The World War I Reader

Almost 100 years after the Treaty of Versailles was signed, World War I continues to be badly understood and greatly oversimplified. Its enormous impact on the world in terms of international diplomacy and politics, and the ways in which future military engagements would evolve, be fought, and ultimately get resolved have been ignored. With this reader of primary and secondary documents, edited and compiled by Michael S. Neiberg, students, scholars, and war buffs can gain an extensive yet accessible understanding of this conflict. Neiberg introduces the basic problems in the history of World War I, shares the words and experiences of the participants themselves, and, finally, presents some of the most innovative and dynamic current scholarship on the war.

Neiberg, a leading historian of World War I, has selected a wide array of primary documents, ranging from government papers to personal diaries, demonstrating the war’s devastating effect on all who experienced it, whether President Woodrow Wilson, an English doughboy in the trenches, or a housewife in Germany. In addition to this material, each chapter in The World War I Reader contains a selection of articles and book chapters written by major scholars of World War I, giving readers perspectives on the war that are both historical and contemporary. Chapters are arranged chronologically and by theme, and address causes, the experiences of soldiers and their leaders, battlefield strategies and conditions, home front issues, diplomacy, and peacemaking. A time-line, maps, suggestions for further reading, and a substantive introduction by Neiberg that lays out the historiography of World War I round out the book.

Almost 100 years after the Treaty of Versailles was signed, World War I continues to be badly understood and greatly oversimplified. Its enormous impact on the world in terms of international diplomacy and politics, and the ways in which future military engagements would evolve, be fought, and ultimately get resolved have been ignored. With this reader of primary and secondary documents, edited and compiled by Michael S. Neiberg, students, scholars, and war buffs can gain an extensive yet accessible understanding of this conflict. Neiberg introduces the basic problems in the history of World War I, shares the words and experiences of the participants themselves, and, finally, presents some of the most innovative and dynamic current scholarship on the war.

Neiberg, a leading historian of World War I, has selected a wide array of primary documents, ranging from government papers to personal diaries, demonstrating the war's devastating effect on all who experienced it, whether President Woodrow Wilson, an English doughboy in the trenches, or a housewife in Germany. In addition to this material, each chapter in The World War I Reader contains a selection of articles and book chapters written by major scholars of World War I, giving readers perspectives on the war that are both historical and contemporary. Chapters are arranged chronologically and by theme, and address causes, the experiences of soldiers and their leaders, battlefield strategies and conditions, home front issues, diplomacy, and peacemaking. A time-line, maps, suggestions for further reading, and a substantive introduction by Neiberg that lays out the historiography of World War I round out the book.

Bryan Craig - Library Journal

There are scores of secondary and documentary sources on World War I soldiers and on the war itself, from its genesis to its concluding treaties. However, it is much more difficult to find one volume that contains a mix of primary and secondary sources covering all these topics. Neiberg (history, Univ. of Southern Mississippi; Fighting the Great War: A Global History) here offers an excellent primer for anyone studying the Great War. The book's strength is its scope. As they proceed from "Part One: Causes" to "Part Six: Peace" (with most sections offering two primary and two secondary sources), readers will learn from both sides about major leaders, the home front, soldiers and officers in battle, and the politics of peace. For secondary sources, Neiberg taps well-known historians such as David Trask and Dennis Showalter but also finds unique perspectives like Dale Blair's on American and Australian troop interactions and Jennifer Keene's look at U.S. military race relations. His primary sources include the perspectives of women and satirical novelists. The only small weakness is the omission of short author biographies, which would have given fuller context to his selections. Recommended for all academic libraries and larger public libraries.

Michael S. Neiberg is professor of history and co-director of the Center for the Study of War and Society at the University of Southern Mississippi. He is the author of Fighting the Great War: A Global History, Foch: Allied Commander in the Great War, and Making Citizen-Soldiers: ROTC and the Ideology of American Military Service.