THE UNITED STATES IN WORLD WAR I

This is subtitled: The Story of General John J. Pershing and the American Expeditionary Forces. This is a good introductory book to the conflict that we've been predicting (in both the adult and juvenile sections) will nudge up to and eventually overtake the stream of ink inspired by the Civil War. Mr. Lawson has chosen an interesting (and interest-holding) method of keeping the story broad enough for the full sweep of American engagements to be sensed and intersperses this with the accounts of individual heroism which remind the reader that the faceless armies were made up of flesh and blood people. Sergeant York; Billy Mitchell, Joyce Kilmer and General Pershing come up through the anecdotes that fit in (without interrupting) the description of the massive organization and mass movement of the war. They also serve to emphasize (and occasionally their stories introduce) the new techniques that were employed and discovered for this great clash of armies.