Its upcoming centennial and the serendipitous discovery of some great genealogical stuff about my grandfather’s unit (the 8th Engineers) and about his cousin-uncle* in the Rainbow Division have me wanting to expand my knowledge of WW1. I’m interested in all aspects of course, but particularly in the U.S. experience. What are your favorite reads about WW1?
Fiction and non-fiction are welcome, but for non-fiction I’d prefer one that focuses on U.S. soldiers or characters. I have a decent background in European and U.S. history so I don’t necessarily need a 4th grader’s history, but would prefer one that doesn’t assume a doctoral knowledge of the people and affairs.
*Recognizing that nothing is more boring than another person’s genealogy, I’ll still add that his cousin-uncle, Wheeler, named for the Confederate cavalry general his father served under, makes for some interesting comparisons when his life is paralleled with that of his father who was feverishly fighting against the USA in a unit that had the hell blasted out of it several times at the same age that his youngest son was loyally fighting for the USA in a unit that had the hell blasted out of it several times. The father survived the war and went on to have 17 kids; his youngest son died in France the last week of the war.