Even after reading the aforementioned Truce I was still unclear.
As such, I was a bit sketchy on the whole Lusitania business. Backmatter includes a Guide to Wartime Presidents, a Timeline, a Bibliography, and a Resource Guide.Īs I mentioned earlier, WWI got kind of glossed over when I was in elementary/middle/high school. The parallels between WWI and what’s happening today are unavoidable, and teach a definite lesson about what we should remember when we find ourselves fighting. Ann Bausum chronicles with amazing clarity what happens to a country when freedoms are allowed to disappear in the name of war. Businesses died, the German language was no longer taught, and lives were destroyed. Mobs created to “root out spies and enemies” ended with 70 dead and lynched Americans (and not a single one a true spy). It is easy to forget that even as the United States fought abroad for freedom, back at home many of its citizens were oppressed for their beliefs, customs, language, and heritage.
Thousands of Germans lived in America on the eve of WWI. When examined under the right circumstances, WWI is just a standard operating plan for a lot of wars fought before the 20th century, and a lot of wars since. Why does America fight for freedom while simultaneously denying its citizens their own freedom at home? This is more than just a single war Bausum is talking about. Taking the war away from the reader’s focus, Bausum places her attention not on the front, but at home. I like both of those books, but the title that has particularly captured my heart is Unraveling Freedom by Ann Bausum. Then there was The War to End All Wars: World War I by Russell Freedman which may be the most thorough examination of the war as written for young readers yet.
There was Truce by Jim Murphy, which talked about the first year of the war and how close the soldiers on the home front came to ending it on their own. What is there to say about a war that was fought for no good reason and left a nation ripe for the rise of Hitler? Lately, though, a couple authors have found ways to present WWI for young readers in ways that not only explain the war but also delve into its deeper meanings. WWII was always the war that got more attention, and for good reason. Who could have predicted that WWI would become the hot literary topic for child readers in 2009-10? I remember when I was a kid and WWI was glossed over in the midst of my time-pressed teachers’ efforts to explain about WWII. Unraveling Freedom: The Battle for Democracy on the Home Front During World War I
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