Our Part in the Great War

Оглавление

Gleason Arthur. Our Part in the Great War

SECTION I. AMERICANS WHO HELPED

I. THE TWO AMERICAS

II. THE AMERICAN AMBULANCE HOSPITAL

III. THE FORD CAR AND ITS DRIVERS

IV. THE AMERICANS AT VERDUN

V "FRIENDS OF FRANCE"

VI. THE SAVING REMNANT

SECTION II. WHY SOME AMERICANS ARE NEUTRAL

I. NEUTRALITY: AN INTERPRETATION OF THE MIDDLE WEST

II. SOCIAL WORKERS AND THE WAR

III. FORGETTING THE AMERICAN TRADITION

IV. COSMOPOLITANISM

V. THE HYPHENATES

VI. THE REMEDY

SECTION III. THE GERMANS THAT ROSE FROM THE DEAD

I. LORD BRYCE ON GERMAN METHODS

II. SOME GERMAN WAR DIARIES

III. MORE DIARIES

IV. THE BOOMERANG

SECTION IV. THE PEASANTS

I. THE LOST VILLAGES

II. THE HOMELESS

III "MON GAMIN"

IV. THE MAYOR ON THE HILLTOP

V. THE LITTLE CORPORAL

VI. THE GOOD CURÉ

VII. THE THREE-YEAR-OLD WITNESS

VIII. MIRMAN AND "MES ENFANTS"

IX. AN APPEAL TO THE SMALLER AMERICAN COMMUNITIES

X. THE EVIDENCE

XI. SISTER JULIE

XII. SISTER JULIE – CONTINUED

ADDENDUM

APPENDIX

I. TO THE READER

II. TO NEUTRAL CRITICS

Отрывок из книги

There are two Americas to-day: the historic America, which still lives in many thousands of persons, and the new various America, which has not completely found itself: a people of mixed blood, divergent ideals, intent on the work at hand, furious in its pleasures, with the vitality of a new race in it, sprinting at top speed in a direction it does not yet know, to a goal it cannot see. It is in the sweep of an immense experiment, accepting all races, centering on no single strain.

This new joy-riding generation has struck out a fresh philosophy of life, which holds that many of the old responsibilities can be passed by, that the great divide has been crossed, on the hither side of which lay poverty, war, sin, pain, fear: the ancient enemies of the race. On the further side, which it is believed has at last been reached, lie, warm in the sun, prosperity and peace, a righteousness of well-being. It is a philosophy that fits snugly into a new country of tonic climate and economic opportunity, distant by three thousand miles from historic quarrels and the pressure of crowded neighborhood. We believe that, by coming on the scene with a lot of vitality and good cheer, we can clean up the old bothersome problems and make a fresh start in the sunshine. Christian Science in a mild genial form is the national religion of America. We believe that maladies and failures can be willed out of existence. As for "the fatalities of history," "an endless war between two mutually exclusive ideals," we classify that way of thinking with the surplus luggage of autocracies.

.....

"All that is impossible is explained by a simple 'c'est la guerre.' Why else blindly scrape one's way past a creaking truck of shells, testing 20 horses, two abreast, steaming in their own cloud of sweaty vapor? Why else descend slopes with every brake afire, with three human bodies as cargo, where a broken drive shaft leaves but one instantaneous twist of the wheel for salvation, a thrust straight into the bank, smashing the car but saving its load? 'C'est la guerre.'"

"'Chasseurs Alpines': a short, dark-blue jacket, gray trousers, spiral puttees, and the jaunty soft hat 'bérets.' These are the famous 'blue devils.'"

.....