A collection of 127 pieces that tell the vivid story of battlefront and homefront from Sarajevo and the invasion of Belgium through the sinking of the Lusitania, the Armenian genocide, the controversy over intervention, and the terrible ferocity of Belleau Wood and the Meuse-Argonne, to the League of Nations debate and the racial violence and political oppression that divided postwar America. The writing gathered here imlluminates, as no retrospective history can, how Americans perceived and felt about the war, why they supported or opposed intervention, how they endured the nightmarish reality of modern industrial warfare and how they experienced the uncertainty and contingency of unfolding events. And it shows how World War I framed issues that still haunt us: What role should America play in the world? Are our claims to moral leadership abroad undercut by racial injustice at home? What does our nation owe those who fight on its behalf? -- From the publisher.

Maps on endpapers.

Heir to Austria's throne is slain (The New York Times, June 29, 1914) --Death of an archduke, Sarajevo, June 1914 -- The war begins, Belgium, July-August 1914 / Hugh Gibson (From A journal from our legation in Belgium) -- "The grand smash is come" : London, August 1914 / Walter Hines Page (Memorandum, August 2, 1914) -- Defending Germany, Massachusetts, August 1914 / Hugo Munsterberg (to the Boston Herald, August 5, 1914) -- Britain goes to war, London, August 1914 / Walter Hines Page (to Woodrow Wilson, August 9, 1914) -- Statement on Neutrality / Woodrow Wilson (Washington, D.C., August 18, 1914) -- The fall of Brussels and burning of Louvain, Belgium, August 1914 / Richard Harding Davis (to the New York Tribune, August 21 and 30, 1914) -- "Justice and fair play" : Long Island, October 1914 / Theodore Roosevelt (to Hugo Munsterberg, October 3, 1914) -- "White Imperialism" : New York, November 1914 / W.E.B. Du Bois (World War and the Color Line) -- "Hungry, wet, weary" : Przemy?l and Budapest, October-November 1914 / Nellie Bly (to the New York Evening Journal, October 30 and November 10, 1914) -- "A vain hatred" : England, November 1914 / George Santayana (The Logic of Fanaticism) -- "My boy belongs to me" : New York, January 1915 / Alfred Bryan (I didn't raise my boy to be a Soldier) -- "The war-vision" : France, February-March 1915 / Edith Wharton (In Argonne) -- "A fifty-mile grave" : Serbia, April 1915 / John Reed (Goutchevo and the valley of corpses) -- "The final plunge" : off the Irish coast, May 1915 / Charles E. Lauriat, Jr (From The Lusitania's last voyage) -- Address to naturalized citizens at Convention Hall, Philadelphia, May 10, 1915 / Woodrow Wilson -- "There are things worse than war" : New York, May 1915 / The New York Times (Roosevelt for prompt action, May 12, 1915) -- "The sacred freedom of the seas" : Washington, D.C., May 1915 / William Jennings Bryan (to Gottlieb von Jagow, May 13, 1915) -- Reports of Armenian massacres, Istanbul, May 1915 / Henry Morgenthau (to William Jennings Bryan, May 25, 1915) -- "The lie unveiled" : New York, June 1915 / W.E.B. Du Bois (Lusitania) -- "The rights of humanity" : Washington, D.C., June 1915 / Robert Lansing (to Gottlieb von Jagow, June 9, 1915) -- With the Russian Army, Galicia, June 1915 / John Reed (Zalezchik the Terrible) -- Ypres and Dunkirk, Flanders, June 1915 / Edith Wharton (In the north) -- Changing nationality, London, June 1915 / Henry James (to Herbert Henry Asquith, June 28, 1915) -- "To destroy the Armenian race" : Eastern Anatolia, June-July 1915 / Leslie Davis (to Henry Morgenthau, June 30 and July 11, 1915) -- "A campaign of race extermination" : Istanbul, July 1915 / Henry Morgenthau (to Robert Lansing, July 16, 1915) -- An appeal for peace, New York, July 1915 / Jane Addams (The revolt against war) -- A response to Jane Addams, New York, July 1915 / Richard Harding Davis (to The New York Times, July 13, 1915) -- Second Battle of Champagne, France, September-October 1915 / Alan Seeger (Diary, September 16- September 24, 1915, and letter to Elsie Simmons Seeger, October 25, 1915) -- Battle of Loos, France, October 1915 / James Norman Hall (Damaged trenches) -- Assessing the Ottoman leadership, Istanbul, November 1915 / (Henry Morgenthau (to Robert Lansing, November 4, 1915) -- "A more ignoble sentiment" : Long Island, November 1915 / Theodore