Writing

A War Correspondent Remembers With Anger (Current Opinion, 1922)

A single paragraph review of Sir Philip Gibbs’ (1877 – 1962) book, More That Must Be Told. The book was written as a sequel to his previous volume which cataloged the many blunders and assorted outrages of the Great War, Now It Can Be Told (1920). The reviewer wrote:


Click here to read about the new rules for warfare that were written as a result of the First World War – none of them pertain to the use of poison gas or submarines.

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Baron Fritz & No Hard Feelings (Saturday Review of Literature, 1930)

Saturday Review’s Emerson G. Taylor reviewed two World War I books: Baron Fritz by Dante scholar Karl Federn, which he liked, and No Hard Feelings, by Medal of Honor recipient John Lewis Barkley, which he did not:


In this week’s other narrative of soldier’s life, John Lewis Barkley, late Corporal, K Company, 4th United States Infantry, tells the world that he and his gang were exceedingly tough ‘hombres’, that, in the Second Battle of the Marne and in the Meuse Argonne operations, he killed a vast number of bloodthirsty Germans with his trusty rifle, by serving a machine-gun, or with a pistol and a knife, that he was profusely decorated, was always in the fore-front of duty and danger, and spent a furlough in Paris with Marie…Ho-hum.

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Ludendorff’s Apology (The Nation, 1920)

A second and far more thorough book review of My Story, by German General Erich von Ludendorff (1865 – 1937).

When the bitterness of these days has passed, historians will very likely classify Ludendorff as first among the military geniuses of his time. But his ‘own story’ will have importance principally because of certain sidelights it casts upon his motives and psychology.


A shorter review of Ludendorff’s memoir can be read here.


Read about Ludendorff’s collusion with Hitler…

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General Von Ludendorff Defends Himself (The Dial Magazine, 1920)

Attached is a review of Von Ludendorff’s memoir entitled My Own Story as it appeared in a much admired journal of the arts.

‘Ludendorff’s Own Story’ by Erich Friedrich Von Ludendorff gives a G.H.Q. view of the war from August 1914 to November 1918. It has a certain quality of forthrightness which makes its fallacies and mistakes apparent to the reader even when they escape the author. Ludendorff’s thesis is that the war was lost because the the army at home had not another Ludendorff to direct it…


In 1920 the representatives from the victorious nations who convened at Versailles demanded that Kaiser Wilhelm, General Ludendorff and an assortment of various other big shots be handed over for trial – click here to read about it.


A longer review of Ludendorff’s memoir from The Nation can be read here.

Click here to read about Ludendorff’s association with Hitler.

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A Review of Grand Admiral Von Tirpitz Memoir (The Dial Magazine, 1920)

The well respected arts journal, THE DIAL, published a very brief notice reviewing the post-war memoir, My Memoirs, by Admiral Alfred Von Tirpitz (1849-1930). The Dial reviewer found the Von Tirpitz’ memoir interesting as a psychological study:

My Memoirs, by Grand Admiral von Tirpitz is one of those elaborate vindications which carry the authentic conviction of guilt…If Germany was really, as the Grand Admiral estimates, a sheep in wolf’s clothing, a few more memoirs like this will leave no regret about her fate.


Read an article about the many faults of the German Navy during the Second World War…

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