America and the Great War PDF
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The American History Series SERIES EDITORS John Hope Franklin, Duke University A. S. Eisenstadt, Brooklyn College D. Clayton James Anne Sharp Wells VIRGINIA MILITARY INSTITUTE ADlerica and the Great War 1914-1920 HARLAN DAVIDSON, INC. WHEELING, ILLINOIS 60090-6000 Copyright © 1998 Harlan Davidson, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Except as permitted under United States copyright law, no part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or any retrieval system, without prior written permission of the publisher. Address inquiries to Harlan Davidson, Inc., 773 Glenn Avenue, Wheeling, illinois 60090-6000. Visit us on the World Wide Web at www.harlandavidson.coffi. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data James, D. Clayton America and the Great War, 1914-1920/ D. Clayton James, Anne Sharp Wells. p. cm.-(The American history series) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-88295-944-3 1. World War, 1914-1918- United States. 2. World War, 1914- 1918-Social aspects-United States. 3. United States-Politics and government-1913-1921. I. Wells, Anne Sharp. II. Title. III. Series: American history series (Wheeling, TIL) D570.J36 1998 940.3'73-dc21 97-40739 CIF Cover photograph: "Over the Top." U.S. Army Signal Corps photo. Reproduced courtesy of George C. MarshaH Research Library, Lex ington, Virginia. Manufactured in the United States of America 072MG FOREWORD Every generation writes its own history for the reason that it sees the past in the foreshortened perspective of its own experience. This has surely been true of the writing of American history. The practical aim of our historiography is to give us a more informed sense of where we are going by helping us understand the road we took in getting where we are. As the nature and dimensions of American life are changing, so too are the themes of our historical writing. Today's scholars are hard at work reconsidering every major aspect of the nation's past: its politics, diplomacy, economy, society, recreation, mores and values, as well as status, ethnic, race, sexual, and family relations. The lists of series titles that ap pear on the inside covers of this book will show at once that our historians are ever broadening the range of their studies. The aim of this series is to offer our readers a survey of what today's historians are saying about the central themes and aspects of the American past. To do this, we have invited to write for the series only scholars who have made notable contributions to the respective fields in which they are working. Drawing on primary and secondary materials, each volume presents a factual and nar rative account of its particular subject, one that affords readers a basis for perceiving its larger dimensions and importance. Con scious that readers respond to the closeness and immediacy of a subject, each of our authors seeks to restore the past as an actual VI FOREWORD present, to revive it as a living reality. The individuals and groups who figure in the pages of our books appear as real people who once were looking for survival and fulfillment. Aware that histori cal subjects are often matters of controversy, our authors present their own findings and conclusions. Each volume closes with an extensive critical essay on the writings of the major authorities on its particular theme. The books in this series are primarily designed for use in both basic and advanced courses in American history, on the under graduate and graduate levels. Such a series has a particular value these days, when the format of American history courses is being altered to accommodate a greater diversity of reading materials. The series offers a number of distinct advantages. It extends the dimensions of regular course work. It makes clear that the study of our past is, more than the student might otherwise understand, at once complex, profound, and absorbing. It presents that past as a subject of continuing interest and fresh investigation. For these reasons the series strongly invites an interest that far exceeds the walls of academe. The work of experts in their respec tive fields, it puts at the disposal of all readers the rich findings of historical inquiry, an invitation to join, in major fields of research, those who are pondering anew the central themes and aspects of our past. And, going beyond the confines of the classroom, it reminds the general reader no less than the university student that in each successive generation of the ever-changing American adventure, from its very start until our own day, men and women and chil dren were facing their daily problems and attempting, as we are now, to live their lives and to make their way. John Hope Franklin A. S. Eisenstadt CONTENTS Foreword / v Acknowledgments / IX C HAP T E RON E : The Tangled Paths to Horror in Europe / 1 Bloodbaths But No Decision / 6 A Time of Many Excitements /15 America Enters the War / 23 C HAP T E R T wo : Over There / 28 In Come the Yanks / 29 Emergence of the Citizen-Soldier / 48 C HAP T E R T H R E E: Nineteen Months of Progress on the Home Front / 59 Agencies of War /60 Life on the Home Front /65 Progressivism and Politics / 75 C HAP T E R F 0 U R: The Final Wilson Years / 79 Retreat from Global Responsibility / 81 End of an Era / 90 VIII CONTENTS Photographs and Illustrations follow page 70 Maps: Western Front: German End-the-War Offensives, March-July, 1918/41 Western Front: Allied Offensives, September-November, 1918/45 Bibliographical Essay / 99 Index /113
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