Kennedy, David M. Over Here: The First World War and American Society. New York:
Oxford University Press, 1980.
Heralded as one of the finest accounts of the U.S. home front during WWI,
Kennedy argues that Americans did not act “in concert” during their involvement in the
war, especially when it came to agreement on how to finance military expenditures.
Even the decision to enter the war was met with a wide-ranging disparity of views,
ranging from Republicans, to socialists, to women’s groups, to Progressives. The masterstrategist Wilson mustered his forces to “convince” the nation’s citizenry, especially
through agencies like Creel’s CPI, that the war was needed to for principles like
“democracy” and “progress”. Collateral damage, Kennedy contends, was deep division
within Wilson’s own Progressive camp, who believed that pro-war sentiment did not
correspond with Progressive aims.
Once committed to helping the Allies, the mobilization of the home front became
an ongoing picture of divisions between political, business, and social leaders. Kennedy
notes, “the politics of mobilization . . . reflected enduring differences in principle about
the character of American life–especially about the proper role of the state in an industrial
democracy.” (97) One enduring legacy of economic mobilization and the conflict it
generated was what Kennedy calls a fiscal-ideological revolution involving increased
progressive taxation. In fiscal changes as well as other aspects of increased government
control, such as that wielded by the War Industries Board, Wilson’s methodology was to
find a compromise between the dissenting forces and to invest the various agencies with
“ambiguous” powers that would satisfy the “diversity of interests” involved.
Mobilizing an army was another example of compromise between competing
ideals in American society. Even the name Selective Service, implying a voluntary
component to serving in the army, revealed that “society was plagued by painful
ideological tensions,” states Kennedy. (154) The author then details how the draft was
carried out, including its socio-economic bases, limited but important draft resistance,
training methods used, the glorious ideals of warfare from American history, and
Pershing’s battle not to deploy an amalgamated force. When the American troops did
arrive, their sheer numbers are what allowed for a boost to Allied morale and an
extremely quick Allied victory.
Kennedy also paints a tension-filled picture of the aftermath of WWI for American
society both domestically and internationally. The failure to agree on political, military,
and economic issues before and during the war, led to a series of socio-economic crises
after 1918 and demobilization, perhaps highlighted by Wilson’s contradictory policy of
wanting strong American political participation in the post-war international order
without a fully committed economic involvement, a policy that divided Americans
politically and added to eventual economic instability worldwide. Given the divisions at
home, Kennedy lauds Wilson for being able to accomplish as much as he did in the
Versailles process, but he nonetheless holds that America emerged from the war similar
to how it entered—divided.