A Lasting Impact on American Society. This class is about an hour, 20 minutes. All right. So today were going to talk about america during the First World War. And ive called this lecture americans at war the myth busters edition. And i did that kind of intentionally. Because when we think about understanding the First World War in general, there are so many myths and misconceptions that are attached to the war that its really interesting for us to first understand why those myths exist and then to unpam them a little bit and think more about the reality of the experience, right . I want to start first by talking about how this connects to the First World War overall. So its not just america that has these myths, but even this sense of how we understand the First World War to begin with. And we think of the kind of general narrative that we attach to it. One of the most common narratives is that world war i was a senseless slaughter. Right . Weve already talked about the uncertainty as to why this war ever occurred. But once its underway there is this predominant image and we get a lot from popular culture. The idea that this really was just men sent needlessly to their deaths. And so i got two examples. One is all quiet on the western front. Youre going to like this image, right . This is the cover for the first english edition of the novel. Youll recognize that image from something we discussed last class. And last class was with german war bond poster and that soldier was meant to represent germanys last hope. The one who is willing to sacrifice for his country. And now it becomes sort of recycled as a different image. Now its an image of a man who is needlessly sacrificed for his country. And then this one over here which is from a movie from the 1960s called oh what a lovely war. And i think that this little part over here is pretty introductive. The everpopular war games with songs, battles, and a few jokes. Really the idea is the politicians and the generals play at war. Its a war game for them. But its the men on the battlefield who actually have to suffer. Now, im not trying to suggest to you that world war i did not involve senseless slaughter. What i do want to suggest to you is that this overarching image kind of obscures some other realities to the war in a more general sense. So heres just one example of this, right . We have this notion of how many people die overall in the war. We have less of a notion that actually the majority of soldiers will survive, right . Most men actually will come home. So theres tremendous numbers of casualties, but theres also a high rate of survival. So here we have a statistic 9 out of 10 british soldiers, for instance, will actually come home. So thats one thing that the senseless slaughter conception obscures for us. And the other is it obscures for us the reality that, in fact, soldiers spent a lot of their time outside of the trenches, right . They were obviously fighting. But the majority of their time was either spent in reserve trenches or far behind the lines. And we could take this even one step further to point out that for all those men that are on the front lines, there needs to be two or three men behind the lines supporting them. So there are large numbers of men who survive not just because theyre not in the front lines that long, but because so many men are noncombatants. Theyre serving in the rear. And those are people we never really factor into our narrative when we think of the First World War as senseless slaughter. The last point i want to make here about this is that when we had this myth of senseless slaughter overall connected to the First World War, it kind of obscures the fact that in 1918, there is a learning curve that happens. And there is a breakthrough in the trench stalemate. The war does end in 1918. I have this map up here to kind of show you at this moment, we had muchlt. And then in 1918 theres movement again. So there is going to be some learning that occurs about how to fight this war. And that kind of challenges a little bit this notion of lions led by donkeys, right . That the generals were stupid, they werent actually trying to innovate and to make improvements in how they fought. So the point that im trying to make here is that we can think about myths not just to, you know, point out how theyre wrong, but by dissecting them we can actually learn a little bit more about the war itself, okay . This is something we can do overall for world war i. What about the United States . So what i have for you today is i have six myths about world war i that i want to talk about and do the same thing i did in this introduction. Okay . So the first myth here, myth number one, america was neutral until april 1917. April 1917, thats when the United States officially enters the war against germany. What im going to argue is untrue about this myth is that while officially the United States was trneutral, that does not mean americans were uninvolved. And so the key point here is that neutrality does not mean noninvolvement. Right . And we can get a sense of how this is a different concept. Neutrality from noninvolvement if we take a look at what Woodrow Wilson tells the American People in 1914, right . Here we have the countdown to war. Something weve already discussed. How we get from the assassination ferdinand to the german army invading belgium. Now this is the moment when Woodrow Wilson has to say to the American People, where are we in this conflict . Whats our stake as this war is spreading across europe . And this is the quote we always hear. Right . This is the one that gets pulled out again and again. We must be impartial in thought as well as action. Right . Thats what we say. Woodrow wilson told us to be impartial. But theres another thing that Woodrow Wilson said that i actually think is a little bit more reveelg of whats going to happen. And in that same neutrality address, he said the effect of the war upon the United States will depend on what american citizens say and do. Right . So hes recognizing right from the very beginning that the government can say america is neutral, right . The government can say that we have a policy of treating both sides the same. But what the government does is only going to be one side of the story, right . What American People decide to do, thats going to really tell the tale of how america behaves in the socalled period of neutrality, right . Now, what do the American People do . Again, there are wellknown parts of this story and lesser known parts of this story. What are some of the wellknown parts . Well, we know for instance that american banks lend overwhelmingly to the allied side. Right . Thats a pretty well known part of the story. We know that american manufacturers sell overwhelmingly to the allied side. Thats one of the wellknown stories. What is less well known, is what the average american does. They reach into their pockets and they contribute to humanitarian aid causes. Right . They realize that theres some way for them to be involved in the conflict and the way for them to be involved in the conflict is through humanitarianism. Now, the person who starts this ball rolling is Herbert Hoover. And Herbert Hoover organizes a sort of massive relief effort for belgian civilians. And here you can see the kind of propaganda that he uses, right . Youve got literally hungry children holding out empty tins. Right . They have no food. They need to be fed. Hes got propaganda here about people donating clothes and people donating food to help feed these civilians. Herbert hoover, its amazing what he does. Statistics say that in terms of the amount of aid that he sent and the amount of money that he raised, there was no greater humanitarian effort organized by americans until the recent tsunami. Thats how tremendous this response was. Herbert hoover is a private citizen. Right . He has no official capacity. What does he do . He buys his own ships. Hes got about 40 ships. He paints them his own colors. He flies his own flag. He negotiates with the germans and the british to let him both through the blockade, the british blockade. And then with the germans to allow him to distribute this food in a germanoccupied territory. Right . He really in a sense becomes almost a quasination