Excerpt from American History Told by Contemporaries, Vol. 5: Twentieth Century United States, 1900-1929 This method has been furthered by the World War, which presented tremendously important problems of historical evidence. For ten years a battle of books has raged, almost as full of animosity as the struggles of the armies in the field, upon the question of what actually took place in the cabinets of Europe immediately preceding the out break of hostilities. The dreadful question of the responsibility for that war has been subjected to the test of contemporary verbal state ments, despatches, and telegrams; and also to subsequent explana tions of responsible statesmen of the various countries involved. Never has there been such intensity of search and comparison of all publications, such delving in the intimate archives of the govern ments concerned, such concern over the exact wording of historical records. That influence has also affected the attitude of the public mind in the United States of America toward the search for ascertained truth with regard to the connection of the United States with that gigantic struggle. Never in the history of the Republic has there been such an outpouring of intimate personal material and the contents of secret or revealed government archives, as during the last ten years. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.