THE GREAT WAR
& AMERICA
THE WORLD WAR I ERA
A22w
9.2.13
A. THE ROAD TO WAR
WAR IN EUROPE AND
PROBLEMS OF NEUTRALITY
GUIDING QUESTION
Why did the United States enter the First
World War? Assess the relative influence
of the following:





German naval policy,
American economic interests,
Woodrow Wilson’s idealism,
allied propaganda,
America’s claim to world power
European Alliances & Battlefronts, 1914-1917
THE ROAD TO WAR




neutrality
submarine warfare
Lusitania (May 1915)
Sussex Pledge (March 1916)
Lusitania warning
(Cobb Heritage Centre, England; photo by Larry O.
Nighswander/NGS)
The Lusitania in New York City (Library of Congress)
THE ROAD TO
WAR




Unrestricted submarine
warfare
Zimmerman telegram
Russian Revolution (1917)
“The world must be made
safe for democracy” (April 2,
1917)
German Foreign
Minister Alfred
Zimmermann
Wilson announcing the breaking off diplomatic
relations with Germany, Feb. 3, 1917
U.S. Losses to the German
Submarine Campaign, 1916-1918
B. THE US AT WAR
THE FIRST WORLD WAR
AT HOME AND ABROAD
GUIDING QUESTION
To what extent did the First World War
bring about lasting change in American
society?
Consider:



the experiences of blacks,
women,
civil liberties.
FIGHTING THE WAR



Selective Service Act (1917)
convoy system
American Expeditionary
Force (AEF)

Troops leaving
for camp, 1917
John J. Pershing
U.S Role on
the Western
Front, 1918
Economy: FINANCING
THE WAR

“Liberty Bonds”
Economy:
Production

“war boards”

War Industries Board



Barnard Baruch
Railroad Administration
Food Administration –
Herbert Hoover

National War Labor Board
- W.H. Taft & Frank P. Walsh
(Ohio Historical Society)
Economy & Society: Women

Midval Steel and
Ordnance Co.,
Nicetown, PA


Puget Sound
Navy Yard,
1919
Men’s
occupations
19th Amendment
Lasting
Consequences?
Economy & Society: African-Americans

African American
family just arrived
in Chicago, 1912
(Schomburg Center for
Research in Black Culture,
New York Public Library)
African American
Migration Northward,
1910-1920
“Great Migration” – impact?
Results of New Organization of Economy






Unemployment virtually disappeared
Expansion of “big government”
Excessive government regulations in economy
Some gross mismanagement – overlapping jurisdictions
Close cooperation between public and private sectors
Unprecedented opportunities for women & minorities
PUBLIC OPINION & CIVIL LIBERTIES


peace movement
Committee on Public
Information

George Creel
Committee for
Public Information
Poster, 1917
PUBLIC OPINION & CIVIL LIBERTIES





Espionage Act of 1917
Sedition Act 1918
Eugene V. Debs
Big Bill Haywood/IWW
Schenk v. U.S. (1919)





“clear and present danger”
American Protective League IWW Members under arrest
“one hundred percent Americanism”
German-American community
“Liberty cabbage”
C. TREATY OF
VERSAILLES
WILSON'S FOURTEEN POINTS
AND THE RATIFICATION FIGHT
GUIDING QUESTIONS


Why did the United States reject the
Treaty of Versailles ending the First
World War, after President Wilson helped
to negotiate the Treaty?
To what extent then did the U.S. achieve
the objectives that led it to enter World
War I?
TREATY OF VERSAILLES
1.

Wilson’s Vision
Wilsonianism

Fourteen Points
WILSON’S
FOURTEEN
POINTS
TREATY OF VERSAILLES
2.


Paris 1919: Six Months that Changed the World
Bolshevik
The Big Four








David Lloyd George
Georges Clemenceau
Vittorio Orlando
Reparations
League of Nations
“Trusteeship”
internationalism
Treaty of Versailles
Orlando, Lord George, Clemenceau, and Wilson
in Wilson’s study in Paris
TREATY OF VERSAILLES
3.



Rejection
“irreconciliables”
“reservationists”
Henry Cabot Lodge
Henry Cabot Lodge, 1909
Wilson after his stroke, October 1919
(Library of Congress)
D. SOCIETY & ECONOMY
IN THE POSTWAR YEARS
SOCIETY & ECONOMY IN THE POSTWAR YEARS
Racial Issues



Red summer of 1919
East St. Louis Riots
Marcus Garvey
SOCIETY & ECONOMY IN THE POSTWAR YEARS
Post-war Labor Unrest



Coal Miners Strike of 1919
Steel Strike of 1919
Boston Police Strike of 1919
Labor Union
Membership
1900-1920
“If capital and labor don’t pull
together” Chicago Tribune, 1919
SOCIETY & ECONOMY IN THE POSTWAR YEARS
Red Scare

Communist International



3rd International Goal (1919):
promote worldwide communism
Red Scare
Palmer Raids (1920)
Police arrest
“suspected
Reds” in
Chicago,
1920
A. Mitchell Palmer’s Home bombed, 1920
SOCIETY & ECONOMY IN THE POSTWAR YEARS
“Return to Normalcy”






Warren G. Harding
“Return to Normalcy”
New Revivalism
“fundamentalis”
Billy Sunday
“tabernacles”