03286cam a2200325 i 4500 771656390 TxAuBib 20181112120000.0 180616s2018||||||||||||||||||||||||eng|u 2018008457 9780465093915 HRD 35.00 0465093914 HRD 35.00 LBSOR/DLC eng rda LBSOR NjBwBT TxAuBib rda Wawro, Geoffrey, author. Sons of freedom. Sons of freedom [Book] : the forgotten American soldiers who defeated Germany in World War I / Geoffrey Wawro. First edition. New York : Basic Books, 2018. xxix, 596 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm. txt rdacontent n rdamedia nc rdacarrier Includes bibliographical references and index. Dog days -- "Too proud to fight" -- Sleeping sword of war -- "Lafayette, we are here" -- The Kaiser's battle -- "With our backs to the wall" -- Belleau Wood -- Chateau-Thierry -- Second Marne -- The hundred days -- Saint-Mihiel -- Meuse-Argonne : Montfaucon -- Meuse-Argonne : Exermont -- Meuse-Argonne : Romagne -- Meuse-Argonne : Barricourt -- Meuse-Argonne : Sedan -- Peace? "The heroic American contribution to World War I is one of the great stories of the twentieth century, and yet is largely overlooked by history. In Sons of Freedom, historian Geoffrey Wawro presents the dramatic narrative of the courageous American troopswho took up arms in a conflict 4,000 miles across the Atlantic, and in doing so ensured the Allies' victory. Historians have long dismissed the American war effort as too little too late: a delayed U.S. Army - although rich in manpower and matériel - fought a dismal, halting battle that was certainly not decisive nor even really necessary. Historians generally assign credit for the Allied victory to improved British and French tactics, the British blockade, and German exhaustion. But drawing on extensive research in US, British, French, German, and Austrian archives, Wawro contends that the Allies simply would not have won the war without the help of the Americans. The Doughboys reversed the German advantage in troop numbers after Russia's exit from thewar and, despite early missteps, prepared a series of excellent offensives. The French, by 1918, had lost their edge and needed American aggressiveness, and willingness to take casualties, to move the lines forward. As Wawro argues, it was the Americans'relentless pressure on the front that drove the war to its end. Fundamentally revising the history of the First World War and its tense final year, Sons of Freedom also reveals why the vital American contribution was so quickly forgotten. In this magisterial account, Wawro reveals the vital U.S. contribution to World War I, finally giving voice to the Doughboys, the war's 'silent slain'-- Provided by publisher. 20181120. World War, 1914-1918 United States. World War, 1914-1918 Campaigns Western Front. Soldiers United States History 20th century. United States Armed Forces History 20th century.