in an of himself. He enlists the help of average american citizens in this quest. So aiding belgian civilians is what americans overwhelmingly decide they want to do. Theyre not going to take a side necessarily against britain or against germany. Theyre on the side of the civilian. The person caught up in this war through no fought of their own. Right . Now, what we tend to do is stop there in the story and just talk about belgium, right . Just talk about the western front. But if we think for a second, when wilson said the effect of the war upon Americans Society depends on what americans say or do, right . The thing he was really concerned about and the thing he knew was that america had just undergone this massive wave of immigration. So he knew that, in fact, we had people from all parts of the world all parts of europe here in the United States and he didnt want the war to tear americans apart. In a sense, he was right to realize that the different places where americans came from was going to influence their reaction to the war. And we can see this through the humanitarian effort as well. So a lot of people this is a map that comes from a friend of mine, Michael Nyberg who did some research into the jewish humanitarian effort. And realize we had massive immigration coming from russia. A lot of russian jews came to the United States fleeing religious persecution. And if you take a look at this map here which shows you the Eastern Front nks right . Not the western front, but the Eastern Front of the war. You could see that actually a lot of the places that were caught up with the heaviest fighting and therefore had the biggest refugee crisis were places that were heavily populated by jews. Whenever the army, theres a lot of movement back and forth. Whenever the army comes through, civilians get up and run, right . They run as fast as they can. Because they dont want to get caught up in this fighting. And what begins to happen is in vienna, these massive numbers of refugees that are descending on these cities. And theyre overwhelmingly jewish refugees. So for a lot of these russian jews, for people who are helping belgian civilians, its a humanitarian impulse. We want to do the right thing. But for people helps russian jews, a lot of times this is very personal for them. You have got refugee workers that go up and ask them do you have a relative in the United States. If somebody says yes, do you have their name and address. And they will write directly to that person and say, your aunt, your grandfather, your former neighbor is in need of help. Can you send some money. Right . Thats personal outreach. Thats really trying to make sure that the personal becomes political. Or the political becomes personal. However you want to put it. And we can see this with italians, right . Italians are also mobilizing. Theyre very, very concerned about this as well. Places where they came from and making sure that they actually help those communities in need. And so in this case we can see its the personal that kind of motivates people in these immigrant groups to actually contribute to the humanitarian aid effort. But as the war goes on, it starts operating even when we talk about belgium. Im not sure if you can actually see what these are, but i find these things fascinating. What these are are these are sacks. These are sacks that held flour. I showed you that first picture that showed you sacks of flour going to belgian relief. These come from kansas donated as part of hoovers humanitarian relief effort. And whats happened is that belgian women who are very renowned for their embroidery skills have embroidered them and sent them back to that Kansas Community. So this is topeka, kansas, basically to say thank you. Right . And so we say, you know, people want to make a personal connection in terms of who theyre sending money to. Heres the flip side. These people in belgium are saying thank you to this Kansas Community for the aid. And these go up in topeka store fronts and people are able to see them. Its that kind of personal connection that begins to fuel humanitarianism as well. In fact, one of the things that relief workers complain about on the american side is that, you know, those clothes they donate all those clothes. The relief workers have to go into all the pockets. Because whats happening is that americans are writing notes. Theyre writing notes to people in belgium and theyre also sending bibles, things like that. And the agreement with the German Authorities says no notes, nothing. It can only be clothes, nothing else can pass. Thats how desperate people are to sort of make a personal connection about excuse me. As theyre rendering this humanitarian aid. So the point here is that americans obviously are involved, right . Theyre involved through these humanitarian efforts. And the point here is that the personal and the political become very closely connected, right . The abstraction of the cause begins to have personal meaning for people either because theyre helping people they knew or they start developing a sort of personal investment in former strangers that theyre now helping. This begins to motivate people to really care about whats going on in europe, right . Now, my last sort of point here about humanitarianism is that humanitarianism is never neutral. Right . Its impossible for it to be neutral. If we agree that this is the massive humanitarian effort that americans are actively participating in this and shaping it, its not a neutral effort. First of all, just given the geopolitics of the war, the vast majority of this aid goes to the allied side. Right . I didnt give you examples of any of this aid going to germany, for instance. Its still going primarily to the allied side. And as much as americans are motivated by the empathy they feel for these starving civilians, theres something in it for them as well. Right . Theyre also motivated in a sense by the way that they feel that its increasing the stature of the United States in the world. Right . And we can see a really good example of this in this poster from the red cross, right . They are looking to us for help. Are you one of us . And i love how the us is kind of almost says u. S. , right . Its sort of connecting the same thing here. And this is the idea that in this conflict it is american alone that can rise above and be above the fray, right . We are interested in humanitarianism and philanthropy in doing the right thing. Were not interested in actually picking sides here or territorial gain or anything else that the european nations are involved in. Were actually above the fray. And thats going to be important because what it means is that in 1917 when Woodrow Wilson actually asks for a declaration of war, right . And he says to america our war goals are better than everybody elses. We dont want any territory. We dont seek any endindemnitie. In a way the American People are already there. Right . Theyve gotten there through their own humanitarian efforts. Thats not just coming out of the blue. Theyve already begun to see themselves as a nation that can actually rise above and do some good in the world. Right . And so what i think is important here is not just to think about america not being neutral, but also to pay some more attention to what average americans are doing in the period of neutrality. Not just what Woodrow Wilson is doing or saying. Not that Woodrow Wilson is unimportant as im going to say in my next myth here. Okay. So myth number two, america entered world war i because of the sinking of the lusitania. This is my favorite one because it would be so nice if it wasnt true. All right. So this is a big one. Right . It make no sense if you think about the dates. Because lusitania sinks in may of 1915 and the United States doesnt enter the war until april of 1917. Its almost two years before the United States actually enters the war. So its interesting to wonder why people so consistently get this wrong. Right . I always tell my survey students, if you write on a test that the lusitania is the reason america got into world war i, you fail automatically. I refuse to talk to you the rest of the class. Why . Why is this a perpetual myth that we have . I think this gives indication of that. Washington stirred