Articles and databases
Encyclopedias and other reference resources
Almanac of World War I by
World War I was the first modern war fought on a gigantic scale -- a stark, overwhelming, catastrophic series of events that killed millions, shattered nations, destroyed the old world order, and set much of the world's agenda for the twentieth century. The Almanac of World War I provides a day-by-day account of the action on all fronts and of the events surrounding the conflict, from the guns of August 1914 to the 1918 Armistice and its aftermath. Daily entries, topical descriptions, biographical sketches, maps, and illustrations combine to give a ready and succinct account of what was happening in each of the principal theaters of war.
Call Number: General Collection, D522.5 .B87 1998Publication Date: 1998
A Military Atlas of the First World War by
A comprehensive atlas based on the Arthur Banks atlas first published in 1975. The maps in the original were all painstakingly hand-drawn in black and white, covering every aspect of the first truly global war. This book takes the information laid down by Banks and reinterprets it in full color, computer modeled cartography. The book covers the main reasons why the major powers entered the conflict, the individual battles fought along the Western Front as well as in depth coverage of the war in the east of Europe. The War at sea is mapped in great detail, including the clashes at Dogger Bank and Jutland as well as the German submarine campaigns and the first major sea borne landing at Gallipoli. The First World War saw the first extensive use of air power, maps show the routes taken by the German Zeppelin raids on eastern England as well as the Allied strategic bombing effort at the end of the war. In Arthur Banks own words: "I hope that the book will be a convenient reference work which deals with those areas where a more detailed examination in cartographical terms has long been demanded.
Call Number: Atlas Collection, G1037 .B3 2001Publication Date: 2001
American Armies and Battlefields in Europe: A History, Guide, and Reference Book by Call Number: General Collection, D528 .U5 1938Publication Date: 1938
The Encyclopedia of World War II by
An unprecedented achievement in publishing--a multivolume encyclopedic resource, for both the general reader and specialist--on the central conflict of the 20th century, The Encyclopedia of World War II covers the entire scope of the Second World War from its earliest roots to its continuing impact on global politics and human society. * Over 1,400 A-Z entries, including lengthy biographies of individuals, studies of battles, details of weapons systems, and analyses of wartime conferences, crucial battlefield and diplomatic turning points, and lingering historical controversies * Over 270 contributors, including an unprecedented number of international authorities (many from Japan and China), giving the work a global perspective no other encyclopedia on World War II can match * A wealth of primary documents, ranging from official documents to personal correspondence, is included in a separate volume * An introductory section with 70 detailed geopolitical and military maps providing a clear orientation for proceeding with research into specific topics and events, as well as 300 photographs, illustrations, charts, and tables * Includes a discussion of military ranks of the major warring powers and a lengthy comparative table of officers and enlisted men
Call Number: General Collection, D740 .E516 2005Publication Date: 2004
The World War II Desk Reference by
More than 12 million American men and women entered the U.S. armed forces during World War II, and millions more worked and sacrificed at home to help the Allied cause to defeat the Axis powers. At the close of the war, America had become the leading nation on the global stage, and its veterans returned home to forge a vibrant postwar society. Written under the direction of two distinguished historians, The World War II Desk Reference explains in clear prose, backed by rosters of statistics, time lines, and maps, the global cataclysm that was World War II. But this volume is not a typical almanac. With material ranging from battlefronts to important military commanders to armaments, among the backdrop of all the necessary political, social, and economic factors, Douglas Brinkley and Michael E. Haskew's reference will prove invaluable to readers. Photographs, lists, time lines, tables, glossaries, and maps encapsulate many pieces of complicated information, making The World War II Desk Reference immensely browsable. The book also includes a helpful resource on national World War II monuments, organizations, and museums. Throughout the book, you'll find oral histories culled from several sources, including the Eisenhower Center for American Studies at the University of New Orleans, which holds the world's largest repository of valuable letters, journals, and other war-related records. Excerpted from those who fought on both sides, these accounts add a deeply touching, profoundly personal dimension seldom found in other books on World War II. In a modern world plagued by terrorism, dictators, and weapons of mass destruction, Brinkley and Haskew's seminal work reminds us that America's role in World War II led to a truly monumental victory. For World War II enthusiasts, history buffs, and anyone interested in our nation's history, this is the one book to own.
Call Number: General Collection, D740 .W67 2004Publication Date: 2004
Encyclopedia of Japanese American Internment by
This book addresses the forced removal and confinement of Japanese Americans during World War II--a topic significant to all Americans, regardless of race or color. * Provides comprehensive, authoritative, concise, and clearly written information about the internment of Japanese Americans in a single volume * Combines first-hand accounts by participants in this tragic and historic experience with detailed descriptions of assembly centers, concentration camps, and military and Justice Department internment camps to enable readers to imagine what being interned was like * Describes historic events; examines the legal, political, and social ramifications; supplies biographies of key individuals; and discusses the significance of Japanese internment in Asian American history * Serves as an effective introduction to the subject of Japanese American internment for high school and undergraduate students as well as general readers
Call Number: General Collection, D769.8.A6 E64 2013Publication Date: 2013
Books
Listed below are some recent books about the World Wars and the Great Depression. Many more are available; to find others, search OneSearch for "World War, 1914-1918," "World War, 1939-1945," or "Depressions 1929" and limit your results to "book/ebook." For additional tips, see this guide's "Books" page.
