Commitment and Sacrifice: Personal Diaries from the Great War

Drawing upon recently discovered diaries, almost all of which were previously unpublished, this book provides an intimate look at how ordinary soldiers and civilians experienced and reflected upon the physical and psychological strains of the First World War. It reprints the personal wartime diaries of six individuals with differing experiences: a British sapper who dug precarious tunnels beneath the trenches of the Western Front, a French infantry officer embroiled in years of bloody combat, an idealistic American volunteer ambulance driver who sought to save lives rather than take them, a German businessman caught in England upon the war's outbreak and interned there for the duration, a New Zealand artilleryman fighting thousand of miles from home, and a German machine gunner, captured and held as a prisoner of war. Taken together, their experiences illuminate many of the iconic episodes of the war, from the upheaval of mobilization through the great battles of Gallipoli, Verdun, and the Somme, as well as the less familiar 'other ordeal' of internment and captivity. These six diaries enable us to eavesdrop, a century later, on their authors' intimate reactions as they came of age--literally as young men in their early twenties, figuratively as veterans--in an environment of total war that none could have imagined. Commitment and Sacrifice introduces new and distinctive voices to be added to the chorus of testimony regarding the impact of the Great War.

Table of Contents:
Introduction ; I. "It was like ten thousand devils let loose:" John French, British sapper ; 2. "Young men ... helping this nation to save its soul:" Phillip Cate, American ambulance driver ; 3. "Behind barbed wire in ... a stable for men:" Willy Wolff, German internee in Britain ; 4. "A year ... such as I can never hope to have again:" James D. Hutchison, ANZAC artilleryman ; 5. "Life has been spent among the dead:" Henri Desagneaux, French infantry officer ; 6. "Hunger was stronger than all punishments:" Felix Kaufmann, German POW in France ; Select Bibliography

About the Author :
Marilyn Shevin-Coetzee and Frans Coetzee have taught at Yale and George Washington Universities and have been the recipients of fellowships from the American Council of Learned Societies, American Philosophical Society, Alexander von Humboldt, Fulbright and Mellon Foundations, Institute for Advanced Study (Princeton), and the National Endowment for the Humanities. They are the authors of six books, the most recent of which is The World in Flames: A World War II Sourcebook (OUP, 2010), and maintain a website on world history (www.history4everyone.com).

Review :
Shevin-Coetzee and Coetzee have assembled a well-balanced collection of six riveting personal journals ... Generous commentary about each diarist, plus informative footnotes, makes this collection especially valuable ... Highly recommended. Commitment and Sacrifice offers casual readers, instructors, and students a diverse range of exceptional — and readable — wartime diaries, all of which would be valuable introductions to the First World War.