America in the Great War

America in the Great War
Author :
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Total Pages : 263
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9780195364286
ISBN-13 : 0195364287
Rating : 4/5 (287 Downloads)

Book Synopsis America in the Great War by : Ronald Schaffer

Download or read book America in the Great War written by Ronald Schaffer and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 1994-04-28 with total page 263 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: After such conflicts as World War II, Vietnam, and now the Persian Gulf, the First World War seems a distant, almost ancient event. It conjures up images of trenches, horse-drawn wagons, and old-fashioned wide-brimmed helmets--a conflict closer to the Civil War than to our own time. It hardly seems an American war at all, considering we fought for scarcely over a year in a primarily European struggle. But, as Ronald Schaffer recounts in this fascinating new book, the Great War wrought a dramatic revolution in America, wrenching a diverse, unregulated, nineteenth-century society into the modern age. Ranging from the Oval Office to corporate boardroom, from the farmyard to the battlefield, America in the Great War details a nation reshaped by the demands of total war. Schaffer shows how the Wilson Administration used persuasion, manipulation, direct control, and the cooperation of private industries and organizations to mobilize a freewheeling, individualist country. The result was a war-welfare state, imposing the federal government on almost every aspect of American life. He describes how it spread propaganda, enforced censorship, and stifled dissent. Political radicals, religious pacifists, German-Americans, even average people who voiced honest doubts about the war suffered arrest and imprisonment. The government extended its control over most of the nation's economic life through a series of new agencies--largely filled with managers from private business, who used their new positions to eliminate competition and secure other personal and corporate gains. Schaffer also details the efforts of scholars, scientists, workers, women, African- Americans, and of social, medical, and moral reformers, to use the war to advance their own agendas even as they contributed to the drive for victory. And not the least important is his account of how soldiers reacted to the reality of war--both at the front lines and at the rear--revealing what brought the doughboys to the battlefield, and how they went through not only horror and disillusionment but felt a fervent patriotism as well. Some of the upheavals Schaffer describes were fleeting--as seen in the thousands of women who had to leave their wartime jobs when the boys came home--but others meant permanent change and set precedents for such future programs as the New Deal. By showing how American life would never be the same again after the Armistice, America in the Great War lays a new foundation for understanding both the First World War and twentieth-century America.


America in the Great War Related Books

America in the Great War
Language: en
Pages: 263
Authors: Ronald Schaffer
Categories: History
Type: BOOK - Published: 1994-04-28 - Publisher: Oxford University Press

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

After such conflicts as World War II, Vietnam, and now the Persian Gulf, the First World War seems a distant, almost ancient event. It conjures up images of tre
Warfare and Welfare
Language: en
Pages: 528
Authors: Herbert Obinger
Categories: Political Science
Type: BOOK - Published: 2018-06-28 - Publisher: Oxford University Press

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

While the first half of the 20th century was characterized by total war, the second half witnessed, at least in the Western world, a massive expansion of the mo
Wars and Welfare
Language: en
Pages: 240
Authors: Michael Willis
Categories: Great Britain
Type: BOOK - Published: 2015-12-25 - Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Retaining well-loved features from the previous editions, Wars and Welfare has been approved by AQA and matched to the new 2015 specification. This textbook exp
The Oxford Handbook of the Welfare State
Language: en
Pages: 908
Authors: Francis G. Castles
Categories: Political Science
Type: BOOK - Published: 2012-09-06 - Publisher: OUP Oxford

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The Oxford Handbook of the Welfare State is the authoritative and definitive guide to the contemporary welfare state. In a volume consisting of nearly fifty new
Disease, War, and the Imperial State
Language: en
Pages: 300
Authors: Erica Charters
Categories: History
Type: BOOK - Published: 2014-11-03 - Publisher: University of Chicago Press

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The Seven Years’ War, often called the first global war, spanned North America, the West Indies, Europe, and India. In these locations diseases such as scurvy