Eastern and the Great War

Posted in Publication on November 2012

Published in Illinois Heritage 15, no. 6 (December 2012): 8-11.

By the end of the Great War, four major powers—Germany, Russia, and the Empires of Austria-Hungary and Ottoman—were militarily and financially defeated, with the last two empires ceasing to exist. More than seventy million soldiers mobilized, including sixty million Europeans and over four million Americans—making it one of the largest wars in history. Although scholars of the Great War continue to discover new evidence and produce original literature, this trend is quickly waning. Almost a century later, soldiers’ stories are quietly vanishing as letters and journals, stored away in shoeboxes and shoved into dusty attics, turn to dust and vanish forever. Nevertheless, Charleston, Illinois, has a rich history relating to the First World War that gleans a unique insight on those who served and died for our country.