I’ve been going through current events recently, trying to match the events of the world as well as local events with different time periods in the history of my family. Having grown up with the events of World War II and the Holocaust, as well as the Korean, Vietnam, and Middle East wars so fresh in our history, I’ve not spend much time exploring World War I, the Indian Wars, Civil War, Revolutionary War, or War of 1812, as well as the many other wars in North America and around the world that impacted my family.
This narrow perspective on my country’s military history was very evident when I was teaching English in Israel. A Russian student and I were reading a letter from one of my god children about studying the Civil War in school. My student asked, “Which civil war?” I told him, “The Civil War.” He patiently, and actually in pretty good English, informed me that there have been a lot of civil wars in the history of the war, so which civil war was I talking about.
Feeling like something out of an Abbott and Costello routine, I again answered: “THEE Civil War. There is only ONE Civil War in the United States. So we call it The Civil War.”
He still didn’t get it. I soon realized that my American arrogance was in full force. By calling the American Civil War “The Civil War” it discounted all the other civil wars that have happened, and are currently happening, around the world. Naming the Civil War with capital letters as if there was only one. Shame on me!
This week, as part of my genealogy research, I decided to do a little digging into World War I. Here are some resources I found to learn more about World War I. If you know of any other online resources, please let me know. I’m doing my best to fix my pitiful war-related education.
- About European History – World War I Timeline
- BBC Schools – World War I
- BYU University – World War I – Conventions and Treaties
- Fact Monster – World War I
- First World War – Battles
- National Archives – First World War – Medal Cards
- Wikipedia – World War I
- Poetry of the First World War: Biographical Notes and Wartime Works
- Soldiers of the First World War – Canadian Expeditionary Force
- World War I: Trenches on the Web
- Internet Modern History Sourcebook – World War I
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