“During the 1930s, state-structured archival research and Marxist intellectual perspectives increasingly combined in a new perspective. The assertion of a collective responsibility usually proved so pervasive that the Great War came to be understood as a war that no one wanted, a failure of systems rather than a product of decisions. This approach fit well with a wider cultural and political effort in liberal Europe to heal the wounds of 1914-1918 in the face of the contemporary threats of totalitarianism and depression.”[12]
In conclusion, Fraternity of Arms: America and France in the Great War is a unique and valuable recent historical work. Its use and relevance will not just be confined to western academic circles, but will spill-over to students of history across the globe. Written in a clear yet concise prose style, it will be hard to find passages in it that need disambiguation. Another indication of the thoroughness of the project is its list of references, which is of substantial size. By limiting its scope to one aspect of the war, the author is able to do in-depth presentation, analysis and synthesis of historical content. The perusal of personal correspondence of soldiers and their family members adds authenticity and validity to the officially recognized developments in the war. By laying the stress on people as opposed to their leaders, the author makes it easy for the general reader. Overall, the book is highly recommended for students of history, advanced scholars, as well as the general readership.
Bibliography:
Bell, Amy. “Women’s Politics, Poetry and the Feminist Historiography of the Great War.” Canadian Journal of History 42, no. 3 (2007): 411+.
Coetzee, Frans and Marilyn Shevin-Coetzee, eds. Authority, Identity and the Social History of the Great War. Providence, RI: Berghahn Books, 1995.
Green, Andrew. Writing the Great War: Sir James Edmonds and the Official Histories 1915-1948. London: F. Cass, 2003.
Kiesling, Eugenia C. “Europe’s Last Summer: Who Started the Great War in 1914?.” Parameters 35, no. 2 (2005): 148+.
Lalande, J.-Guy. “The Great War and Urban Life in Germany: Freiburg, 1914-1918.” Urban History Review 37, no. 1 (2008): 64.
Sherry, Vincent. The Great War and the Language of Modernism. New York: Oxford. University Press, 2003.
Showalter, Dennis. “The Great War and Its Historiography.” The Historian 68, no. 4 (2006): 713+.
Stubbs, Kevin D. Race to the Front: The Materiel Foundations of Coalition Strategy in the Great War. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2002.
David R. Watson. Review of Bruce, Robert B., A Fraternity of Arms: America and France in the Great War. H-Diplo, H-Net Reviews. December, 2003.
URL: http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=8533
Review of Fraternity of Arms: America and France in the Great War, Good Reads, retrieved from <www.goodreads.com/book/show/2346510.A_Fraternity_of_Arms> on 13th February, 2011