Over Here: The First World War and American Society (25th Anniversary Edition) Book

A. Synopsis: This book discusses the events in the USA during their 19 month participation in WWI. The war is used as a window into American society. The main theme is the departure of the USA from isolation. The ended 150 of diplomatic practice. The American involvement in this war served as a prologue to WWII.
B. Prologue: Spring 1917
1. Examination of the war from 1914-17 in Germany, France, England, Russia, America. German submarine warfare, Zimmerman telegram and the US enters.
C. The war for the American mind
1. More than any other country that fought in the war, the Wilson administration had to cultivate and manufacture public opinion favorable to the war effort. "The deliberate mobilization of the emotions and ideas." Wilson classified the war as "a war for democracy, a war to end war, and a crusade." Educational courses presented the war as a life or death struggle between democracy and autocracy. This was a key theme of wartime propaganda. 100% American was a key phrase and German-Americans suffered suspicion and vigilantism. Abrams v. United States was a case against the "subversive" activities of immigrants. Holmes first used the phrase "clear and present danger" to condemn the Sedition Act.
2. One of the causalities of war for the American mind was the Progressive soul. Dewey's belief that the world was a "plastic place" that those of the enlightened mind could mold was destroyed. The utopian social philosophy of the Progressives ended. The reason is because the war had revealed on the domestic and international front forces that could destroy the fragile forces of Progressive men.
D. The political economy of war: The home front
1. The war forced both government and business to act on an unprecidently large and integrated scale. The study of wartime mobilization can disclose much about a nations lifestyle. One of the main problems was the relation of the government to the economy. The government would assume greater economic authority and public power would touch private enterprise in many new ways. But, the Wilson administration avoided unilateral exercises of government power. Instead Wilson turned to volantaristic means of persuasion, propaganda, and the fueling of patriotic fires. The great hysteria caused by the war (red hunt, German-American suspicion) lay partly in the impulse to shun formal power at all costs. The war demonstrated that voluntarism had its perils, but it nevertheless became a salient feature of 20th century American life.
E. "You're in the army now"
1. A radical departure from the voluntarism in America was Wilson's conscription of a military force. Despite the difficulty and opposition of impressment it was mostly successful. There was a great deal of fear in training black men to fight and use weapons. A black officer training program was established. Blacks made up 13% of the draftees. Some men resisted conscription for reasons of conscience. The Army undertook a campaign against sexual vice that was to have a substantial influence on social life. The Army cooperated less willingly on another social experiment--intelligence testing.
F. Over there--and back
1. The Doughboys actually had more peacetime than wartime in Europe. They were impressed with the Age of Europe. Many wrote home as a tourist might, commenting on churches and other old buildings. The worst part of war was the impersonality of it. The Doughboys wrote of being "shell shocked" and unsure about when death world come. But, these negative notes were relatively rare.
2. The postwar literary writers often wrote of the war with great disillusionment. It was a very different story than one gets when reading the letters of the Doughboys. This gulf separating the masses from the intellectuals was one of the lasting legacies of the war.
G. Armistice and aftermath
1. Throughout the war there was much talk of the "reconstruction" that would follow armistice. Labor leaders such as Samuel Gompers believed that the war effort might be able to forge permanent gains for labor. This was not the case as most of the labor efforts failed.
2. There was a great black exodus northward during the war. Black leaders saw the war as a time to submerge individual demands. Blacks hoped that their support for the war would allow them other material gains. One of the greatest opportunities was that northern industrial labor opened up to them. Though still discriminated against by the trade unions, and held in suspicion by white neighbors, blacks were able to gain a toehold in Northern industry.
3. Wilson harnessed the spirit of the war to support women's suffrage. Women's employment during the war was limited and brief.
4. The early 1920s saw a Great Red Hunt and anti-radical hysteria
H. The political economy of war: The international dimension
1. The intensification of the American bid for world economic dominance was one of the main consequences of the war. Wilson favored this development. But, Wilson favored political involvement in the international order, and hesitated to fully integrate economic resources into that order. This resulted in a kind of diplomatic paralysis. Although American foreign investment was huge in the 1920s it was not enough to offset the difficulties which the economy encountered. While America was vaulted close to the position of world economic leadership, they did not have the skills or wisdom to handle it as effectively as did Britain in the 19th.