American Expeditionary Forces in the Great War - Meuse Argonne 1918 by
Although the Meuse-Argonne Offensive, which began in late September 1918 and continued through to the Armistice, was not the first major action fought by the AEF, it was the greatest in which it engaged in the Great War. Indeed, the casualty count in the fighting at the Meuse-Argonne makes it the bloodiest battle in American military history. The Argonne was an area that had been heavily fought over, particularly in the early part of the war; its eastern part, towards the Meuse, then became enveloped in the first great attritional battle of the war, Verdun. The area is marked by extensive woodlands and rolling countryside; however, unlike the Somme, it is interspersed with numerous waterways, deep ravines and higher ridges, along with significant hills, such as at Montfaucon. To be frank, the opening stages of the Offensive were marked by considerable unforced difficulties for the Americans, who after all were facing a far from strong enemy opposition (however formidable the defensive line might have been). Errors were made, logistical problems multiplied, command was often less than satisfactory. In many respects this should not have come as a surprise: this was an army that was relatively new to the Western Front, which was being reinforced at an awesome rate (approximately 300,000 men a month by July) and whose senior commanders had never before faced the challenges of modern warfare, themselves evolving at a dizzying rate. Maarten Otte gives a background narrative to events before the opening of the Offensive and its development. Taking each of the US corps in turn, he then provides tours that will help the visitor to understand the fighting and the problems that were faced. This opening book on the Meuse-Argonne takes the reader, more or less, to the date when General Pershing handed over command of the US First Army to Major General Liggard in mid October, a change in command that marked a significant improvement in the American performance as they pushed the Germans ever backwards. The Great War battlefield of the Argonne is marked by numerous physical remains of the war, some fine (some might argue over grandiose) monuments and by the stunning American cemetery at Romagne, the second largest in the world administered by the American Battle Monuments Commission. There is much to see in a battlefield that has been largely neglected in the decades since the Second World War.
Call Number: General Collection, D545.A63 O88 2018Publication Date: 2018
The Hello Girls: America's First Women Soldiers by
This is the story of how America's first women soldiers helped win World War I, earned the vote, and fought the U.S. Army. In 1918, the U.S. Army Signal Corps sent 223 women to France. They were masters of the latest technology: the telephone switchboard. General John Pershing, commander of the American Expeditionary Forces, demanded female "wire experts" when he discovered that inexperienced doughboys were unable to keep him connected with troops under fire. Without communications for even an hour, the army would collapse. While suffragettes picketed the White House and President Woodrow Wilson struggled to persuade a segregationist Congress to give women of all races the vote, these competent and courageous young women swore the Army oath. Elizabeth Cobbs reveals the challenges they faced in a war zone where male soldiers welcomed, resented, wooed, mocked, saluted, and ultimately celebrated them. They received a baptism by fire when German troops pounded Paris with heavy artillery. Some followed "Black Jack" Pershing to battlefields where they served through shelling and bombardment. Grace Banker, their 25-year-old leader, won the Distinguished Service Medal. The army discharged the last Hello Girls in 1920, the same year Congress ratified the Nineteenth Amendment granting the ballot. When the operators sailed home, the army unexpectedly dismissed them without veterans' benefits. They began a sixty-year battle that a handful of survivors carried to triumph in 1979. With the help of the National Organization for Women, Senator Barry Goldwater, and a crusading Seattle attorney, they triumphed over the U.S. Army.
Call Number: General Collection, D639.T4 C63 2017Publication Date: 2017
The Path to War: How the First World War Created Modern America by
America's entry into World War One in April 1917 marked the end of one era in the nation's history and the start of another. As acclaimed historian Michael S. Neiberg reveals in his compelling new work, the Great War erupted in the midst of lively domestic debate as to what America's roleshould be in the global sphere. Whereas Woodrow Wilson was re-elected in 1916 by pledging to stay out of the conflict in Europe, former president Theodore Roosevelt was convinced that the war offered a means for the U.S. to become a dominant power and ensure national security.In The Path to War, Neiberg follows American reactions to such events as the Lusitania, German espionage, and the Zimmermann telegram, shedding light on the dilemmas and crises that the country faced in the war years. In the summer of 1916, German agents detonated the Black Tom railroad terminal inJersey City, New Jersey, leaving only fragments of piers (still visible today); it was the costliest act of domestic terrorism in American history before 9/11 and its effect was galvanizing.Neiberg's book will revive debates around America's entry into World War One, building to Wilson's declaration while examining the forces and shifts that made it all but inevitable. Neiberg establishes beyond question that World War One was not a parenthetical exception in American history but amoment of national and international self-identification, one whose effects still resonate today.
