Letters from the Boys

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Wisconsin World War I Soldiers Write Home

Carrie A. Meyer

A powerful and illuminating glimpse into a brutal and terrifying war, as told by young Wisconsin men who left everything behind to fight for the cause of liberty half a world away.

232 pages, 5.5 x 8.5, 40 b&w photos
Paperback: $19.95 | ISBN: 978-0-87020-851-5
Ebook: $15.99 | ISBN: 978-0-87020-852-2
Publication Date: 4/6/2018

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Description

In 1918, a flood of American troops landed in Europe and turned the tide of World War I in favor of the Allies. While the American “dough boys” arrived on the scene after the war had already been raging for nearly four years and would continue for only nineteen months more, the young men who joined the fight were confronted with horrors and heroism unlike anything they had witnessed before. Letters from the Boys brings to life this terrible war as experienced by Wisconsinites, told through their letters home. From preparing for war, to living among French families near the front, to the terror of the battlefield, author Carrie A. Meyer weaves a story representative and unique, touching and humorous.

Meyer combed through three Green County, Wisconsin, newspapers to recover stories hidden in letters several young men wrote while they were caught up in the events half a world away. Bringing additional context and annotations to the letters, Meyer gracefully removes the veil of obscurity and anonymity hanging over soldiers who participated in a war fought so long ago by great numbers of men, reminding us that armies are made of individuals who strove to do their part and then return to their families.

Author Bio

Carrie A. Meyer

Carrie A. Meyer is an associate professor of economics at George Mason University in Virginia and earned her PhD in economics at the University of Illinois. Much of her research has focused on the agriculture, environment, and institutions of the developing world, about which she has written numerous papers, books, and reports. Since 2000, Meyer has focused her research on the history of the rural Midwest, which resulted in her book Days on the Family Farm, published by University of Minnesota Press. Her article “Wisconsin’s Gas Engines” appeared in the Wisconsin Magazine of History in 2016.

All of the soldiers who fought in France have passed from the scene, but Carrie Meyer has put a truly human face on the doughboys who went to war a hundred years ago.