"The great battle of the Meuse-Argonne was the costliest conflict in American history, with 26,000 men killed and tens of thousands wounded. Involving 1.2 million American troops over 47 days, it ended on November 11 - what we now know as Armistice Day - and brought an end to World War I, but at a great price. Distinguished historian Robert Ferrell now looks back at this monumental struggle to create the definitive study of the battle - and to determine just what made it so deadly." "Ferrell reexamines factors in the war that many historians have chosen to disregard. He points first to the failure of the Wilson administration to mobilize the country for war. American industry had not been prepared to produce the weaponry or transport ships needed by our military, and the War Department - with outmoded concepts of battle shaped by the Spanish-American War - shared equal blame in failing to train American soldiers for a radically new type of warfare."--Jacket.… (more)