Call Number: General Collection, D619 .N45 2016Publication Date: 2016
A Rabble of Dead Money: The Great Crash and the Global Depression: 1929-1939 by
The Great Crash of 1929 violently disrupted the United States' confident march toward becoming the world's superpower. The suddenness of the cataclysm and the long duration of the collapse scarred generations of Americans. A Rabble of Dead Money is a lucid and fast-paced account that pulls together the intricate threads of policy, ideology, international hatreds, and sheer cantankerousness that finally pushed the world economy over the brink. Award-winning writer Charles R. Morris anchors his narrative in America while fully sketching the poisonous political atmosphere of postwar Europe. 1920s America was the embodiment of the modern age-cars, electricity, credit, radio, movies. Breakneck growth presaged a serious recession by the decade's end, but not a depression. It took heroic financial mismanagement, a glut-induced global collapse in agricultural prices, and a self-inflicted crash in world trade to produce the Great Depression. Vividly told and deeply researched, A Rabble of Dead Money anatomizes history's greatest economic catastrophe-and draws its lessons for the present.
Call Number: General Collection, HB3717 1929 .M674 2017Publication Date: 2017
The New Deal: A Modern History by
Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal began as a program of short-term emergency relief measures and evolved into a truly transformative concept of the federal government's role in Americans' lives. More than an economic recovery plan, it was a reordering of the political system that continues to define America to this day. With The New Deal: A Modern History, Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Michael Hiltzik offers fresh insights into this inflection point in the American experience. Here is an intimate look at the alchemy that allowed FDR to mold his multifaceted and contentious inner circle into a formidable political team. The New Deal: A Modern History shows how Roosevelt, through the force of his personality, commanded the loyalty of the rock-ribbed fiscal conservative Lewis Douglas and the radical agrarian Rexford Tugwell alike; of Harold Ickes and Harry Hopkins, one a curmudgeonly miser, the other a spendthrift idealist; of Henry Morgenthau, gentleman farmer of upstate New York; and of Frances Perkins, a prim social activist with her roots in Brahmin New England. Yet the same character traits that made him so supple and self-confident a leader would sow the seeds of the New Deal's end, with a shocking surge of Rooseveltian misjudgments. Understanding the New Deal may be more important today than at any time in the last eight decades. Conceived in response to a devastating financial crisis very similar to America's most recent downturn--born of excessive speculation, indifferent regulation of banks and investment houses, and disproportionate corporate influence over the White House and Congress--the New Deal remade the country's economic and political environment in six years of intensive experimentation. FDR had no effective model for fighting the worst economic downturn in his generation's experience; but the New Deal has provided a model for subsequent presidents who faced challenging economic conditions, right up to the present. Hiltzik tells the story of how the New Deal was made, demonstrating that its precepts did not spring fully conceived from the mind of FDR--before or after he took office. From first to last the New Deal was a work in progress, a patchwork of often contradictory ideas. Far from reflecting solely progressive principles, the New Deal also accommodated such conservative goals as a balanced budget and the suspension of antitrust enforcement. Some programs that became part of the New Deal were borrowed from the Republican administration of Herbert Hoover; indeed, some of its most successful elements were enacted over FDR's opposition. In this bold reevaluation of a decisive moment in American history, Michael Hiltzik dispels decades of accumulated myths and misconceptions about the New Deal to capture with clarity and immediacy its origins, its legacy, and its genius.
Call Number: General Collection, E806 .H557 2011Publication Date: 2011
To Ask for an Equal Chance: African Americans in the Great Depression by
The Great Depression hit Americans hard, but none harder than African Americans and the working poor. To Ask for an Equal Chance explores black experiences during this period and the intertwined challenges posed by race and class. "Last hired, first fired," black workers lost their jobs at twice the rate of whites, and faced greater obstacles in their search for economic security. Black workers, who were generally urban newcomers, impoverished and lacking industrial skills, were already at a disadvantage. These difficulties were intensified by an overt, and in the South legally entrenched, system of racial segregation and discrimination. New federal programs offered hope as they redefined government's responsibility for its citizens, but local implementation often proved racially discriminatory. As Cheryl Lynn Greenberg makes clear, African Americans were not passive victims of economic catastrophe or white racism; they responded to such challenges in a variety of political, social, and communal ways. The book explores both the external realities facing African Americans and individual and communal responses to them. While experiences varied depending on many factors including class, location, gender and community size, there are also unifying and overarching realities that applied universally. To Ask for an Equal Chance straddles the particular, with examinations of specific communities and experiences, and the general, with explorations of the broader effects of racism, discrimination, family, class, and political organizing.
