War Fever: Boston, Baseball, and America in the Shadow of the Great War

by Randy W. Roberts, John Smith

A "richly detailed" portrait of the three men whose lives were forever changed by WWI-era Boston (Michael S. Neiberg): baseball star Babe Ruth, symphony conductor Karl Muck, and Harvard Law student Charles Whittlesey.
In the fall of 1918, a fever gripped Boston. The streets emptied as paranoia about the deadly Spanish flu spread. Newspapermen and vigilante investigators aggressively sought to discredit anyone who looked or sounded German. And as the war raged on, the enemy seemed to be lurking everywhere: prowling in submarines off the coast of Cape Cod, arriving on passenger ships in the harbor, or disguised as the radical lecturing workers about the injustice of a sixty-hour workweek.
War Fever explores this delirious moment in American history through the stories of three men: Karl Muck, the German conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, accused of being an enemy spy; Charles Whittlesey, a Harvard law graduate who became an unlikely hero in Europe; and the most famous baseball player of all time, Babe Ruth, poised to revolutionize the game he loved. Together, they offer a gripping narrative of America at war and American culture in upheaval.

Genres: History, Sports, Baseball, Nonfiction, World War I, Audiobook, American History

368 pages, Hardcover

First published March 24, 2020

Reviews

[Katie B · Rating 3 out of 5]

While 1918 was the year the Great War, aka World War 1, ended, it was also the start of the Spanish flu pandemic which killed millions of people worldwide. This book provides a bit of a look into how the city of Boston was hit by the pandemic but primarily provides focus on three men with Boston area connections. Babe Ruth helped the Red Sox win the World Series in 1918. Karl Muck was a German conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and there was a public uproar on whether he was loyal to the United States or Germany. Charles Whittlesey earned a law degree from Harvard Law School and led the "Lost Battalion" in the Meuse-Argonne offensive during World War 1.

This book was published in March 2020 and it's an eerie coincidence the book discusses the 1918 pandemic while in the present day the world has been turned upside down due to the Coronavirus. I would have loved for the authors to go into a little more detail about the subject as that was the main reason I was interested in the book. Most of the pandemic coverage is towards the end of the book and it was interesting to compare attitudes and actions taken back then vs now. So while the pandemic coverage is more of a snapshot look as to what was going on, the three men featured in the book are given more of a mini-biography level of material.

The book is informative but maybe not the most exciting nonfiction read. It's a book I read in bits in pieces over the course of a week or so instead of spending hours at a time fully engrossed in the material. I do think the authors picked 3 unique individuals to feature in the book. There might not be enough interest or even enough information to warrant individual biographies about Muck or Whittlesey but when you throw those two men in with Babe Ruth, it makes for a decent read. You can't help but draw parallels between then and now and for that reason this is a book that you might want to consider reading.

I received a free reader's copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

[Thom · Rating 1 out of 5]

Three separate stories that didn't really have a lot to do with Boston. Two of the three are tenuously connected by the title fourth story - the fever or "the grip", which isn't covered well either. 1½ stars.

Babe Ruth probably has the most accounts written; nearly all spend the first quarter on his Baltimore upbringing and pitching with the Red Sox. German-born Karl Muck probably has the least. His story felt incomplete, but was the most interesting - through him, the author dipped a toe into internment of enemy aliens and denying rights to Germans (and those with German names - but not Ruth).

Charles Whittlesey is the least Boston here, hailing from New York and leading a division of New Yorkers (the 77th, aka the Metropolitan) during the war. He attended college in Massachusetts, but his influence on Boston (or vice versa) is not proven in this book.

I agree completely with other reviewers that this book felt too long and didn't flow. The author failed to connect what are essentially three magazine articles. If he had a point, it never arrived.

This book was suggested for me, and a 4.x rating plus my own fandom of the Red Sox made this an easy selection. I chose the audio book, how a friend would also read this, and I have to say I will suggest he give this one a pass. Not just for the scattered and incomplete content, but in this case the reader made things worse with a slow and ponderous delivery. 140% speed made it barely tolerable.

[Rick Mitchell · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was very disappointing. I'll start with the fact that it easily could have been 100 pages shorter. Plenty of filler.

It is the account of three disparate figures whose lives tangentially touched Boston during the Great War years. Babe Ruth was there after growing up in Baltimore and soon to move to NYC. Muck was a German who conducted the BSO for a few years before internment. Whittlesby, the war hero, only went to Harvard. He lived in NYC and his "Lost Battalion" was famously made up of New Yorkers.

You'll get no Boston flavor.

The interaction among the Major Leagues, the war and the players was interesting, but it could have been the account of any team in any city. Ruth was becoming a star, but interestingly, it seemed there were as many quotes about him from New York's papers as Boston's.

There was nothing to connect the three yarns whatsoever. Not even attendance at symphony by one of the other or two. It should have been three short books or long magazine articles. As a book, it did not flow.

[Sugarpuss O'Shea · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm sure I am not alone in knowing next to nothing about Karl Muck or Charles Whittlesey before reading this book. Babe Ruth, is another story. (My grandma got his autograph outside Yankee Stadium when she was a little girl, so....)

