Over There: The United States in the Great War, 1917-1918.
New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1999.
Book Information: Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Author Information:
- Byron Farwell, W. W. Norton & Company.
- Byron Farwell (1921 – 1999), Wikipedia.
Wikipedia Articles:
- American entry into World War I.
- United States in World War I.
- American Expeditionary Forces.
- United States campaigns in World War I.
- Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War.
- Elsie Janis (1889 – 1956).
- Joyce Kilmer (1886 – 1918), author of the poem "Trees" (1913).
Video:
- Haley Hocking and Sarah Runyan, "Elsie Janis: 'The Larks, Still Bravely Singing, Fly'" (a nine minute student project documentary about Elsie Janis). ~~~~~
- The Great War, BBC, 1964.
- The Great War (documentary), Wikipedia.
- Search YouTube for The Great War BBC 1964.
- The Great War and the Shaping of the 20th Century, KCET/Los Angeles, BBC, Imperial War Museum, 1996.
- The Great War and the Shaping of the 20th Century, Wikipedia.
- The Great War and the Shaping of the 20th Century, PBS.
- Search YouTube for The Great War and the Shaping of the 20th Century.
- The First World War, BBC, 2003.
- The First World War (TV series), Wikipedia.
- YouTube playlist.
- The Great War, Mediakraft Networks GmbH, 2014-2018.
- Between 2 Wars, TimeGhost History, 2018.
The following talks are very good supplements to Farwell's book:
- Richard S. Faulkner, "Giant with Feet of Clay: The U.S. Army Enters WWI," National WWI Museum and Memorial, Kansas City, Missouri, 18 April 2017.
- Richard S. Faulkner. Pershing's Crusaders: The American Soldier in World War I. Lawrence, Kansas: University Press of Kansas, 2017.
[Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.]
- Richard S. Faulkner. Pershing's Crusaders: The American Soldier in World War I. Lawrence, Kansas: University Press of Kansas, 2017.
- Paul Herbert, "Battle of Cantigny: Dawn of the Modern American Army," National WWI Museum and Memorial, Kansas City, Missouri, April(?) 2018.
- Shawn Faulkner (aka Richard S. Faulkner), "The Americans Enter the Fray: June - August 1918," National WWI Museum and Memorial, Kansas City, Missouri, 26 June 2018.
- Richard S. Faulkner, "The AEF in Battle: September to November 1918," National WWI Museum and Memorial, Kansas City, Missouri, 29 August 2018.
Farwell's Over There is an introductory survey of the USA's participation in the First World War. It is mostly focused on U.S. soldiers' experiences in Europe (in contrast, for example, to Kennedy's Over Here and Neiberg's The Path to War which focus exclusively on U.S. domestic matters).
I found Farwell's book an awkward combination of too much and too little: too many minor details and not enough continuous narrative; awkward jumps from larger events to individual soldier's heroic actions; too many large topics discussed briefly. It is probably not quite what people seek in a military history; battles are described, but briefly, and the maps are copied from 1919 and 1938 publications, not new. The book has some military history, some political history, some social history, some photos, some maps; it says something about many things that the U.S. Army did during 1917-1919, all in less than 300 pages of main text.
An often recommended book (that I haven't seen yet):
- Edward M. Coffman. The War to End All Wars: The American Military Experience in World War I. New York: Oxford University Press, 1968. Lexington, Kentucky: University Press of Kentucky, 1998.
[Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.]