Who's Who in World War One

Military Review,  Sept-Oct, 2003  by Scott Stephenson

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J.M. Bourne, Routledge, New York, 2001, 316 pages, $29.95.

Books like Who's Who in World War One usually reach only a "niche" audience. However, the narrow readership of such a book does not limit one's admiration of this fine reference. University of Birmingham History Professor J.M. Bourne provides over a thousand thumbnail biographies of the people who were involved in the war. On the other hand, Bourne is not satisfied with just reviewing the careers of "great men"--major political and military leaders. He also considers inventors, artists, writers, and scientists who achieved prominence as a result of the war. Each sketch highlights the person's role and acknowledges that the entries serve only as starting points for research.

Bourne's selection of which person gets coverage will sometimes surprise the reader. For instance, French Marshal Ferdinand Foch, the Supreme Commander of Allied Forces on the Western Front, gets one page; William H. Livens, the inventor of the "Liven projector" of gas munitions receives half a page; Nicholas II, the last Tsar of Russia receives one page; while Lloyd George, who was the British Prime Minister during much of the war, receives two pages.

Bourne's choice of subjects illustrates his Anglo-centric focus. Clearly, he expects the British Commonwealth to provide the core readership for his book. He covers virtually every corps commander who served in the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) while he rarely covers commanders below army level from other countries. Despite this bias, American readers will find Bourne's description of key U.S. figures to be even-handed, especially when compared with other British historians' harsh evaluations of the U.S. war effort.

Bourne's efforts do not keep him from making sharp judgments about a number of key participants. Of the Austrian politician Karl Stuergkh he writes, "His conduct during the war was like that of an ostrich. He buried his head in the sand and hoped for the best." Of Erich Ludendorff, he said, "He was one of the most evil and disastrous figures in the most evil and disastrous century of German history." Yet Bourne is kinder to the most controversial British figure of the war, Douglas Haig, BEF Commander. Bourne writes that Haig has too long been a scapegoat for the ghastly casualties suffered by British forces on the Western Front, and that he has not been given proper credit for the enormous improvement in the fighting ability that the BEF demonstrated in the last campaigns of the war.

Who's Who in World War One is a laudable effort, and those who use this book as a reference will find it a superb resource that features both concise analysis and highly readable commentary.

LTC Scott Stephenson, USA, Retired, Leavenworth, Kansas

COPYRIGHT 2003 U.S. Army CGSC
COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning