Richard Shawn Faulkner. Pershing's Crusaders: The American Soldier in World War I. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2017. 784 pp. $39.95 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-7006-2373-0.
Reviewed by Aaron Heft (Norwich)
Published on H-War (December, 2021)
Commissioned by Margaret Sankey (Air University)
The World War I centennial of 2014-18 saw a revival in publications analyzing the war from various approaches. Volumes analyzing the individual units, significant battles, and military and civilian leaders were published at dizzying speeds, vastly expanding the historiography of American involvement. Richard Faulkner's Pershing’s Crusaders: The American Soldier in World War I approaches a much broader topic. Drawing from years of research, Faulkner attempts not to develop a revolutionary thesis but rather to provide the most comprehensive assessment possible of the experience of the individual American soldier in World War I.
Faulkner opens by acknowledging that he aimed to provide a "'travel guide' to the soldier's experience as well as an 'anthropological study of their world and world views" (p. 2). In his early chapters, he builds a base for the American experience in the war, covering the recruitment and establishment of the American Expeditionary Force (AEF) and their experience in early training camps. Faulkner paints a picture through soldier's correspondence and documentation from training camps that in the induction of over four million into military service and deployment of half that number to combat, "the United States pulled off a minor miracle" (p. 99).
From the assembly of the soldiers at their camps, he progresses to explaining the massive production and issuance of new equipment, shelter, and rations to supply the newly formed AEF. Faulkner takes pains to identify advancements in military equipage such as canned foods and soluble coffee, which allowed a more mobile individual ration in 1918 that would influence the later combat rations of World War II and Vietnam. Later chapters also cover the technical advances in weaponry, noting the tools the AEF went to war with were much outdated for the conflict, and had to be supplemented by British and French equipment, including grenades, mortars, and automatic rifles. To drive home with what and how America equipped the AEF, Faulkner draws from across the spectrum of primary sources, meshing together memoirs, procurement records, and AEF General Orders.
Faulkner sticks to his promise to create an "anthropological study" by examining the men and women who made up the AEF. Faulkner reaches the same conclusion as other historians, including Jennifer Keene and Richard Slotkin, that the AEF was an ethnic representation of America, drawing heavily from the recent influx of immigrants and making "nearly one out of every five doughboys" a first-generation American (p. 233). He does not shy away from racial issues within the AEF in his examination, noting that though the shared experience of the individual soldier was similar when it came to "beans and bullets," racism and sexism played a significant role in the assignment and utilization of many in the AEF. He notes that despite the long tradition of military service in African American communities, the color lines of Jim Crow were well entrenched in the AEF. Faulkner addresses the disparity in treatment and relegation of African Americans to command under white or foreign officers but also notes that this topic alone is the subject of detailed work by other historians such as Arthur Barbeau and Florette Henri.
Faulkner’s examination of the make-up of the AEF expands into the role of the officer and NCO corps in the development of an American army. He acknowledges the challenges of growing from an army of twenty-five thousand to nearly four million and highlighted the role of civilian training camps and foreign instruction in building the leaders of the American army. He follows the education of American leaders through an examination of the training process the AEF received when it arrived in-theater, breaking down both the intended plan and what soldiers actually experienced following the commitment of troops to the July 1918 defense of the Marne and subsequent counteroffensives. Faulker again leverages both diaries and official unit records from the National Archives RG 120 files to illustrate the daily routine of Americans training in the quiet sectors. These sections of the text lay the groundwork for the AEF's experiences in combat and draw heavily from his previous work assessing the preparedness and leadership of the AEF in The School of Hard Knocks: Combat Leadership in the American Expeditionary Force (2012).
Beyond the training camps, Faulkner also dives into the social experience of the American soldier, recounting what the members of the AEF did in their down time away from the front lines. In his chapter "How 'Ya Gonna Keep ‘Em Down on the Farm," he notes that the American doughboy experienced extensive cultural and sexual liberation in Europe. He uses the soldier's own words to describe the plethora of experiences with alcohol, gambling, and women which were new to so many who had never traveled outside of their small hometowns. Faulkner notes that "doughboys experienced a degree of sexual freedom, exposure, and education unknown in prewar America," while also documenting the response of General John Pershing and AEF leadership to skyrocketing VD rates (p. 403).
On page 448 of the text, Faulkner arrives at the fighting itself, noting the experience of the individual American soldier in action. Though some might scoff at completing nearly a two-thirds of the text before examining the combat experience of the AEF, Faulkner effectively recreates the timeline of the American army, demonstrating the entire process of transitioning from a nation with a small domestic military to a massive expeditionary force entering a more modern conflict than ever before. Faulkner highlights the dramatic losses of this modern war, illustrating the effects of machine guns, massed artillery, and chemical gases.
The value of Pershing’s Crusaders is not just within the vast scope of its contents but within the breadth of sources used to compile it. Faulkner's bibliography serves as a guide to those delving into the history of the AEF, highlighting dozens of memoirs, archival collections, and secondary publications which illustrate nearly every aspect of the war. By entwining official records, newspaper reporting, memoirs, and postwar veteran surveys, Faulkner has painted the most accurate picture to date of the American experience in World War I. The text will serve as a starting point for researchers delving into the AEF and an excellent source for understanding the specifics of the individual American war experience.
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Citation:
Aaron Heft. Review of Faulkner, Richard Shawn, Pershing's Crusaders: The American Soldier in World War I.
H-War, H-Net Reviews.
December, 2021.
URL: http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=56813
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