Call Number: General Collection, E185.6 .G79 2009Publication Date: 2009
The Accidental President: Harry S. Truman and the Four Months That Changed the World by
The dramatic, pulse-pounding story of Harry Truman's first four months in office, when this unlikely president had to take on Germany, Japan, Stalin, and the atomic bomb, with the fate of the world hanging in the balance. Heroes are often defined as ordinary characters who get thrust into extraordinary circumstances, and through courage and a dash of luck, cement their place in history. Chosen as FDR's fourth term Vice President for his well-praised work ethic, good judgment, and lack of enemies, Harry S. Truman--a Midwesterner who had no college degree and had never had the money to buy his own home--was the prototypical ordinary man. That is, until he was shockingly thrust in over his head after FDR's sudden death. During the climactic months of the Second World War, Truman had to play judge and jury, pulling America to the forefront of the global stage. The first four months of Truman's administration saw the founding of the United Nations, the fall of Berlin, victory at Okinawa, firebombings of Tokyo, the first atomic explosion, the Nazi surrender, the liberation of concentration camps, the mass starvation of Europe, the Potsdam Conference, the controversial decision to bombHiroshima and Nagasaki, the surrender of Imperial Japan, and finally, the end of World War II and the rise of the Cold War. No other president had ever faced so much in such a short period of time. Tightly focused, meticulously researched, rendered with vivid detail and narrative verve, THE ACCIDENTAL PRESIDENT escorts readers into the situation room with Truman during this tumultuous, history-making 120 days, when the stakes were high and the challenge even higher. The result is narrative history of the highest order and a compelling look at a presidency with great relevance to our times.
Call Number: General Collection, E814 .B35 2017Publication Date: 2017
Code Girls: The Untold Story of the American Women Code Breakers of World War II by
The award-winning New York Times bestseller about the American women who secretly served as codebreakers during World War II--a "prodigiously researched and engrossing" (New York Times) book that "shines a light on a hidden chapter of American history" (Denver Post). Recruited by the U.S. Army and Navy from small towns and elite colleges, more than ten thousand women served as codebreakers during World War II. While their brothers and boyfriends took up arms, these women moved to Washington and learned the meticulous work of code-breaking. Their efforts shortened the war, saved countless lives, and gave them access to careers previously denied to them. A strict vow of secrecy nearly erased their efforts from history; now, through dazzling research and interviews with surviving code girls, bestselling author Liza Mundy brings to life this riveting and vital story of American courage, service, and scientific accomplishment.
Call Number: General Collection, D810.C88 M86 2017Publication Date: 2017
Double Ace: The Life of Robert Lee Scott Jr., Pilot, Hero, and Teller of Tall Tales by
Robert Lee Scott was larger than life. A decorated Eagle Scout who barely graduated from high school, the young man from Macon, Georgia, with an oversize personality used dogged determination to achieve his childhood dream of becoming a famed fighter pilot. InDouble Ace, veteran biographer Robert Coram, himself a Georgia man, provides readers with an unprecedented look at the defining characteristics that made "Scotty" a uniquely American hero. First capturing national attention during World War II, Scott, a West Point graduate, flew missions in China alongside the legendary "Flying Tigers," where his reckless courage and victories against the enemy made headlines. Upon returning home, Scott's memoir, brashly titledGod is My Co-Pilot, became an instant bestseller, a successful film, and one of the most important books of its time. Later in life, as a retired military general, Scott continued to add to his list of accomplishments. He traveled the entire length of China's Great Wall and helped found Georgia's Museum of Aviation, which still welcomes 400,000 annual visitors. Yet Scott's life was not without difficulty. His single-minded pursuit of greatness was offset by debilitating bouts of depression, and his brashness placed him at odds with superior officers, wreaking havoc on his career. What wealth he gained he squandered, and his numerous public affairs destroyed his relationships with his wife and child. Backed by meticulous research,Double Ace brings Scott's uniquely American character to life and captures his fascinating exploits as a national hero alongside his frustrating foibles.
Call Number: General Collection, UG626.2.S36 C67 2016Publication Date: 2016
Primary sources online
For primary sources from and about the World Wars or the Great Depression, you should try the resources and strategies listed on this guide's "Primary Sources" page. However, the databases, collections, and recent books below might be of particular interest to those researching the wars or the Depression
Japanese Reflections on World War II and the American Occupation by
This book presents an unforgettable up-close account of the effects of World War II and the subsequent American occupation on Oita prefecture, through firsthand accounts from more than forty Japanese men and women who lived there. The interviewees include students, housewives, nurses, midwives, teachers, journalists, soldiers, sailors, Kamikaze pilots, and munitions factory workers. Their stories range from early, spirited support for the war through the devastating losses of friends and family members to air raids and into periods of hunger and fear of the American occupiers. The personal accounts are buttressed by archival materials; the result is an unprecedented picture of the war as experienced in a single region of Japan.
