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In 1917, Harry Lamin of Ilkeston, Great Britain, headed to army training camp and was soon shipped off to France to fight in World War I. Unlike today's wars, where the military may have the immediacy of email or cell phones, the only way soldiers then could communicate with their loved ones was through slow, inconsistent postal mail. Harry wrote letters to his wife Ethel, his sister Kate, and his brother Jack. His grandson recently discovered the wartime dispatches and started transcribing them on the same dates they were written, but 90 years later. Private Lamin is none too thrilled to meet action, and clearly misses his baby son. But he survives the massive Battle of Messines Ridge, of which General Plumer predicts: "Gentlemen, we may not make history tomorrow, but we shall certainly change the geography." This blog, like war, marches on, so check back to see how Harry fares in the rest of his journey. Along with his family, we eagerly await his return home.

As long as we can remember, learning history was a linear affair, with static timelines and too much about "great men." If we were bored high-school students again, sites like Maps of War would have us sitting up straight and waving our hands. Using simple, effective animation and infographics, this site illustrates history's moving parts, revealing how chronology and geography affect the state of war and disputes. The centerpiece of the site is the shock and awe of "The Imperial History of the Middle East," which plays out 5,000 years of the region's conquest and empires in 90 seconds. The rest of the site concerns Iraq, but one other graphic does go far in revealing that despite centuries of political fights between parties in the U.S., war has always been a bipartisan pursuit.

This site from The Washington Post compiles news stories and military reports to assemble portraits of U.S. service members lost to the ongoing conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. The database, which was recently relaunched with newly browsable features and permalinks, offers both sweeping views of the operations' tolls and individual profiles of each soldier or Marine who has died. Browsing through, you can view current data on which state has lost the most men and women (California), which age has taken the brunt (21-year-olds), which year has proved the most deadly so far (2005), and which military branch has suffered the most fatalities (the Army). Click in to a profile, anywhere on the site, to read about the individuals behind those statistics. The accompanying In Their Own Words section shares the reflections of veterans who served in Iraq.