Roosevelt (to William Castle, Jr., November 13, 1915) -- "The war anesthesis" : New York, December 1915 / Emma Goldman (Preparedness, the road to universal slaughter) -- The Ford peace ship, Scotland, December 1915 / George E. Riis (to The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, January 6, 1916) -- "Some scarred slope" : France, Winter 1916 / Alan Seeger (I have a rendezvous with death) -- Gas gangrene, Flanders, Spring 1916 / Ellen N. La Motte (Alone) -- Address to Congress, April 19, 1916, Washington, D.C. / Woodrow Wilson -- "Baptism of fire" : France, May 1916 / William B. Seabrook (From Diary of Section VIII) -- Flying over Verdun, France, June 1916 / Victor Chapman (to John Jay Chapman, June 1, 1916) -- Broken and mended, France, Summer 1916 / Mary Borden (Conspiracy) -- A German ace, France, October 1916 / Herbert Bayard Swope (Boelcke, knight of the air) -- Wilson's failures, New York, November 1916 / Theodore Roosevelt (Speech at Cooper Union, November 3, 1916) -- A "monument to zero" : Massachusetts, January 1917 / John Jay Chapman (to the Harvard Alumni Bulletin, January 4, 1917) -- "To go again" : Winter 1917 / Robert Frost (Not to Keep) --Address to the Senate, January 22, 1917, Washington, D.C. / Woodrow Wilson -- U-boat warfare, Germany, February 1917 / H.L. Mencken ("The Diary of a Retreat", March 10, 1917). Memorandum on the severance of diplomatic relations with Germany, February 4, 1917, Washington, D.C. / Robert Lansing -- The Zimmermann telegram, Washington, D.C., February 1917 / New York Tribune (Germany asks Mexico to seek alliance with Japan for war on U.S., March 1, 1917) -- The Lafayette Escadrille, France, March 1917 / Edmond C.C. Genet (Diary, March 19-24, 1917) --Address to Congress on war with Germany, April 2, 1917, Washington, D.C. / Woodrow Wilson -- "Let Europe solve her problems" : Washington, D.C., April 1917 / George Norris (Speech in the U.S. Senate, April 4, 1917) -- "The Yanks are coming" : New York, April 1917 / George M. Cohan (Over There) -- Opposing capitalist war, Missouri, April 1917 / St. Louis Socialist Convention (Majority Report, April 11, 1917) -- "A union of liberal peoples" : Philadelphia, April 1917 / Walter Lippmann (The world conflict in its relation to American democracy) -- Feeding Belgium, April 1917 / Herbert Hoover (Introduction to Women of Belgium) -- Bombers over London, England, June 1917 / The New York Times (German airmen kill 97, hurt 437 in London raid, June 14, 1917) -- Flag Day Address in Washington, D.C., June 14, 1917 / Woodrow Wilson -- "The riveting of the war-mind" : New York, June 1917 / Randolph Bourne (The war and the intellectuals) -- The East St. Louis race riot, Illinois, July 1917 / Carlos F. Hurd (to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, July 3, 1917) -- "The social value of heresy" : New York, August 1917 / Norman Thomas (War's heretics, a plea for the conscientious objector) -- "Moral disintegration" : New York, August 1917 / Jessie Fauset (to The Survey, August 18, 1917) -- "The war is utter damn nonsense" : France, August 1917 / John Dos Passos (to Rumsey Marvin, August 23, 1917) -- Black soldiers rebel, Texas, August 1917 / Martha Gruening (Houston, an N.A.A.C.P. investigation) -- Defending free speech in America, France, September 1917 / Dorothy Canfield Fisher (to Sarah Cleghorn, September 5, 1917) -- Black leaders for Black troops, New York, November 1917 / James Weldon Johnson (Experienced men wanted, November 8, 1917) -- Every woman's struggle, New York, November 1917 / Carrie Chapman Catt (Votes for all) -- "This nameless man" : France, Autumn 1917 / Mary Borden (Unidentified) -- Shooting down a "Hun" : France, December 1917 / Charles J. Biddle (From The Way of the Eagle) -- Wartime work for women, New York, December 1917 / Bernice Evans (The sayings of Patsy, December 30, 1917) --Address to Congress on war aims, January 8, 1918, Washington, D.C. / Woodrow Wilson -- "Stabbing cries of pain" : France, March 1918 / Shirley Millard (From I saw them die) -- The "will to win", France, April 1918 / John J. Pershing (Remarks to the officers of the 1st Division, April 16, 1918) -- "How can I be glad?" : France, May 1918 / Shirley Millard (From I saw them die) --Wounded : how it feels to be shot, Battle of Belleau Wood, France, June 1918 / Floyd Gibbons -- Treating American