This is a fascinating look at a country at war, told through the exploits of 3 men living in & around Boston: a famous conductor, a Harvard lawyer, & a professional baseball player. 2 of the 3 men are German -- one man is interred as a spy; the other reshapes his persona from George Herman to the more Americanized 'Babe.' The third, was a Wall Street lawyer who was thrust into the limelight for following orders in the Meuse-Argonne & keeping his men alive when it all goes wrong. Each of these 3 men's stories are compelling. I'm still a little gobsmacked at what I learned, not only about these 3 men, but also the times & country they lived in..... I could go on & on about it, but why? You should just go & read it all for yourself. You'll be glad you did.

[Alison Roberts · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gripping story for any sports or war history advocate. All three “characters” tug at your heart strings and the last story will bring you to tears, while still telling the horrific story of the war to end all wars. Great job again by Randy Roberts and Johnny Smith!

[Adam · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book started out a little slow but once the exposition is done it picks up. I really got a feel for that time in history and what it would’ve been like to live in that era. That part of US history is important and it always gets glossed over in school/media so it’s nice a book of this degree is out there. No knowledge in baseball or the Great War is necessary.

[Brian · Rating 3 out of 5]

War Fever covers the lives of Babe Ruth, Karl Muck and Charles Whittlesey and how their lives played out in Boston and World War I. This book is well written and keeps you engaged but I never got a good sense as to what the overarching theme was or why this book was being written. It simply tells the story of these three men’s lives over a couple year period without ever bringing it together. Karl Muck is a renowned composer for the Boston Symphony Orchestra who is accused of not playing the Start Spangled Banner and interned as a result of it. Babe Ruth is told from the lens of the professionalization of baseball and the interplay between should they fight or play ball during the War and the industrial leagues that popped up to keep them out of the war. The final person is Charles Whittlesey that was the leader of the lost battalion and one of the first medal of honor recipients whose life would end tragically after the Great War. Overall well written for each individual person and touches on things like the 1918 outbreak of flu but still can’t really see how it all fits together.

[Paul Waibel · Rating 5 out of 5]

The last time I attended a ballgame, actually a high school football game, was in 1957 or 1958. I was in the 8th grade. I snuck into the game along with a friend, not because we wanted to watch the game free, but because we wanted to flirt with the 7th- and 8th-grade girls who would be there. I have never had even the least interest in sports. I do not even know the rules for playing football, baseball, basketball, or any other sport. That said, why would I read a book about baseball?

Randy Roberts’ and Johnny Smith’s WAR FEVER: BOSTON, BASEBALL, AND AMERICA IN THE SHADOW OF THE GREAT WAR (New York: Basic Books, 2020) is a very enjoyable read about America at the end of World War I. The two authors, history professors at Purdue University and Georgia Tech, succeed in giving the reader a real feel for American life during our nation’s two-year experience in Wilson’s war to “make the world safe for democracy.” Not only did Americans go off to war as if on a Fourth of July parade that was soon overshadowed by the realities of modern industrialized mass slaughter, but at the same time had to grapple with the 1918-1919 influenza pandemic. Cheering crowds soon gave way to a public transformed by paranoia and fear of enemies within and without who threatened the pristine peace and prosperity of American life. The “war fever” and “Red Scare” that followed during 1919 and 1920 were a preview of what would follow World War II during the so-called “McCarthy Era.”

Roberts and Smith reveal the era through the lives of three individuals: Charles W. Whittlesey, Karl Muck, and George Herman “Babe” Ruth. Whittlesey was an intellectually-gifted young lawyer with a degree from Harvard. He was a great admirer of Teddy Roosevelt, easily inspired and influenced by the Rough Rider’s bombastic and inspiring rhetoric. Whittlesey found in Roosevelt a kindred spirit, an American hero he wanted to emulate.

Karl Muck was the popular and gifted conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Muck was born in Darmstadt, Germany, but became a Swiss citizen at age 21. He won acclaim throughout Europe, where he conducted all of the great orchestras and enjoyed the admiration and support of the cultured elite, including Germany’s Kaiser Wilhelm II. Muck was an artist. He had no desire to become embroiled in the prowar fever fueled by the “yellow journalism” of Joseph Pulitzer and Randolph Hearst.

George Herman Ruth, Jr.’s grandparents were German immigrants. “Babe Ruth,” as he is remembered, and a sister were the only two of eight children who survived infancy. His father, a saloon owner, was unable to control his rebellious son. When George was seven years old, his father enrolled him in St. Mary’s Industrial School for Orphans, Delinquent, Incorrigible, and Wayward Boys, where he remained until he was twenty-one.

In April 1917, President Wilson led America into the Great War in Europe to rescue American business interests from financial ruin. War fever in the guise of patriotism seized the American public. Charles Whittlesey joined the American army. In October 1918, he was a major in command of the 308th Infantry, 77th Division, made up largely of New York City recruits who spoke forty-two different languages or dialects.

