collection explores the various forms of violence these nations confronted during this period, which effectively transformed the region into a laboratory for state-building. Employing a bottom-up approach to understanding everyday life, these studies trace the contours of individual and mass violence in the interwar era while illuminating their effects upon politics, intellectual developments, and the arts.Missing: The Need for Closure After the Great War
By Richard Van Emden. 2019
The story of one British mother&’s desperate search for her son&’s remains after he was killed in action during World…
War I. In May, 1918, Angela and Leopold Mond received a knock on the front door. It was the postman delivering the letter every family in the United Kingdom dreaded: the notification of a loved one&’s battlefield death—in their case their eldest child, their son, Lieutenant Francis Mond. The Royal Flying Corps pilot, along with his Observer, Lieutenant Edgar Martyn, had been shot down over no man&’s land in France, both killed instantly. Yet there was one comfort: both bodies had been recovered. There would, at the very least, be a grave to visit after the war. However, no news followed. Angela Mond wrote to the Imperial War Graves Commission asking for further details, but no one knew where the bodies were buried. There was an initial trail, but from that last sighting both men had simply disappeared. So begins the story detailed in Missing. Angela, a wealthy, well-connected 48-year-old mother of five and a socialite from London&’s West End, embarked on an exhaustive quest to find her son that took her to the battlefields and cemeteries of France and into correspondence with hundreds of French civilians and British and German servicemen. She even bought the ground on which her son&’s plane had crashed and erected a private memorial to Francis, a memorial that survives to this day. During the Great War, more than 750,000 servicemen and women had been killed. Half of them had no known grave, leaving many families desperate for solace. This is just one of those heartbreaking stories.Wasteland: The Great War and the Origins of Modern Horror
By W. Scott Poole. 2018
Historian and Bram Stoker Award Nominee W. Scott Poole traces the confluence of military history, technology, and art that gave…
us modern horror films and literature.From Nosferatu to Frankenstein’s monster, from Fritz Lang to James Whale, the touchstones of horror can all trace their roots to the bloodshed of the First World War. Bram Stoker Award nominee W. Scott Poole traces the confluence of military history, technology, and art in the wake of World War I to show how overwhelming carnage gave birth to a wholly new art form: modern horror films and literature."Thoroughly engrossing cultural study . . . Poole persuasively argues that the birth of horror as a genre is rooted in the unprecedented destruction and carnage of WWI." —Publishers Weekly (starred review)Australian POWs: The untold stories of WWI
By David Coombes. 2021
&“Comrades in distress we were, and it was now that one felt the existence of a brotherhood that establishes itself…
in circumstances of this kind … A few of the men are very dejected, and appear to be losing all interest in themselves, their habits and practices not being approved by the majority. In some cases, for the most miserable reward, they cringe to the Germans for the chance of being of some service; others also, despite the fact their bodies can ill-afford the sacrifice, trade their boots and other clothing in exchange for food and smokes … This is regrettable, but censure has no effect on the few. Most of us have resolved to maintain some sort of dignity, though &’tis difficult.&” So wrote Australian prisoner of war (POW) Corporal Lancelot Davies who was captured at the First Battle of Bullecourt on 11 April 1917 where Allied forces were &‘badly smashed up&’. Davies was one of almost 1,200 Australians captured that day, facing an uncertain future at the hands of their German captors. – he described the future as &‘blank&’ and unpredictable. The experiences of Australian prisoners of war (POWs) or Kriegsgefangeners held captive in Germany has been largely forgotten or ignored – overshadowed by the horrid stories of Australians imprisoned by the Japanese during World War Two. Yet, as David Coombes makes known, the stories are interesting and significant – not only providing an account of what those young Australian soldiers experienced, and the spirit they showed in responding to captivity – but also for the insight it provides into Germany in the last eighteen months of the war. Coombes draws upon previous inaccessible records – including the interviews conducted many years before by Chalk – as well as private papers and unpublished manuscripts. He paints a vivid picture of young soldiers who survived the trauma of battle, only to find themselves facing an unknown fate at the hands of an often vindictive and cruel enemy. These &‘comrades in distress&’, many wounded and traumatised by trench warfare, quickly discovered the bond of brotherhood, often the key to survival in a harsh environment with little food, poor medical treatment, back-breaking work and the anguish of confinement. What emerges in the pages of this amazingly detailed account is the typical Australian sense of humour and the sheer will to live that marked these men. Above all, it was their determination to be free and to return once more to their families that ensured their survival; often against overwhelming odds. Crossing the Wire is a fitting tribute to the World War One soldiers and POWs. David Coombes highlights the ordeals these men went through, their stoicism in enduring their mistreatment, and the fearlessness of a few in launching ingenious attempts to escape. He proves beyond doubt that their stories are by no means less compelling than those of their World War II brothers.White War, Black Soldiers: Two African Accounts of World War I
By Bakary Diallo, Lamine Senghor. 2020
Strength and Goodness (Force-Bonté) by Bakary Diallo is one of the only memoirs of World War I ever written or…
published by an African. It remains a pioneering work of African literature as well as a unique and invaluable historical document about colonialism and Africa&’s role in the Great War. Lamine Senghor&’s The Rape of a Country (La Violation d&’un pays) is another pioneering French work by a Senegalese veteran of World War I, but one that offers a stark contrast to Strength and Goodness. Both are made available for the first time in English in this edition, complete with a glossary of terms and a general historical introduction. The centennial of World War I is an ideal moment to present Strength and Goodness and The Rape of a Country to a wider, English-reading public. Until recently, Africa's role in the war has been neglected by historians and largely forgotten by the general public. Euro-centric versions of the war still predominate in popular culture, Many historians, however, now insist that African participation in the 1914-18 War is a large part of what made that conflict a world war.Russia and the USSR, 1855–1991: Autocracy and Dictatorship (Questions and Analysis in History)
By Stephen J. Lee. 2005
From a renowned name in A Level history publishing, this is a Questions and Analysis title on a major period…
in Russian History. With all three exam boards offering modules on this popular subject at A Level, this book is an absolute must-have. Looking at the many different aspects of the period 1855–1991 that are covered in A Level history, Stephen J. Lee examines and compares: the ideologies of Tsarist autocracy and Soviet communism parties and opposition to these regimes the use of repression and terror agriculture industry the class structure the 1917 revolution the impact of the First and Second World Wars on Russia. Key elements of this book include: each topic/issue forms a well-structured chapter: background; analysis; sources with questions; worked answers a prominent historiography section – an important element of the new A2 history assessment an incorporated A2 synoptic approach that teaches students to draw together their entire range of knowledge and skills to study one topic guidance on how to answer the recently-introduced synoptic questions. Involving the importance of understanding the connections between the essential characteristics of historical study, this key title is the one-stop shop for all history teachers and students.Never Again!
