Charles Gates Dawes
Charles Gates Dawes

Author: Annette B. Dunlap

Publisher: Northwestern University Press

Published: 2016-09-15

Total Pages: 447

ISBN-13: 0810134209

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Charles Gates Dawes: A Life is the first comprehensive biography of an American in whose fascinating story contemporary readers can follow the struggles and triumphs of early twentieth-century America and Europe. Dawes is most known today as vice president of the United States under Calvin Coolidge, but he also distinguished himself and his hometown of Evanston, Illinois, on the world stage with the 1925 Nobel Peace Prize. This engrossing biography traces how, when the punitive armistice that ended the First World War resulted in a disabled, restive Germany, Dawes’s diplomatic legerdemain averted war through a renegotiation of Germany’s debt repayments. Dawes’s diplomatic and political achievements, however, were only the illustrious capstones to a multifaceted career that included military service, law, finance, and business on the local, state, national, and global stages. In every arena of his life, he combined the social graces of the Gilded Age with the spirit of service of the Progressive Era. Despite his life of disciplined service, Dawes was an ebullient and irrepressible figure. Dawes’s salty language was often colorful fodder for tabloid and magazine writers of his era. In this captivating biography, Annette B. Dunlap recounts the story of an original American who enlightened and enlivened his world. This book was published in cooperation with the Evanston History Center and with generous support from the Tawani Foundation.

A Journal of the Great War
A Journal of the Great War

Author: Charles Gates Dawes

Publisher: Lulu.com

Published: 2016

Total Pages: 510

ISBN-13: 0990657418

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A critical edition of Charles Gates Dawes' A Journal of The Great War with two new essays that explore the broader story of Dawes' war experience.First published in 1921, A Journal of the Great War provides a fascinating glimpse into the challenges faced by the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) during the United States' 18-month involvement in World War I. Dawes' journal, written while he was stationed in France from 1917 to 1919, offers a behind-the-scenes look at the power struggles and political maneuvering that took place among American and European political and military leaders as they sought to fight the war as an allied force. Part document of life in wartime France, part war diary, and part mentation on the means of exercising power, Dawes' journal is a unique contribution to the literature of World War I. In July 1917, at the age of 51, Dawes sailed for France as an officer with the U.S. 17th Engineers. At the time, Dawes' enlistment made headlines. He was hailed as a "soldier banker" -- one of the wealthiest men in the country to join Uncle Sam's army. Dawes was indeed a wealthy man; he was president of the Central Trust Company of Illinois, a bank he founded in 1902, and, along with his brothers, he also ran numerous investments and companies. When he sailed for France, he left all that behind.Once in France, Dawes was appointed as the General Purchasing Agent in Europe for the AEF by his friend, General John Pershing. Stationed in Paris for the duration, Dawes served as Pershing's confidant throughout the war, consulting with the American general as Pershing deployed more than two million American soldiers into battle. Meanwhile, Dawes oversaw a massive operation to acquire and distribute supplies for the war effort. Working closely with Pershing, Dawes would soon develop the Military Board of Allied Supply, a means to coordinate supply among the Allies. Dawes' stunning achievement to bring about and manage this alliance -- and the political drama that unfolded behind it -- is documented in A Journal of the Great War.

To My Best Girl
To My Best Girl

Author: Steve Magnusen

Publisher: Dog Ear Publishing

Published: 2018-05-28

Total Pages: 500

ISBN-13: 1457562766

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Behind all descriptions of historical events are the stories of real people. This is the extraordinary true story of a citizen soldier and the girl he loves, as both become embroiled in the cauldron of our nation’s Civil War. Rufus R Dawes will emerge from a troubled family background to become an officer in a famous unit thrust into horrific battles in the eastern theater. But before those stirring war scenes, there is the early life of a proud and intelligent descendant of leading Revolutionary War figures, ancestors who helped form the United States, the Northwest Territory, and the state of Ohio. Rufus will meet beautiful and vibrant Mary Beman Gates and fall in love. But there is separation due to distance and social standing, apparently little reciprocal feeling, and competition by others better situated than he. Can it ever become more than infatuation? The outbreak of war intervenes. Faced with the doubt of his own survival, is it possible to fulfill any dream of a life with Mary? Mary is a girl with a loving family who becomes a young woman while witnessing many acquaintances and suitors, along with an only brother, march off to war. Tragic battle losses soon mount. Will she— should she—become involved with a soldier whose life is in daily jeopardy far away? The drama unfolds upon Rufus and Mary, and upon family members and soldiers who experience their own battles, trying to survive while patriotically performing their duty to the nation. Based on many letters and diary entries, most never published, this is a timeless story of love and courage.

My Fellow Soldiers
My Fellow Soldiers

Author: Andrew Carroll

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 2018-02-06

Total Pages: 417

ISBN-13: 0143110810

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From the New York Times bestselling author of War Letters and Behind the Lines, Andrew Carroll’s My Fellow Soldiers draws on a rich trove of both little-known and newly uncovered letters and diaries to create a marvelously vivid and moving account of the American experience in World War I, with General John Pershing featured prominently in the foreground. Andrew Carroll’s intimate portrait of General Pershing, who led all of the American troops in Europe during World War I, is a revelation. Given a military force that on the eve of its entry into the war was downright primitive compared to the European combatants, the general surmounted enormous obstacles to build an army and ultimately command millions of U.S. soldiers. But Pershing himself—often perceived as a harsh, humorless, and wooden leader—concealed inner agony from those around him: almost two years before the United States entered the war, Pershing suffered a personal tragedy so catastrophic that he almost went insane with grief and remained haunted by the loss for the rest of his life, as private and previously unpublished letters he wrote to family members now reveal. Before leaving for Europe, Pershing also had a passionate romance with George Patton’s sister, Anne. But once he was in France, Pershing fell madly in love with a young painter named Micheline Resco, whom he later married in secret. Woven throughout Pershing’s story are the experiences of a remarkable group of American men and women, both the famous and unheralded, including Harry Truman, Douglas Macarthur, William “Wild Bill” Donovan, Teddy Roosevelt, and his youngest son Quentin. The chorus of these voices, which begins with the first Americans who enlisted in the French Foreign Legion 1914 as well as those who flew with the Lafayette Escadrille, make the high stakes of this epic American saga piercingly real and demonstrates the war’s profound impact on the individuals who served—during and in the years after the conflict—with extraordinary humanity and emotional force.