Overview

Historians have been unkind to the 26th Division of the U.S. Army during World War I. Despite playing a significant role in all the major engagements of the American Expeditionary Force, the “Yankee Division,' as it was commonly known, and its beloved commanding officer, Maj. Gen. Clarence Edwards, were often at odds with Gen. John J. Pershing. Subsequently, the Yankee Division became the A.E.F.'s “whipping boy,' a reputation that has largely continued to the present day. In The Yankee Division in the First World War, author Michael E. Shay mines a voluminous body of first-person accounts to set forth an accurate record of the Yankee Division in France—a record that is, as he reports, “better than most.' Shay sheds new light on the ongoing conflict in leadership and notes that two of the division's regiments received the coveted Croix de Guerre, the first ever awarded to an American unit. This first-rate study should find a welcome place on military history bookshelves, both for scholars and students of the Great War and for interested general readers.

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9781603440301

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Reviews

There is no other book that deals with the 26th Division in World War One.... That division was one of the first to arrive in France, and, along with the 42nd, 1st, and 2nd Divisions, formed the core of the AEF under John J. Pershing.... For those interested in World War I, a book on the 26th and its controversial commander will be welcomed. - James Cooke, Professor Emeritus of History, University of Mississippi

Author Information

MICHAEL E. SHAY, a Superior Court judge in the State of Connecticut, has had a long interest in World War I. His previous book, A Grateful Heart, on the Yankee Division's 103rd Field Hospital, was published in 2001.

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