Jennifer D. Keene

Now in its second edition, The United States and the First World War draws on the most recent scholarship to examine the significance of the First World War in American history.Written in a lively style that brings the era and historical actors alive, this concise and accessible text gives students the resources they need to grapple with the important question of how the conflict revolutionized the American way of war in the twentieth century. It examines the causes of the war, mobilization of the homefront, and key social reforms of the time, as well as military strategy, the experiences of soldiers, and the Versailles Peace Treaty. Jennifer D. Keene touches on social justice movements that were energized by the war; movements led by female suffragists, temperance advocates, civil rights activists, and Progressives pressing to make America safe for democracy. This new edition includes an expanded discussion of humanitarianism, the African American experience, and the impact of the influenza pandemic of 1918-19. New primary documents and four detailed maps provide students with additional context for this pivotal time in history.This book will be of interest to students and scholars of modern American history, American military history, and U.S. Foreign Relations.

Now in its second edition, The United States and the First World War draws on the most recent scholarship to examine the significance of the First World War in American history.Written in a lively style that brings the era and historical actors alive, this concise and accessible text gives students the resources they need to grapple with the important question of how the conflict revolutionized the American way of war in the twentieth century. It examines the causes of the war, mobilization of the homefront, and key social reforms of the time, as well as military strategy, the experiences of soldiers, and the Versailles Peace Treaty. Jennifer D. Keene touches on social justice movements that were energized by the war; movements led by female suffragists, temperance advocates, civil rights activists, and Progressives pressing to make America safe for democracy. This new edition includes an expanded discussion of humanitarianism, the African American experience, and the impact of the influenza pandemic of 1918-19. New primary documents and four detailed maps provide students with additional context for this pivotal time in history.This book will be of interest to students and scholars of modern American history, American military history, and U.S. Foreign Relations.

World War I explores the daily lives of the men and women who served the United States in the Great War. Relying extensively on letters, diaries, and reminiscences of those Americans who fought or served in World War I, Jennifer D. Keene reports on the training camp experience at home; the journey overseas; and the unique difficulties African Americans, Native Americans, women, and immigrants encountered in the predominately white and native-born army. She also describes in vivid detail the perspective of naval and air service personnel and, for those on the ground in France, the horrors of static trench warfare and active engagement in combat. Chapters describe coping with and treating disease and wounds; the devastating frequency of death; and for those who came home, the difficult reentry into civilian life, as well as the causes, strategic decisions, and political outcome of the war. This volume includes a timeline, illustrations, and an extensive bibliography of recommended sources.

Read the experiences of the men and women who served in a horrific war, across the sea-the Great War. Relying extensively on letters, diaries, and reminiscences of those Americans who fought or served in World War I, Jennifer Keene reports on training and camp requirements for enlistees and recruits; the details of the transport across the ocean of sailors, soldiers, and others being carried Over There; and the experiences of African Americans, women, Native Americans and immigrants in The White Man's Army. She also describes in vivid detail, The Sailor's War, and for those on the ground in France and Belgium, the events of static trench warfare, and movement combat. Chapters describe coping with and treating disease and wounds; the devastating amount of death; and for those who came home, the veterans' difficult entrances back into civilian life. A timeline, extensive bibliography or recommended sources, and illustrations add to the usefulness of the volume

How does a democratic government conscript citizens, turn them into soldiers who can fight effectively against a highly trained enemy, and then somehow reward these troops for their service? In Doughboys, the Great War, and the Remaking of America, Jennifer D. Keene argues that the doughboy experience in 1917-18 forged the U.S. Army of the twentieth century and ultimately led to the most sweeping piece of social-welfare legislation in the nation's history-the G.I. Bill. Keene shows how citizen-soldiers established standards of discipline that the army in a sense had to adopt. Even after these troops had returned to civilian life, lessons learned by the army during its first experience with a mass conscripted force continued to influence the military as an institution. The experience of going into uniform and fighting abroad politicized citizen-soldiers, Keene finally argues, in ways she asks us to ponder. She finds that the country and the conscripts-in their view-entered into a certain social compact, one that assured veterans that the federal government owed conscripted soldiers of the twentieth century debts far in excess of the pensions the Grand Army of the Republic had claimed in the late nineteenth century.

Designed for secondary school and college student research, this book is a readable analysis and ready-reference guide to the war. An introductory essay presents a lucid overview of the main features of the conflict, incorporating the most recent scholarship. Five essays analyze crucial aspects of the war, from the battlefield to the homefront, and a concluding essay assesses the consequences of the war from a contemporary perspective. Ready-reference features include: a chronology of events; lengthy biographical profiles of twenty-one major figures, stressing their role in the war's origins, conduct, or outcome; the text of fifteen key primary documents such as diaries, memoirs, and newspaper editorials; a glossary of selected terms; and an extensively annotated bibliography of recommended further reading and major documentary and feature films made about the war. The essays are designed to be readable and informative, capturing the tragic character of the war as well as presenting an analysis of its main features. Topics covered include the American role in the war, the collapse of the political systems in Russia and Austria-Hungary, the success of Allied military leaders in meeting the threat of German submarine warfare, and life on the homefront in the United States, Britain, France, and Germany. A concluding essay views the war as a shaping force for the entire twentieth century and its impact on the present day. The book presents the day-to-day course of events as it involved individuals by offering excerpts from diaries and memoirs, while decision-making at the highest level appears in selections from leaders' speeches and memoranda. Shifts in public opinion in the United States are illustrated by excerpts from newspaper editorials. A selection of maps completes the text. By raising issues for discussion about The War to End All Wars and providing reference features, this work is a one-stop resource for students, teachers, and library media specialists.