Best World War I History Sites
Having recently read The Return of the Soldier by Rebecca West, and at the same time doing some research on the World War I time period, while at the same time knowing there was a request for sites about history, it only made the most sense to make our first History Pages post about World War I history. Because there is such a wealth of information on the internet regarding historical information on every time period (so far), it didn’t seem fair to do one general post about websites about history. So, presented here are a few sites that are great resources on World War I history. If you have a special request for the next time period covered, give us a holler in the comments and we’ll make it happen for you!
World War 1 dot com
This site is maintained by a member of one of the other sites mentioned, but it is structured differently, in that it has an impressive amount of data and resources in the form of a reference library. So, this member of The Great War Society has worked and slaved to bring you as much information as possible about World War I – biographies, weapons information, timelines, real life narratives, and country atlases and information. Not only that, but there is a section that talks about books about World War I and reviews them, and a section that shows you World War I inspired artwork .
>>Trenches on the Web – worldwar1.com
PBS’s The Great War
If it’s by PBS you know it’s going to be thorough and probably really interesting. The site is set up like an interactive museum exhibit, but without the buttons breaking or being covered in jam. The site is divided into sections: Prologue, Explosion/Stalemate, Total War/Slaughter, Mutiny/Collapse, Hatred & Hunger, Timeline, Maps & Battles, The Shaping of the 21st Century, and Historians. Each section offers different perspectives, along with quotes and actual audio recordings of key players’ speeches.
>>The Great War – pbs.org/greatwar/
World War I Document Archive
This is a wiki-type page p0wered by BYU. The description states, “This archive of documents from World War One has been assembled by volunteers of the World War I History List (WWI-L). International in focus, the archive intends to present in one location primary documents concerning the Great War.” They’ve got Conventions and Treaties, Official Papers, a section for Documents by Year, Diaries, Memorials, Personal Reminiscences, Books, Special Topics and Commentaries, a WWI Biographical Dictionary, a WWI Image archive, and more, including a very comprehensive link page to other online resources on World War I. I dare say that this website, though not very pretty, is the best source of information on the web regarding World War I.
>>World War I Document Archive – wwi.lib.byu.edu
Eyewitness to World War I
A subpage to the larger Eyewitness to History site, this section deals with personal accounts of events in World War I, taken from books and turned into web entries ala Crime Library or similar. True history written sort of like fiction, in that there are very descriptive adjectives, etc. This is a great site if you want to gain some human-interest perspective on a certain event related to World War I, and also a good place to find paper source suggestions, as each entry is associated with a book that you can probably find in a library.
>>Eyewitness to World War I - eyewitnesstohistory.com/w1frm
The Great War Society
This site, mentioned earlier, is devoted to The Great War Society, a group of like-minded individuals committed to the study of World War I. They wish to educate and promote understanding through their educational materials, preservation efforts, translation projects, and other special projects. You have to join, but without membership dues how could they pay for this ongoing effort? Also, I think these might be the guys who do the reenactments and stuff, and that’s always a good time.
>>The Great War Society – the-great-war-society.org
World War I Digital Hisotry
I included this site because it is a great topical resource on the general facts about World War I. It’s actually part of a site intended for teachers – and what you see on this website is a basic lesson plan with discussion questions, along with stuff you could turn into handouts for your class. In other words, it’s at-a-glance information about World War I for the person who isn’t interested in digging deep, but just wants to know the general details.
>>Teacher’s Guide to World War I – digitalhistory.uh.edu
Related articles by Zemanta
- A History of the Slate Industry in Wales (lawrencereaves.com)
- The Great War Archive | First World War Poetry Digital Archive (oucs.ox.ac.uk)
- A Quest to Find World War One (brighthub.com)
Very Best Sites does not allow links in our comments. If you would like to advertise on our site, please click here to read about advertising & site reviews.