Whittlesey led a group of 554 men against the German trenches in the Meuse–Argonne offensive. Cut of from supplies and communications, Whittlesey’s command of the 77th Division, later known as the “Lost Division,” earned him the Congressional Medal of Honor. After the war, he tried to return to the quiet life he enjoyed before the war, but the public adulation and constant demand for public appearances led him to seek escape by taking his own life in 1921, one of many postwar casualties of the “war to make the world safe for democracy.”

Karl Muck became a special target of the anti-German frenzy encouraged by A. Bruce Bielaski, Director of the Bureau of Investigation (later the FBI), and the American Defense Society, advocates of “one hundred percent Americanism.” Muck’s personal friendship with Count Johann von Bernsdorff, the German ambassador who was trying to prevent war between the United States and Germany, and his resistance to efforts to make the Boston Symphony an instrument of prowar propaganda, made it easy his enemies to accuse him of being a German spy. Muck was arrested in March 1918, the evening before he was to conduct Bach's Saint Matthew Passion. His notations on the music score were alleged to be evidence of pro-German espionage activities. Karl Muck and his wife were deported in August 1919. He continued an illustrious career in Europe and refused all attempts to lure him back to the USA, even for a brief tour.

Although George Herman Ruth, Jr. was the grandchild of German immigrants and grew up speaking German, he did not experience the anti-German paranoia that many other German-Americans faced every day. Babe Ruth was the quintessential American antihero. His mother hated him, or so he claimed. His teammates called him “Cave Man,” “the Big Pig,” “the Baboon,” “Tarzan, King of the Apes,” and “Nigger Lips.” The last implied that he had black ancestry and was therefore inferior and less than a man.

Ruth more than lived up to the negative popular image of him being a throwback to the earlier primates. He drank more booze than any fish did water. He gambled with abandon on horses and cards. He was a regular at the brothels and seemed to prefer women who “would really appeal to a man who was just stepping out of prison after serving a 15-year sentence.” “He ate raw meat, seldom flushed toilets, treated farts as gifts to be admired, and enjoyed telling stories of his sexual exploits.” Babe Ruth was not a sophisticated gentleman.

Ruth was, if anything, a baseball player like none other before or since. America needed a folk hero, and the Babe was the perfect candidate. The sound of Ruth’s bat connecting with a baseball, sending it over the fence for a home run was symbolic of what the average American believed the American army in France would do to the German army, drive it back into Germany and surrender.

Randy Roberts and Johnny Smith do an admirable job of capturing all the excitement and contradictions of American society as it followed blindly Don Quixote into a war to save the Old World from self-destruction. WAR FEVER is written as history should be written, that is, as literature to be enjoyed. They have done their research as evidenced by the extensive notes at the end. As one who taught history for over forty years, I can wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone who enjoys a good history book.

[Albert · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a riveting tale of the year 1918 in America, a combination of baseball, military, and political history. We have Karl Muck, the conductor of Boston Symphony Orchestra, who being German was suspected of being a spy for the Kaiser. We have Babe Ruth, a rising baseball superstar in Boston, who captivated a nation during a time of war. And we have Charles Whittlesey, a Harvard Law graduate who wanted to take part in the Great War and ended up an unlikely war hero. The authors weave together the three disparate stories of these men to show the national anti-German hysteria of that era, the societal effects of a deadly influenza pandemic, and the unexpected fame of the Lost Batallion. What comes out is an upclose view of America during the Great War with plenty of compelling narrative.

Karl Muck is a renowned conductor, but has the unfortunate timing of being German in America during WWI. Suspicions of German spies gives way to spreading national anti-German propaganda. This story is shorter than the other two, but goes to highlight how Woodrow Wilson's Espionage Act of 1917 gave way for anti-German inquisition. Muck is accused of refusing to play the Star-Spangled Banner, and that's enough to make him a suspect (along with his friendliness with the Kaiser and his lament of his own life in America).

Babe Ruth's life before he was a New York Yankee was dramatic and intriguing. Discovered by the Baltimore Orioles International League team, he is later sold to the Boston Red Sox. We meet owner Harry Frazee, whom Ruth negotiates his contracts with, and manager Ed Barrow, whom Ruth must petition to for more playing time as a hitter. These were my favorite parts of the book, where I learned more about the 1918 baseball season, about Babe Ruth as an abandoned adolescent and as a member of the Boston Red Sox than I ever knew before. The authors describe his rise in baseball stardom in detail, even going in-depth on his swing and his recordbreaking statistics during the deadball era when not many home runs were hit. There is also plenty of discussion on player-owner relations, as well as the media's portrayal of Ruth and debate on the role of baseball during the war. It's clear that Frazee and Barrow grossly undervalued Ruth when they famously sold him to the Yankees, but this book does an excellent job going into great detail on why that happened.

The story of Major Charles Whittlesey and the Lost Battalion is also told well. There is a great sequence where orders from up top follow down through each man in the chain of command to tell Whittlesey to press forward in attacking the Argonne Forest, despite being at a great disadvantage. But orders are orders, so his soldiers must obey. Their courage and Whittlesey's refusal to surrender are remembered and told over and over long after the war ends. When the former Wall Street lawyer returns home, he comes home to newfound fame, one that his humility is not accustomed to and does not desire.

