With the Allies

Davis, Richard Harding, 1864-1916Project Gutenberg · United StatesMar 2023

3.4

Word count: 229K words
Chapters: 23

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.With the Allies by Richard Harding DavisAuthor: Davis, Richard Harding, 1864-1916,Language: English, Class: D501: History: General and Eastern Hemisphere: World War I (1914-1918), Release Date: Mar 1, 2004

Editor's review

With the Allies is a nonfiction account Richard Harding Davis wrote from his experiences on the World War I front, classified under WWI history. Davis was a well-known journalist and writer of his day, and the book's appeal lies in its reporter's-eye immediacy: observations of the Allied side's marches, the state of cities, and the situation of ordinary people, written with a newsman's rhythm and personal judgments. It is not a full history of campaigns, nor does it excel at strategic analysis; instead it brings readers into the atmosphere of the front around 1914. As a public-domain Project Gutenberg ebook, it is easy to obtain and well suited as supplementary reading for WWI historical sources. Two things to keep in mind: first, the author's stance is pronounced, making this wartime writing from the Allied perspective; second, the book was written early, and some judgments carry the emotions and limitations of the time, so it is best read alongside later scholarship.

Who it's for

A good fit for

General history readers interested in firsthand accounts of the Western Front in World War I
Media professionals and students studying war reporting and news writing
Readers who enjoy vivid firsthand documentary prose and do not seek strategic analysis
English-language readers who need primary English texts from the WWI period

Not a good fit for

Readers seeking a complete campaign narrative and strategic analysis of World War I
Readers seeking a neutral, multi-perspective account of the war
Beginners with low tolerance for old-fashioned English documentary prose

Reading tips

Read the opening chapters first to establish a sense of the front, then trace the journey by geography or timeline
Mark the author's subjective judgments as you read and compare them with later histories of World War I
Use maps to check the cities and march routes mentioned in the book
Excerpt representative passages of battlefield description as material for studying news writing

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Is this book a work of military history research or a journalist's sketchbook?

It is closer to a journalist's firsthand war reportage. Davis records what he saw and felt on the Allied side as a witness, emphasizing on-the-spot observation and personal impressions rather than systematically tracing campaigns or analyzing strategy. It is therefore better as supplementary source material than as a primary military history.

Does the author's stance affect the reading?

Yes. The book was written during the war, and the author stands on the Allied side, so the narrative carries a clear stance and emotional coloring. Readers can treat that bias itself as historical material for understanding the public mood in the Entente camp at the time, while using multi-perspective sources to avoid a one-sided impression.

Is the original English difficult to read?

The text is early twentieth-century English documentary writing, with long sentences but generally plain style, easier than literary works of the same period. Readers with upper-intermediate English can attempt the original; slow down where place names and personal names are dense, and use maps and background material for smoother understanding.

Comments

Find this book

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

Davis, Richard Harding, 1864-1916 Author

Richard Harding Davis (1864–1916) was an American writer and war correspondent, with 49 works held in this collection. Public information is limited, yet the range of his writing can be seen from the titles listed here: he wrote both war reportage and fiction and character sketches. Notes of a War Correspondent records a reporter's firsthand experiences in the field, Real Soldiers of Fortune tells of adventurous soldiers, while Gallegher and Other Stories and Van Bibber and Others show his skill in the short story, with a light touch and a gift for portraying city life and a variety of characters. His works are often classed as inspirational coming-of-age reading and have circulated among young readers, combining the immediacy of journalism with the readability of fiction; they have influenced later war reporting and popular narrative.