FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, Nov. 20, 2009
Contact: Dave Wellman, Director of Communications, 304-696-7153
 

MU History professor emeritus publishes World War I Almanac

HUNTINGTON, W.Va. – Dr. David R. Woodward, History professor emeritus at Marshall University, has published World War I Almanac, a volume in Facts On File’s Almanacs of American Wars series.

Facts On File asked Woodward, an international authority on WWI, to undertake this detailed, day-by-day chronology of the events and people involved in the war.  He examines all theaters in this global conflict, from the Middle East to the Balkans to German East Africa, paying particular attention to America’s involvement in the war.

Unlike many accounts of WWI, the almanac does not end with the Armistice.  Rather it continues through July of 1923 with the Treaty of Lausanne, the last peace treaty of the Great War.  Also unlike other accounts, it sets the stage for the clash of nations beginning with the creation of Germany’s Second Reich which destroyed the old European equilibrium in 1871.

The work includes maps, some 100 illustrations, a glossary, notes and an extensive bibliography so that it is useful and readable for the scholar and the armchair history enthusiast. The book has headings and dates that the reader can cross reference, making it possible to follow a particular topic whether it is the role of the U.S. military, intervention in Russia, the air war, the Italian front, the Paris Peace Conference, or some other aspect of the war and its immediate aftermath. 

Woodward, who gives credit to the staff at the Drinko and Morrow libraries for their assistance on this project, taught in the MU History Department from 1970 until his retirement in 2006. The book is his eighth on subjects pertaining to the political, diplomatic and military history of World War I.  Some titles include Hell in the Holy Land:  World War I in the Middle East, Lloyd George and the Generals and Trial by Friendship:  Anglo-American Relations 1917-1918.  He is currently working on several articles for The Encyclopedia of War, edited by Gordon Martel, which will be published by Blackwell Publishing, Ltd.

For more information, contact Woodward at 304-525-7404 or via e-mail at woodwadr@marshall.edu.

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