The American debate over neutrality ended when Woodrow Wilson decided in April 1…
201 Results
Survey Articles (Regional)
Regional Thematic Articles
The beginning of the First World War signaled a rise in tensions within the Unit…
This article explains the ways that the United States mourned and remembered its…
Regional Thematic
By Edward A. Gutiérrez
This article examines coercion and consent within the First World War – why did …
The centenary of the First World War brought greater focus on how the war was re…
During World War I, an unprecedented civil-military relationship developed among…
From 1919 through the early 1920s, Americans energetically memorialized their ro…
The First World War was a watershed experience for the ethnic minorities who had…
The American film industry became a cultural and business powerhouse during Worl…
This essay analyzes domestic politics in the United States during World War I, f…
This essay covers the historiography of military, political, social, and cultura…
In 1917, as America entered into the Great War, Indigenous responses to the war …
Wartime mobilization in the United States involved supportive federal government…
This article surveys the major fiction, drama, and poetry connected with World W…
Americans comprehended the First World War as a disaster. Their understandings o…
The United States Navy made its greatest contribution to the Allies by providing…
Before the beginning of World War I in Europe, the US enjoyed a sizeable industr…
World War I transformed the United States in so many important ways that it is c…
In the United States, the press played a key role in shaping public opinion towa…
During the two and a half years leading up to America’s entry into World War I, …
This article examines the role and activities of the Committee on Public Informa…
Regional Thematic
By Edward G. Lengel
The experiences of American soldiers, uniformed noncombatants, and civilians on …
This article charts the contours of the Great War as an American religious exper…
The United States entered the First World War unprepared to deploy its army on c…
The United States Congress passed the Espionage Act on 15 June 1917. The Act all…
From the outbreak of World War I, Woodrow Wilson pursued two goals: a non-puniti…
In 1917 and 1918, the United States raised the largest combat force in its histo…
American losses in World War I were modest compared to those of other belligeren…
Many American women claimed a more complete female citizenship through voluntary…
Encyclopedic Entries
Jane Addams co-founded Hull House, the most famous of America’s 400 social settl…
Beginning in April 1917, the United States (US) army rapidly transformed from a …
Austrian and Hungarian citizens working in war-related industries were exempt fr…
A lawyer, Progressive, and pacifist, Newton Baker was U.S. Secretary of War duri…
Invented in France in 1860, barbed wire was further developed in the United Stat…
John Lewis Barkley grew up in west-central Missouri, where he became a skilled o…
At the beginning of World War I, Bernard Baruch was one of the most famous Wall …
Williams Jennings Bryan was a powerful Democratic politician, from his emergence…
Robert Lee Bullard, born in Alabama and educated at West Point, served in the U.…
During the First World War, the Bureau of Investigation, a division of the U.S. …
A technique of concealment and protection, a means to deceive but not kill, camo…
The basic tactical question for all military powers prior to 1914 was how to app…
Brigadier General Fox Conner served as Chief of Operations (G-3) of the American…
During World War I, many conscription age-men sought exemptions from combat duty…
George Creel is most famous as Chairman of the Committee on Public Information (…
Dada, a transnational movement of artists, was founded in Zurich in 1916. It dis…
Josephus Daniels was United States secretary of the Navy from 1913–1921. He demo…
As a socialist, Eugene Debs unsuccessfully ran for president four times. He serv…
Major General Joseph T. Dickman’s lengthy U.S. Army career entailed significant …
A New York National Guard officer, attorney, and Medal of Honor recipient, Willi…
Hugh Drum played an integral role planning the deployment of the American Expedi…
W.E.B. Du Bois, sociologist, historian, and socialist, promoted African American…
World War I was not simply a conflict among European states but a global war of …
A minority section of the women’s movements opposed World War I and organized th…
A division within the Committee on Public Information (CPI), the Ford Division, …
Raymond Blaine Fosdick served as the Chairman for the Commission on Training Cam…
Benjamin Delahauf Foulois was a founder of United States military aviation. He w…
The Fourteen Points were U.S. President Woodrow Wilson’s post World War I bluepr…
“Freedom of the seas” was the early 20th century idea that the world’s oceans se…
Harry Garfield worked in a number of civic positions during his life. When the U…
Lindley Garrison was a prominent lawyer and politician from New Jersey who rose …
Thomas Watt Gregory served as Attorney General of the United States during World…
Ernest Hemingway was an American who served as a Red Cross ambulance lieutenant …
After working first as a lawyer and legal scholar, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. ac…
Herbert Hoover obtained political prominence during World War I through his role…
Edward House was an advisor to President Woodrow Wilson. He aided Wilson in dipl…
