after the program to sign an answer your questions. -- hand answer your questions. reenactor world war i and new york city tourguide, so you have seen him around a lot. he is from the world war i centennial commission for new york city. please welcome kevin fitzpatrick. [applause] kevin fitzpatrick: thanks, kathleen. i do so much -- thank you so much. the new yorknk historical society for inviting me and to congratulate you on a fantastic world war i e.on the trenches exhibition, -- beyond the trenches exhibition. seven books are tied into new york history, this was the first one that challenge me to explore all five boroughs to great depths. from brooklynes to queens, i went to visit every world war i monument as i could. i have been in many neighborhoods. how many people here have been to the one in williamsville? travis, staten island in the house. brownsville, never visited, but so to see triangle park and the jewish names on that memorial was powerful. the book is in two parts. part one is locations and military training, recruiting, fundraising and other places the 1919 inhed from 1914 to the city, long island, and new jersey because one in 10, 10% doughboys that went to france, were from new york. part two is the notable memorials and monuments in the five boroughs. there is close to 200. my book has connections to the city and world war i, and we are in one right now. this landmark, our building, is designed by george and sawyer, architects of many notable buildings here. they created the central savings bank on broadway and 33rd street. congress created the battle monuments commission to care for the war dead, and general pershing was to oversee it. of the thousands who died, more third --00 remain in intern in france. -- enterred in france. another york and sawyer building. this was a vintage photo my friend -- this is not a vintage photo. my friend took it last week. cemetery chapel is a sawyer building. this was the bloodiest conflict interredr, 14,000 are there. it is the biggest american cemetery in europe. time will not dim the glory of their deeds. in new york city. inside the chapel are stained-glass windows made in new york by heineken and smith. these are army divisions. you can see the first, the fighting first on the left side from governors island. the second is the yankee division, 26, and the new york division, 77. if you want to see another heineken and smith stained-glass window, there is one in columbia in the journalism school. that is a stained-glass window of the statue of liberty, same artist, same craftsmen. when i lead tours of the city, i say the war is all around us. york avenue is not named for the duke of york. it is named for alvin york. in brooklyn, avenue q, that is quentin roosevelt, the 99th anniversary of his death coming. in staten island, victory boulevard, it is that victory over germany. unlike the dunkirk movie, i will not drop you into everything. here is world war i 101. the assassination of the austrian king started the first major european war in nearly 100 years. austria was threatened by serbia with support of germany. russia was drawn to mobilize against austria to protect serbia. that led germany to work against russia. france mobilized against germany because it had a treaty with russia to support it. when germany invaded neutral belgium as it drove to france, this brought in british intervention. there was a world war. the central powers, germany, turkey, all of, the commonwealth and colonies of france and england. this was the summer of 1914. by august the war was in full force. america sat it out. america was in pacifist mode, and woodrow wilson ran on a platform to keep us out. for the next few years, until american entry in 1917, many americans did volunteer and go canada,ether going to joining the canadian black watch were flying for france or britain or driving an ambulance. uswould take until 1917 for to enter. there were three contributing factors. 30th, july 30,e 1916, the explosion of black tum mile. that is an island on jersey behind the pedestal of the statue of liberty. on the eve, a mysterious explosion occurred, 50 tons of tnt, 100 tons of ammunition. you could hear it in boston and maryland, and it shook the city like an earthquake and severely damaged the statue of liberty. no one has ever taught or prosecuted for the crime, but it could have been german saboteurs . they make germany play -- the u.s. may germany pay war reparations. also a communication that went from berlin to mexico city that the british intercepted, aligning that if mexico would join them and fight america on its border after germany was victorious, they would give to mexico the states that we had captured many years ago, texas, california, new mexico. the third being unrestricted german u-boat warfare on the lusitania and the drowning of men and women and children. 6, we did declare war. this is new york in 1960 next to grand central terminal. i used to take photos when i was in the marine corps. this is the kind of photo they asked me to take. you don't know what the artillery officer is saying, but you know the just. -- gist. who has not been to governors island? are you waiting for a bridge? it has been open for 13 years. governors met -- more world war i memorials than any other state. there are many activities happening. 