Toward a Transnational History of World War I

Michael S. Neiberg delivered the keynote address at the 19th Military History Colloquium, held at the University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, 1–3 May 2008. This is the text of his address

The Irish Rover: Phil Lynott and the Search for Identity

Phil Lynott, the lead singer of the rock band Thin Lizzy, was a complex character. An illegitimate black child who grew up in a working-class, Catholic district of Dublin, Ireland in the 1950s, Lynott spent his life searching for a sense of belonging, something which he explored through rock and roll. This study uses Lynott’s song lyrics to investigate his quest for identity. In particular, it identifies the many recurring themes and archetypes in his music that offered multifaceted self-portraits of his internal conflict between being black, Irish, illegitimate, a rockstar, a Lothario, a son, a father, and a husband, all at the same time

The Evolution of Strategic Thinking in World War I: A Case Study of the Second Battle of the Marne

This analysis compares the strategy, command and operations of the armies of Germany and the Allied and Associated Powers during the First World War, with particular focus on 1918. It shows the difficulties which both sides found in combining grand strategy, with what could be done operationally in the field. It shows that imperfect political consequences flowed from Ferdinand Foch‘s able and surprisingly humane approach to war. Foch was an officer who could learn, and the only one who commanded the western front effectively

The Crisis of 1914 and the Road to War

The road from an assassination in the Balkans to a world war is confusing and difficult to understand. Simple explanations will not do if we are to comprehend this seminal catastrophe of the twentieth century. This essay utilizes recent research to present a more complicated and nuanced understanding of the intricate and complex series of events that led to war in 1914