American Women in World War I: They Also Served [Hardcover]

Lettie Gavin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1997

Interweaving personal stories with historical photos and background, this lively account documents the history of the more than 40,000 women who served in relief and military duty during World War I. Through personal interviews and excerpts from diaries, letters, and memoirs, Lettie Gavin relates poignant stories of womenÂ’s wartime experiences and provides a unique perspective on their progress in military service. American Women in World War I captures the spirit of these determined patriots and their times for every reader and will be of special interest to military, womenÂ’s, and social historians.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Gavin draws from the full range of possible sources for this excellent volume. The number of American women who served in World War I ran into the tens of thousands, with 11,000 "Yeomanettes" in the navy alone (they were the first U.S. women to officially don uniforms). Others included army nurses, doctors who volunteered as "contract employees," the "Hello Girls" who supplied the Signal Corps' telephone system with English-speaking operators (and were not recognized as deserving of pensions and other benefits until long after most had died), physical therapists, and the volunteers of the Red Cross and Salvation Army. One and all, they overcame sexism, racism, bureaucratic inertia, shells, gas, the Spanish influenza, long hours, short rations, and poor quarters to accomplish a prodigious amount of work. And they did all that without benefit of any "gender studies" concepts or jargon, from which Gavin's readable, highly recommendable volume is also blessedly free. Roland Green

Review

"An excellent array of well-chosen photographs informs the text and allows the reader to develop a real sense of the spirit of the women who served and the conditions under which they did so. . . . Gavin has clearly managed to contact many of the first [women] in each of the nine branches of the services and to obtain from them insight into conditions and experiences from 1917 onwards." -- Kay Sexton, H-NET reviews, H-Minerva, and Minerva: Quarterly Report on Women and the Military

"Gavin draws from the full range of possible sources for this excellent volume. The number of American women who served in World War I ran into the tens of thousands. . . . [T]hey overcame sexism, racism, bureaucratic inertia, shells, gas, the Spanish influenza, long hours, short rations, and poor quarters to accomplish a prodigious amount of work." -- Booklist

"Gavin does an outstanding job of sparking a new interest in the contributions of women during World War I. This book is highly recommended for anyone interested in the history of that conflict." --The Journal of America's Military Past, Summer 2008 --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: University Press of Colorado (November 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 087081432X
• ISBN-13: 978-0870814327
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #995,362 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An engrossing look at the women who also served in WWI, April 9, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: American Women in World War I: They Also Served (Hardcover)

Gavin has written a clear, detailed history of the women and the various organizations they belonged to while serving their country during World War I. These often-overlooked women (finally!) get full credit for the back-breaking work they performed to serve "their boys." The real shame is that they returned to a nation which proved to be so terribly ungrateful that the women could not even get equal benefits that their male counterparts received. Gavin has organized her book by the various units and organizations that sent women "over there" and at the end lists those who made the ultimate sacrifice and those who earned recognition, more often from other countries, for the work they did.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Documenting the experiences and service of women during the first world war, August 19, 2006

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: American Women in World War I: They Also Served (Paperback)

Journalist Lettie Gavin first became interested in women's World War I experiences when she wrote an article back in 1978 about a retired Signal Corps woman denied veteran's status. She and other women had not been recognized for their service: AMERICAN WOMEN IN WORLD WAR I: THEY ALSO SERVED goes far in charting these stories, documenting the experiences and service of women during the first world war. By the time Gavin began interviewing survivors it was a race against time, as living veterans were dying off: her interviews together with her research from historical archives, diaries, letters and memoirs pair with some black and white photos to create a fine memoir.

Diane C. Donovan

California Bookwatch

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Terrific book!, June 19, 2006

By 

Merline Lovelace (Oklahoma City, OK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: American Women in World War I: They Also Served (Paperback)

Wow, I just read Ms. Gavin's book as part of my research for a novel set during World War I. The book is a wonderful compendium of pictures, actual eye-witness accounts and statistics concerning the more than 25,000 women who served in uniform Over There. I highly recommend it for anyone interested in the history of the Great War and the role that women played in it.

Merline Lovelace, Colonel, USAF (Ret)