History 111: US History after 1865
Professor Catapano

America and the Great War

Thesis:  The United States reluctantly entered the Great War with the idealistic aim to "make the world safe for democracy."  While the war itself helped to establish the US as a major military power, the peace the came afterward was a great disappointment.  American became disillusioned with international affairs and retreated into a decade of isolationism.



I. The Road to War (813-817)
  • Great War begins in Europe (August 1914)
  • Allies (Britain, France, Italy, and Russia) v. Central Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Turkey)
  • "One-Sided" Neutrality - U.S. leans toward Allies (map)
  • U-boat warfare
  • The Sinking of the Lusitania (1915)
  •  The Zimmermann Telegram
James Montgomery Flagg



II. Crusade for Democracy: US Enters the War (1917) (817- 830)
  • President Wilson's War Aims - Progressivism Abroad (Doc. 6.1)
    •  "American Principles"
  • Mobilizing for Total War -Army & Economy (Doc 6.6, 6.8)
    • "Liberty Bonds"
    • War Industries Board
    • Advertising the War - Propaganda & James Montgomery Flagg
  • The Search of Unity
    • Committee on Public Information
    • Espionage and Sedition Acts (Doc 6.4)
    • Suppressing of Dissent




III. The Search for a New World Order (834-842) (map)
  • Wilson’s Fourteen Points (4 principles) (Doc.6.5)
    • 1. national self determination
    • 2. freedom of seas
    • 3. enforcement of peace through League of Nations
    • 4. open, not secret, diplomacy
  • The Paris Peace Conference 
  • The Fight for the Versailles Treaty
Treaty of Versailles



Ben Shan, Case for Sacco and Vanzetti (1927)
IV. A Society in Turmoil 
  • The Unstable Economy
  • Race Riots and the "Red Summer"
    • Great Migration - Pushes and Pulls (letters) 
      • Changes in Agricultural Production 
      • Industrialization in the North  (Ford & UAW)
    • Service in World War I
  • Red Scare (Baruch site)
  • Disillusionment and the End of Progressivism

Updated 3/17/08