+ − Outlook 126:67 S 8 ’20 170w
“It is no small task to formulate a general text-book covering so enormous a field and involving many disputatious matters. Professor Usher has, however, accomplished this with skill. Some of his chapters are inadequate. In his discussion of land reform and the inclosure movement, for example, the plight of the evicted peasant farmers seems to be poorly understood. A similar criticism of a narrowness of sympathy, or at any rate of an inadequacy of understanding, might be directed against the final chapter. Professor Usher has a very thin knowledge of the British labor situation today.” W. L. C.
+ − Survey 45:288 N 20 ’20 300w
USHER, ROLAND GREENE. Story of the great war. il *$2.50 Macmillan 940.3
19–19080
“Professor Usher begins his story with the assassination of the Archduke of Austria; but he shows beyond doubt that the war really began months before this event. The German attitude in 1914 is described; the reports of spies concerning the French and the Russian preparedness and the British reluctance to enter into war. With these preliminaries, which include the first five chapters of his book, Professor Usher begins his narrative with the story of the campaign on Paris and the wonderful strategy displayed by General Joffre, followed by the aggressiveness of Foch.... He traces the work of Hindenburg; the entrance of the British and the Italians into the struggle; the submarine campaign and the incident of the Lusitania; ... the German offensive of 1918; the entrance of America into the war; Chateau-Thierry and the surprising fighting qualities of the American soldier; St Mihiel, the crumbling of the German line; and the final crash and fall.”—Boston Transcript
“Many of the illustrations, taken from newspapers published in the most acute moments of the war, are full of extreme feeling. The book, therefore, does not tend to form cool and restrained views of the world war. Probably the author did not wish to form such views. Its strong point is in its large amount of information presented clearly and directly.”
+ − Am Hist R 26:136 O ’20 300w
“It is distinctive for the clearness of statement, an interpretation rather than a catalogue of events. May be read with interest by upper grade pupils or grown-ups. Good illustrations and maps.”