Combining personal stories with musical storytelling, Melissa Errico becomes a historian to honor WWI soldiers even as she confronts her own family’s past.

Before becoming known as World War I, the largest conflict that anyone at that time had experienced was called simply “the Great War.” America joined three years after fighting began, but U.S. soldiers (commonly referred to as “doughboys”) hurried to answer the call when asked to fight for freedom. 

In “The War That Will End War,” H.G. Wells claimed that it was a war for peace, concluding, “Every sword that is drawn … now is a sword drawn for peace.” 

However, it was not the “war that will end war” as so many had hoped. But more than 100 years later, there are many who work tirelessly so that the Great War — and its cost — will never be forgotten.