as when maine sank. And if you think about the overall history, think about how many times a ship going down and america going to war works for you. Name goes down, spanish american war. Pearl harbor, gulf of tonkin. If the lusitania would just fit into that, it would be the easiest thing to ever remember. Right . It would be so straightforward for you. I think thats one of the reasons why so many people tend to cite that. Thats the kind of narrative they have in their head, right . The idea were attacked, ship goes down, we go to war. Thats who you believe we are. Our Immediate Response is going to be a forceful one. What happens in the lusitania is not that. Right . Its going to take another two years before we go to war. Already sort of made that point. I think that narrative should also make us feel pretty good, right . If we look in our past, we actually have a moment where americans have died and we use restraint. Right . We dont actually immediately jump into war. But nonetheless, this is something we commonly see people making a mistake about. Right here. Now, i want to point out to you exactly where the lusitania is because i think thats another kind of misperception. Becomes the kind of highly publicized amount that it is. Part of it is to actually realize where the lusitania was sunk. So here you can see, you see that right here off the coast of ireland. Now, the lusitania was really one of those moments where if you ask people 20 or 30 years later, they could tell you where they were when they heard about it. Right . Its kind of like their 9 11 moment. They could remember where they were when they heard the lusitania went down. Why . Right . Why was it such a shock to people . And the placement of the lusitania goes a little bit of a way of answering that question. Because it sunk so fast, it sunk in 18 minutes, right . There was almost no time for people to get to the lifeboats for anybody to make it off the boat. If you made it off the boat, you were lucky. They were going through frigid cold water. And in the days after the sinking, these bodies are washing up on the shore. So its not just the sinking in the middle of the ocean that nobody witnesses and nobody sees the aftermath and they sort of just hear about, you know, third hand. Here you have almost daily reports of these really grizzly scenes, quite honestly, right . Of bodies and victims washing. On the shore that a is a salacious press is happy to report upon. In a sense, the drama of the moment, the quickness of the sinking, the awfulness of actually seeing the human cost of this, all of these things became sort of very visual for people, very visceral in terms of how they were responding. Now, for Woodrow Wilson what the lusitania sinking is going to do is it is going to be a sort of critical moment for him in his own ideas of defining what neutrality would be, right . So before we were talking a lot about how the average american defined neutrality. How they really turned humanitarian efforts to kind of make their contribution to the war. But now were we have to think a little bit about official policy in terms of whats going on, right . And the dilemma for Woodrow Wilson and again we go back to the map here. We can kind of see it. Is that both britain and germany have decided to go to the oceans to fight the war, right . Theyre a stalemate along the western front. And so both sides are seeking an advantage. How can they do that . And so the british blockade, youve got the excuse me. The green dots here. They are going to use their blockade to stop goods from getting into germany. Of course germany wants to fight back. The weapon they have to fight back with is the uboat, right . So theyre going to use the uboat. Its important in looking at this map to see that pink line. Because thats the war zone as defined by germany. Thats the zone that germany is saying to neutral nations like the United States dont sail here. Dont come into the war zone. Right . Dont come into the war zone. Because youre going to be at risk here of getting attacked by a uboat. Right . Theyre not saying dont go anywhere in the atlantic ocean. Theyre saying dont actually sail into this zone that weve defined as the war zone. Now, the reason thats going to be important is that youre going to see that in 1915 when Woodrow Wilson has to decide how to respond to the lusitania. Right . He has to do something. People are angry. That he has got several different options. And that people are going to look at that map and interpret the lusitania in very, very different ways. Right . Now, if i hadnt gone through all of this, right . If i had just put this up here in terms of what actually happens, im not going to say most of you, but ill bet a few of you might have said that wilson goes with diplomatic relations and asks congress to declare on germany. That lusitania caused us to end the war. And it is true that he had some advisers who were saying that to him or saying this is the moment. This is the moment we have to actually enter. Then he had some people here arguing almost exactly the opposite. They were the people who looked at the map, saw the red line, and said, well we dont want to get involved in this war. Heres an idea. Why dont you tell americans not to sail into the war zone . If we prohibit people from going into this area where germany says theyre patrolling, isnt that going to be a way for us to stay neutral . Isnt that going to be a way to actually stay out of the war . Some people are like, this means war. Some people are like, listen. We have to just really, you know, stop a few people from getting us into war. And what wilsons going to decide is the middle course here. Right . Hes going to demand that germany pay reparations and accept the right of americans to travel and trade where they wished or risk hostilities. And this is why the lusitania is important. Its not important because it gets america into the war. It doesnt. Its important because this is the moment when Woodrow Wilson draws a line in the sand and says to germany, if you step over this line, it is highly likely diplomatic language, right . It is highly likely that there will be hostilities. And whats the line . The line is that were a neutral nation and we can do what we want. Freedom of the seas, baby. We can go where we want. We can trade with whom we want. Thats our right. Neutrality means that we have rights that you have to respect. Now, thats an interesting definition of neutrality, isnt it . You might think it means were going to treat both sides equally or at all costs well stay out of it. But after 1915, what Woodrow Wilson is saying is that neutrality is about the rights of neutrals. And that is what germany must respect. And in 1915, germanys going to back off because they dont have enough uboats to really, you know, do that much damage to american shipping. And theyve got their hands full, right . They dont want america to come into the war. But in 1917, they will change their minds. And in 1917 when germany goes back to warfare and Woodrow Wilson has drawn this line in the sand, well see him come to the decision we need to go to war against germany. So 1915 is important, but the official policy of neutrality. But its not the thing that gets us into the war. Now, you might be thinking to yourself, is the average american really following all of this . Is this intricacy of it. What the lusitania does is we start having a very a moment where americans have died, women and children have died, and we can now connect this event. This is a picture of a woman clutching a child sinking to her death. First american produced propaganda poster of world war i in response to the lusitania tragedy. Comes from an actual news rep t report. As she washes up on the shore. And now we have something tangible about american lives being lost that connects to british propaganda about atrocitied committed by the belgian army. That same idea you need to protect women and children from german barbarians, right . Which has been at the heart of the propaganda movement. Applied to us as well. Okay . But the debates not over in 115, right . If we look at this one, we can see that the debate is going to go on. Because for every person that says, look. This shows you that the truth about