I've gone back and forth on whether the formula of this book worked well. Much of the book is set in Boston, with both Karl Muck and Babe Ruth, as well as the fallout from the spreading of the Spanish Flu throughout the city and state. Major Whittlesey and the Lost Batallion is a very compelling story, but it mostly happens in the Forest of Argonne on the other side of the Atlantic. And it seemed the book's focus on Ruth and Whittlesey was much larger than on Muck. The baseball history and details were excellent for me, but possibly not for everyone who wants to read this book for its war stories (and vice versa). None of the three stories really collide, other than that they're in the shadow of the Great War. But in the end, I think the narrative and the themes of Muck, Ruth, and Whittlesey in 1918 were all worth telling, and the authors do so with excellent writing. I would highly recommend this book for baseball fans, Bostonians, and WWI history students.

I would like to thank NetGalley for sending over an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

[Kent · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sort of a biography of 3 famous men in 1918 Boston--a war hero (Charles Whittlesey), a war villain (Karl Muck), and a war athlete (Babe Ruth). Whittlesey was commander of the famed "Lost Battalion" in the Argonne. Muck was the Swiss-born, German-sympathizing conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra suspected of espionage. And Ruth was ... Ruth; a baseball god, but almost a devil otherwise. A fourth protagonist is WWI--all 3 men are affected by it. A minor character is the Spanish Flu pandemic (see below).

The authors purport to explore the impact of the war on these 3 celebrities, how it dictated their legacies (xi-xii). "This is the story of the disruptive forces of an epoch and a war that permanently altered Boston, America, and the lives of three public figures" (xvii). The book doesn't really do more than tell the story; it doesn't reflect or evaluate. And honestly, that's fine by me. A great read!

Some interesting parallels to 2020:
Rumors fed widespread panic. One story passing on the streets claimed that a German sub had penetrated Boston Harbor, rose out of the ocean, and emitted a deathly gray gas that drifted ashore, poisoning the city with germs. With German U-boats prowling the Atlantic Coast, some military officers circulated a theory that the Huns had unleashed a toxic germ in Europe that killed enemy soldiers and had now infiltrated American cities and military camps. Others speculated that traitorous doctors and nurses injected soldiers and sailors with the deathly virus. Blaming “Germ-any” for the pandemic, the New York Times declared, “Let the curse be called the German plague.”
There was no cure for influenza—no medication, no vaccination, no antibiotics, nor miracle drug. Yet charlatans preyed on desperate people, selling all sorts of creams, balms, pills, and serums that promised to ward off the grippe. Even Mayor Andrew Peters received such an inoculation. Searching for an antidote, people inhaled turpentine fumes, sniffed Vaseline, rubbed poultices of garlic on their bodies, swallowed red peppers, and drank tea spiked with whiskey. One Boston physician recommended nudity. Doctors, nurses, coroners, policemen, firemen, and ambulance drivers wore gauze masks. Newspaper advertisements screamed: WEAR A MASK AND SAVE YOUR LIFE! But wearing a gauze mask was about as helpful as using a chicken-wire screen door to keep a dust storm from blowing dirt into a house. (223)

Saving lives meant taking every precaution possible. With thousands of civilians carrying the virus, the Boston Health Department reported on September 25 that nearly seven hundred citizens had died from influenza and pneumonia. After a conference with state officials and Health Commissioner Woodward, Governor Samuel McCall issued a proclamation urging everyone with medical training to help fight the epidemic. Effective immediately, all public schools were closed. The next day, Mayor Peters closed all movie houses, theaters, concert halls, and dance halls. Public meetings were also prohibited … By that time, state officials estimated that more than fifty thousand people suffered from the grippe. (224)

That same day, October 5, with no signs of the epidemic relenting, Health Commissioner Woodward expanded the closure order. All saloons, soda fountains, billiard halls, auction houses, and “other public gathering places” were officially closed. The mayor even asked ministers and priests to turn away parishioners.
At that moment nearly everyone in Boston believed that the fate of the city rested in God’s hands. (225)

[Jim Gallen · Rating 5 out of 5]

The effects of World War I extended far beyond the sound of battle. War Fever is the tale of the courses of three lives that it altered, one undoubtably for the worse, another achieved glory before destruction and the third it made an American hero.

Kurt Muck’s career as conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra was terminated by the national hysteria against all things German. His nationality made him an enemy alien under suspicion for whatever came to mind. Charles Whittlesey was a Boston Brahmin and Wall Street attorney who carried on his family tradition of defending its country from the Pequot Wars. Babe Ruth was a star Boston Red Sox pitcher who changed the game with his bat..

Despite his Swiss citizenship, Muck’s association with the Kaiser and German institutions led to investigation that uncovered compromising letters with a woman that provided evidence for criminal prosecution. Rather than face criminal charges, he chose to accept internment as an enemy alien until being deported back to Germany after the war. Though he never heard a shot he was a victim of the War.

