the Internet Public Library

Pathfinder: World War One History

Introduction

There are huge amounts of available resources on World War One. Thousands of books and print resources have been published since the conflict, and now the World Wide Web also offers hundreds of sites about it. Finding quality resources, much less a starting point, can be very difficult.

This pathfinder was created to help Internet users find reliable information about the First World War for either personal knowledge or formal research. Both print and Internet sources are covered. Please remember that these resources are excellent starting points, but that additional research from the bibliographies of these works is necessary to understand the full complexity of this historical event.

Print Sources

There is an enormous amount of printed material available concerning World War One. If your library uses the Library of Congress classification system, then you should look under the heading World War, 1914-1918. Books about the War can be found in under many different sections, but many are clustered in the D525 and D619 ranges. If your library uses the Dewey Decimal System, like most public libraries, then books about the War will be classified under 940.3 and 940.4.

One of the best places to begin looking for books about the First World War is to consult a bibliography, a directory of books. A good bibliography is A.G.S. Enser's A Subject Bibliography of the First World War: Books in English, 1914-1987 (Gower: Brookfield, Vermont, 1990).

Another good general resource to find quick facts or brief descriptions of names or events is an historical dictionary such as Ian Hogg's Historical Dictionary of World War I (Scarecrow Press: Lanham, Maryland, 1998). This dictionary also includes bibliographic references that you can use to find more detailed sources.

For more detailed information on the names and places of World War One, you could also consult Holger Herwig and Neil Heyman's Biographical Dictionary of World War I (Greenwood Press: Westport, Connecticut, 1982) or Anthony Livesey's The Historical Atlas of World War I (H. Holt: New York, 1994). These two sources also include bibliographies for further reading.

World Wide Web Resources

There are many resources available on the World Wide Web about World War One. Some of the best general sites are:

• The Great War Society
  The Great War Society studies all aspects of World War One and its legacy for the twentieth century. It features pages specifically created for students and researchers of the War.
  http://www.worldwar1.com/tgws/
• World War I: Trenches on the Web
  World War I: Trenches on the Web is a very comprehensive site on the First World War. It features a rich online library and focuses primarily on the military aspects of the War.
  http://www.worldwar1.com/
• The Great War from PBS.
  This is the companion site to PBS' program on World War One, it features an interactive timeline and maps and locations.
  http://www.pbs.org/greatwar/

The following sites are collections of links to other World War One resources on the Internet:

• The Canadian Forces College World War I Links Page
  The Canadian Forces College maintains a comprehensive set of links organized by subject.
  http://www.cfcsc.dnd.ca/links/milhist/wwi.html
• Yahoo's Directory of World War One Sites
  http://dir.yahoo.com/Arts/Humanities/History/By_Time_Period/20th_Century/Military_History/World_War_I/

Finally, here are some links to images, sources, and sounds from the First World War era:

• The World War I Document Archive
  The document archive includes documents organized by year, a biographical dictionary, and an image archive.
  http://www.lib.byu.edu/~rdh/wwi/
• The Versailles Treaty
  This site features the full text of the Versailles Peace Treaty that ended World War One. It also features a bibliography; maps, charts, photos, and cartoons; and chronologies of the United States' entry and participation in the war.
  http://ac.acusd.edu/History/text/versaillestreaty/vercontents.html
• Lost Poets of the Great War
  Six poets who wrote about World War One are featured at this site along with their works.
  http://www1.cc.emory.edu/ENGLISH/LostPoets/
• American Leaders Speak: Recordings from World War 1 and the 1920 Election
  "The Nation's Forum Collection consists of fifty-nine sound recordings of speeches by American leaders at the turn of the century. The speeches focus on issues and events surrounding the First World War and the subsequent presidential election of 1920." (from the LOC's American Memory site)
  http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/nfhome.html

This pathfinder was created by Stephen Bollinger

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