germany, right . As if we needed more truth, there are going to be other people that are going to keep beating this drum. Look. They put a notice in the newspaper. They told you not to get on the ship. Right . They told you that there are munitions on the ship. Which there were. They told you if you go into a war zone, surprised that you could potentially get shot. This is your own individual responsibility. And thats going to make a difference for Woodrow Wilson because it means when he finally goes and decides for war in 1917, he knows to a certain extent that he has to declare it because of the line in the sand. But he also knows hes leading a divided nation into war. So thats going to lead to our myth number three. Myth number three here is that wartime unity spontaneously appeared, right . And we like to always believe that, you know, well disagree up until the moment that war is declared, right . We argued about it, but once wilson says this is our war to fight, americans will rally behind the flag. They will do the right thing. Right 1234 we know theres a lot of propaganda encouraging people to do the right thing. This is probably one of the most famous propaganda posters out of world war i. This is the task master uncle sam. When see this in terms of a recruitment poster. What is uncle sam wanting americans to do . In this case i want you for the u. S. Army. I want people to obviously fight in the army. But uncle sam is going to want americans to do a lot of other things during the war as well. Hes going to want them to buy war bonds. Hes going to wand them to conserve food. In some cases, hes going to want them to spy on their neighbors and be sure their neighbors are not engaging in any espionage or treasone activities. This says i want you for the u. S. Army almost implying that you have a choice. An we see other propaganda posters like this. This is one of my favorite ones here in the list. And its an interesting you like that . Thats good, right . It really does show a man kind of wrestling with his conscience, right . Upper class man, welldressed hiding in the shadows. Hes hiding in the dark. Hes trying to decide what to do, right . Hes looking out the window trying to make up his mind. He sees outside all of his Community Walking off in unison in the bright sunlight. Theyre not afraid. Theyre not hiding in the shadows. And the question is really clear on which side of the window are you . You have to make a decision about what youre going to do. Theres a lot thats wrong about this poster in terms of what actually happens, right . And the first part there is with the enlist. In raising an army, america will do something its never done before. From the very beginning of the war, it will institute a draft. Now, weve had drafts before, but the drafts we had before always came in the middle of wars. Sort of when people stopped enlisting. When they stopped volunteering, that was when we said okay, i guess we have to go to a draft. In this instance, we go to a draft right from the very, very beginning. And we do this for a few reasons. And heres the sort of interesting because of course we dont call it a draft. And we hardly ever call it conscription, right . If you say conscription, that pretty much underscores that the nation was divided and maybe people dont want to fight this war. So youre having to draft them to force them to fight in an unpopular conflict, right . So what do we call it . Selective service. Right . The men here know you still have to register for that. Selective service. Just think about branding here for a minute, right . Because its completely different than a draft. Selective service means that if youre chosen, right . Youre selected lucky you, right . Youre selected for service, for service to your country. And everybody owes some service to their country. Theres nobody in this war thats going to get off the hook for owing some service. Even just the idea of people serving in the military, the reality is different than people sort of individually making up their own minds. There is to kind of not all all the propagandists outright liars. There is a amount of time to enlist. Then its cut you have and it will be made up for the branches of the army. Besides the idea of making sure everybody complies, theres also the notion that we need to organize this army efficiently, right . Because were coming in late. Right . Almost two and a half years late. We know that its as important to have people organize on the home front producing weapons, producing food, producing all the things to keep that army going in the field. So besides making sure that people serve in the military, its also making sure that the right people serve in the military. Right . So you, for example, dont want all your trained engineers walking off of Railroad Lines and joining the military. You dont want all your skills laborers doing this. Now, what i find fascinating about this, besides the facts of conscription is how conscription actually works in practice. So weve had conscription in civil war. And in the civil war. Its introduced well into the conflict. And it is an individual thing. Like, youd literally have registers Walking Around new york city and theyre like, you know, knocking on doors. There was a lot of draft resis dance. That you are watched when you do it. On june 5th, 1917, there is a national day to register for selected service. And that means that all the men if you are between the ages of 21 and 30, you have to go to your polling place, church, school. Wherever theyre holding the registration. And you are going to register and everybodys going to watch you do it. If you forget or you dont show up, were going to publish your name in the newspaper. Were basically going to use peer pressure, Community Pressure to make sure you do the right thing. And this idea of turning registration and even the whole induction process into this community event, this kind of selfpolicing on the Community Level to make sure people register for the draft, this is going to be very successful. Right . Now, in the second year of the draft, were going to have another registration day. But another thing to make sure men go into the service. And that is going to be a phenomenon in which vigilante groups wearing semiofficial arm bands from the Justice Department are going to start conducting some things that they call slacker rates. And slacker rates are to kind of round up all those men who theyre suspecting have either not registered for the draft or not reported when theyve been told to come. Or for some reason got a deferment because of a job and changed jobs. They grab people by the back of the neck and stand outside the gates of state fairs, right . This one day of dragnets across the country. Here you have an example from maine, right . Where theyve literally thrown heez guys in the back of a pickup truck and theyre going back to the Police Station to turn them in as suspected slackers. Im sure they were only motivated by patriotism not by the bonus they were given for each slacker they turned in. So many problems with this. First of all, these people do not have any authority. Theyre taking this authority upon themselves. Most of these guys turn out not to be slackers. They have deferments so they have reasons theyre not serving the military. Theyre sort of legitimate. And its bad publicity for the war. It suggests people arent fighting, they dont want to fight, the war is unpopular. So we see the government actually putting an end to this one pretty quickly. But the point here in terms of wartime unity. When we think about people complying with Selective Service regulations and most people do, theres a lot of pressure on people to actually do that. And just because youre a excuse me. Just because youre a woman doesnt mean youre off the hook either. Right . Oh, sorry. I was going to say a little bit here about albon, new york. Here ill just is a that albon york, hes the most famous american out of the First World War. Hes highly decorated. Hes credited in one assault of killing 15 jgermans thats a picture of alvin york. No its not. Youre too young. That not alvin york. Thats gary cooper who plays alvin york in a movie called sergeant york. That goes over really well with a certain generation, i