Charles Whittlesey was a quiet scholarly type who attended Plattsburg Camp and received a commission in the 77th Division of the National Army, a polyglot amalgamation of draftees from various lands and officered primarily by sons of establishment families. Whittlesey’s 308th Infantry Regiment was men drawn primarily from the streets of New York. After winning the Medal of Honor for his heroic leadership of “The Lost Battalion”, Whittlesey proved unable to adjust to the peace and seemingly became a victim of post-traumatic stress disorder.

The stream I enjoyed the most are the chapters on Babe Ruth. During the days covered by this book “The Babe” (much more American sounding than George Herman) switched from the American League’s most dominant left-handed pitcher to the ultimate symbol of baseball power. The War played a role in the shift that I had never realized. As the draft and abandonment of the game for “essential jobs” depleted the Red Sox’ roster of hitting Ruth stepped into the breach. The authors give readers a peak into the power play between Ruth and management over his playing position and his salary, the tricks each employed, even to the point of Ruth threatening to leave baseball for boxing or a steel mill (a deferment conferring essential job). Fears that players would be drafted forced a shortened 1918 season. During the World Series the players threatened a strike over the amount of their Series shares. Some of the hostility toward baseball’s “slackers” was soothed by enthusiasm over Ruth’s play.

The Spanish flu, which Ruth contracted, added to the scourge of war both in the United States and the world.

While reading this book I was reminded of many things. The internment of German enemy aliens presaged the evacuation of Japanese-Americans in a greater war. The isolation of the Lost Battalion brings to mind the “Battling Bastards of Bastogne”. Ruth’s rescue of baseball is akin to McGuire and Sosa’s repair of its reputation in the wake of the strike. Reading in the summer of 2020, the accounts of the Spanish flu and a shortened baseball season are readily compared to current news.

Whether your interest is the Great War, human rights, baseball or the fascinating interplay of life, War Fever is a book for you.

[patrick Lorelli · Rating 5 out of 5]

A book that takes you back in time with America entering World War One. The author is focusing on Boston taking a look at three people from that city. One everyone has heard about Babe Ruth. He goes into his background and then his arrival to the Red Sox. How he started out as a pitcher and the games he won in the regular season as well as in the World Series. He also gets into his wanting to become a full-time player, not just a pitcher, he also goes into the home runs he started to hit and how they began to change the game. He follows Ruth and the owner of the Red Sox all the way up to when he is sold to the Yankees, he takes you through the war years for baseball and the attendance problems that they were having this all was very interesting.
Next, you have a German conductor who led the Boston Symphony Orchestra, his name was Karl Muck. He was accused of being a German spy. Here in this story, you see how the press really tainted people’s opinions especially if you had a German-sounding name. he goes to show you the people that were born here not all of them were German descent but were still threatened, sometimes killed by citizens, loss of their homes and jobs. It does not shine a pleasant light on the newspaper people or the government, but we already knew that. Mr. Muck would be tried in the newspapers before even going to a so-called hearing and even by then he was already guilty. Had to serve his time in a camp with others in Arkansas and then was deported after the war. Sorry to say that before the war he was chosen by the board of the Boston Symphony to take over their almost nonexistent program and turned into a World-class one, yet all but one would turn on him, a shame.
Last you are told the story of Charles Whittlesey who as a major would lead his men into an area in the Argonne Forest after being told he would have support on both flanks. That would be no. this would become in the papers as the Lost Platoon. They were from the 77th Division which would also fight some hair-raising battles against the Japanese in World War Two. Most people have not heard about this story anymore, I don’t think it is taught in history classes. This was a time when Generals told subordinates what to do and if it was not done or accomplish they would be replaced, of course sometimes the officer would be sent back to America and his career would be over, of course, you were friends with General Pershing for there were some he did not do this to. Here Whittlesey tells his commander that they will lose a lot of men and he is told if he is a coward, I will pick someone else. He, of course, leads his men over the trenches and then into the heart of the German force and they actually hold them off for days, even at one time being shelled by their own troops. A very inspiring story still to this day for me and I have heard it since I was a kid for my grandfather fought in World War One, and I would listen to all of the stories when I was young. Very sad how his story ends though.
The author switches back and forth between the different stories which is good and as you get towards the end; he brings in the Spanish flu and all of the deaths that were caused by that. All very enlightening and a really good book. I received this book from Netgalley.com I gave it 5 stars. Follow us at www.1rad-readerreviews.com

[Scott Martin · Rating 3 out of 5]

(Audiobook) (3.5 stars) This work is a combination of things. A history of Boston during America’s involvement in World War I, the comparative biographies of three famous individuals, an analysis of the city as it mobilized for war, attempted to adapt to the new war footing, and how the city managed to deal with a more dangerous threat than German saboteurs (a pandemic). Yet, in its attempt to combine all of those elements, it can feel a little disjointed. Given the author’s background, the majority of the work focuses on the life of one George Herman Ruth (aka Babe Ruth) and his last couple of seasons in Boston, when he was both their best hitter and (arguably) their best pitcher). To a point, Ruth’s story is certainly worthy of focus, as he had a sub-2.10 ERA and led the league in home runs in 1918, but there is more to this story.

