EXPLAINING THE NEED FOR DOCUMENTING THE EXPERIENCES OF THE SOLDIERS IN THE GREAT WAR

Abstract

My thesis argues that studying the experiences of average American soldiers in the Great War can help in the search for the creation of meaning in any type of strange surroundings. For historians and theologians, the consensus is that it is crucial to understand that we live our lives based upon the past, present, and future. Since war has been a part of man’s past, for the World War I trench soldiers, surely the meaning of their battle must have meant something to them. It should have meant something to us. The problem is how to document soldiers’ experiences in WWI. In using research methods surrounding the academics of the humanities, the paper will reestablish the history of five soldiers of the Headquarters Company of the 356th Infantry in World War I.