An international banking and brokerage house, J. P. Morgan & Company came to wor…
At the beginning of the 20th century, two different systems of exercise and trai…
The First World War precipitated a revolution in infantry tactics that changed t…
Russian-Jewish author, playwright, journalist, orator, and political activist; c…
Robert Lansing served as U.S. Secretary of State from June 1915 until February 1…
Major General John Archer Lejeune was the 13th Commandant of the Marine Corps. D…
Hunter Liggett was a general in the U.S. Army. He commanded the Forty-First Infa…
Henry Cabot Lodge was a Republican senator from Massachusetts. Close friend to T…
On 7 May 1915, a German U-boat fired a torpedo into the RMS Lusitania, sinking h…
General Douglas MacArthur was a career Army officer and an American military lea…
Between 1914 and 1918, the machine gun played an ever-increasing role on the bat…
General Peyton C. March developed the role and prominence of the relatively new …
General George Catlett Marshall served in France with the American Expeditionary…
William G. McAdoo was an American politician and businessman. During World War I…
The Military Board of Allied Supply, formed in mid-1918, attempted to centralize…
In World War I, Brigadier General William “Billy” Mitchell of the American Exped…
Naturalized American lawyer, real estate investor, and Jewish activist, Henry Mo…
The First World War fundamentally changed the course of 20th century music. The …
Dennis E. Nolan was the chief intelligence officer for the American Expeditionar…
The Palmer Raids were efforts by the United States Department of Justice to arre…
The First World War elicited various responses from the Wilson administration ba…
George Smith Patton was an American military leader. He began his career as a ca…
Alice Paul was an American suffragist and political rights activist. Jailed repe…
John J. Pershing led all American forces during World War I. He emphasized staff…
In World War I, the mobility of troops was of major strategic importance. New tr…
During World War I, sport competitions became very popular amongst the soldiers …
In April 1918, Robert Prager, the only German immigrant to the United States kno…
Prostitution was considered among the most important societal problems facing ci…
Black Americans served in the First World War, fighting for democracy both abroa…
One of the central problems nations faced during the war was procuring necessary…
The Red Scare was a period of heightened fear of radicalism in the United States…
America’s “ace of aces,” Eddie Rickenbacker received the Distinguished Service M…
The rifle was by far the most common weapon used in the world war. When the majo…
During World War I, motor vehicles took on a key role as transport facilities fo…
The Selective Service Act of 1917 was the official name of the military draft si…
Woodrow Wilson proposed a joint intervention with Japan to “rescue” the Czech le…
William Sims was the American admiral sent to assess the state of naval affairs …
Social Darwinism was an intellectual movement of the late 19th and early 20th ce…
Based in Paris, the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) newspaper, Stars and Str…
This article summarises the main wartime stereotypes that defined war propaganda…
U.S. Army Chief of Staff General Charles P. Summerall enjoyed a distinguished mi…
The Supreme War Council was an Allied administrative organisation, created by th…
In May 1916, the German government issued a pledge to the United States that the…
World War I introduced new technologies and doctrine in a quest to overcome the …
Whether on the Western or Eastern Front, by German, French, British, Canadian, A…
In 1918, producer Robert Goldstein was convicted and imprisoned under the Espion…
"Trench Art" is a genre of folk art comprised of items created in wartime, or fr…
A race riot is a mob-related domestic disturbance in which specific racial group…
While the United States remained a neutral power up to April 1917, American volu…
The governments of all belligerent countries issued special loans to finance the…
Like the other warring nations, the United States had to organize its industries…
The Washington Conference was held from November 1921 to February 1922 with the …
Brand Whitlock served as the U.S. minister and ambassador to Belgium from 1914–1…
Lieutenant Colonel Charles Whittlesey served in a unit of the U. S. Army’s 77th …
Karl Henry von Wiegand was the leading American foreign correspondent during the…
Thomas Woodrow Wilson was the twenty-eighth president of the United States (1913…
Wireless telegraphy became an integral part of warfare on the ground, in the air…
A prewar blacksmith and farmer from rural Tennessee before his induction into th…
See Also
Alliances were an important feature of the international system on the eve of Wo…
In the modern era, new forms of mourning and meaning-making for fallen soldiers …
Soldiers’ attitudes towards the Great War are a controversial issue, as they pro…
This article presents cartoonists as patriotic propagandists mobilizing their pe…
The First World War centenary saw an emergence of new portrayals of the conflict…
The centenary of the First World War revealed palpable anxieties around a loss o…
Innovative historical scholarship played an important role in the shaping of mem…
The centenary events surrounding the First World War have produced a significant…
Libraries (local, specialist, and national) contributed in numerous and importan…
The commemorative period between 2014 and 2018 was marked globally by numerous e…
