The Last of the Doughboys: The Forgotten Generation and Their Forgotten World War

Description

Wolves on the Battlefield -- Over the Top -- The American Sector -- Cheer and Laughter and Joyous Shout -- The People Behind the Battle -- The Forgotten Generation -- Give a Little Credit to the Navy -- A Vast Enterprise in Salesmanship -- Hell, We Just Got Here -- We Didn't See a Thing -- Loyal, True, Straight and Square -- Old Dixieland in France -- L'Ossuaire -- A Wicked Gun, That Machine Gun -- Wasn't a Lot of Help -- The Last Night of the War -- The Last of the Last -- We Are All Missing You Very Much.;In 2003, 85 years after the end of World War I, Richard Rubin set out to see if he could still find and talk to someone who had actually served in the American Expeditionary Forces during that colossal conflict. Ultimately, he found dozens, aged 101 to 113, from Cape Cod to Carson City, who shared with him at the last possible moment their stories of America's Great War. Nineteenth-century men and women living in the twenty-first century, they were self-reliant, humble, and stoic, never complaining, but still marveling at the immensity of the war they helped win, and the complexity of the world they helped create. A decade in the making, The Last of the Doughboys is a sweeping look at America's First World War, a reminder of the tremendously important role America played in the war to end all wars, and a meditation on character, grace, aging, and memory. Wolves on the Battlefield -- Over the Top -- The American Sector -- Cheer and Laughter and Joyous Shout -- The People Behind the Battle -- The Forgotten Generation -- Give a Little Credit to the Navy -- A Vast Enterprise in Salesmanship -- Hell, We Just Got Here -- We Didn't See a Thing -- Loyal, True, Straight and Square -- Old Dixieland in France -- L'Ossuaire -- A Wicked Gun, That Machine Gun -- Wasn't a Lot of Help -- The Last Night of the War -- The Last of the Last -- We Are All Missing You Very Much.