Call Number: ONLINEPublication Date: 2017
French War Brides in America by
The thrill of love in the heady days following liberation soon turned to a lesson in reality as GI's and their French brides navigated paperwork, bigotry, and culture shock on both sides, some finding true love, and some finding the American Dream.
Call Number: ONLINEPublication Date: 2008
Midway Inquest by
Midway, the most famous naval battle in American history, has been the subject of many excellent books. However, none satisfactorily explain why the Japanese lost that battle, given their overwhelming advantage in firepower. While no book may ever silence debate on the subject, Midway Inquest answers the central mystery of the battle. Why could the Japanese not get a bomber strike launched against the American carrier force before being attacked and destroyed by American dive bombers from the Enterprise and Yorktown? Although it is well known that the Japanese were unable to launch an immediate attack because their aircraft were in the process of changing armament, why wasn't the rearming operation reversed and an attack launched before the American planes arrived? Based on extensive research in Japanese primary records, Japanese literature on the battle, and interviews with over two dozen Japanese veterans from the carrier air groups, this book solves the mystery at last.
Call Number: ONLINEPublication Date: 2007
North American Indians in the Great War by
More than twelve thousand American Indians served in the United States military in World War I, even though many were not U.S. citizens and did not enjoy the benefits of enfranchisement. Using the words of the veterans themselves, as collected by Joseph K. Dixon (1856–1926), North American Indians in the Great War presents the experiences of American Indian veterans during World War I and after their return home. nbsp; Dixon, a photographer, author, and Indian rights advocate, had hoped that documenting American Indian service in the military would aid the Indian struggle to obtain general U.S. citizenship. Dixon managed to document nearly a quarter of the Indians who had served but was unable to complete his work, and his records languished unexamined until now. Unlike other sources of information on Indian military service collected by government officials, Dixon’s records come primarily from the veterans themselves. Their comments reveal pride in upholding an Indian tradition of military service as well as frustration with the U.S. government. Particularly in its immediacy and individuality, Dixon’s documentation of American Indian veterans of World War I adds greatly to our understanding of the experiences of American Indians in the U.S. military.
Call Number: ONLINEPublication Date: 2007
Never Will We Forget by
Never Will We Forget deals with the most enduring and moving side of World War II, the personal side. These are the stories of some 400 men and women, who, though they experienced the war in wildly different ways, were all profoundly affected by it. Gleaned from interviews and oral histories, the book reflects the experiences of male and female veterans, civilians on the home front, conscientious objectors, survivors of the torpedoing of the USS Indianapolis and of typhoons, participants in the Normandy Invasion, the Battle of the Bulge, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa. Some stories tug at the heart, some foster the shock of surprise, still others reflect the long-held pride in the American war effort at home and abroad. From the first dark stirrings of war through its dusty aftermath, Never Will We Forget captures how Americans lived, felt, and believed during the twentieth century's most brutal conflict.
Call Number: ONLINEPublication Date: 2008
Journey Out of Darkness by
POWs in German prison camps faced brutal conditions completely unlike fictional depictions, and have endured years of trauma not only in imprisonment, but in the years following the war.
Call Number: ONLINEPublication Date: 2007
World War I: Primary Documents on Events from 1914 to 1919 by
Primary documents from the World War I era bring to life the causes, events and consequences of those tumultuous and violent years. Varied perspectives provide a valuable overview of the many and often complicated reactions by Americans to Pre-war European politics, Archduke Ferdinand's assassination, the sinking of the Lusitania by a German submarine, the major battles fought, and of the eventual and controversial entry into the war by the United States, among others. Will be a valued resource for researchers seeking to tap into contemporary attitudes toward events long gone.
Call Number: ONLINEPublication Date: 2007
Primary sources in physical book format
World War I and America: Told by the Americans Who Lived It by
Few Americans appreciate the significance and intensity of America's experience of World War I, the global cataclysm that transformed the modern world. Published to mark the centenary of the American entry into the conflict, World War I- Told by the Americans Who Lived It brings together a wide range of writings by American participants and observers to tell a vivid and dramatic firsthand story from the outbreak of war in 1914 through the Armistice, the Paris Peace Conference, and the League of Nations debate. The eighty-eight men andwomen collected in the volume--soldiers, airmen, nurses, diplomats, statesmen, political activists, journalists--provide unique insights into how Americans of every stripe perceived the war, why they supported or opposed intervention, how they experienced the nightmarish reality of industrial warfare, and how the conflict changed American life. Richard Harding Davis witnesses the burning of Louvain; Edith Wharton tours the front in the Argonne and Flanders; John Reed reports from Serbia and Bukovina; Charles Lauriat describes the sinking of the Lusitania; Leslie Davis records the Armenian genocide; Jane Addams and Emma Goldman protest against militarism; Victor Chapman and Edmond Genet fly with the Lafayette Escadrille; Floyd Gibbons, Hervey Allen, and Edward Lukens experience the ferocity of combat in Belleau Wood, Fismette, and the Meuse-Argonne; and Ellen La Motte and Mary Borden unflinchingly examine the "human wreckage" brought into military hospitals. W.E.B. Du Bois, James Weldon Johnson, Jessie Fauset, and Claude McKay protest the racist treatment of black soldiers and the violence directed at African Americans on the home front; Carrie Chapman Catt connects the war with the fight for women suffrage; Willa Cather explores the impact of the war on rural Nebraska; Henry May recounts a deadly influenza outbreak onboard a troop transport; Oliver Wendell Holmes weighs the limits of free speech in wartime; Woodrow Wilson envisions a world without war. A coda presents three iconic literary works by Ernest Hemingway, E. E. Cummings, and John Dos Passos. With an introduction and headnotes by A. Scott Berg, brief biographies of the writers, and endpaper papers.