Mass conscription recast relationships in families, raised minors’ potential as …
By 1914 the leading states had succumbed to varying degrees of militarism, subor…
This article deals with civilian morale during the First World War. Between 1915…
The First World War ushered in an unprecedented wave of commemorations. Mass dea…
Thematic
By Peter Geiss
The article discusses the role of the media in the complex international process…
Total war is a controversial term used in the past by politicians, publicists an…
Thematic
By Birgitta Bader-Zaar
The idea that World War I was a watershed in gender relations has pervaded both …
The end of fighting in 1918 raised hopes for swift and equitable military demobi…
This article examines the First World War’s ecological impact and shows that pro…
Throughout history, intoxicants were an important part of the war experience. Th…
The internment of enemy aliens in the First World War was a global phenomenon. C…
During the entire war, warring powers used the “secret war” to try to break the …
The First World War played a significant role in the evolution of film both as a…
During the First World War, food became a major issue for military and civilian …
One sees a wide range of political regimes from a democratic republic with unive…
This article discusses the close relationships between national governments, adv…
The rapid spread of epidemics ravaged military personnel and civilians in and ou…
This article focuses on the extent to which imperialism contributed to the outbr…
The Treaty of Versailles was signed on 28 June 1919, establishing both the Leagu…
The article examines international efforts to curb states’ war-making prerogativ…
The Treaty of Versailles was signed on 28 June 1919, the same day on which the L…
While public memory of the First World War in Europe often focusses on the death…
This article seeks to present an overview of First World War literature across m…
What role do representations of the First World War play in media that reach a w…
There is an ongoing debate among historians whether the First World War did in f…
This article examines the lessons derived by the military organizations that par…
Change and continuity marked belligerent societies’ norms and values during the …
The First World War created disfigured and mutilated bodies on a grand scale. Ne…
All of the great belligerent states of World War I were naval powers and engaged…
Many issues surrounding the conduct of war in the years 1914-1918 were imperviou…
The Great War was never considered the “war to end all wars” by the states and a…
In August 1914, a targeted and systematic manipulation of opinion by the media, …
The idea of peace in total war may seem irrelevant, but pacifism, or peace activ…
This paper examines major peace initiatives during World War I. It describes eff…
The First World War represents a watershed in the history of war photography. It…
Post-war economies were beset with problems, ultimately leading to the Great Dep…
The First World War caused unprecedented disruption to societies across the glob…
The Great War gave new impulses to the further development of public welfare sys…
This article summarizes and compares the principal arguments and strategies of p…
Propaganda played an important part in the politics of the war, but was only suc…
This article explores the policies adopted and implemented against enemy propert…
Raw materials were vital during the First World War. Due to the armaments produc…
National Red Cross societies played a very important role in the First World War…
From the cradle to the grave, popular religion formed a necessary and vital, if …
The paper describes the impact of war on peasantry and its mobilisation in the w…
The military service of teachers and the mobilization of schoolchildren for volu…
Wartime science and technology developed in the context of the Second Industrial…
Allied capacity at sea to sustain global transport and supply determined their a…
This article provides an international overview of the history of sexuality in t…
This article explores how the anticipation, reality, and memory of sacrifice inf…
A vast array of initiatives designed to counteract the destructiveness of the Fi…
Reflecting current historiography, this article focuses primarily on Christian c…
This essay examines how the "everyday" functions in war, not only for those on t…
Regardless of whether it was based on volunteer enlistment or conscription, mass…
This article offers an overview of peacemaking after the First World War from th…
This essay traces belligerent policies toward venereal disease (VD) on the fight…
Veterans’ associations formed an influential social movement during the interwar…
This piece explores the visualisation of violence for home front audiences and s…
Despite what some believe, there is still a lot to say and learn about the First…
At its outbreak, newspapers in the Allied and neutral democracies hoped to prese…
Static “trench warfare” belied a dynamic transformation in warfare between 1914 …
The Great War required war-making states to mobilize and sustain the financial r…
Military sources provide the primary statistics of war losses and casualties dur…
It may surprise us to learn that some sectors of the European public were in fav…
This article explores women’s economic, social, and political responses to the F…
Female war reporters from belligerent and neutral countries were present in the …
This article provides an overview of xenophobia during the First World War - nam…