RESEARCH QUESTION

The research topic that I chose to write about was on The Great War; or as everyone might know, World War I. To be more specific, I was most interested in the weapons technology for its time. The actual topic I researched was "What type of weapons emerged for the first time ever during the ‘Great War’ which forever changed the military world?" and what I was hoping to find was how it changed our styles of military strategies especially in combat.

My intent for researching this topic was to broaden my knowledge for a history test, which I took and did flawless on. I wanted to measure the booming industries during wartime so I'd be able to see how well they contributed to militaries worldwide and how dramatically our technology has improved since then. I'm the kind of person who really enjoys war movies and the actual truth behind wars and certain battles. I wanted to expand my knowledge on the "Great War" because most people only know some facts about World War II and hardly anything about the First World War. I was one of those people, but now I know which country was responsible for being the first to use chemical weapons, and the first to develop a machine gun, the creators of the submarine and so forth.

GENERAL SEARCH WORKSHEET

CONCEPT #		Search Terms
1	World War I		Great War	WWI
2	tanks		aircraft	weapons	technology	radar
	flamethrowers		grenades	chemical warfare	.u-boats	.bayonets
	artillery		.	.	.	.

WEBLIOGRAPHY

Batchelor, John and Bryan Cooper, Fighter: A History of Fighter Aircraft. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1974.

Bowen, Ezra and the Editors of Time-Life Books, Knights of the Air. Alexandria, Va.: Time-Life Books, 1980.

Brown, Frederick J. Chemical Warfare: A Study in Restraints. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1968.

An account of the history of the use of chemical weapons and attempts (mainly failed in Brown's view) to restrain use by legal measures. Also discusses the "humanity" of chemical warfare. Although one may well disagree with Brown's conclusions, the book contains important material about chemical warfare and chemical arms control that is difficult to find elsewhere.

"Chlorine Gas on the Battlefield," in Scientific American, May 15, 1915, p. 452.

Duffy, Michael, ed. “Weapons of War.” FirstWorldWar.com. 26 July 2003. 1 May 2004 <http://www.firstworldwar.com/weaponry/>.

This site was very imformative with the facts of every general area of WWI.

This website was also very good, it tells the story of soldiers throughout the war and what they went through and experienced for the first time. This site teaches a lot of history and I thought the pictures were helpful too.

“First World War: Weapons.” SchoolHistory.co.uk. n.d. 1 May 2004. <http://www.schoolhistory.co.uk/year9links/wwi/wwiweapons.pdf>.

Fotion, Nicholas G. and Gerard Elfstrom. Military Ethics: Guidelines for Peace and War. London: Routledge Kegan & Paul , 1986.

An interesting and persuasive utilitarian argument for why use of some kinds of weapons, including chemical and biologicalweapons, ought to be morally condemned, while use of others is permissible. Distinguishes between first use and retaliation. Conclusions are very different from those of Richard Krikus, cited below

"Germany First Uses Lethal Chemical Weapons on the Western Front, April 22, 1915." DISCovering World History. 1997. History Resource Center. Gale Group. 3 May 2004. <http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/HistRC/hits?r=d&origSearch=true&bucket=gal&o=&tab=1&n=10&l=dR&items=0&tabMap=1&c=1&docNum=BT2105240704&sgPhrase=false&locID=plan_csm&secondary=true&t=RK&s=1&SU=Germany+First+Uses+Lethal+Chemical+Weapons+on+the+Western+Front>.

Grey, Charles G. The History of Combat Airplanes. Northfield, Vermont: Norwich University, 1942.

“How Air Warfare Began.” Western Mail (Cardiff, Wales) 20 Sept. 2002: 8. InfoTrac Full Text Newspapers. GaleGroup. 3 May 2004. <http://web4.infotrac.galegroup.com/itw/infomark/637/249/51930715w4/purl=rc1_SP00_0_CJ92735347&dyn=6!dgxrn_"News"_1_0_CJ92735347?sw_aep=plan_skyline>.

Scott, Dick. “The Machines that Brought Destruction.” Daily Telegraph (Surry Hills, Australia) 22 April 2004: 45. InfoTrac Full Text Newspapers. GaleGroup. 3 May 2004. <http://web4.infotrac.galegroup.com/itw/infomark/637/249/51930715w4/purl=rc1_SP00_0_CJ115629927&dyn=3!dgxrn_"Regional+News"_1_0_CJ115629927?sw_aep=plan_skyline>.

"Technology and World War I, 1914." DISCovering U.S. History. 1997. History Resource Center. Gale Group. 3 May 2004. <http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/HistRC/hits?r=d&origSearch=true&bucket=gal&o=&tab=1&n=10&l=dR&items=0&tabMap=1&c=1&docNum=BT2104240703&sgPhrase=false&locID=plan_csm&secondary=true&t=RK&s=1&SU=%22Technology+and+World+War+I%22>.

“Weapons.” Encyclopedia of the First World War. n.d. Spartacus Educational. 1 May 2004. <http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/FWWweapons.htm>.

This website is extremely detailed, it contains pictures and the history behind every weapon ever devised during WWI. I especially enjoyed this webpage because it was exactly what I was looking for. It gave me details and a little bit of history as well. This site was strictly about weapons of WWI and the setup is clear and interesting. A Misc. website which showed colorful pictures and brief, but informative pictures of World War weapons .

last revised: 5-25-04 by Eric Brenner, Skyline College, San Bruno, CA

These materials are copyrighted, but may be used for educational purposes if you inform and credit the author and cite the source as: LSCI 106 Computerized Research. All commercial rights are reserved. Send comments or suggestions to: Eric Brenner at brenner@smccd.net