The Last of the Doughboys

The Forgotten Generation and Their Forgotten World War

By: Richard Rubin

Narrated by: Grover Gardner

In 2003, eighty-five years after the armistice, it took Richard Rubin months to find just one living American veteran of World War I. But then, he found another. And another. Eventually, he found dozens, aged 101 to 113, and interviewed them. All are gone now.

A decade-long odyssey to recover the story of a forgotten generation and their war led Rubin across the United States and France, through archives, private collections, battlefields, literature, propaganda, and even music. But at the center of it all were the last of the last, the men and women he met: a new immigrant, drafted and sent to France, whose life was saved by a horse; a Connecticut Yankee who volunteered and fought in every major American battle; a Cajun artilleryman nearly killed by a German airplane; an eighteen-year-old Bronx girl "drafted" to work for the War Department; a machine gunner from Montana; a marine wounded at Belleau Wood; the sixteen-year-old who became America’s last World War I veteran; and many more.

They were the final survivors of the millions who made up the American Expeditionary Forces, nineteenth-century men and women living in the twenty-first century. Self-reliant, humble, and stoic, they kept their stories to themselves for a lifetime, then shared them at the last possible moment so that they, and the war they won - the trauma that created our modern world - might at last be remembered. You will never forget them. The Last of the Doughboys is more than simply a war story; it is a moving meditation on character, grace, aging, and memory.

©2013 Richard Rubin (P)2013 Blackstone Audio

Excellent

I really enjoy hearing first hand accounts and wow did this deliver. It was a pleasure to listen too.

Flawed But Worthwhile: History Buffs Should Get It

This book is good most of the time but bad in spots. So are most books I read or listen to—so little offense, Mr. Rubin. If aged WWI veterans don’t say much Rubin mortars history between his blocks of interviews, and the format works pretty well. Or, he inserts interesting observations from personal tours of battlefields in France, in places specific to interviewees. Rubin became friends with the oldsters, going back to visit them every so often, an endearing thing. Grover Gardner narrates the reminiscences well, as always. The book is enjoyable until Rubin quotes lyrics from his WWI sheet music collection. Tin Pan Alley cranked out terrible stuff. Hear a few verses and you won’t want to hear more. And so, if you buy the book, listen to some of the lyrics then skip ahead because it doesn’t get any better until the chapter ends. Rubin writes that he has hundreds of examples in his collection and I guess he wanted to make use of a fair number of them—but yeeeech. Another quick criticism to an otherwise decent book: Being from the East Coast with its philosophical predilections, Rubin defines racism contemporaneously and then condemns it like it happened yesterday, rather than placing it in its particular historical context. For example, he takes a century-old comic novelty song from Vaudeville—“Indianola”—and, with the narrator reading it dead-pan, makes it sound like the KKK wrote it last week. (For an enjoyable couple of minutes listen to the old Billy Murray rendition of “Indianola” on the Internet. It’s fun.) Context? Picture a guy on stage in a loud plaid suit, carrying a cane, “selling” the song on the yokel circuit somewhere in the sticks, in 1918, at eight o’clock in the evening, on a Tuesday, and you have but one historical context for “Indianola.” Ethnic humor was everywhere at the time. That guy on the stage could have been just about any color or extraction, by the way, including Native American if one of them wanted to troop the boards. Using contemporary rules of measure, “K-K-K-Katie” might be condemned as offensive to both stutters and hillbillies. Oops! I mean vocally challenged folk and chronically under-employed rural laborers. I wonder what Rubin would say about Bill Mauldin’s WWII cartoon of an Indian on guard duty stopping a freight train because he was told not to let anything pass? Rubin needed an editor to put his or her foot down in a few spots.
Taken all-in-all, the book is worth the money if you skip the gas-bag parts. Most of it is well-written and interesting. The diversity of centenarian doughboys (and one doughgirl office worker) is unexpected. And God bless these old guys’ hearts—which have all now ceased beating.

Memories of an age long past, and its Great War!

I really love the concept of this book. Memories from the WWI era told by the men and women who created them over 8 decades ago. First hand accounts of not only the war, but the times they lived in and the things they found important to remember. Reaching 100 years of age in itself is a rare enough accomplishment but to think of the things they went through to get there is amazing. I am really glad that Richard Rubin was able to take the time to coax the stories from some of the final few that remained before all passed away and the style and stories were lost forever.

Grover Gardner was the perfect choice to narrate this book. His easygoing style made the book seem conversational as if he was relating his experience directly to me.

I am really glad to have found this book. It was good to hear about their experiences, good and bad, told in their unique style and frame of reference. I think this is a book I will be able to enjoy again and again.

awesome

Enlightening, not only in the interviews about the war but also in what America was then, what it means to grow old and live a long life and finally how much history can be lived in a single long lifetime.

Everyone should listen

Thought I wouldn’t be able to get into it but did! War is never glorious. My only quibble is the part about the flu. The “Spanish” flu has been researched and the genome sequenced. It started at Fort Devens, Ayer, Massachusetts. President Wilson suppressed reporting on it. However, by the time it had migrated to Kansas the word was out about the contagion. The press had free rein to report on it. I recommend the book “Flu” published in 2009. I forget the author.

Important history told very well.

I could listen to Grover Gardener read the ingredients off a milk carton and be totally satisfied! Richard Rubin has a very excellent narrative and a good sense of humor and patience when gathering the facts and tales that are usually very dry subject matter. I very much appreciate his telling of this story that not many people have taken the time or research to cover so well.

A Truely Great Book

I enjoyed listening to the Audible more than reading this fine book. Honestly, this is probably the best listening experience I've had. The reader is phenomenal. Wonderful. The book is amazingly good. It really weaves around a lot of subjects; but it is never confusing. It did seem to sidetrack at times. Man am I glad I stuck with it. I feel I now know an entire generation of people. War is hell! Life is a mixture of hell and well... life.

Should never be forgotten

I smiled and cried. I thought of my grandmother's brother , Robert Reed, who was so anxious to get in the fight that he went to Canada to volunteer before the U.S. got in the war. He was so badly wounded that he was sent back to Canada to recover. I am very glad someone wrote some of their stories down before they died. What a loss to history that would have been. These men should not be forgotten and more than that, they should get the honors they so richly deserve.

Excelente and we'll written!!!

This was an excellent book!! The personal accounts from the veterans are very interesting to hear. The author did an amazing job interviewing them and putting their stories down before they were lost to time. Grover Gardener, as always, gives an exceptional performance as the narrator. It felt as though you are sitting there while he is interviewing those remaining Dough Boys. Worth downloading and listening to.

Great Story!

This was a really good book! I've read allot about WWII and of course the American Civil War, but never much about "The Great War". The interviews with the surviving veterans and their stories are amazing. I have always enjoyed listening to older folks and hearing what they have to say, where they've been and how it was in their era. This book fits that bill!

Grover Gardner does an excellent job of communicating the manner in which his interviewees spoke, gestured, thought and lived. His inflection and tone were excellent throughout the entire book.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in history, anyone interested WWI, or anyone who enjoys hearing about the past as told by those who lived it. I'm glad I made this selection!