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Come On In, America: The United States In World War I by Linda Barrett Osborne

Disclaimer: I read this book as an advance copy from Netgalley. My thanks go to them, ABRAMS Kids and to the author, Linda Barrett Osborne, for this opportunity. The opinions stated in the review are my own.
This is a very interesting look at the events surrounding the United States involvement with World War I. I studied some US history several years ago, both at school and at University, and was fascinated by how the different US political approach to conflict contrasted to that of the European history that I also studied.  This book focuses on the build up to and the fighting of World War I from a US perspective and gives an interesting and detailed account of this time in American history. The information is presented with clarity and insight that make it a illuminating read. The text is augmented by photographs which portray both military and civilian life as well as propaganda posters. The text never veers into stuffy fact recounting but gives a human look at the political decisions, the character of the decision makers involved, the prevailing attitudes and concerns to American citizens and the experience of fighting the markedly different form of warfare to any that preceded it.


I enjoyed the details that were included such as the victory garden grown in the White House, complete with sheep to trim the lawn. They certainly would wreak havoc with the security sensors of the modern day White House!


This book has a wide scope but it doesn't feel messy in any way, it balances the importance of the war, the impact it had in both human and social terms and is an excellent text. From reading this there are now areas I wish to learn about in greater details. As a text aimed at young people studying this period in history for the first time I think this would be very suitable.

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