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Chapters: History of Italy as a Monarchy and in the World Wars. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 31. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: This articles covers the history of Italy as a monarchy and in the World Wars. Modern Italy became a nation-state during the Risorgimento on March 17, 1861 when most of the states of the Italian Peninsula and the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies were united under king Victor Emmanuel II of the House of Savoy, hitherto king of Sardinia, a realm that included Piedmont. Giuseppe Garibaldi (July 4, 1807 June 2, 1882) was an Italian patriot and soldier of the Risorgimento. He personally led many of the military campaigns that brought about the formation of a unified Italy. He has been dubbed the "Hero of the Two Worlds" in tribute to his military expeditions in South America and Europe. The architect of Italian unification was Count Camillo Benso di Cavour, the Chief Minister of Victor Emmanuel. Rome itself remained for a decade under the Papacy, and became part of the Kingdom of Italy only in 1870, the final date of Italian unification. Napoleon III's defeat brought an end to the French military protection for Pope Pius IX and on September 20, Italian troops breached Rome's walls at Porta Pia and entered the city. The Italian occupation forced Pius IX to his palace where he declared himself a prisoner in the Vatican until the Lateran Pacts of 1929. The Holy See (State of the Vatican City) is now an independent enclave surrounded by Rome, Italy. From its beginning the Italian Nationalist Movement had dreamt about Italy joining the modernized World Powers. In the North, extensive industrialization and the building of a modern infrastructure was well underway by the 1890s. Alpine railway lines connected Italy to the French, German and Austrian rail systems. Two...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=1161298 ... Read more

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Even before American involvement in World War I, motor vehicle manufacturing in the United States was widespread and diverse, though the war served to expand the market rapidly. Hundreds of companies were building vehicles for military as well as civilian use during this time. From their beginnings until their demise, the histories of 225 companies that manufactured cars, trucks or motorcycles for the civilian market are provided, along with illustrations and specs of representative models from each company that existed in 1917 and 1918. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Superficial Histories of 225 WWI Era US Vehicle Manufacturers
McFarland Publishing normally puts out excellent, authoritative books. This one, however, falls far short of their usual standard. The histories of the 225 manufacturers reviewed in this book are superficial and rife with glaring errors. The research for this book was ovbiously superficial, and facts do not seem to have received independent review. By the way, the title is misleading in that the book is not about military vehicles. Rather, it is mostly short histories of US manufacturers of the WWI era -- most not connected with the war itself. This could have been a very nice reference book -- but its accuracy cannot be trusted. ... Read more

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America Enters the World
In America Enters the World, Page Smith recreates a masterful account of the Progressive Era. He does not follow a strict chronological path (though there is more or less a sequence of events) but once the reader gets accustomed, it flows pretty well. Smith makes clever use of colloquialisms ("skedaddled" "smashed"-meaning drunk, and "skulduggery" are but a few) which helps make the reader feel comfortable. Finally he states his thesis on page 140 (barely 1/10 of the way through the massive book) of viewing history as a part of a larger whole.

Smith often extols the virtues of socialism as the great counterbalance of industrial capitalism, which since this is a "people's history" makes some sense. He has the ability to enter the shoies of those he writes of, an admirable trait in a historian. However, at times he gets carried away with the socialist undercurrents, sometimes to the point of annoyance. He does give great leaders like Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson their just dues, and comes down hard on stupid leaders like William Howard Taft and Warren Harding, and this gives the book balance. Unfortunately by giving lengthy accounts of the doings of Big Bill Haywood and Emma Goldman Smith seems to elevate these people to the unwarranted level of greatness as well. The Roosevelt-Wilson rivalry is the most dominant political theme in the book.Smith admires them both, Roosevelt for his populism, Wilson for his vision, and he covers each objectively and fair.

Smith never cites his sources so it is difficult to verify, but the reader learns to trust Smith as an authority on his subject. He makes an un-stated advocation of how committees served the country well in winning World War One, then attempts to illustrate how the Soviet Union emerged as a model of efficiency ("soviet" is defined as a governmental council). He makes great progress in some chapters then takes one step back with his unwavering advocacy of the socialist state. He seems to fall victim to his own conclusion on page 642 that "obsessions make bad politics".