As for the other two individuals, they are thrown in to offer a sense of the spectrum of Boston’s involvement in World War I. On one end is the director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Karl Muck, whose Germanic roots came back to haunt him big time as America entered the war. He did himself no favors (cheating on his wife and his correspondence that had very pro-German/anti-American sentiment), but his treatment does not do a lot of credit to America’s reputation. Interestingly enough, Babe Ruth was of German descent and could speak German, but as opposed to Muck, Ruth had a much better ERA/Hitting line, and he didn’t express near as much pro-German sentiment. On the other end, you have Harvard graduate Charles Whittlesey, who on the surface, does not appear to be a man who would supersede Ruth in the role of American hero. Yet, he would play a major role as an Army captain, leading his men through perhaps one of the most storied deployment of US troops in WWI (Lost Battalion), a role that should far exceed any exploits of Ruth.

Yet, for the the accounts of the three men, at the time I am reading this book, the most eye-catching part focuses on how Boston dealt with the Influenza Pandemic that hit the city in the fall of 1918. In particular, the “second wave” that hit (the first occurring at the Army post in Kansas), was especially virulent and deadly. The central figure in this work, Ruth, twice was felled by this flu. While he survived, many others did not. In the context of this book, one can only imagine the ramifications if Ruth had not overcome either of his two bouts of flu.

This is not a bad work, but as stated before, it can feel a little disjointed. Should it have focused only on Babe Ruth, World War I, the Influenza Pandemic? Perhaps. It would have been a bit more concise of a work. I get the idea of using personal accounts to describe a city during World War I, and for what it is worth, much of it is well-written. However, it is not as ideal a book as it could have been. Worth a library check-out, but not much more than that.

[Malcolm · Rating 3 out of 5]

In an era of a constant, pervasive sense of threat, I suspect it is hard to imagine the sensations inspired by total war as exception with the addition of a jingoistic environment. Even more so, getting inside the ordinary sense of a war spirit seems challenging although we seem to have come close in the last 40 years or so during the UK’s war with Argentine over the Falklands/Malvinas and wider wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. The best we can probably derive from those experiences is some kind of basis for empathetic understanding. This is all by way of saying I admire the goal of this book and recognise the challenges of the kind of popular cultural history the topic suggests.

Roberts and Smith set out to explore the sense of war spirit and its cultural forms by focusing on Boston and considering the profile of three men whose experiences and public profiles were profoundly different. In unpacking the wartime experiences and public perceptions of Karl Muck, the German conductor of the Boston Symphony, Babe Ruth, baseball hero of the Boston Red Sox, and Charles Whittlesey, son of New England privilege, Harvard trained, New York based lawyer and war hero the goal is to explore difference and the range of the ‘war fever’. The narrative is dominated by Ruth and Whittlesey, although the story of Muck is shorter: he fell foul of the repressive state and populist journalism and was detained.

Despite this focus on Ruth and Whittlesey and through them a sense of popularity and heroism the overall tone of the book is one of tragedy. Whittlesey commanded a unit stuck behind enemy lines suffering huge losses; baseball struggled to keep going amid war footing and conscription; the Red Sox had further problems and suffered financially. These factors woven together with Muck’s treatment means that even the popular aspects of the story contain a bleak aspect. Here was a war fever based in disruption and with a new fever emerging as the flu epidemic was breaking out, with Boston as a major centre of infection and mortality. Yet despite all this Roberts and Smith build an engaging narrative that carries along its readers – which is to their and their editors’ credit.

This sense of being drawn into a rich narrative is, however, not enough to hold the book together and these three stories – Muck, Ruth, Whittlesey – never come together. As a result the goals of the book, to give us as sense of Boston’s war fever is missed in that although the here parallel narratives give us a sense of the city’s cultural responses to war, we do not get much sense of the balance between them or of Roberts and Smith’s assessment of various weight each carried.

It may be a good, engaging read, but it is ultimately a disappointing one.

[Ed Maher · Rating 4 out of 5]

‘War Fever’ chronicles what America was like in 1918 from three different perspectives at the height of WW1. It’s especially eye opening when the three people aren’t ones you’d expect to be used for a history lesson. Karl Muck was the conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. His German ancestry would see him condemned. Babe Ruth was on the cusp of becoming a legend, but already idolized for his abundance. Charles Wittlesey was a Harvard lawyer who enlisted and won The Congressional Medal of Honor. The fame would destroy him. Our perception of these three men was as misdirected as they were different. The fog of war and The Flu epidemic didn’t foster clarity of thought either. Proving once again, history should only be considered in hindsight. The roles of the good, the bad and the ugly, can all be subject entirely to whim.

