in The Great War

After such conflicts as World War II, Vietnam, and now the Persian Gulf, the First World War seems a distant, almost ancient event. It conjures up images of trenches, horse-drawn wagons, and old-fashioned wide-brimmed helmets–a conflict closer to the Civil War than to our own time. It hardly seems an American war at all, considering we fought for scarcely over a year in a primarily European struggle. But, as Ronald Schaffer recounts in this fascinating new book, the Great War wrought a dramatic revolution in America, wrenching a diverse, unregulated, nineteenth-century society into the modern age.

The Great War touched every single town and city in Britain, barely a community escaped unscathed and the city of York was no different. Despite a long and tumultuous history, the seemingly brief period between 1914 and 1918 left as indelible a mark on York and its people as any period in the preceding millennium.

From Zeppelin raids to housing refugees and evacuees or from men volunteering to fight or women working in the local Gunpowder factory, Dorking in the Great War looks at how the experience of war impacted on the town, from the initial enthusiasm for sorting out the German Kaiser in time for Christmas 1914, to the gradual realization of the enormity of human sacrifice the families of Dorking were committed to as the war stretched out over the next four years.

'A fortified place'. This is not the way we usually think of Southend-on-Sea but it was the description used by the Germans during the Great War. Built beside the Thames Estuary and with the Shoebury Garrison to the east, Rochford Aerodrome to the north and the longest pleasure pier in the world to the south, it was regarded as a legitimate target.

This book is about how Barrow's output of war materials was vital to the Great War effort, and it is about the Barrovians and men from the surrounding south Lakeland area - from all walks of life - who fought abroad, and the area's women war heroes.

Almost 400 men from the Chelmsford were lost in the Great War. This book explores how the experience of war impacted on the Town, from the initial enthusiasm for sorting out the German Kaiser in time for Christmas 1914, to the gradual realization of the enormity of human sacrifice the families of Chelmsford were committed to as the war stretched out over the next four years.

Laindon in the Great War is a detailed account of how the war impacted on Laindon and the surrounding district, known today as Basildon, from the outbreak of the Great War in 1914, to the long-awaited peace of 1918.