In the Fields and the Trenches: The Famous and the Forgotten on the Battlefields of World War I

When it started, many thought the Great War would be a great adventure. Yet, as those who saw it up close learned, it was anything but. <i>In the Fields and the Trenches </i>traces the stories of eighteen young idealists swept into the brutal conflict, many of whom would go on to become well-known 20th-century figures in film, science, politics, literature, and business. Writer J. R. R. Tolkien was a signals officer with the British Expeditionary Force and fought at the Battle of the Somme. Scientist Irène Curie helped her mother, Marie, run twenty X-ray units for French field hospitals. Actor Buster Keaton left Hollywood after being drafted into the army's 40th Infantry Division. And all four of Theodore Roosevelt's sons - Kermit, Archibald, Quentin, and Theodore III - and his daughter Ethel served in Europe, though one did not return.<br><br> <i>In the Fields and the Trenches </i>chronicles the lives of heroes, cowards, comics, and villains - some famous, some not - who participated in this life-changing event. Extensive original material, from letters sent from the front to personal journals, brings these men and women back to life. And though their stories are a century old, they convey modern, universal themes of love, death, power, greed, courage, hate, fear, family, friendship, and sacrifice.