Pershing’s Victorious Crusaders – History of the World’s Greatest War

An American perspective on the events of the First World War.

This fascinating “illustrated history of the world’s greatest war” was published in the months following the Treaty of Versailles by the Geographical Publishing Company of Chicago. It’s 30+ pages extoll the virtues of the American commitment to maintaining world peace, largely overlooking the several years of conflict prior to the U.S. intervening.

Portraits of Allied leaders, color battle scenes, and detailed political maps are accompanied by ‘patriotic’ commentary that presents an idyllic perspective on the gruesome warfare of the Western Front. One captioned photo reads “Barbed wire entanglements offered no resistance to American boys in the great drive.” The political maps present the postwar world as designed by the triumphant allies – the British Empire is near its territorial height, Germany’s military hegemony has been gutted, the Ottoman Empire was dissolved, and the Western Hemisphere was firmly under American control.