"Paris War Days: Diary of an American" presents an eyewitness account of Paris in the first days of World War I. The book shows how the war affected civilian Parisians in early 1914. According to the author, he aimed to give a "day by day, the aspect, temper, mood, and humor of Paris, when the entire manhood of France responds with profound spontaneous patriotism to the call of mobilization in defense of national existence."