But Smith is able to recognize genius when he sees it. Wilson's vision was the apex of the Progressive Era. When the unqualified Harding assumed the presidency, Smith ends his historical narrative. It is clear to Smith that Harding did not represent "progress" (one could conclude Harding didn't represent anything). The final several chapters are dedicated to technology, arts, education, and religion. He covers the American scene. Racism, bigotry, women's rights, philanthropy, mainstream and side stream politics, war, peace, industry, and many other themes are all handled with equal care by this prolific, intelligent author. His conclusion is well supported and his mastery of English would impress any wordsmith.

A Wonderful Depiction of Early 20th Century America!
It is a sad commentary on public literacy and civic awareness when a whole series of books so splendid, educational, and damned readable is allowed to go out of print, such as has the quite literate eight book series by notedhistorian Page Smith. This massive and spectacularly executed series isorganized around the continuing themes of American History, and centers onour emergence into the larger world as a main player in the worldcommunity. This is modern history at its best; masterfully retold,entertaining and edifying to read, and organized around central themes thatmake the subject both approachable and more understandable.

The presentvolume, "America Enters The World: A People's History Of TheProgressive Era and World War I", is the seventh of an eight volumeseries Professor Smith published, and represents the culmination of theseries in approaching the entry into the 20th century and the modern eraafter masterfully threading through the mass of American history. Dr. Smithbegins here focuses on two key figures, a dynamic and energetic TheodoreRoosevelt, on the one hand, and an austere, professorial, and intellectualWoodrow Wilson, on the other.With Roosevelt's gravitation to the OvalOffice, an incredibly turbulent and event-packed two decades of momentouschange commences, marked for such tumultuous struggles as the battlebetween management and labor, and the emerging progressive politicalmovement.

This was also the period of international reawakening thatfound the United States increasingly drawn into world events, culminatingin our reluctant and begrudging participation in the First World War.Ofcourse, initially it was Roosevelt swinging that `big stick' of power andenthusiastic involvement, swaggering confidently onto the world stage thatfirst opened our doors to increasing involvement in international affairs.Yet, it was much more Woodrow Wilson's intellectual thoughtfulness that leddirectly to our enthusiastic flag-waving yet fateful entry into the growingdarkness of the world war. In due time, the enthusiasm flagged, turning todisillusionment and an increased national mood of isolationism. In twentyshort years, we had seemingly come full circle. Yet things had changed,changed utterly, and would never be the same again.

As with hisprevious volumes, Professor Smith guides us masterfully through theparticulars of the lives of a stream of extraordinary people, individualswho rose to the manifest challenges of the era with energy, imagination,and selfless enthusiasm. In so doing, they reshaped and redefined themeaning and possibilities for America, and eventually helped in the effortto transform the world in the process. As with each of his previousvolumes, the author uses his narrative to tell the story of individualsboth famous and anonymous, and in so doing helps the reader to betterappreciate what it meant to be alive and involved in one of the mostamazing periods in modern history, when America rose mightily andpurposefully from the obscurity of provincial isolationism to greaterinternational responsibility and involvement, spurring America onto thestage for the events of the twentieth century, where she has remainedsince.

In sum, this is a work of a great and singular historian,one offering a unique perspective on a most momentous, dangerous, andexciting time in our history, a period during which America came of ageinternationally. It is the story of two decades that did so much to defineand forge the modern nation we are all so familiar with, and helps toexplain how it is we have come to arrive at our present destination, and inthe process gives the reader great cause for celebration and concern. Ihighly recommend you search out this book as a used commodity and then hangonto it for dear life. I do. Enjoy!

Absorbing reading
This is the 7th of the 8 volume history which the late Page Smith (he died Aug 28, 1995) wrote on the history of this country.I have not read the 8th volume, but it is not correct to say it is a 10,000 page history.Thefirst 7 volumes only have a total of 6,823 pages.My comment on finishingvolume 7 was "I'd say about 5000 of the 6823 pages were reallyinteresting reading."One of these days I want to find volume 8 andread it so that I will have read the whole set.Nor do I agree that thiswork was what Professor Smith devoted his life to.He has a two-volumebiography of John Adams which I am going to read some day, I hope.(I knowexactlythe library where I can borrow it and I have been planning to doso for years--and some day I will.)