Call Number: General Collection, D640.A2 W67 2017Publication Date: 2017
Out Here at the Front: The World War I Letters of Nora Saltonstall by
Nora Saltonstall (1894-1919) was just twenty-three when she left behind her privileged, upper-class life in Boston for volunteer service in France during the Great War. Nora's mission began in 1917, and took her through waters prowled by German U-boats, to refugee, canteen, and dispensary work in Paris, and then, just before the decisive battles of 1918 got underway, to Mrs. Daly's autochir, a mobile surgical hospital on the Western Front, where she served as quartermaster, driver, auto mechanic, and nursing assistant. Now Nora's war correspondence - letters she wrote home to anxious family and friends from October 1917 to March 1919 - are published here for the first time. Written in a fresh, straightforward, and unpretentious voice, with an irreverent and charming sense of humor, Nora's engaging and richly detailed missives tell of securing food and medical supplies, assisting refugees, preparing wounded soldiers for surgery, and packing and moving the autochir under the threat of enemy fire. They also tell of the experiences of the many young men in Nora's circle, including her brother (and future U.S. senator) Leverett, who volunteered as ambulance drivers and soldiers, and of
Call Number: General Collection, D629.F8 S25 2004ISBN: 1555535984Publication Date: 2004
The Last of the Doughboys: The Forgotten Generation and Their Forgotten World War by
In 2003, 85 years after the armistice, it took Richard Rubin months to find just one living American veteran of World War I. But then, he found another. And another. Eventually he managed to find dozens, aged 101 to 113, and interview them. All are gone now. A decade-long odyssey to recover the story of a forgotten generation and their Great War led Rubin across the United States and France, through archives, private collections, and battlefields, literature, propaganda, and even music. But at the center of it all were the last of the last, the men and women he met: a new immigrant, drafted and sent to France, whose life was saved by a horse; a Connecticut Yankee who volunteered and fought in every major American battle; a Cajun artilleryman nearly killed by a German aeroplane; an 18-year-old Bronx girl "drafted" to work for the War Department; a machine-gunner from Montana; a Marine wounded at Belleau Wood; the 16-year-old who became America's last WWI veteran; and many, many more. They were the final survivors of the millions who made up the American Expeditionary Forces, nineteenth-century men and women living in the twenty-first century. Self-reliant, humble, and stoic, they kept their stories to themselves for a lifetime, then shared them at the last possible moment, so that they, and the World War they won - the trauma that created our modern world - might at last be remembered. You will never forget them. The Last of the Doughboys is more than simply a war story: It is a moving meditation on character, grace, aging, and memory.
