Hi everyone, I'm writing my thesis on John Dos Passos' depiction of first world war in his novels and I'd like to read a book about WW1 that would help me understand what soldiers went through in the war. Can anyone help me with that? Thank you! :) Edit: Looking for something theoretical, not novels! :)
The AskHistorians Booklist has a fair number of titles that may interest you!
I think of particular interest you might find:
Tommy: The British Soldier on the Western Front, 1914-1918, by Richard Holmes (2004)
Battle Tactics of the Western Front: The British Army's Art of Attack, 1916-1916, by Paddy Griffith (1996)
Having a tactical framework will certainly help you understand better the experiences that soldiers went through.
As well, the books in the "debate" section should hopefully be of help as well, especially the Brian Bond volumes The Unquiet Western Front and Survivors of a Kind.
Good luck with your thesis!
The War The Infantry Knew" by JC Dunn is considered to be one of the best first hand accounts of the war. I just got it so haven't read it yet.
I would also highly recommend any of the Battleground Europe series by Peter Oldhand. I have his books on Hill 60 and Messines Ridge. They bring the horrors of war to life by telling us of the fearless and courageous actions of men who received the Victoria Cross, pretty much all posthumously. It is one thing to hear that gas attacks were bad and men suffered horrible deaths from them. It's a whole other level to read a page from a soldier's diary casually writing about marching to the front trenches after a gas attack. Of walking past hundreds of men struggling back along the duckboards blinded and gasping from the gas, seeing men who fell off the duckboards struggling and drowning in mud because they were in the middle of an attack and couldn't spare the time to save them. Of seeing the unfortunate souls gurgling for air with no hope of survival and hoping that he might be fortunate enough to die quickly from a bullet. Then, upon reaching the front trenches we learn that when the bodies were deep the soldiers preferred stepping on the hips and shoulders of the dead because it was most stable. When shooting from the trenches they preferred standing on the head and shoulders of the dead for maximum stability. Again, I highly recommend any of the books from this series.