Reviews
Jennifer D. Keene [has] illuminated these once unknown soldiers through scholarship of startling originality and insight.
Keene's work deserves an audience not only among scholars of military history and international relations but also among those interested in questions of race, social welfare, labor, and the relationship between the individual citizen and the state in the twentieth century.
Clearly written and magnificently researched... In the book's best passages Keene's Doughboys force the federal government to re-examine the relationship between itself and its citizen soldiers.
This book is a valuable contribution to the history of World War I.
Superb history of American soldiers during and after World War I... Full of rich, new material and original and fresh insights, all presented in a lively and engaging style.
Her work should help return the First World War to a place of primary importance in American history.
Keene's chapters on the military experiences of ordinary soldiers and the ways in which they perceived and articulated their careers as citizen soldiers are rich and engaging.
Keene brings strong academic credentials to the work... this is an impressive addition to the scholarly base of American military hisotry albeit of decidedly different focus. Highly Recommended.
This is an impressive piece of work, based on excellent primary sources in both France and the United States—a model of original research on an important topic. There is nothing exactly like this book at the intersection of social and military history. The writing is clear and effective, and Keene's arguments about conscription and her truly excellent chapter on the Bonus Army make her findings valuable to historians of all periods from the Civil War through the 1930s.
Book Details
Introduction
Chapter 1. A Force to Call Our Own: Establishing the National Army
Chapter 2. Americans as Warriors
Chapter 3. The Meaning of Obedience
Chapter 4. The Politics of Race: Racial Violence and
Introduction
Chapter 1. A Force to Call Our Own: Establishing the National Army
Chapter 2. Americans as Warriors
Chapter 3. The Meaning of Obedience
Chapter 4. The Politics of Race: Racial Violence and Harmony in the Wartime Army
Chapter 5. Forging Their Own Alliances: American Soldier's Relations with the French and Germans
Chapter 6. The Legacy of the War for the Army
Chapter 7. War Memories: Re-Examining the Social Contract
Chapter 8. 'The Yanks Are Starving Everywhere': The Bonus MarchEpilogue - The War's Final Legacy for the Country: The GI Bill
Bibliographic Essay