In most war histories the characters are the warriors, but we only know about them because of the journalists tell their stories.  American Journalists In The Great War: Rewriting the Rules of Reporting is the story tellers’ story.  Beginning as citizens from a neutral country and ending with their home country being an active belligerent, Their opportunities and risks changed as the War progressed.

American journalists gained experience while accompanying the Punitive Expedition into Mexico in search of Poncho Villa.  When the Expedition declined as source of stories, reporters relocated to the European war zones.  As neutral citizens, American had access to both Allied and Central Powers, both of whom welcomed, tolerated or expelled depending on their value as a vehicle for publicizing or exposing events.  American reports chronicled atrocities in Belgium.  Germany’s Transatlantic cable, cut American journalists became its only avenue to the outside world, most importantly to neutral America.  When America entered into the War, reporters donned journalists’ uniforms of the American Expeditionary Force.  From the training camps to the fronts,  Russian Revolution and the Versailles Conference American reporters filed their newslines.

Some may recognize names such as Richard Harding Davis, who exposed German brutality; Lowell Thomas, who told the saga of T. E. Lawrence of Arabia; Heywood Broun, who ran afoul of AEF authorities.  In addition to reporting, some would make news, such as John Reed, who became a spokesman for the Bolsheviks, settled in Russia and is buried in the Kremlin.

Some of the best-known World War I stories were penned by American newsmen and women.  To Madeline Doty, Germans were not “barbarians” but “just like ourselves, just folks, kindly and generous, deceived and browbeaten by a ruthless military group.”  Suffragist Rheta Dorr drew inspiration from the Maria Bochkareva and her Woman’s Brigade, who offered to fight for Russia, and spread their legend far and wide.  Floyd Gibbons, who lost an eye at Belleau Wood, immortalized “Come on, you sons-of-bitches!  Do you want to live forever?”  News restrictions on frontline soldiers forced the spot light on aviators, bestowing heroic status on the Lafyette Escadrille.  Damon Runyon of the New York American and Thomas Johnson of the New York Sun sacrificed sleep to gather the details that immortalized the “Lost Battalion”.  Sgt. Alvin York’s service was above and beyond the call of duty, but it took Saturday Evening Post writer George Pattullo transformed York into an icon.   Even the most famous American phrase of the War was a cooperative venture, a blend of Gen. Pershing’s salute and staffer Col. Charles Stanton’s “Lafayette We Are Here” which reporters eagerly attributed to Pershing.

War accounts reflected reporters’ divergent world views.  The April 1915 issue of Metropolitan Magazine included John Reed’s In the German Trenches and excerpts from Richard Harding Davis’ With the Allies.  Whereas Davis portrayed the German war machine as an evil threatening civilization against which America must prepare itself, Reed described horrors and absurdities of war that dehumanized the working-class men who fought across the trenches.

Author Chris Dubbs has crafted an easy-to-read examination of the men and women who brought World War I to America’s newspapers and homes.  He provides overall views of his subjects enhanced by personal anecdotes.  The many photos put faces to names, the index makes for easy reference and the bibliography is a guide to further reading American Journalists In The Great War is an excellent choice for War History Network readers seeking a different perspective on World War I.