6 1917, shortly after the united states and congress to clear war on germany come -- declared war on germany, shortly soldiers were waiting with packs and rifles. they got onto army and navy tugboats from this pier. that is pier 101, the entry point from the brooklyn battery tunnel. everyone wants to know what that building is. they went to the harbor. they see all the german ships bottlenecked in the harbor for many months. they captured all the ships, imprison the cruise on ellis island, and to the -- crews on ellis island and turned -- to france to fight in the war. then, general pershing traveled from d.c. to new york with 200 men in civilian clothes. he also came here to this peer. -- pier. ,e took a tugboat to brooklyn boarded the eltek and that took him to the war in france. -- and that took him to the war in france. jay -- fort jay was like during the war. this is all part of the landfill. they added 100 acres down here starting in 1901. this is flat as a pancake. they have torn down some of the warehouses. this is 10 years after the war. this whole side, this is the east river site. this whole side was warehouses. right here was a railroad terminal. railroad tracks went up and on the island, and it was used for more material. they were shipping out everything from horseshoes to bullets every day. ships would take them across the atlantic. housing and barracks would have been over here. governors island was in it very -- was a very important part of the war effort. , this recently discovered is the last trace of the railroad from world war i. they found a set of boxcar trucks when they were doing excavation work. if you are over by the urban farm, you can see this piece of the railroad. i love this photo because you know the photographer, probably from the daily news or something, said, give me an irishman, give me a jew, give me an all-american guy, give me his friend and jump up and down. camp upton is having its centennial the summer, as well. the u.s. army built its larger training center of the war. about 10,000 acres. in june, 1917, colonel lawson went out. they made an inspection of the property. location of the camp because it would suit the railroad. the location was approved and june,uction was left in to a very important builder in new york. they built the empire state building. work that summer was little. heat, rain and incessant mosquitoes plagued the workers. it was nearly unbearable. from newwere imported york city, about seven dollars per day today. menlargest number of employed at one time was 15,000. they wanted to expand the railroad two miles to reach the camp. it was a massive operation. draft of men arrived on september 10, 1917. they were put to work to finish the camp. the end of october, 30,000 men had arrived, closing on its capacity of 37,000. trains arrived hourly on saturdays. penn station to camp upton was a big thing between 1917 and 1918. the soldiers training, they were training in trench warfare. some of the instructors were french or english men who had been wounded or gassed and came over and talk them to fight. you will knows they are wearing campaign had spewed the army and marines were not issued, notasco masks until they -- issued helmets and gas masks until they got to europe. at the end of the war, it transition to a demobilization camp as men were discharged. i love this, another wintertime scene. key point inwas a recruitment. for built the uss recruit memorial day 1970. it was a commissioned battleship in the navy. it was made out of wood. the ship was commissioned in the navy. they had a crew of sailors and marines assigned to it. you could see the sailors scrubbing the decks, doing laundry, carrying out drills. it was launched memorial day, 1917. f rate of 14,000 schoolchildren and veterans wrote it down to open it. the mayor had an enlistment goal. he wanted 2000 to enlist. the city got 25,000. after the war, it became an attractive -- and attraction at coney island. here are men signing up. they would do anything to attract attention to the ship. they would have a vaudeville performers, wild west stars, boxing matches, anything to draw a crowd. i love this guy. mayor mitchell, graduate of columbia, elected in 1914. he was called the boy mayor. he ran on a platform of getting into the war and ran against tammany hall. and enlisted in the army the following day. to train asouisiana an and or clean pilot, and on his last day of training in 1918, he fell out of his plane and was killed. his wife was watching. they brought his remains back to the city and had a big memorial service at city hall. he was lying in state. the memorial is on central park on the reservoir. central park, what i like about one from the, any central park conservancy? marbles iflose their you were to kick a soccer ball over there today. [laughter] this was a u-boat captured by the british off of breast. they hold it a parade all the way from hell's kitchen across the city and parked it in central