This new section—"Pathos and Patriotism of the War"—was Book IV of Causes and Battles, following the three sections that were originally published in The True Story (Book I, "The World-Staggering War"; Book II, "Causes and Consequences of the Great War"; and Book III, "Means and Resources of the Great War").
My hardcover copies of these two books differ from some of the online versions at the Hathi Trust Digital Library and the Internet Archive. Also, Causes and Battles was attributed to one author (Professor Charles Maxwell, Ph. D.), even though most of the material appeared in The True Story, which was attributed to Professor C. M. Stevens, Ph. D.
My copy of Causes and Battles includes 78 more pages than my copy of The True Story. These added pages include:
- A "Later Stages of the War" chapter that extends the war timeline of The True Story to December 16, 1914.
- General summaries of some battles that were not mentioned in The True Story, including the German bombing of Antwerp, Belgium on August 25, 1914; the battle of the Marne River in September 1914; and eastern front fighting in East Prussia, Russian Poland, and the Austrian province of Galicia.
- Detailed maps of the eastern and western fields of the war.
- The earlier mentioned Book IV.
The updated timeline shows how the European war had become a world war, with fighting also in central Asia, China, the Pacific Ocean, and the Bay of Bengal. It also lists the constant transfer of the government of Belgium (from Brussels to Antwerp to Ostend to Havre). You also see how Turkey entered the war, mainly against Russia.
The human interest stories in Book IV start with a graphic description of dead soldiers and horses in a sunlit cabbage field in France. They end with an emotional tribute to the innocently suffering people of Belgium.
In between these two passages are many short essays about the personal side of the war away from the battlefield:
- How it had become a way of life, with the daily development of new reactions and perspectives, both for civilians and soldiers. Civilians away from the lines of battle struggled to continue their daily lives, while soldiers grimly accepted their new responsibilities.
- The sympathetic human connections that were sometimes made between soldiers of opposing armies, often just before one or more of them was killed.
- The many civilian acts of courage and heroism, and the appalling acts of civilian cowardice and selfishness.
All along the vast platforms are rows of stretchers, each laden with its suffering humanity. One counts the men by the upturned boot sole. Alas! Those wounded in the legs hang brokenly down. Here a wretched man with broken shoulder wanders toward the operating room, installed in every railway station. There a feeble comrade leans on the shoulders of a nurse, as he struggles toward the doctors awaiting him.It's hard to tell all of the sources of the information in Book IV. One section was obviously written by a woman, while other sections seem to have been adapted from news items. My impression is that many of the essays were first-hand accounts by the author Charles Maxwell.
Whatever the sources, Causes and Battles succeeds in adding new information and perspectives to The True Story. The material in these books was updated at least once more, in the book The World's Greatest War: Its Inception and Progress, with a timeline that runs to July 9, 1916. That book also was attributed to Charles Maxwell.
Causes and Battles was probably published in early 1915. A record of this book could not be found on Newspapers.com. The book has a copyright date of 1915 and it includes a timeline that runs to December 16, 1914.
Online versions:
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