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Best regards, Andrew Stewart - - - Subscribe to the Washington Babylon newsletter via https://washingtonbabylon.com/newsletter/ Begin forwarded message: > From: H-Net Staff via H-REVIEW <h-rev...@lists.h-net.org> > Date: November 7, 2019 at 7:57:51 AM EST > To: h-rev...@lists.h-net.org > Cc: H-Net Staff <revh...@mail.h-net.org> > Subject: H-Net Review [H-War]: Walton on Wagner, 'Alice in France: The World > War I Letters of Alice M. O'Brien' > Reply-To: h-rev...@lists.h-net.org > > Nancy O'Brien Wagner, ed. Alice in France: The World War I Letters > of Alice M. O'Brien. St. Paul Minnesota Historical Society Press, > 2017. Illustrations. 216 pp. $17.95 (paper), ISBN 978-1-68134-026-5. > > Reviewed by Whitney Walton (Purdue University) > Published on H-War (November, 2019) > Commissioned by Margaret Sankey > > These letters from Alice O'Brien are an excellent source for > understanding American women's involvement in World War I. They > reveal the high demand for American women's service in France in > several different capacities, including as drivers, canteen workers, > and nurses. Patriotism, anti-German sentiment, and enthusiasm for > being useful drove twenty-six-year-old O'Brien to respond to the call > for volunteers. Readers learn about the challenges of overseas > transport during war, the sorrow over so many young French and > American men dead or maimed, and the expectation of victory that > enabled everyone to continue. > > Editor Nancy O'Brien Wagner carefully reconstructs her grandaunt > Alice O'Brien's family and social class background in St. Paul, > Minnesota, prior to the outbreak of war in 1914. O'Brien was a > well-educated young woman from a family of means involved in the > lumber business. After completing her education at the Bennett > Finishing School for Young Women in Millbrook, New York, in 1911, she > traveled extensively in the United States and abroad; she was an avid > car driver, mechanic, and outdoorswoman, and she worked for the > suffrage movement. While O'Brien's motivations for volunteering for > war work are not entirely clear, Wagner notes that many in O'Brien's > peer group of East Coast-educated women and men supported the French > even before the United States entered the war in April 1917. > Thereafter, the American Red Cross and other relief organizations > redoubled their efforts to assist American soldiers and their allies. > Wagner reasonably speculates that O'Brien and three friends applied > to work for the American Fund for French Wounded (AFFW), rather than > the American Red Cross, because of personal connections, less > bureaucracy, and more opportunities, notably to be drivers and > mechanics. After providing several testimonials to American loyalty, > but undergoing no training, O'Brien and her friends set sail on the > French Line ship _Rochambeau_ on March 30, 1918. > > The letters from the ship convey wartime apprehension about submarine > attacks, blackout conditions on board, and sugar shortages, but the > heart of the book describes the experience of the German offensive > from the perspective of civilians in Paris and the rigors and > pleasures of canteen work. After surviving an air raid in Paris > unscathed, O'Brien wrote home: "We are living in thrilling times and > I would not give up the last few days for all the money in the world" > (p. 33). O'Brien and her friend Doris Kellogg did some driving in > Paris, fetching and delivering supplies, and constructing a working > automobile from parts, but they increasingly yearned to work in a > canteen for the Red Cross because the AFFW could not obtain cars from > the United States for the volunteers to drive and repair. Eventually, > the AFFW released them from their commitment since it could not > provide any work, and the young women joined the Red Cross and headed > to a canteen near Chantilly. > > O'Brien thrived on the long hours and constant activity at the > canteen. She described the food they prepared and distributed, the > almost round-the-clock shifts to accommodate French soldiers leaving > and returning to the front, and housing for the canteen workers. > After a military engagement when wounded soldiers flooded nearby > hospitals, the canteen workers pitched in to help in distributing > water, food, tobacco, and kind words. They mourned the young men who > did not survive. > > The letters raise several questions. Wagner suggests a connection > between O'Brien's driving and suffrage activism before the war: > "owning and driving a car were political statements" (p. 8). It would > be interesting to learn more about the effect of the war on her > politics. Does O'Brien fit into Lynn Dumenil's analysis of the > connection between activism and war service in her book, _The Second > Line of Defense: American Women and World War I_ (2017)? Wagner hints > at such an effect when she writes about the founding of a women's > club in 1920-21: "Alice and her contemporaries were charging into the > public and political frontiers with the same determination they had > brought to the front in France," somewhat of an exaggeration of their > time near the front, and perhaps it is impossible to know more since > the letters ended when O'Brien returned to the United States (p. > 162). Another question is, in what specific ways was O'Brien's > account similar to or different from those of other American women in > World War I? O'Brien's unquestioned patriotism, support for the > Allied cause, and vicious hatred of Germans contrast markedly with > the modernist writings of American nurses Ellen Newbold La Motte > (1873-1961) and Mary Borden (1886-1948), which Margaret R. Higonnet > collected and edited in _Nurses at the Front: Writing the Wounds of > the Great War_ (2001). The two works complement one another and > invite further research. > > Citation: Whitney Walton. Review of Wagner, Nancy O'Brien, ed., > _Alice in France: The World War I Letters of Alice M. O'Brien_. > H-War, H-Net Reviews. November, 2019. > URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=54000 > > This work is licensed under a Creative Commons > Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States > License. > > _________________________________________________________ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: https://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