park. if you bought a bond, you could go inside and take a tour. this was long before selfies, but a great place to take a selfie. there were doing many things to attract attention to selling bonds. where are my upper west fighters -- siders? if you go into the hallway and see the posters, many of them were created on west 67th. between central park west in columbus, it was all artist studios. built just after the turn-of-the-century. this location was james montgomery flanks. this building is still standing. flagg andgomery christie were two popular artists of the day. they have a lot of original artwork still displayed. christie was known for painting fetching women. flagg had a kenai for detail. another thing about flagg, he wrote his own copy. is in the studio. unless he was working somewhere else, he did the uncle sam "i want you" painting at his studio. been in 13inally west 67th. that building has been demolished. christie did this illustration in 1917 for the cover of leslie's. the war department asked him for. flagg claims he printed more than 4 million of those posters. had a thing for printing lovely women. he would put them in uniforms. another thing they had in common, they both married their models. they both had an eye for the ladies. these were very important. i cannot say that enough. ande recruiting posters upon drives were very important. , howu see in exhibition iconic they are hundred years .ater the second half of the book is about monuments and memorials, there are close to 200 and the city. about 100 and domain of the parks department. they have done a wonderful job of maintaining and storing them as we get closer to the centennial. this is the bronx county war memorial. on one side, you have the boys marching off to war, and on the other side they are coming back to the war. a powerful image. there are more world war i monuments than to any other conflict in the city, and the entire nation. it has better representation than the civil war, world war ii or any other conflicts. , that is laid at the feet of robert moses. he takes the blame for a lot of things, but when he was parks commissioner during world war ii, he did not permit any of the small, community-based monuments and memorials that had been erected 20 years before. he put his foot down and said they were not permitted in the parks during the 1940's for world war ii. he performed one large world war ii memorial for the city, and that was never built. brooklyn has a very beautiful world war ii memorial being restored right now. that is why there are more world war i memorials than anything else in the city. so i started passing this monument about 10 years ago. it is in grand central terminal. i would see this 10 times a week going to work and coming home. is, i wrote down the names of these 35 men and went to the national archives and pulled their records find their stories. this memorial was created in 1938 on the 30th anniversary of the armistice. every man on here worked for the irt. a few things to note about the memorial. let me go back. using my pointer. here is the sword for victory. it has the banner for peace. on the side are oak leaves for strength. down here our subway wheels, the vfw post.the irt here is their symbol. thee are doughboys, and square things are gas masks. a lewis machine gun. he is holding a springfield rifle with the bayonet and he has a brodie helmet. and of course the evil is the symbol of the united states. let's talk about some of these people. that is the beautiful monument. , it isirtually hidden down where you catch the 4, 5 and six you're going over to lexington. it used to be upstairs, but at some point the mta moved downstairs. hopefully you'll go see it. this poor guy. this is robert mccrae. he worked for the mta. the navy was so short of ships when the u.s. entered the war that rich people or donating yachts to the navy. this was a stimulant -- a steam yacht donated. he was a seaman second-class. it was the first ship sunk by a german torpedo. this was early in 1917. he was never found. his name is on the tablet of the missing in brookwood, england, outside of london. wells bradley. he worked for the irt, joined the navy, then the army, and was sent to texas, where he trade on enny, trained on the j which was manufactured upstate. he died in an airplane crash. indied, he burned to death february, 1918. he was from mount vernon. this is interesting. i was talking about this on a podcast, it was on my website, and the great-grandson of walter o'connell reached out to me and said, how do you know that walter worked for the mta? i said, his name is on the memorial of grand central terminal. the family went over to see it. he was on this tugboat, and it crashed a few weeks after the war ended. , he was also from brooklyn and he died with 15 crew members. talk ondo a whole cemeteries, but i won't. i will talk about this one in trinity. this is uptown just off audubon place. i was there about 10 years ago ors, asisiting the ast one does, and i noticed the cemitaph.