have to say. Not the young generation. An older crowd. Thats right. All right so heres alvin york. Alvin york is almost 30 years old. Hes almost not going to be drafted. He applies for Conscientious Objection because he says religious principles are incompatible with him actually serving. His application is rejected. He purports to Training Camp and now hes got some choices he can make. He can request noncombatant duty. He can refuse to perform any military duty. Some people did this. Then youre going to spend the war in leavenworth. Or he can actually agree to fight and serve. Because i told you hes the most decorated hero of world war i, you know he chooses number three. Whats interesting is why he chooses number three. He has a sympathetic company commander. And this commander is well versed in the bible and starts having theological discussions with alvin york. The bible says thousand shalt not kill. And the commander comes back and says the bible also says render unto caesar that which is caesars. Obey the government. He also says go home, think about it. Ill give you the weekend. Alvin york studies his bible and then comes back and says ill fight. The commander says whyd you change your mind. And he said because the bible says blessed are the peacemakers. This is going to be Woodrow Wilsons war to end all wars, if this is the last war we ever have to fight, then im willing to be part of that. And so the question we have about alvin york is what does he tell us, right . Hes telling us that he comes and decides to fight. But it shows how hard it is to be a conscientious objector. And how much people are putting into it to accomplish some goals. Then we have some interesting things in the Training Camps where even once youre in the military, understanding your patriotism and understanding that youre actually for the war, this is something theyre always working on. We have a lot of immigrants. We need to americanize them. You can always make fun of some of these efforts. This is one of the craziest ones ive ever seen. These are 18,000 soldiers standing on pieces of cloth in the broiling sun in iowa. The guy taking the camera the picture is up on a platform in the shape of the statue of liberty. When you say why are you making these guys do this this is showing their patriotism. By standing in formation of the statue of liberty, youre demonstrating that you actually youre a loyal american citizen. And so these are these kind of crazy demonstrations of pate schism that even if youre a soldier in uniform, people are asking you to engage in. All right. And heres where i got ahead of myself a little bit. Even if youre a woman, youre not off the hook. Right . Women are being asked to participate in the war effort in all sorts of ways nit iknitting. Thats a big one here. Sometimes you can look at knitting and wonder why knitting . Why are they focusing on so many women knitting . If you think a little bit about trench warfare, especially on the allied side. Remember the germans dug up on the top. Nice dry trenches because men on the allied side, theyre closer to the water table, a lot of times theyre standing in water for a good part of the time theyre in the trenches. Wet feet lead to all sorts of nasty things like trench foot which is kind of almost like a gangrene. So knitting socks has a functional purpose in that men actually do need socks. But its safe to say that american women go a little crazy with knitting. Right . If this was 1917, lets say 1918. Most of this class, youd be sitting here. Youd be sitting here knitting while i was talking to show me that, in fact, you were patriotic. Things got so bad that you even had notices like this where women are basically being told stop knitting during performances. This is from the new York Philharmonic society where theyre saying stop knitting when the orchestra is playing because its distracting. People are trying to enjoy the music. And you have to ask yourself, why are women feeling like so like its so necessary for them to knit in literally every spare moment they have. Why cant they just enjoy the concert. Why do they feel they have to knit, right . Theyre being in a sense pressured to demonstrate their patriotism in ways that are somewhat similar to men who are registering in front of all of their neighbors for the draft here. You know, knitting, yes men need socks. Is this the best way for men to get socks that they need . Im not so sure. I mean, i dont think any of you want a pair of socks that i would knit, for example. I think youd rather go to target and buy one thats machine made. Itd be cheaper and standardized, right . And itd be exactly what you actually wanted. So you know, theres some questions we can have about whether or not this really was necessary and how much of it was just to get people on board with the war effort. And we can make kind of a similar sort of suggestion about the food conservation efforts that go on, right . In terms of the kind of pledges that people are being asked, right . Herbert hoover who had organized a humanitarian effort for belgium now becomes food administrator during the war. And he takes great pride in the fact that we never institute formal rationing. That its through volunteerism. That people actually agree to meatless mondays and porkless thursdays. But the same thing. You have to get people to do this. Right . So one of the ways, you got kind of the example here. Sign your food pledge. Every family is asked to sign this food pledge that theyre going to abide by the regulations that hoover has set out. And in this case the women of the community are there to bond to other women in the community. You can expect another remember i told you theyre not youre not going to get a call on the door about registering for the draft. But you could get a knock on the door about signing the food pledge. How do we know how do i know if my neighbor signed the food pledge . How do i know if theyre complying . Oh, theyve thought it through rvegt right . So youre going to put that sign in your window. Thats going to demonstrate to everybody that you are doing your duty. Youre demonstrating to people that youre involved. For the people that dont do this, the people that dont want to hang these things in your windows, dont want to sign these food pledges, that dont want to knit. This is seen as evidence of disloyalty, right . Of not doing your patriotic duty. And so in this sense, wartime unity is cultivated. And its coerced. Its not just something that naturally comes about. Right . Its something that communities enforce upon each other. In that sense, i think that tells us something a little different than once were at war, americans spontaneously come together. All right. So myth number four. World war i had no Lasting Impact on society. So its like im not exaggerating if i say to you that its almost like my lifes work to get this one off the books and out of peoples minds. Because thats always the thing we say. Well, world war i, we dont have to talk about it much because its not much for the United States. Its more for europe. I can say a lot about this. What im going to say are some things about how it affects social Reform Movements in the United States. I want to talk about three things. Civil rights movement, suffrage movement, and the movement for prohibition. Because these are three movements long standing Reform Movements in American Society that are dramatically affected by the First World War. All right. So i want to go ahead and start with the Civil Rights Movement. I like this poster because its a good counter to the traditional way that we look at propaganda. When we look at problem gan pag look at the official propaganda posters that are distributed. What we fail to remember or look at are privately produced propaganda posters. Theres a huge thriving propaganda Poster Movement which is important because it allows voices we dont normally Pay Attention to to show us their obviously this is a poster that is created for the africanamerican community. Its published in chicago. I dont know if you see the bottom. Its true blue. Thats what its talking about. And if you look at the poster, its kind of generic propaganda fare. So youve got the father. Hes serving in the military. Got the flags there. We