By Edward Carpenter.
Grover Cleveland Alexander was one of the greatest pitchers in baseball history, with 373 career victories during twenty seasons in…
the Major Leagues. Elected into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1938, the right-hander remains a compelling—and tragic—figure. &“Pete&” Alexander&’s military service during World War I was the demarcation line between his great seasons with the Philadelphia Phillies and his years of struggle and turmoil with the Chicago Cubs and the St. Louis Cardinals after the Great War. Indeed, Alexander&’s service during World War I has all but been forgotten, even though it dramatically changed his life—and his game. Alexander served in the 342nd Field Artillery Regiment, which included big leaguers and star athletes among its officers and men. Naturally, the regiment fielded an outstanding baseball team, but it also faced hard service during the final weeks of the war. After the armistice in November 1918, the unit undertook occupation duty in Germany.The Best Team Over There examines this crucial period closely: where Alexander was stationed, how he was trained, how he withstood the effects of combat and shelling, how he interacted with his fellow athletes and soldiers, and how the war changed his baseball career, revealing for the first time the little-known details of this critical stage in the legendary pitcher&’s life and career. We can&’t truly understand Alexander and his enduring appeal to baseball fans without also understanding his life as a gunner and soldier.The Secret History of Soviet Russia's Police State: Cruelty, Co-operation and Compromise, 1917–91
By Martyn Whittock. 2020
'[R]eadable and thoughtful . . . does an excellent job of exploring how the murderous political police in all its…
incarnations defined the Soviet Union, and left a poisonous legacy still with us today'Professor Mark Galeotti, author of The Vory and A Short History of RussiaRepression, control, manipulation and elimination of enemies assisted in the establishment of the Soviet state, and helped maintain it in power, but could not, in the end, prevent its collapse.Citizens of the West have, for the most part, been told a very simplified story of the repressive 'totalitarian' state that was the USSR. In fact, it was sustained by more than just policing and force. No amount of revisionist history can erase the reality of millions controlled, imprisoned and killed, but there was much more to the USSR's one-party state than this. Whittock tells a more complex story of the combination of cruelty, co-operation and compromise required to build and run a one-party state. Much of this is the story of the role played by the secret police in creating and sustaining such a form of government, but it is much more than simply a 'history of the secret police'. This is because the 'police state' which emerged (in which dissent, both real and imaginary, was undoubtedly policed, threatened and ruthlessly eliminated) was more than just the product of the arrests, interrogations, executions and imprisonments carried out by the secret police. The USSR was also made possible by a battle for hearts and minds which led millions of people to feel that they really had benefited from the system and had a stake in the new society.We Dive at Dawn
By Lt.-Comm. Kenneth Edwards. 2019
We Dive at Dawn, first published in 1941, is the authoritative and highly readable account of Royal Navy submarines during…
World War I (with a final chapter on submarine warfare in the early years of World War II). Written by Lt.-Commander Kenneth Edwards, the book covers a wide-range of topics: the development of the various British submarine classes, German U-boats, encounters with German and Turkish ships and aircraft, sabotage missions on land, anti-submarine techniques (nets, cables, depth-charges), accidents and rescues at sea (including gripping accounts of men escaping flooded submarines). In addition to the workings of the subs themselves, the actions of the men, so many of whom died during their service, are also well-portrayed. One cannot but help to have a great deal of respect for the submariners in, as the author puts it, "particularly hazardous service." Included are 4 maps and 16 pages of photographs.Political and Military Leadership in the World Wars: The Closest Concert (Routledge Studies in Modern History #78)
By Carl Cavanagh Hodge. 2021
This book approaches the World Wars and the decades between them as a single unit in modern history. It is…
impossible to understand either the cause or conduct of the 1939–45 war without an appreciation of the issues not wholly answered in the conflict of 1914–18. Bridging the World Wars was the establishment, revision, and ultimate collapse of the Versailles settlement and the League of Nations system between 1919 and 1939. The 1919 settlement was contested in the 1920s by Fascist Italy and began to unravel irreparably in 1931 with Japan’s incursion into Manchuria. The strategic thought of the interwar years is therefore especially instructive in assessing the prosecution of WWII, as the military ventures of these two revisionist powers pointed toward future developments even before Germany thrust a new way of war upon Eastern and Western Europe. Meanwhile, Britain, France, and the United States began an incremental conversion to new approaches to war in the air and on the sea in particular. The interwar decades are best understood as a period of calibrated rearmament by all the powers based on assumptions about the probability of a future war and the nature of its prosecution.