Francis A. March (–1928)

This is a book about the First World War written shortly after the events it describes. It is one volume of a multi-volume work, and it covers most of the last year of the war, running roughly from late 1917 to late 1918, but this volume ends abruptly before the actual end of the war. Although the book contains many interesting asides and anecdotes, the narrative often jumps or skips from one topic to anther in illogical ways.

It is essentially a 'popular' history; it's heavy on rah-rah Allied cheerleading and official pronouncements, and scholarly objectivity is mostly lacking. It does have some redeeming qualities, however, such as a passage from pages 92-102 centered around a first-hand account of battle: a letter a soldier (Maj. Robert L. Denig) sent to his wife, detailing his experiences in France on July 18, 1918. And, of course, the book has some historiographic value-- this is, I suppose, the sort of thing the folks 'back home' were reading as the events of the war were unfolding.

On the whole, the writing is substandard and the information unreliable. However, it is not completely useless and given the circumstances of its writing, namely postwar victory euphoria-- "The Hun is defeated! Three cheers for the Allies!"-- it could have been a lot worse.
(6/10)… (mehr)