WWI

The First World War, while so world changing and so devastating for millions of people...often plays a backseat for those who enjoy studying war. I've held a fascination with the Great War since childhood, when I checked out a book from the Rocky Creek Public Library (no longer open) about the war on a trip there with my grandmother (a veteran of the second world war). I found the idea of tanks and calvary as crazy...the clash of technology and lack there of, the trenches, the use of chemical weapons....the sheer numbers of the dead.

One of the first books I read on the war was Barbara Tuchman's Guns of August, a book that covers the lead up to the war....its an amazing book, Ive read it more than once.  If you are interested about the roots of a war that would have an effect on the world decades after its end...read this book.

The Guns of August

On top of my obsession with the war and what happened.... I have an entire shelf dedicated to the war at my house...

My WWI books!!!

Although I love all of these books... I have a favorite...

Over the years I have developed a side love of the WWI poets like Brooks and Sassoon....  I have a collection of their poems as an ebook BUT...

I also have this...

my awesome book from Dublin, Ireland

We went into a tiny bookshop in Dublin, Ireland and I found this gem on the shelf AND it was affordable (many of the books in the shop were not...the place has been on famous travel shows like Anthony Bourdain's)...  The book was printed in London and its old and tattered...but I love Rupert Brooke's poetry so it was awesome to get it.  

I found out today that the journals of Sassoon are on the web for free now here... if you want to read what life in the trenches treated those unfortunate souls placed in them... read it.

Or...read Ernst Junger's Storm of Steel or about the way the war affected the civilians... read Vera Brittain's Testament of Youth

OK done.  :D