Wonderful
This series is an all-encompassing narrative of our history from pre-colonial times to the twentieth century. Smith spent over 50 years as an academic and popular historian, and his life's work was A People'sHistory. The series is writtenin an engaging but detailed style -- onlytwo or three times in over 10,000 pages does it become difficult to read.Smith obviously had digested large volumes of primary source material,because his explanations of events often reach far before and after theevents, linking them insightfully with their deep causes and effects. Anauthor who writes piecemeal from one source at a time could never makethose kinds of deep connections.

Smith also remains balanced and fairthrougout the text. He is not a liberal critical historian (like HowardZinn), but even more importantly, he is not one of the newer conservativehistorians (like Russel Kirk). Smith manages to avoid the two extremes ofparanoia and zealotry.

I was initially disappointed at the lack offootnotes in the text, but I did come to trust in Smith's philosophy thatif a point were well-worth making *and* well-supported, he would make thepoint in the text itself, thereby eschewing what he felt was an underhandedacademic trick of making footnotes of ill-supported assertions or attackson other schools of thought.

The end-notes and indices are more thanadequate for researchers and critical readers.

All in all, this series isthe best way I've found to really understand American history as more thana sequence of events, characters, and trends. Smith weaves them togetherinto a coherent story.

exemplary
Although I offer the following thoughts in connection with Volume VII of the late Professor Smith's magnificant eight-volume, 10,000 page, history of the United States, what I really want to do is to express my affection and appreciation for the entire eight-volume work.I commend what must have been Professor Smith's life's work and proudest accomplishment to anyone seriously interested in learning in detail about the history of America, with both its shameful and its pride-justifying aspects.Smith's skilled story-telling commences with the first English settlements in North America and ends in about 1940, though the author also provides, at the end of Volume VIII, an abbreviated discussion of the succeeding forty years or so.The scope of his coverage ranges from each quadrennial presidential election and congressional politics to literature, art, and architecture.Well written, entertaining, and comprehensive, making ample use of diaries and other colorful primary sources, Smith tells the story of America in a manner that reveals his palpable patriotism and love of country, despite his keen awareness that, like any other human endeavor, the efforts to build a new nation in North America involved a great many incidents about which no modern person would be proud.Smith believed that the typical yeoman eighteenth-century white American, removed from the activecontrol of England for more than a century, had become a new kind of man who, unlike the more compliant peasant of Europe then and previously, simply would not give up his freedom without a fight.This ornery "new man," though drawing on the tradition of English liberties, was the true founder of modern democratic government. Smith portrays the American of the early frontier as a rather uncouth and violent, if indomitable, specimen, whose desire for land, expressed in westward migration, was to reshape the face of the world. The two broad recurring themes in Smith's eight volumes are racial relations and the ongoing struggle!between labor and management.Although an obvious liberal in his politics, with great sympathy for the African Americans, Smith is by no means cynical or overly judgmental in his description of Euro-Americans of the past.In fact, his vivid descriptions of figures such as Washington, Jackson, Lincoln, Wilson, and Franklin Roosevelt help bring life to these giants, whose personalities are no longer vivid in the minds of many modern Americans.Sadly, Smith completed his opus before the collapse of the Soviet Union, and thus did not have the benefit of the end of the Cold War to influence his world view.As a result, he ends his work by suggesting that we need to learn how to get along better with the Soviets.We may easily forgive him this lapse of vision into the future, however.Smith was plainly a man of great heart and a true patriot.It saddens me to see that his magnificent written legacy is now out of print.I have seen all eight volumes, however, in many used bookstores.I therefore encourage would-be readers to request Amazon.com to contact its network of used booksellers to try to track down copies.Perhaps enough such requests might prompt one of the two companies that previously published Smith's history -- McGraw Hill and Penguin -- to issue a new edition.Such republication would be a great public service in a world and nation in which ignorance of history is appallingly widespread and in which patriotism strikes many as an outdated concept. ... Read more

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This volume tells the full story of World War I, illustrated throughout with maps, photos, posters, documents, and newspaper articles. Numerous features explore special aspects of the war, including key personalities from Kitchener to Brusilov, weapons and tactics from machine guns to trench raiding, key battles and events, and quotes revealing what the soldiers at the front actually saw and felt. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

The Bloodiest Century's Opening Act
This magnificent abridgement, published eight years before Hitler invaded Poland, clearly illustrates the fatal miscalculations with which the European nations entered and waged The Great War of 1914-18, and presagesthe dreadful and continuing consequences of having pursed them to the end.The final pages are as moving a condemnation of war as is found in English,made all the more poignant by our foreknowledge of Churchill's subsequentachievements. If you want to know how our world got to be the way it istoday, start with this book.

