The Doughboys: America and the First World War

by Gary Mead

Book Overview

The Doughboys were the more than three million men, many of them volunteers, recruited from the cities and farms of the United States, who traveled across the Atlantic to aid the Allies in the... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1585670618
• ISBN13: 9781585670611
• Release Date: November 2000
• Publisher: Overlook Books
• Length: 478 Pages
• Weight: 2.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.6" x 6.4" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Timelines

The author sets out his purpose, to set the record straight on Americans involvement in the Great War, right at the start of the book. The way he put the story together, with jumps in time & space, at first, it seemed like he was telling another story entirely since America had such a hard time right at the start of the war. Finally Mr. Mead, and America, gets his feet under him and the story takes off as success follows success. I especially enjoyed the emphasis on how abhorant the behavior of the British and the French were. While ultimately, they did try to teach us some useful information, their general treatment and demeanor, which caused Pershing to fight them nearly as often as the Germans, probably extended the war by a couple of months. His chapters on the wars conclusions and aftermath were quite good as well. While almost diametrically opposed in its treatment of the American military, this book is a good companion to Thomas Fleming's Illusion of Victory.

Yankee Doodle Dandy

The author is certainly right when he asserts that the American role in World War I has been downplayed by both the British and the French. The British and French would not have won their war with the Germans without the Americans. In 1918, the French were spent as an offensive force and the British didn't have the resources. Thus, I applaud the author's -- a Brit -- conclusion. Most European writers about the war are not so generous or objective. Mead isn't sparing in his criticism of the perfidious and obnoxious French and some of the British allies of the Americans. Nor does he ignore the faults of Pershing and other American commanders, including President Woodrow Wilson who gets my vote as the most over-rated President in American history. The author's description of the racism in the American army is valuable. The virtues of "Doughboys" include a chart that shows the Americans had taken over more of the front lines than the British by the end of the war and two useful closing chapters that tally up the cost of the war and the aftermath. But I question Mead's assertion that little has been written about the American participation in World War I. "Yanks" by John S.D. Eisenhower is a similar book I would recommend and I've read several others. Perhaps he means that little has been written about the American doughboys by English and French authors. The defects of the book are lousy maps and poor descriptions of battles. The author jumps back and forth between the grand strategists and the boys in the trenches but doesn't do a very good job in making the battles comprehensible. The book needs more maps showing who was where and when. Also, don't anticipate this to be a book primarily about the doughboys on the front lines of the war. It's more of a general history of American participation rather than a worm's eye view, although the author tells some excellent stories of individual American soldiers. Smallchief

Masterfully Done...Unlikely Perspective

You know what's coming when you discover this history of American armed forces in World War One was written by an Englishman. But you couldn't be more wrong. Firstly, this is not one of those minute-by-minute descriptive accounts of every military engagement which involved American troops. True, as he must, Mead devotes objective analyses to the major encounters involving Doughboys. However, he devotes the major portion of his fascinating study to the battles that were fought behind the front lines...not against the German army, but rather among the so-called "Allies" themselves. Mead is not subtle in his obvious dislike for Lloyd George and Clemenceau and he holds their feet to the fire for their hostility towards the country who sent its troops to Europe to rescue them from likely defeat. Ignored by many historians, but not by Mead, is the fact that while they were pleading for millions of American troops, the British, were refusing to supply trans-Atlantic troop transport unless American leaders agreed to have its troops fill in as replacements in the British and French armies...to fight under an alien flag. Hostilities between Americans and French people grew to the point when, after the Armistice, some Doughboys questioned if they had fought on the right side. Looking for the usual military history? If so, Mead's work is not for you. Looking instead a literary chateaubriand that sates the intellect? If so, this book is for you.

The story of the more than three million soldiers

Nicely illustrated with 48 black-and-white historical photographs, Gary Mead's The Doughboys is the story of the more than three million men who comprised the American Expeditionary Force during the First World War. More than 50,000 of these men were killed in battle. Enhanced with maps and list tallies, the American involvement in 1917 and 1918 is carefully and accurately presented resulting in one of the best and most "reader friendly" presentations available to military buffs, American military history students, and anyone with an interest in America's first military involvement on European soil, an involvement that would establish America as a world power for the remainder of the twentieth century.

Very good book on a very overlooked subject!

With the sparse titles available for WWI, this book tells a very good story. Two other books that cover the US entry and involvement in the great war (while great books as well) do not tell such a rich and full story as Mead's book. What I liked most is the way Mead describes the way the other allied nations tried to use the US troops to help their respective nations. It also reads like a mini bio of Gen Pershing, who was the commander, and biggest advocate of the AEF as a separate and effective fighting force. Very detailed, yet reads like a novel. A must buy.