The 100th Anniversary of World War I is quickly approaching and with will come renewed interest in the “war to end all wars.” James Controvich, an esteemed and seasoned writer of historical biographies offers the reader the United States in World War I: A Bibliographic Guide. Controvich has an excellent record of publishing bibliographies on military history and has even won several major awards for reference works. This book puts itself forward as “the most comprehensive, up-to-date reference bibliography (on the topic) published." It garners its information from vintage publications to federal and state materials, archival materials, to the most recent dissertations (primary and secondary). Organized by subject, each individual entry lists the author, title, place of publication, date of publication, and page. It covers Diplomatic, Economic, Government and Non-Government agencies, the different branches of the Armed Services, and State Histories just to name a few. The appendixes and index are most useful too. Overall, this reference book is a good value and definitely significant to the serious World War I scholar; it is also well organized and easy to use. This title is recommended.

American Reference Books Annual

The upcoming WW I centennial is stimulating renewed interest in and a wave of research and publication on the conflict that many say defined the 20th century. This new bibliography, which covers all aspects of the US experience in the war from 1914 to 1918, seeks to fill the need for finding aids that assist with original research and with identifying work already done. Controvich, a prolific bibliographer on 20th-century US military history, is well qualified for such an undertaking. Topically organized, the book's chapters cover American diplomacy, economic issues, the war's impact on American society, each branch of the armed forces, US government agencies, and nongovernmental service organizations. Entries list bibliographic information such as author, title, and publisher, and descriptive information on illustrations, maps, and more. This source will be particularly useful for readers with an interest in unit histories, the activities of service organizations, and the contributions of individual states. The book features a rich collection of contemporary government and organizational reports. Included is an alphabetical name/subject index by page numbers; an author index would have been helpful. This source is too ponderous and expensive for public libraries, but should be in every academic library that supports large military collections. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower-level undergraduates through researchers/faculty.

Choice Reviews

With many libraries purging their collections of World War I materials, only larger research facilities like the Library of Congress have retained older works. Just by helping researchers know what exists, Controvich hopes to facilitate hands-on research in libraries and wean researchers off their reliance on more easily available digitized resources… The guide offers multiple benefits, therefore, for academic scholars, genealogists, teachers, and students… Overall, it deserves a place on library shelves as a quality scholarly reference work that will aid researchers in producing new works to commemorate the war’s centennial.

Journal of Military History

[T]he author, award-winning researcher James Controvich, has dug up material I've not come across in almost a quarter of a century of my own digging. I have included the table of contents below for your own perusal. However, what is really a treat for the dedicated WWI enthusiast is flipping through the pages and discovering delicious works on such topics as: life aboard an American battleship assigned to the 6th Battle Squadron of the Grand Fleet; the nuts and bolts of the Selective Service system; Elihu Root's mission to Russia; internment camps in the U.S.; and a list of titles on Pershing's Second Army and its aborted and overlooked offensive of November 1918. Great stuff!

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