Trusted Writing on History, Travel, and American Culture Since 1949
World War I
In the hundred years since his death, features of Woodrow Wilson’s philosophy have become central to international politics and American foreign policy.
Editor's Note: Michael Mandelbaum is professor emeritus at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies and the author most recently of The Titans of the Twentieth Century: How They Made History and t
In the largest protest of the Depression, World War I veterans converged on Washington, DC seeking justice. They were met with tanks, bayonets, and tear gas.
Editor’s Note: We asked historian Paul Dickson to give us some perspective on the recent demonstrations in the nation’s capital.
A leading historian of World War I picks the best accounts of the war among the hundreds he's consulted in his research.
We asked Edward Lengel, a Contributing Editor of American Heritage, to chose his favorite memoirs of World War I and tell us a little about them. Mr.
After World War I, Army Intelligence officers collected statements from German soldiers and citizens.
After the War, American intelligence officers combed through interrogation records and intercepted letters to compile a report about what Germans thought of their former enemies.
In October 1918, 600 men of the 77th Division attacked a heavily defended German position, charging forward until they were completely surrounded by enemy forces. Only 194 of these men survived.
For much of the last ten years, military historian Edward G. Lengel has researched the First World War.
America’s first female soldiers were Signal Corps telephone operators who made sure that critical messages got through, often while threatened by artillery fire.
The Hello Girls: America’s First Women Soldiers, by Elizabeth Cobbs
American volunteers distributing food to starving Belgians witnessed the dramatic deportations, when an estimated 120,000 men were taken to factories in Germany.
One hundred years ago, the bloody fighting finally stopped in the forests of eastern France. We commemorate that event with this special issue of American Heritage.
A century after the guns fell silent along the Western Front, the work they did there remains of incalculable importance to the age we inhabit and the people we are.
During the World War I, American jazz bands played at hospitals, rest camps, and other venues, delighting doughboys and Europeans alike.
We republish an essay President Hoover wrote for American Heritage in 1958 in which he recounted his experiences as an aide to Woodrow Wilson at the peace talks after World War I. This important first-person narrative candidly details the difficulties that Wilson faced in what Hoover called “the greatest drama of intellectual leadership in all history.”
Reprinted from the June 1958 issue of American Heritage.
Former Secretary of State Dean Acheson recalled his time as a "driver" in the horse-drawn artillery, after President Wilson discovered that the United States had practically no army.
From "Practice Range," American Heritage, February, 1968
A noted historian recalls how he came to learn about the five-star general who led American forces to victory in World War I, and the sacrifices made by his family.
Editor's Note: This essay, the last that Gene Smith wrote for American Heritage, was in our files when the historian passed away in 2012. Gene was a long-time favorite of our editors, having published 31 essays in the magazi
In history’s long parade of military heroes, few can rival Sergeant Alvin C. York.
American doughboys proved their mettle in the forests and fields of eastern France during World War I.
On October 11, 1918, late in the afternoon, a platoon of American doughboys marched to the front in eastern France, passing shattered villages, forests reduced to matchsticks, and water-filled shell craters. At every step the Americans struggled to free their boots from the slopping mud.
Gene Wilder discusses his new World War I adventure
Gene Wilder, the son of russian Jewish immigrants, was born in Milwaukee in 1933.
Pork Barrel
A “Call it Pork or Necessity, but Alaska Comes Out Far Above the Rest in Spending.” This headline—from The New York Times—was for a story about the $388 billion federal Consolidated Appropriations Act for 2005.
The book that taught GI’s how to behave in England
“The founding of the United States experience: 1763-1815”
The Founding of the United States Experience (Presidio Press, 64 pages, $50) earns the slightly unwieldy last word in its title, because digging into this handsome volume creates an experience much like rooting through a treasure-filled attic.
Few periods in the history of this country can match the impact of the years between 1917 and 1941. In less than a generation, America experienced the first large-scale dispatch of U.S.
Powered flight was born exactly one hundred years ago. It changed everything, of course, but most of all, it changed how this nation wages war.
Walter Boyne’s résumé makes for unusual reading. He is the author of 42 books and one of the few people to have had bestsellers on both the fiction and the nonfiction lists of The New York Times.
How the discovery of a long-forgotten trunk inspired an artist to spend years recording the quiet remnants of a wrenching military career
My grandfather spoke to me about his experiences in the first World War only once, and that was abruptly and in anger. As young boys, my brothers and I would spend part of our summer vacations with my grandparents.
The newspaper baron Robert McCormick was a passionate isolationist, though his brief service in France in 1918 shone for him all his life and gave birth to an extraordinary museum.
Donald Kagan, a historian of the ancient world believes that, in every era, people have reacted to the demands of waging war in surprisingly similar ways, and that, to protect our national interests today, Americans must understand the choices that soldiers and statesmen made hundreds and even thousands of years ago.
Featured Authors