One of the finest works of history ever written.
Churchill's memoirs of World War 1 is one of the finest works of history ever written and is probably among the three or four best works on WW1(together with Martin Gilbert's recent History of the First World War).It is also a masterpiece of Engish literature, demonstrating a prose style that later won Churchill the Nobel Prize. While the book necessarily reflects Churchill's own experiences in the war,it is reasonably unbiased and balanced,although he certainly presents his own case forcefully and convincingly. The only limitation of the book is that it was written only afew years after the end of the war so it did not have access to all the government arhives released later.Despite this,I believe that Churhill's conclusions have stood up well even in the light of subsequently released archive material. However,one might consider reading the book together with a "modern" history--such as Martin Gilbert's--for a more complete perspective. ... Read more

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In World War I the American motor vehicle industry was tested by the sudden appearance of vast transport challenges. The nation's immense manufacturing capabilities and abundant natural resources combined with increased standardization and mass production to enable the industry to meet the military's needs. Motor vehicles and aircraft were quickly cemented as the most influential military tools of the early twentieth century. This book both describes the development and use of a wide range of specialized motor vehicles during World War I and analyzes how their advent indelibly altered modern warfare and transportation. ... Read more

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synopsis
Good condensation of W.W.I history by way of American industry overview. The vehicles covered include all types at a time when the automotive and gasoline engine industry was in its infancy.Chapter on the Industrial Revolution puts things into perspective.Chronological listing of major W.W.I events and good index rounds out this thorough effort. ... Read more

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The war will be discussed and re-discussed from every angle and the sooner such a compilation of facts is available, the more valuable it will be. I understand that this History of the World War intends to put at the disposal of all who are interested, such a compendium of facts of the past period of over four years; and that the system employed in safeguarding the accuracy of statements contained in it will produce a document of great historical value without entering upon any speculative conclusions as to cause and effect of the various phases of the war or attempting to project into an historical document individual opinions. With these ends in view, this History will be of the greatest value. Signature [Payton C. March] General, Chief of Staff. United States Army.

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A highly readable popular history of the military and political events of World War I, illustrated with more than 500 compelling contemporary photographs, maps, and plans of key engagements. Focuses on key military figures of WWI. ... Read more

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Chapters: Manifesto of the Sixteen. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 56. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: The Manifesto of the Sixteen (French: ), or Proclamation of the Sixteen, was a document drafted in 1916 by eminent anarchists Peter Kropotkin and Jean Grave which advocated an Allied victory over Germany and the Central Powers during the First World War. At the outbreak of the war, Kropotkin and other anarchist supporters of the Allied cause advocated their position in the pages of the Freedom newspaper, provoking sharply critical responses. As the war continued, anarchists across Europe campaigned in anti-war movements and wrote denunciations of the war in pamphlets and statements, including one February 1916 statement signed by prominent anarchists such as Emma Goldman and Rudolf Rocker. At this time, Kropotkin was in frequent correspondence with those who shared his position, and was convinced by one of their number, Jean Grave, to draft a document encouraging anarchist support for the Allies. The resulting manifesto was published in the pages of the pro-war socialist periodical La Bataille on March 14, 1916, and republished in other European anarchist periodicals shortly thereafter. The manifesto declared that supporting the war was an act of resistance against the aggression of the German Empire, and that the war had to be pursued until its defeat. At this point, the authors conjectured, the ruling political parties of Germany would be overthrown and the anarchist goal of the emancipation of Europe and of the German people would be advanced. Contrary to its misleading title, the Manifesto of the Sixteen had originally fifteen signatoriesamong them some of the most eminent anarchists in Europeand was later countersigned by another hundred. The position of the Manifesto wa...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=17929342 ... Read more