know hes alive. How do we know . The starred flag in the window. If he was killed, it would be a gold star. Theyre advertising to the community hes serving. We know that hes been on the front lines because look at that german helmet above the flags. Hes had time to send home a war souvenir. And its full of patriotic symbolism, right . So the american flags, washington, wilson, Abraham Lincoln. In posters marketed to the africanamerican community, Abraham Lincoln is always the big guy. Hes always the big, big figure. Very proud patriotic content scene. Probably if we think about it, not like that spectacular an image. But im going to tell you why this image is so important. We have the official propaganda posters, right . Because the governments a good collector. At the end of the war, some agency puts those things in onion skin paper, slides them into a drawer so a hundred years later we can come and look at them, right . These things at the end of the war are trash. Im sure you all had posters in your room and when you went to college, your mom ripped them down and put them in the trash. Why do we have this poster . We have this posterposter . We have this poster because a white post mistress in florida sent it to the postmaster general asking if this should be banned from the mails under the terms of the espionage act. Im going to let that sink in there for a second. She considers this sadicious material. What is seditious . They probably live better than what this white post mistress does. Its the sense of economic achievement, the assertion of equality. The sense that theyre on the same level as whites. That we could surmise is at the heart of her objection. In fact, she actually notes in her letter, quote, the considerable insolence from the negro element lately. What is insolent in her mind . This. That this war for democracy, right, with africanamerican men and communities doing their bit, is going to advance the Civil Rights Movement. Its going to mean that finally there will be honor and justice for all. And what that exchange demonstrates to us is that this is exactly what White Supremacists are petrified is going to happen. And theyre prepared to make sure it doesnt happen. One thing is to shut down from the mails anything that advocates racial equality and another is after the war, of course, to engage in racial rioting and an upswing in lynching. We see a dramatic upshift in lynching after the First World War. But thats not only what happens. Its not even the most important thing in my mind to what happens. What also happens is a change in the mentality of the Civil Rights Movement itself. And here we see that africanamerican soldier and what we see happening in the First World War is that military service politicizes africanamerican soldiers. And, you know, you think of what we have now as a really rallying slogan for civil rights activists. Black lives matter. Thats like a very potent set of words that are really energizing the Civil Rights Movement at the at our time. What the world war i generation has is, is a set of words from w. E. B. Du bois. And we can see that this new notion of fighting back, this is going to be the new tenor of the Civil Rights Movement. In 1919, africanamericans fight back. They fight back by joining the naacp in record numbers. Making it a strong civil rights organization. And i can just point to one example here from charles houston who writes some years after the war the hate and scorn showed on us by our fellow americans, there was no sense that my world ruled by them. If i got through this war, i would study law and use my time fighting for men who could not strike back. Charles houston, you may never have heard of him, but hes the guy who devised the legal strategy for the naacp that results in brown versus board of education. Because of the First World War in 1919, its not a success story. We want to fast forward for the 1950s for successes, but those successes start here. This is the foundation of that. That comes out of the First World War. Now, the second sort of big movement we have here is the suffrage movement. Again, we look at this cartoon here where its like, if youre good enough for war, youre good enough to vote. Kind of like almost giving the impression that a grateful nation bestowed the vote for women for all of the knitting. Thats just so not what happens. Its so not what happens. What happens in the First World War is, gagain, activists. Theyre picketing in front of the white house. Nobody had ever done that before. This is new. This is a new idea. You have women like this, right, the world must be made safer democracy, theyre digging it and theyre saying theyre holding up posters and saying Woodrow Wilson. What about women in this country. Why arent women going to be allowed to vote. This picture is deceiving because this is the before picture. The after picture is the mob that attacks these women, right . Rips that poster down and the police that come and arrest these women send them to jail where theyre force fed, put in solitary confinement. Whats their crime . They stood outside the white house with a banner. But these women, if you ever have time to study them in depth, its amazing. Heres ideas from the New York Times about how things go. Woodrow wilson finally does back female suffrage in the middle of the war. Again, you want to think that its because of, you know, women supporting the war effort, but the real secret is down here at the end. Feared reprisals at polls in suffrage states. Thats because some states are beginning to pass female suffrage. New york, just passed its because im touching the screen. Just passed female suffrage in 1917. They were worried when women started voting in new york state, that was going to hurt the democratic party. They start thinking about women having power. But this Campaign Goes into 1919, it goes into 1920 when the amendment is finally ratified. Even in 1919, suffrage burned wilson ef if a gee. These women had to radicalize. They were militant. They were the ones that were out there pressing their cause, right . So i dont think anybody could say it doesnt matter that women got the right to vote. That comes out of the First World War. And then the third kind of major thing, a longstanding Reform Movement is prohibition. I dont want to say too much about prohibition. Its interesting that the war becomes their winning argument. Theyve talked about all sorts of things, venereal disease, health, a lot of breweries are owned by germans. Suddenly it becomes, again, a more patriotic thing to save grain by not making beer, to not buy products from german brewers, that prohibition suddenly is finds amazing expect. They didnt expect, which was a constitutional amendment from purchasing alcohol. So myth number five, america was barely blooded in world war i. American was barely bloodied in world war i, another reason why we dont really need to study it. Of course as i end up calling it a myth, im here to tell you something different. Where does this myth come from . This comes from these kinds of numbers. From taking the United States and comparing its death toll to those of other belligerent nations. If you look at chart like this. We see 516 deaths in the American Army and i can tell you its actually even fewer number of people die on the battlefield because about half of those deaths happened because of spanish influenza. Half of those deaths are from disease. Theyre not from battlefield deaths. If we take that number and stack it up against what happens in britain, france, russia, it looks like barely blooded. It looks like we hardly suffered at all because the casualties were so tremendous on the other sides. Numbers are so funny, right . What does a number mean . Its so relative. And it matters how you contextualize this. We can contextualize it this way which is to say, look at the number of battle deaths in world war i and compare them to korea and vietnam. And more people, more americans die in the First World War than in either of those wars. It takes america a year, one year, to get itself organized, train those men, get them over to france and get them into the battle. So thats this is really not a year not even a year and a half. This is six months of fighting. 