What I found uniquely interesting was how much newspapers shaped each person’s story. There was no media in 1918. There were only newspapers. The daily rags defined a hierarchy of people and subjects. Karl Muck was renown for his music, but rumored to be sympathetic to Germany. When it was inaccurately reported that he refused to play The Star Spangled Banner at a concert, many Americans wanted to lock him up. Eventually, he was sent to internment camp. In the case of Babe Ruth, the images that television and radio could not provide, were left to newsprint. To fans, home runs were optical illusions. A majority could only read about them. It was the sportswriters who made him a larger than life hero. Charles Wittlesey was given credit for telling the Germans to go to Hell when asked to surrender. His utterance was foxhole rhetoric. Yet we gladly accepted the myth of a larger forum from the war reporters. Truth and fiction have always had their way with each other.

The only problem I had with ‘War Fever’ was that I’m more a baseball fan than I am a historian. The Babe’s story loomed so large for me that I was condescending toward the two others. I’m betting I wasn’t alone. The context in which Ruth’s star flourished was unknown to me. The whole war economy, behind the scenes business conflicts, were elements I never considered. The Red Sox sold him because of the military draft and declining revenues, while the Yankees wanted him has a hedge against Prohibition. Ruth was prolific, but he was also a pawn. The good natured American paradox. The conductor and the war hero were each a paradox as well. Unfortunately, they were primarily sad ones. And after 1918, their biographies only withered with time.

[Terri Wangard · Rating 5 out of 5]

War hero Charles Whittlesey, “villain” conductor Karl Muck, and ballplayer George Ruth all lived in Boston at the start of World War I. Whittlesey led the Lost Battalion, which was neither lost nor a battalion. I hadn’t known many of the specifics of the ordeal his unit experienced; this was highly informative. He truly deserved the Medal of Honor.

German conductor Mack’s imperious manner, unshakable confidence, and friendship with the Kaiser set him up to be vilified by a yellow journalist from the Providence, RI, Journal. He was no danger to the United States. Justice Department agents concluded that. But some refused to let him be. They arrested him on postal charges because of “obscene” letters mailed to his young mistress. The internment of German aliens was as shameful as the WWII internment of Japanese civilians.

Babe Ruth had natural athletic ability honed at the home for delinquent boys where his father dumped him. He was crude, uncouth, and full of swagger. His main interests were baseball, booze, and brothels. Too many ballplayers were slackers, Ruth included, and the owners’ primary concern was their profit.

I could have done without learning about Ruth and his slice of Boston life, but Whittlesey and Muck are well-worth reading. Very enlightening.

[Jeff Brandt · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book as it takes the paths of three people in the United States (all living in Boston, of course thus the title of the book) and follows their lives. I enjoyed the book and the history of the nation as World War I has heated up and America enters the war. The nationalism and jingoism runs rampant as anti-German sentiment spreads (along with continued friction between protestants and Catholics) and Babe Ruth (whose father was German) and Karl Muck (the Conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and a Harvard student, Charles Whittlesey, who has joined the military to fight the war in Europe.

I thought the book did a good job with the era and the issues that surrounded culture, sports and society, but the three main characters do not intersect (that's okay, it's that I though they might). The book is very well written and researched for and for people who love history or just want to get a better idea of the United States in that era will enjoy this book.

[Ryan · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5/5


‘The stench of putrefying bodies poisoned the air. The Boston newspapers published daily tallies of the deceased. The city morgue couldn’t keep pace with the influx of corpses. Undertakers ran out of coffins.’-WAR FEVER

Pretty scary stuff, right? Especially with the coronavirus going on; I just heard on the radio that the worldwide death toll regarding the pandemic has now surpassed the 2002 SARS outbreak. In 1918, the influenza, or the grippe, swept through America, and Boston nearly suffered from ‘4,8000 fatalities.’ I mention Boston because that’s the main venue for this astonishing read.

Both writers also dig up some other compelling and startling facts from a dark year grounded up from Beantown. Everyone knows that Babe Ruth was a party animal and ferocious at Fenway, but how did influenza affect him? Criminal Woodrow Wilson was dominant when passing the Espionage Act of 1917, and as a result, there was a anti-German inquisition; a time when America was at war with itself.

Just in time for baseball season. Check it out, and thanks, NetGalley.

[Paul Lunger · Rating 3 out of 5]

"War Fever: Boston, Baseball, and America is the Shadow of the Great War" by Randy Roberts & Johnny Smith is a very strange look at the World War I through the eyes of 3 individuals who were important to Boston at the point in time where the US entered the war through its conclusion. Granted outside of Babe Ruth who at the time was playing for the Red Sox unless you are a native Bostonian or someone familiar with it the other 2 stories mean little to you. The book itself is at times tedious to read as we bounce between Ruth's story, the conductor of the Boston Pops & a man who was a Harvard student that went on to do great things. If you can keep up with things & not get uninterested this book does tell a story that would be similar to those in any part of America. It's just not one I'd widely recommend to the average person.

[Clay Fernald · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great book for these times to reflect on the world of the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic telling the story of three important figures of the time, conveniently all with ties to my hometown of Boston, MA. The Boston Red Sox’ Babe Ruth, Boston Symphony Orchestra conductor Karl Muck, and Harvard student Charles Whittlesey. This book simultaneously hits you with Ruth’s career, the expressions of anti-German and xenophobic sentiments before after and during the war, and into the trenches with Lost Battalion leader Lt. Col. Charles Whittlesey. The authors could not have predicted that this book dropped at the same time as a new pandemic, but it was the exact type of storytelling I was looking for right now.

