New York Times Current History; the European War, Vol 2, No. 5, August, 1915

This is a remarkable time capsule: a collection of contemporary accounts from August 1915, when America stood at the brink. The Lusitania has been sunk, 128 Americans are dead, and the nation is watching Germany’s response to American protests with breathless intensity. The volume compiles diplomatic correspondence, editorial reactions, press coverage, and legal arguments as they unfolded in real time. There is no historical distance here, only the raw urgency of a country confronting the possibility of war. You will find the actual wording of American diplomatic ultimatums, the German justifications for unrestricted submarine warfare, and the fevered debates in American newspapers about neutral shipping rights and national honor. For anyone interested in how the United States nearly stumbled into World War I, this document offers an invaluable window into the fears, frustrations, and calculations of that perilous summer.