A personal look at the World War I era through the eyes of a 20-year-old volunteer. Unpublished World War I photos taken by Holt at Verdun. W. Stull Holt was 20 years old when he sailed for France in late March 1917 to join the American Ambulance Field Service. His patriotism, idealism, and desire for adventure had motivated him to volunteer just weeks before the U.S. declared war against Germany in April 1917. Holt ardently supported the war effort, and when his six-month contract with the AAFS was completed, he enlisted in the American Air Service where he won his pilot"s wings, then applied for observer training. Holt was assigned as an observer-bombardier-gunner with the famed 20th Aero Squadron of the American 1st Daylight Bombardment Group, which dropped more bombs than any other American squadron at the front in World War I. He served near Verdun during the French summer offensive of 1917 where he was gassed; he later was awarded the French Croix de Guerre. After World War I, Holt obtained an A.B. from Cornell (1920), an M.A. from George Washington University (1923), and a Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University. He served on the faculties of George Washington and Johns Hopkins Universities until 1940, when he became chairman of the department of history at the University of Washington. In 1942, taking leave from the University of Washington, Holt volunteered to serve in World War II. As Commanding Officer of an Intelligence unit in the European zone, he worked closely with the British to rescue some 2,000 U.S. Army Air Forces aircrew members from German-occupied territory by means of underground organizations. He was awarded the British OBE (Officer of the Order of the British Empire), as well as an American medal. At the age of 70, in 1967, Holt retired from the University of Washington. His scholarly interests centered on American foreign relations and on American historiography. His best-known book was Treaties Defeated by the Senate (1933). Stull Holt was an elected member of the Council of the American Historical Association, and in 1963-1964 served as executive secretary of the Association and editor of the American Historical Review. Holt was also active in local, state, and national politics. In both 1968 and 1972 he was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention and a member of the National Platform Committee. The idea for The Great War originated with the late Maclyn P.Burg. He transcribed all of the W. Stull Holt World War I papers, producing a rich and diverse typescript of approximately 1,000 pages which has been deposited, along with the papers themselves, in the University of Washington Library. Shortly after selecting the entries and completing the manuscript, Maclyn Burg unexpectedly died -- before arrangements had been made for its publication -- and Thomas J. Pressly was asked to take charge of the text and see it through the publishing process. Because Holt saved the letters he received from his fiancee, friends, and family, we are given the opportunity to see the world of 1917-1918 through their eyes. We are privy to the wartime activities, attitudes, and perspectives of an extended American family on both sides of the Atlantic. As might be expected, the perceptions of the war by those on the homefront in the United States did not always match the outlook of Holt.