[Rick · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting, if somewhat thin, work on baseball, WW1 and Babe Ruth. The book works well as a quick read and does make for interesting reading in parts in that it provides us with a view of the home front in World War 1. That is something that we don't often see or hear about. By telling it through the prism of baseball we're given a more relatable understanding of it.

Where it gets confusing is by inserting the story of the Lost Battalion. It is a stretch to include it and while the idea of inserting some front line WW1 story is interesting, it does fail because there is no direct line. I do give him a strong thumbs up for using the story of the BSO conductor to demonstrate the discriminations against Germans was well done.

Not a bad book overasll

[Monica Maher · Rating 5 out of 5]

Recommended by my brother in law, I loved this historical story about three very distinct characters impacted by WWI in Boston. It’s about Babe Ruth and the Boston baseball craze, the Boston Symphony Orchestra whose conductor happened to be German at a time when patriotism for America and disdain for anyone and anything German was considered Unamerican as the First World War was becoming front and center in everyone’s world and a Harvard law graduate who became an unlikely war hero in Europe. The historical and personal perspective of their 3 points of view is deeply researched and full of insight. ‘Valuable for both history lovers and casual readers’

[John Mihelic · Rating 4 out of 5]

What Roberts and Smith are trying to do here is tie together three separate strands – Baseball, WWI, and suppression of dissent.

The book itself is very well written, I sped through it in a day when I normally take a bit longer to read.

The thing that ties the book together is a common character around Boston in 1918. All three strands work on their own, with full arcs, but I don’t think it was fully successful showing how these are coherent pieces of an overlapping story.

The other thing is that since it takes place in 1918, I was expecting the so called “Spanish” flu epidemic to be more prominent. It does get mention but not as much as I was expecting.

[Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a good book. Social history at its finest. Readable history that reads like narrative fiction at parts. The story of WWI and its impact on Boston and in particular three people, a war hero and member of the famous Lost Battalion, a composer of German heritages interred in a camp in Georgia, and Babe Ruth is really interesting. The perspectives on the War’s impact on these three completely different people is fascinating. The Spanish Flu and its effect on society in addition to the War is also examined and has particular relevance to today. Highly recommended.

[David Mulligan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic book. Looks at 1918, the last year of World War 1, the "Great War", through the eyes of three men: Babe Ruth, a budding superstar with the Boston Red Sox; Karl Muck, the pro-German conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra; and Harvard educated Charles Whittlesey, from a family of "Boston Brahmins", who commanded the famous "Lost Regiment" in Germany's Argonne Forest in the fall of 1918. In addition, there is the ever-present threat of the influenza, the infamous "Spanish Flu", which became, a world wide pandemic in late 1918, just as the war was coming to a close. Great book!

[Jay Kennedy · Rating 3 out of 5]

To be honest I was initially interested in the book because of the Baseball / Ruth angle , and admittedly that was my favourite part of the story. I did find the tales of the German conductor and the New York soldier interesting, but in the end had a hard time connecting all the dots and seeing how the three stories were relevant to each other. At times it felt like I was reading 3 books.
Setting the backstories was well done, but easily could trim this down a bit to make each story flow a touch better. A decent read , don't regret it, always nice to learn new things.

[Frank · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting factual description of three different individuals and their lives during the early 20th century through the end of World War I (the Great War, as it was known at the time). Each person is interesting in his own right, but I never quite saw the rationale for using these particular people as totally representative of the times, or how they might be considered "connected" as movers of the "plot." Enjoyable but certainly not a book that will linger in one's consciousness for a long time.

[Robert Kendall · Rating 4 out of 5]

Set in Boston in 1918, this is a story of World War One's impact on the lives of three men. Karl Muck, the German conductor of the Boston Symphony, was accused of being an enemy spy, and was interned. Babe Ruth was in the process of transition from an ace pitcher to the great slugger who revolutionized baseball. Col. Charles Whittlesey was the hero of the "Lost Battalion".The authors are history professors. The book is well-researched, highly informative, and eminently readable.

[Daniel Allen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Detailed portrait of Babe Ruth, German-born conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra Karl Muck and Harvard Law graduate and WWI hero Charles Whittlesey. These three men are all thrust into the public spotlight during the momentous moments of 1918 and beyond. The authors paint a vivid portrait of the times and people who lived them. I knew little to nothing about Whittlesey and his incredible heroism leading the “Lost Battalion” in the waning days of WWI.

[Zach Keller · Rating 1 out of 5]

The premise of the book to focus on such an impactful year of US History as 1918 through the highlight of these three aspects was an intriguing premise. However, I do not think it was well executed. Took a great deal of time to really build momentum, and then dragged out for nearly 100 pages too long. Poor flow, poor connection, overall not a book I’d recommend. And that’s coming from someone who loves baseball and American history.