Lesson 8 - WW I: America Enters the War

INTA 4803 TP WAR IN THE 20th CENTURY

WW I: 1917 - Desperation & Anticipation -
America Enters The War

Home ROE Resources Lessons

Objectives Assignment Study Guides Previous Lesson Next Lesson

"The present German submarine warfare against commerce is a warfare against mankind.
It is a war against all nations. . . . We are accepting this challenge. . . .
The world must be made safe for democracy."

President Woodrow T. Wilson
Address to Congress, April 2, 1917

Propaganda is persuading people to make up their minds
while withholding some of the facts from them.

Sir Harold Evans (1928 - )
British-born journalist and writer

Lesson Objectives

• Understand the role of the US in the war to 1916.

• Understand the concept of unrestricted submarine warfare and discuss its impact on the war.

• Understand how and why the U.S. entered World War I.

• Understand the impact of the war on British and U.S. society.

• Be able to describe the efforts made to mobilize the American public in World War I.

Study Guides

• Why did the U.S. wait until 1917 to join the war?

• What was the level of support for the war in the U.S.?

• Compare the impact of the war on the U.S. and British societies.

• Why was unrestricted submarine warfare such a critical factor in the strategy of both sides in the war?

• What was the role and impact of propaganda in both societies?

• Who was George Creel, and what role did he play in the U.S. war effort in World War I?

Assignment

Readings:

"World War I: The First Three Years"
American Military History, Chapter 17
Maurice Matloff (ed)
Washington: US Army Center of Military History, 1989
• READ pp. 364-378, From "Impact of the War on the United States" down to (but not including) "Changes in the Army High Command".

"The First Battle of the Atlantic"
Wikipedia

READ the following sections:
"1917: renewed unrestricted campaign" and
"Convoys in World War I"

American Entry Into WW I , 1917
Wilson's Fourteen Points, 1918
Office of the Historian
United States Department of State

"America's Entry Into World War I: The Official Reasons"
Doughboy Center: The Story of the American Expeditionary Forces

"Primary Documents: Germany's Policy of Unrestricted Submarine Warfare, 31 January 1917"
Michael Duffy
First World War.com

"Zimmerman Telegram"
Wikipedia

SUPPLEMENT: Zimmerman Telegram (actual text)

"Committee on Public Information"
Source Watch

As an interesting comparison of "focused" writing, compare the tone of the above article with the Wilipedia article, same subject, same format. What differences do you see in the tone of the two articles?

"America Transformed by War"
Francis A. March (1863-1928), in collaboration with Richard J. Beamish
History of the World War: An Authentic Narrative of the World's Greatest War
Philadelphia, Chicago, Toronto: United Publishers of the United States and Canada, 1919

Supplemental Resources:

Blockade (World War I at Sea) (video, 50:38)
The First World War, Part 7 (BBC 4, 2003)

"The Army's First" (video on US Army in France)
The Big Picture
U. S. Army, c 1958

President Wilison's War Message, April 2, 1917
The World War I Document Archive
Brigham Young University

"The Origins of 'Doughboy'"
Michael E. Hanlon
Doughboy Center: The Story of the American Expeditionary Forces

"Committee on Public Information"
Wikipedia

"On the Home Front"
Oregon at War: World War I and the Oregon Experience

This site contains a well organized series of articles on the impact of World War I on American life.
READ the following pages:
On the Draft: "The draft board wants to see you"
On Propaganda and patriotism: "To be an American"

"American Posters of World War One" • Alt
Fairchild Memorial Gallery, Georgetown University Library

Top Lessons Previous Lesson Next Lesson