Richard Rubin: The Last of the Doughboys

Ten years ago, Richard Rubin set out to interview every last living doughboy—several dozen, aged 101 to 113. 

They shared with him, at the last possible moment (they are all gone now) the story of America’s Great War, and of the generation that raised the “Greatest Generation.” They were nineteenth-century men and women living in the twenty-first century: self-reliant, humble, and stoic; never complaining, still marveling at the immensity of the war they helped win. A decade in the making, The Last of the Doughboys is a sweeping new look at our forgotten World War, and a moving meditation on character, grace, aging, and memory. 

Richard Rubin is the author of Confederacy of Silence. In addition to the Atlantic and the New York Times Magazine, he has written for The New Yorker, Smithsonian, New York magazine, Parade, and AARP The Magazine, about everything from war and racism to genealogy and collecting.