| Web Site Review | The Journal of American History, 91.3

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| Web Site Review | The Journal of American History, 91.3 | The History Cooperative

Web Site Review

The World War I Document Archive < http://www.lib.byu.edu/~rdh/wwi/ >. Created and maintained by World War I Military History online discussion group. Visited Oct. 2003, June–July 2004. First World War.Com: The War to End All Wars <http://www.firstworldwar.com>. Michael Duffy, site editor. Visited March, June–July 2004.
You never know what's going to grab you. For me, it was a brief film clip on First World War.Com of the Austro-Hungarian archduke Franz Ferdinand arriving in Sarajevo on June 28, 1914. The film lasts just eight seconds, but there I sat, watching it over and over, hoping that the film would reveal some secret to help me make sense of the worldwide cataclysm that followed the archduke's assassination that same day. It did not, but at the two Web sites under review I did discover an abundance of primary and secondary sources for students and general readers similarly mystified by the persistent puzzle of World War I. Of the two sites, The World War I Document Archive will be of greater use for original research, while teachers and scholars who visit First World War.Com will find an online reference work of a richness and quality approximating print encyclopedias and document collections on the war.	1
The World War I Document Archive, authored and maintained by members of the World War I Military History online discussion group (WWI-L), is a treasure trove of research material. The site's creators have posted or linked to several hundred historic documents; another section on Memoirs and Reminiscences gathers nearly a hundred works, including many full-length books uploaded in short segments of text that can be easily searched. (I only wish that the original pagination had been preserved.) While the reference apparatus is not yet fully developed (the Biographical Dictionary still lacks an entry on Woodrow Wilson), the primary source collections are unparalleled on the Web today and provide a wider range of original material than many university and college libraries can offer.	2
The World War I Document Archive is heavy on diplomatic correspondence and treaties, military records, and matters of political economy; English-language sources predominate, although all the warring nations are represented. The site's diplomatic history is traditional but broad; it is to the credit of its creators that it effectively integrates material from world events of the World War I era that are often handled as if they were discrete and unrelated events: the Russian Revolution, the Armenian genocide, the Balfour Declaration and the question of a Jewish homeland in Palestine. Social historians have plenty to work with: the military documents include the voices, drawings, and song lyrics of ordinary soldiers at the front, as well as the writings of military women. But total war also required the home front mobilization of labor, religion, the family, and popular culture—areas of life that are not adequately represented at either site.	3
The World War I Document Archive reflects both the strengths and weaknesses of the multiauthor approach to site building. It feels participatory and collaborative, but it does not so much announce a coherent interpretation as convey its creators' passions for the history of World War I. And those enthusiasms can be quirky: subsections on medical and naval history are marvelously rich, but pray tell—why all the photographs of camels?	. . .

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