- it is by far the biggest one in manhattan, and possibly the city. i've never seen one bigger than this, it is more than 65 feet tall and topped by columbia. columbia was the female symbol of the united states. i knew it had national meeting. as i got close to it, i was like, this person must be rich or famous. as a guide to the plaque, i saw the eagle globe and anchor and i knew it was a marine, and i knew it was 1918. then i started researching this. here is a tech for anyone doing genealogy, if this is your target, looking at this tombstone, you always want to look at the parents and the widow. then you get all of their names and you can build the story. let me tell you about stephen. he was from a real estate family. his father owned a block of fifth avenue in the 1950's. -- fifth avenue in the 1850's. he was married, one year later when he was 21, he enlisted in the u.s. marines in 1918. his wife and mother said goodbye to him and he boarded a ship in the city of athens. -- in 1980, the ship was struck. undert to the bottom in four minutes, and 69 men, women and children were lost. there were 24 irving recruits on their way to parris island. eight drowned. towas last seen helping evacuate passengers. his mother never found his body. she created a fantastic monument. she also established a scholarship fund at williams that is still given today. his widow never remarried and died in the 1970's. there are two cemeteries that i talk about at length in my book. the first is cypress hills national cemetery in brooklyn, the only national cemetery in new york. it was dedicated during the civil war, one of 10 created by president lincoln. do not have a place, no battles were fought here during the civil war, many soldiers were brought here. that's where it got its start. i started researching cypress hills about 15 years ago, and when i am out there, i am the only one in the cemetery. there are 18,000 people in turkey are. it is usually me and the grounds crew. to cemetery closed interments 18 years ago. it is a beautiful monument. the other cemetery is woodlawn. i really do believe that woodlawn is the most beautiful cemetery in the united states. i wanted to go there because i wanted to find a doctor, and a and a womanviator, volunteer. woodlawn has all of those. the stars are interesting. world war i was the beginning of the money that memorial business. for veterans and casualties of the war. these were created by the detroit monteleone company and families -- detroit muscl osuleam company. you could see the sections woodlawn was selling in 1921 in 1922 when they were repatriating the word it from france. you can look around and find these gravestones. travis. town ons a small victory boulevard in staten island. has this monument for 75 residents who served in the war, nine to not come back. the local belief is that no american town of its size, less than a thousand people, gave or lost such a number. tovis also always claim the largest july 4 grade, it always starts right here. if you drive by quickly, you will miss the back of the monument, which is the names of the honored war dead. all local boys from the public school district, 25. they had all gone to school together. now it is time to talk about doughboy cultures. these are the sculptures of soldiers that have common elements. father duffy in times square, the brooklyn war memorial. bronx has a beautiful statue in norwood. manhattan has made. probably flanders field is the most memorial. -- memorable. of the bronx being restored, hopefully that will be back before the centennial is over. new york has more doughboy sculptures than any other city in the united states. they all share a common element. least four have at of these things to be a doughboy sculpture, you need the steel brodie helmet. where 81918 expeditionary forces uniform. puttees, and the springfield rifle with a bayonet. this is on long island in suffolk county. from a monument company, they were making copies of the sculpture. --re was a time in the night a time in the teens and 20's, if you wanted to sculpture, you could order one from a catalog. with the come up pedestal and bass. you see these across the country. one is called the spirit of the american doughboy, it is very common. none in newown -- york, but there is one in westchester. there are more than 100 of those across the country. you can track them down on my facebook page. new york did not want an over-the-top kind of pose. it with -- they would with a more refined sculpture like this. this is "the returning soldier" by brooks johnson. fieldo created a flanders doughboy and health kitchen six years later. it was dedicated memorial day 1923. 5000 attended with gold star mothers in the front. in 1928, the american federation of artists that it was the best war memorial of its kind. a different take on this than the other doughboy sculpture you saw. he has a head wound, his helmet is removed, and you see the branches of peace around his helmet. that is more common to see in new york city war memorials. if you know of the carl told us statue, those also comments removed. that was controversial at the time, it was not really showing the gritty side of war. probably my most favorite place to visit. to do before go to these places, i did not want to look at them on the internet, i just wanted to get the address. the parks harmon has a list. i made a list of all the places i wanted to go. the brooklyn war memorial is the name of it, it is by augustus lupeman. he also did the stress memorial -- the strauss memorial for the titanic victims. , the plansnument were submitted to the municipal rejectedty, it was because it wasn't great enough. they said make it bigger. so it was increased in size. it was unveiled in 1921. 