53,204 people die. Six months. This is three years. This is nine years. Im going to put it to you another way. Lets say in the First Six Months of fighting in iraq 52,000 coffins came home. Is america going to say, that was nothing . Were not. So for the people that are fighting this, this is not nothing. This isnt barely bloody. For them this is a pretty significant number of people who die. And we can ask, you know, why it is that we dont really remember that. And i think that there probably are a lot of reasons for that. But i do have a question for you. This one i want you to answer. What is the most lethal battle in American History . Most lethal battle in American History . Are we asking this in terms of how Many Americans died or how many people total . How Many Americans. Whats the most lethal battle for americans . Gettysburg. If you count multiple days the bloodiest day. When you dont know something, where do you go to look . Dont lie to me. I know where you go. I know. List of most lethal american battles. Look whats number one, world war i. I will bet nobody has heard of this offensive. Im going to say thats a safe bet for most people right there. Its a 47day battle. It goes from september 26 until november 11. 47 days, 1. 2 million men involved. 100,000 wounded. This is the most lethal battle in American History. Nobody knows about it. Why is that . Why is that. I think those are really good questions, right . Its why we remember certain things and why we dont remember other things. And i think that for a lot of people, even at the time, they didnt really want to dwell on this because one of the logical questions you could ask is, you know, why . Why did so many of these men have to die . And it raises some uncomfortable question about American Military leadership, were we sending untrained men into battle. And when you think about the needless slaughter of the First World War, theres no pickets charged, right . Theres no dday landing, theres no great, dramatic moment. This is a battle in which sergeant york performs a heroic feet and he gets pumped up. Not to take anything away from him, but they got to have somebody there to Say Something great about this hard, hard slog. Even though it results in the end of the war, theres no sense of satisfaction that americans seem to feel. A lot of americans died. Why did they die . Thats what theyre not sure about. This feeds into our last myth here. World war i was quickly forgotten. We have forgotten world war won, but the generation who participated in it did not forget world war i. The first is that we built huge overseas cemeteries in france and belgium for our war dead. This is an interesting tussle of the government and the families of the fallen. At the beginning of the war secretary of war baker had promised American Families that the government would bring their bodies of their loved ones home if they fell on the battlefield. Now the course and they want to build these cemeteries overseas in part because they want americans to stay invested in europe and they want europe to remember how many men from america died to save them from germany. But a lot of families want their loved ones brought home, right . So you see, again, this personal and political sort of tussling at each other again. 70 of americans bring the bodies home. You would not know that if they went to the seminaries. Theyre huge. They want to make it, you know, look as impressive as possible. But in sense, this is a lot of effort. It takes lots of years to build these. This is not forgetting the war. This is making a visible presence about it. At the height of the great depression, those mothers and widows who let the bodies stay in europe are given a free trip to go visit the grave. This is 1930, 1931, 1933. Whats going on in america during those times . Height of the great depression. Were spending all of this money to send these women to europe to visit the graves of the fallen soldiers. This is important to remind the country that Patriotic Service will not be forgotten. So you could forget all about this in the height of depression. We have other problems, right . Its not forgotten. Its also not forgotten by the veterans themselves who come to washington, d. C. , in 1932 and stage a demonstration for about six weeks, 40,000 veterans, they want early payment of a bonus that they had been given in 1924. Their evicted from the city. Theyre driven out by the army. Theyre towns are burned down. And theres theyre somewhat credited with helping fdr win the election because its Herbert Hoover, the great humanitarian, who fed the belgium civilians who allows the army to drive them out of the city. But the most important thing about the march is the memory of it. And the memory of the march is really, really strong in peoples minds in 1944. And why 1944 . In 1944, as you start looking towards the end of world war ii and you think, well, were going to have 12, 13, 14 million veterans coming home when this war ends. Look at all those trouble the men gave us when we didnt prepare for their homecoming. We have to do it better this time around. If world war ii veterans stage a demonstration, we could have the government overthrown. What do they do . They institute the gi bill of rights. And the gi bill of rights is a direct desire to learn the lessons of the past and not have similarly satisfied veterans organizing and marching in demonstrations in washington, d. C. And nobody is going to underestimate of the gi bill of rights in American Society. Also important about the bonus march, its integrated. You have black and white veterans participating side by side. And whats significant about this is what the civil rights sees. What the Civil Rights Movement sees is a march on washington and you have progressive commentators saying this is the efficient were trying to implement principles of collective nonviolent protests in the United States. The seeds of an idea are placed, right, in terms of marching on washington being an effective political strategy. The last thing i want to mention today is how this memory of world war i really begins to influence well, has a dramatic influence on how we respond to war clouds gathering in europe. And this is an interesting payment. Its called parade to war. And it goes back to world war i and shows a couple here shes the sweetheart sending her sweetheart off to war. You see the kids, boys right there, all caught up in the pageantry. Theyre really, really happen. But if you gone o the sides of the painting, this is whats interesting, this is the war mother whose son was lost. Shes hiding in the shadows crying and there is the war widow. Shes trying to reach the men. The policeman stops her from speaking the truth about war to these men who are marching off. Look at these guys. Look at their faces. Whats happening to them . Theyre literally turning into corpses before our eyes. They look like the walking dead here as were seeing. And this is a political statement, right . This is saying to people in 1938, hitler is in power, fascism is on the rise. Most people think there will be another war and the question is, what should american do . And this is an antiwar point. Remember what happened last time. And thats going to be a way thats going to be a memory thats very influential in terms of how the United States responds to the Second World War which a war in which we also stay out of for two years until pearl harbor, until we have that attack on a ship that is going to bring us into the war. I want to end the lecture by sort of reiterating what i think the message of this painting is which is really that in a sense, the First World War like all wars is at its core the story of countless personal tragedy. All right. Thanks, you guys. Now, i think we want to have a few minutes for questions. As theyre finishing up what they need to do with taping. Anybody have any questions or comments . Now is the time where youre allowed to actually talk. Youre trying so hard not to say anything. Im sure you have to have at least something. Go ahead, erica. When the germans created the line of war in the ocean, saying dont come through here, had Herbert Hoover already worked out his approval or plan, whatever, to get through those war zones . Yes, right. That was exactly