The Last of the Doughboys by Richard Rubin (Book Review)

The Last of the Doughboys: The Forgotten Generation and their forgotten World War.

by Richard Rubin, New York, Houghton-Mifflin, 2013, 518 pages, illustrated, maps, index.
 ISBN 978-0-547-55443-3

This has been on the "New Books" Display for a couple of months at Barnes & Noble, it revolves around the last ditch effort of the author to collect oral history from the last surviving American veterans of WW I. By the time the author started, most of the Gentlemen (and one lady) were pretty much on their last legs and living in "Assisted Living" of some sort.  But the book succeeds on many levels, it is much more than a collection of half remembered war stories

The author obviously did some thorough research on his subject once started. The book could serve as a decent "Drum and Trumpet" introduction to American military participation in the war.

There has been a flurry of books on the beginning of World War I, this is an excellent way to introduce students to how different the world was then, and the human dimensions of the conflict.  And includes some interesting discussion of veterans lives postwar. Complemented by what are (these days) pretty good maps, and introducing the issues of Race and Women quite well, if not really exploring the participants feelings on those subjects.

I am very happy my local Public Library added a copy to their collection.