15,000 marsh to prospect park led by 1500 gold star mothers. let me show you the details. gold star mothers also are something that can out of world war i. originally, if you had a son serving, a son or daughter, you have a red star in your window. if they were killed in action or died of disease, the mechanical star. the gold star mothers foundation was launched in washington, d.c.. less week, my friend lisa, who also lives in brooklyn not far from here, so a gold star family license plate and she was so moved she wrote about on facebook. 1500ne if there was mothers who had lapsed -- had lost someone in the war. three and half times the size of this room. all of the women were white. that is who is leading the way in. there followed by civil war veterans of brooklyn and schoolchildren. there were 35,000 people attending the dedication of the monument. 2800 names on the memorial and three women, daughters of brooklyn, who died from a pandemic. it was commissioned by the parks department but not paid for by the parks department. the money was given by a patriotic man, a shipbuilder. that was william h todd from redhook. he raised the money is the patriarch benefactor. the monument was covered with large american flags. d's daughter unveiled it, the crowd was awed. to the younger generation who are present, and have no relatives named on the tablet, i to the nameso harm thereon, and see if someone has the same first name is yours. then you will see how a mother felt about seeing that name and dropped a flower every once in while. thanks very much. [applause] kevin: one more thing. if you're interested in world war i, september 16 and 17th, we will be on governors island for world war i history weekend. it is the largest public display and exhibition for world war i on the east coast. 65 doughboys in uniform, i-19 17 tank, to a balances, a horse and a red cross dog. it will be two days of author talks and living history. that is the website address. we will also be in the veterans day parade. if you are interested in asking a question, i will be outside signing books. if you buy a book, you can ask a question. [laughter] kevin: a $17 question. i will be here tomorrow all day from 11:00 until 4:00. this is me right here in my uniform. you can ask me questions all they tomorrow. they give a much, everybody. [applause] -- thank you very much everybody,. [applause] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2017] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] have a facebook question from peter. he says, are there any historical resources on the people who died in detroit? >> there is one in particular, the detroit free press that a piece -- >> you could be featured during our next live program. join the conversation on facebook. and on twitter. sunday night on "q&a," we take a look at anthony clark's book, "the less campaign -- the last campaign." >> every comment i have received has been one of two topics. oneangry people are learned is happening or how flabbergasted they are to learn what is happening. i have not received any kind of mild, i read it and it is ok. >> where they angry? >> we have these presidential libraries to house records, and especially for the most recent ones, the records will not be open for the next 100 years. night at 8:00 eastern on c-span's "human a." -- " q and a." words," mark levin on his book "rediscovering americanism." he is interviewed by jim demint. >> we've reached the point we cannot get back. we are overwhelmed and the culture, and politics, in the progressivism. phony egalitarianism, the smothering of individualism. has it become so entrenched in our institution that there is no way to rip it out? i say this, we have to do everything we can, confronted, activated -- debated, explain to our citizens what is taking place. we have no choice. >> watched sunday night at 9:00 eastern on c-span twos book tv. next on "reel america," a september 1965 documentary released by cbs reports on the ku klux klan. traces the history of the kkk followingesurgence the release of "birth of a nation" until the world war ii years. it includes interviews with members which viewers might find disturbing. this 45 minute film earned cbs 1965ts and its producer a peabody award. ♪ the driver of this car is the mother of five children. alabama, aom selma, red white sedan overtook her car. several shots were fired. the driverless car appeared off the highway and came to a stop at a cattle fence. the woman was dead. arrested and charged with murder with three alleged numbers of the ku klux klan. one was tried. the jury was unable to reach a verdict. this is an earthen dam, a temporary grave of three civil