Call Number: General Collection, D639.V48 U67 2013Publication Date: 2013
Meuse-Argonne Diary: A Division Commander in World War I by
September 13, 1918 Got no sleep at all last night. About two o'clock in the morning Col. Heintzelman, chief of staff of the corps, came out and he was much pleased with what the division had accomplished and with the way they had gone through. It was the division's first battle and it played a very important and creditable part. Certain things fell down. . . . The truth of the matter is the troops got away from the wire and it was impossible to keep the wire up through the tangle of barbed wire and woods. We captured 3,000 prisoners on our front alone and have lost 521. November 1, 1918 Considerable heavy artillery fire all night. The preparation fire went down promptly at 3:30, it was very heavy. . . . The barrage went down promptly at 5:30. Troops jumped off. At 7:30 thirty prisoners reported from Le Dhuy Fme., taken by the 353rd and 354th infantries. I don't understand what the 353rd Infantry is doing in there, as it is out of the sector. At 7:00 a.m. there was a distinct lull in the artillery fire. . . . I told Hanson at 8:05 to move his troops forward to parallel 86 immediately. He stated that he would get them going about 8:30, but actually did not get them started until about eleven o'clock. I sent for him on arrival and told him to hurry his men up. Before Lee left I had ordered the divisional reserve to move forward with its advance element on the first objective to maintain their echelonment in depth. Smyser came in at one o'clock and I ordered the divisional machine guns to the front to take position about one-half kilometer east of Dhuy Fme. At the time the reserves were ordered forward. I ordered Hanson to take his P.C. to Dhuy Fme. . . . Hanson has just arrived. I do not understand why he is always so slow. He seems to be inordinately stupid. During America's participation in World War I, 1917-1918, only a single commander of a division, William M. Wright, is known to have kept a diary. In it, General Wright relates his two-month experience at St. Mihiel and especially the Meuse-Argonne, the largest and most costly battle in American history. In the Meuse-Argonne, the Eighty-ninth Division, made up of 28,000 draftees from Missouri and Kansas and under Wright's command, was one of the two American point divisions beginning November 1, 1918, when the U.S. First Army forced the German defenders back to the Meuse River and helped end World War I as the main German railway line for the entire Western Front came under American artillery fire. It was a great moment, and Wright was at the center of it. Robert Ferrell skillfully supplements the diary with his own narrative, making use of pertinent manuscripts, notably a memoir by one of Wright's infantry regiment commanders. The diary shows the exacting attention that was necessary to keep such a large, unwieldy mass of men in motion. It also shows how the work of the two infantry brigadiers and of the two supporting artillery brigades required the closest attention. Meuse-Argonne Diary, a unique account of, among other things, a singular moment in the Great War in which American troops ensured victory, will fascinate anyone interested in military history in general and World War I in particular.
Call Number: General Collection, D570.3 89TH .W75 2004Publication Date: 2004
Hard Times: An Illustrated Oral History of the Great Depression by
First published in 1970, Studs Terkel's Hard Times has been called a huge anthem in praise of the American spirit' (Saturday Review) and 'an invaluable record' (New York Times). With grace and compassion, Terkel evokes a mosaic of memories from artists, politicians, businessmen, writers, racketeers, speakeasy operators, strikers, farmers, people who were just kids and those who remember losing a fortune. Now, in a beautiful new illustrated edition, Studs's interviews are complemented by Farm Security Administration photographs from the Library of Congress.'
Call Number: General Collection, E806 .T45 2012Publication Date: 2012- Dust Bowl Diary by
"Life in what the newspapers call 'the Dust Bowl' is becoming a gritty nightmare," Ann Marie Low wrote in 1934. Her diary vividly captures that "gritty nightmare" as it was lived by one rural family--and by millions of other Americans. The books opens in 1927--"the last of the good years"--when Ann Marie is a teenager living with her parents, brother, and sister on a stock farm in southeastern North Dakota. We follow her family and friends, descendants of homesteaders, through the next ten years--a time of searing summer heat and desiccated fields, dying livestock, dust to the tops of fence posts and prices at rock bottom--a time when whole communities lost their homes and livelihoods to mortgages and, hardest of all, to government recovery programs. We also see the coming to maturity of the author in the face of economic hardship, frustrating family circumstances, and the stifling restrictions that society then placed on young women. Ann Marie Low's diary, supplemented with reminiscences, offers a rich, circumstantial view of rural life a half century ago: planting and threshing before the prevalence of gasoline-powered engines, washing with rain water and ironing with sadirons, hauling coal on sleds over snow-clogged roads, going to end-of-school picnics and country dances, and hoarding the egg and cream money for college. Here, too, is an iconoclastic on-the-scene account of how a federal work project, the construction of a wildlife refuge, actually operated. Many readers will recognize parts of their own past in Ann Marie Low's story; for others it will serve as a compelling record of the Dust Bowl experience.
Call Number: General Collection, F636 .L92 1984Publication Date: 1984
The Great Depression: An Eyewitness History by
The Great Depression, a volume in Facts On File's acclaimed Eyewitness History series, provides hundreds of firsthand accounts of this period - from memoirs, speeches, letters and newspapers, which illustrate how historical events appeared to those who lived through them. Among the eyewitness testimonies included are those of Roosevelt, Huey Long, Edna St. Vincent Millay and hundreds more. In addition to the firsthand accounts, each chapter provides an introductory essay and a chronology of events. The book also includes two appendixes - which consist of relevant documents and capsule biographies of more than 200 key figures - a bibliography, an index and numerous photographs.
