Review of "The Great War: A Guide to the Service Records of All the World’s Fighting Men and Volunteers," by Christina K. Schaefer

Review of

The Great War: A Guide to the Service Records of All the World’s Fighting Men and Volunteers, by Christina K. Schaefer ISBN 0806315547

Five out of five stars

 In database work the term “metadata” is used to describe the data about data, the descriptions of the forms of the records as well as the locations. This book can be considered metadata about the records of the men that fought and often died in the Great War.

 Going on a country-by-country basis, Schaefer gives the names and addresses of the agencies that store and manage the service records of the people that served their nation. Since many of them have since morphed into other entities, the references reflect that. Since this book was published in 1998, email and web addresses are not included.

 References are included at the end of each section referring to a country, giving the reader significant direction for further pursuit of data. Anyone interested in pursuing the specifics about the people that fought in the Great War will find this book a necessary reference. Even the neutral countries are included.