right. What he had to do, he had to have permission thats why he had his own flags and painted his ships their own colors so they would be identified as humanitarian ships that were coming in. It was still dangerous because what the brsh did a lot of times, they flew the flags of neutrals and there was a lot of cheating going on. Thats one of the reasons he had to almost have his own fleet in order to do that. Thats a good question there. Who else has a question . Lets do two or three more. I know you have something. Go ahead. This one, the deadliest one for american soldiers in United States history. Which battle that the United States participants has the gross number of death of all nationalities. I dont know. Thats a good question, in terms of both sides . Yes. I dont know. Im not sure. Thats a good question. One of the reasons with civil war battles, its one of the things thats complicated about civil war battles. When we talk about american deaths, we count both sides because we consider both sides american. And we dont do that in any other conflict. Thats a good question. Make wikipedia can answer it for you. Go have a look. All right. Give us one more question so they can get what they need for the taping here. Im going to make macy ask a question. Shes like, im thinking, im thinking. Go ahead. The United States decision to enter the war in 1917 also have to do with waiting for the russians to or at least their government to back out of the war . Well, that kind of goes back i went over it quickly, that suffrage banner, they were standing outside and its to the envoys of russia, that theyre protesting as a russian delegation that is coming and visiting the white house. When the United States enters the First World War, we have the first Russian Revolution. Theres the hope that with the czar gone, russia is going to become a democracy. Its going to be a hard message with a czar in power. What makes the war effort really so what i would say potentially catastrophic for the allied side is the Second Russian revolution and lennon takes russia out of the war, they sign a separate piece. This is before americans get there. Britain and france are thinking, oh, my god, now its a onefront war for germany and america is not here yet. This is the end. When we look at the high causality figures and say, why did they throw all of these untrained men into battle, part of the reason was, they needed them. They needed that extra manpower the Russian Revolution is really important in kind of understanding the overall experience and it helps wilson rhetorically when america enters the war. But in and of itself, its not a reason that america goes to the war. The poster that you showed of the africanamerican soldiers and they didnt fight together. Yes, the army was rigidly segregated and that there were some units that had black officers and then over the course of the war, there was an effort to remove all black officers and have all officers be white in africanamerican units. But the army was segregated. It was not going to be desegregated until after world war ii. Thats an important point. With the segregation, did was it known that the white soldiers of world war i saw their the black soldiers as more even more they were more friendly to them . Were they considered their friends or well, i think that another important thing to say, they were disproportionately drafted. Africanamericans are 10 of the american population, 13 of the army. 89 of africanamerican soldiers will serve as noncombatants. So i think that answers your question in terms of even the way the army treated them. Segregated them, put them in not combatant roles and then, you know, you had sort of these campaigns to remove them from the positions of leadership was really reinforcing the message that africanamerican and white soldiers are not equal. Theyre not equal. Well take their manpower. But we dont want them their manliness, if that makes sense, in terms of that. And thats why for the africanamerican press, what happens how those africanamerican soldiers perform in battle is so, so important. And they have one great example. Because the American Army is uncertain about what to do with black combatants, they have two divisions, one of those divisions, they give to the french army. So youre going to have a whole in a 20,000 american men who are going to fight under french command. The french are happy to have them. They fight. They get a tremendous they get medals, they get recognition. And so now these men will come home and its not just that they were treated badly, theyre saying, look, you say africanamericans cant fight, but look at what we did when the french treated us fairly and well, we performed very well. They come off the war with a strong example to sort of throw back in white americas face when theyre told that they cant theyre not up to snuff. In other words, its the beginning of a long campaign, right, but what youre seeing is a huge shift in tenor. Much more militancy in the Civil Rights Movement than before that there. Those are good questions. Im glad you asked me those things because were covering a lot of ground. Anything else . The americans were so concerned with war memory, how come they didnt build any National Monuments here. Thats a good question. I think part of the preoccupation we have now with National Monuments is a new phenomenon. We didnt have a World War Ii National memorial either until the greatest generation thing and until it started with vietnam. It was vietnam and then we did korea, were going backwards. We did korea, and now we have world war ii, and now just now, because this is the centennial, theyre talking about building a monument a National Monument in washington, d. C. But if you now you guys are going to be paying attention, right, and youre going to look around your towns, youre going to see monuments everywhere, soldier field, the l. A. Coliseum. Those things are all monuments to the First World War. But they have statues, plaques. But the world war i generation liked to build things that the community could use. You forget the Soldiers Field doesnt exist him. But that was a football stadium in chicago. Its one of those things that you walk by it a million times, you dont notice it. Once you start paying attention, youre going to start realizing that its all around you. It really, really is and thats if you realize that, ive done my job. World war i mattered for American History. Well see you on monday. I look forward to your presentations. Weeknights this month were featuring American History tv programs as a preview of whats available every weekend on cspan3. Tonight, mark burns explores public opinion, the rise of radio and the debate over entering world war ii. He outlines the arguments and uses radio clips to demonstrate the role they played in shaping american views and foreign policy. Watch tonight beginning at 8 00 eastern. Enjoy American History tv this week and every weekend on cspan3. American history tv on cspan3, exploring the people and events that tell the american story every weekend. Coming up this labor day, saturday at 6 00 p. M. Eastern on the civil war, historians discuss how we remember the civil war and whether to remove or contextualize confederate monuments. Sunday at 6 00 p. M. Eastern on american artifacts, well preview photographs of native americans from the Smithsonian National museum. At 8 00 p. M. On the presidency, a look at president ial retreats including Abraham Lincolns summer cottage and stories of the kennedys, clintons and obamas. And monday night at 8 00 p. M. Eastern, august marks the 75th anniversary of the bombings of he hiroshima and nagasaki. We look back at the events that led to the bombing. Exploring the american story, watch American History tv, this labor day weekend, on cspan3. Up next on lectures in history, university of minnesota professor teaches a class about neutrality and what that concept meant in america. She talks about how the u. S. Viewed itself as the defender of democracy yet faced criticism for how it treated its own dissenters. Good morning, everyone. This morning were going to be talking about we will begin our conversation about neutrality. That will last over the
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