Call Number: General Collection, E806 .B9 1996Publication Date: 1996
The Chaplain's Conflict: Good and Evil in a War Hospital, 1943-1945 by
As chaplain for the US Army's 102nd Evacuation Hospital in the European Theater, Renwick C. Kennedy--"Ren" to those who knew him--witnessed great courage, extreme talent, and many lives snatched from the precipice of death, all under the most trying conditions. He also observed drug and alcohol abuse, prejudice, narrow-mindedness, and chronic depression. What he saw, he chronicled in his journal, and what he wrote, he processed with an intellectual and ethical rigor born of his remarkably sophisticated worldview and his deeply held Christian faith. With Kennedy's war diaries and postwar articles published in Christian Century and Time magazines in front of him, historian Tennant McWilliams spent a year retracing every step, every turn, every location of the 102nd in wartime France, Belgium, Luxembourg, and Germany, compiling rich detail on this episode in Kennedy's life. McWilliams's interviews with citizens of France and Luxembourg who recall the 102nd further revealed local people's reactions to the army hospital that illuminated both Kennedy's severe criticism and his enduring praise for evac life. The result is a candid view of what went on in the World War II evac hospitals. With a nuanced and gritty style, The Chaplain's Conflict shatters the self-interested and sometimes sentimental images of evacs held by some among the medical community. This complex and compelling observation of doctors practicing war-zone medicine in World War II will hold great appeal for readers of military and medical history, as well as those interested in the socio-cultural, ethical, and religious implications of war and military service.
Call Number: General Collection, D810.C36 U66 2012Publication Date: 2012
Beyond Rosie: A Documentary History of Women and World War II by
More so than any war in history, World War II was a woman's war. Women, motivated by patriotism, the opportunity for new experiences, and the desire to serve, participated widely in the global conflict. Within the Allied countries, women of all ages proved to be invaluable in the fight for victory. Rosie the Riveter became the most enduring image of women's involvement in World War II. What Rosie represented, however, is only a small portion of a complex story. As wartime production workers, enlistees in auxiliary military units, members of voluntary organizations or resistance groups, wives and mothers on the home front, journalists, and USO performers, American women found ways to challenge traditional gender roles and stereotypes. Beyond Rosie offers readers an opportunity to see the numerous contributions they made to the fight against the Axis powers and how American women's roles changed during the war. The primary documents (newspapers, propaganda posters, cartoons, excerpts from oral histories and memoirs, speeches, photographs, and editorials) collected here represent cultural, political, economic, and social perspectives on the diverse roles women played during World War II.
Call Number: General Collection, D810.W7 B49 2015Publication Date: 2015
Roi Ottley's World War II by
When black journalist Vincent "Roi" Ottley was assigned to cover the European theater in World War II, he provided a perspective shared by few other war correspondents. But what he really saw has taken more than sixty years to come to light. Already famous as the author of New World A-Coming--in which he decried the hypocrisy of America fighting for freedom in Europe while denying it to blacks at home--Ottley was sent to cover the experiences of African American soldiers that neither white journalists nor the American military felt obliged to report. But while his dispatches documented this assignment, his personal diary reveals a different war--one that included mess hall brawls between Southern white soldiers and their black counterparts, the British public's ignorance toward their own black soldiers, and other subtle glimpses of wartime life that never made it into print. That journal remained buried in a collection of Ottley's papers at St. Bonaventure University until Mark Huddle discovered it in the school's archives. With this book, he offers us a new look at World War II as he brings a forgotten figure out of history's shadow. While Ottley may have had an agenda in his published articles of proving the worth of black soldiers, his diary is rich in personal reflections-from his fears while enduring a bombing raid in London to his true feelings about fellow reporters to his encounters with celebrities such as Ernest Hemingway and Edward R. Murrow. And at every turn Ottley kept a keen eye on race issues, revealing a highly political as well as entertaining writer while reflecting a growing awareness that the African American freedom movement was part of a larger international struggle by peoples of color against Western imperialism. Huddle's introduction frames Ottley's career and contributions, and his annotations throughout the book provide additional context to the reporter's experiences. Huddle also includes thirteen of Ottley's published dispatches to demonstrate the differences between his personal musings and his professional output. The publication of this lost diary restores the reputation of a trailblazing figure, showing that Roi Ottley was both a brilliant writer and one of America's keenest observers of race issues. It offers all readers interested in race relations or World War II a more nuanced picture of life during that conflict from a perspective rarely encountered.
Call Number: General Collection, D811.5 .O86 2011Publication Date: 2011
My Dear Mr. Stalin: The Complete Correspondence Between Franklin D. Roosevelt and Joseph V. Stalin by
My Dear Mr. Stalin is the first publication that contains the complete correspondence between Franklin D. Roosevelt and Joseph V. Stalin. This collection of more than three hundred hot-war messages, never before fully available in any language, is an invaluable primary source for understanding the relationship that developed between these two great world leaders during a time of supreme world crisis.The correspondence, secret at the time, begins with a letter Roosevelt wrote to Stalin offering aid to the Soviet Union following Hitler’s surprise attack in 1941. It ends with a message that was an attempt to minimize the differences between the two leaders, approved by Roosevelt only minutes before his death in 1945. The book traces the evolution of their unique relationship, revealing the statesmanship of the two men and their thinking about the grave events of their time. An informative introduction to the volume and generous annotations set the letters in context.
Call Number: General Collection, E807 .A4 2005Publication Date: 2006
