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Figure 3: American troops climbing a hill during World War I, from U.S. Official Pictures of the World War

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YeakleyAmerica and the Great War

James, D. Clayton and Anne Sharp Wells. America and the Great War: 1914-1920. The American History Series, edited by John Hope

Franklin and A. S. Eisenstadt. Wheeling, IL: Harlan Davidson, 1998.

Sheldon Yeakley

Sheldon Yeakley is a senior history major in the Honors Program from Searcy, Arkansas. He won the Dean’s Award for Outstanding Research in 2016 and served as the Tau Sigma Chapter Secretary in 2016. After graduation, he plans to pursue graduate studies in American Indian/American Western history at the University of Oklahoma or Oklahoma State University.

Within The American History Series, the work by D. Clayton James and Anne Sharp Wells,

America and the Great War: 1914-1920, closely examines “the central themes and aspects

of the past” by providing a “factual and narrative account” that “affords readers a

basis for perceiving its larger dimensions and importance” (v). The authors use primary

source material and differing interpretations in order to provide a broad scope for their

narrative account of the First World War.

Providing an extensive bibliographic essay at the end, the authors structure

the 99-page work into four chapters with two maps and multiple photographs of key

figures. James and Wells begin with an examination of how America entered the war

by displaying the complicated events and ways that the isolationist sentiments of the

American people were overcome in order to aid the Allies in the conflict. Next, they

analyze the conditions and trials of American soldiers on the continent. Here they

focus primarily on the changing views of the citizen soldier, as many draftees comprised

the American Expeditionary Force. The third chapter focuses on the various boards,

committees, and agencies created by President Woodrow Wilson and the administration

to facilitate the war needs of the country. The authors primarily consider the effect of

progressivism and the reaction of the home front to Wilson’s political coercion. The

final chapter deals with the Treaty of Versailles and Wilson’s final years as president.

The return of a national isolationist philosophy and post-war disillusionment caused

many to reject the treaty and the League of Nations, Wilson’s pet project.

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The authors provide an excellent summary of World War I from an American

perspective. Although the book gives scant detail compared to the common university

level monograph, the depth and level of interpretation is still appropriate for most

college students. Its flow and readability coincide with such an audience as well. Its

discussion of historical interpretations is found in the foreword and the bibliographic

essay, rather than within the text itself. Therefore, the thesis relies only on the factual

narrative account, for which the authors provide adequate coverage. This work is highly

recommended for use in place of a traditional monograph covering World War I.