wounded, France, June 1918 / Frederick A. Pottle (From Stretchers) -- Rights and duties, New York, June 1918 / James Weldon Johnson ("Why Should a Negro Fight?", June 29, 1918) -- "The crisis of the world" : New York, July 1918 / W.E.B. Du Bois (Close ranks) -- Refusing Black nurses, New York, July 1918 / Hubert H. Harrison (Why is the Red Cross?) -- Wounded at the front, Italy, July 1918 / Ernest Hemingway (to his family, July 21, 1918) -- Statement on lynching, July 26, 1918, Washington, D.C. / Woodrow Wilson -- "Ain't it grand?" : France, July 1918 / James Reese Europe (On patrol in no man's land) -- "Real nobility" : France, July 1918 / Shirley Millard (From I saw them die) -- Battle of Fismette, France, August 1918 / Hervey Allen (From Toward the flame) -- "Hurting like 227 little devils" : Italy, August 1918 / Ernest Hemingway (to his family, August 18, 1918) -- The St. Mihiel offensive, France, September 1918 / Frederick Trevenen Edwards (to Frederick Edwards, September 12, 1918) -- "Gold is god" : Ohio, September 1918 / Eugene V. Debs (Speech to the Court, September 14, 1918) -- "Living in the war" : Nebraska, Summer 1918 / Willa Sibert Cather (Roll call on the prairies) -- "The hellish thing" : France, September 1918 / Ashby Williams (From Experiences of the Great War). Battle of the Meuse-Argonne, France, September 1918 /|r Edward C. Lukens (From A Blue Ridge memoir) --|t The "Harlem Hellfighters" attack, France, September 1918 /|r Horace Pippin (From "Autobiography, First World War") --|t "The dreaded influenza" : crossing the Atlantic, September-October 1918 /|r Ernest W. Gibson (From "History of First Vermont and 57th Pioneer Infantry") --|t Influenza on a troopship, the Atlantic, September-October 1918 /|r Henry A. May (From History of the U.S.S. Leviathan) --|t Address to the Senate on Woman Suffrage, September 30, 1918, Washington, D.C. /|r Woodrow Wilson --|t "I am not dead" : France, October 1918 /|r Ashby Williams (From Experiences of the Great War) --|t Surrounded in the Argonne, France, October 1918 /|r Damon Runyon (Runyon sees return of lost New York battalion, October 13, 1918) --|t Second and Third Peace Notes to Germany, October 14 and 23, 1918, Washington, D.C. /|r Woodrow Wilson --|t Setting armistice terms, France, October 1918 /|r John J. Pershing (to the Supreme War Council, October 30, 1918) --|t Waiting for the armistice, France, November 1918 /|r Harry S. Truman (to Bess Wallace, November 10 and 11, 1918) --|t "The silence is oppressive" : France, November 1918/|r Robert J. Casey (From The cannoneers have hairy ears) --|t Wilson arrives in Paris, France, December 1918 /|r Elizabeth Shepley Sergeant (From Shadow-Shapes) --|t "After they've seen Paree" : New York, Winter 1919 /|r Sam M. Lewis and Joe Young (How 'ya gonna keep 'em down on the farm?) --|t "A clear and present danger" : Washington, D.C., March 1919 /|r Oliver Wendell Holmes (Opinion in Schenck v. United States, March 3, 1919) --|t Wilson at the Peace Conference, France, March-April 1919 /|r Ray Stannard Baker (Diary, March 8, April 3-5, and April 7, 1919) --|t Returning home, Germany and the Atlantic, March-April 1919 /|r Vernon E. Kniptash (Diary, March 30-April 1 and April 18-19, 1919) --|t "Snobbishness and caste" : the Atlantic, April 1919 /|r Elmer W. Sherwood (Diary, April 18-21, 1919) --|t Old trucks and new cars, Germany, April 1919 /|r Clyde D. Eoff (to Josephine Eoff, April 28, 1919) --|t Returning to "a shameful land" : New York, May 1919 /|r W.E.B. Du Bois (Returning soldiers) --|t Confronting injustice, Los Angeles, Winter 1919 /|r Charles R. Isum (to W.E.B. Du Bois, May 17, 1919) --|t "The peace feast" : May 1919 /|r Will Rogers (From Rogers-isms : the cowboy philosopher on the Peace Conference) --Memorial Day Address at Suresnes, France, May 30, 1919 /|r Woodrow Wilson --|t "The big men of the world" : New York, July 1919 /|r Claude McKay (The little peoples) --|t American propaganda, 1917-1919 /|r George Creel (The "second lines") --Address to the Senate on the League of Nations, July 10, 1919, Washington, D.C. /|r Woodrow Wilson --|t Naming the war, Washington, D.C., July 1919 /|r Newton D. Baker and Woodrow Wilson (An exchange, July 23 and 31, 1919) --|t "This murky covenant" : Washington, D.C., August 1919 /|r Henry Cabot Lodge (Speech in the U.S. Senate on the League of Nations, August 12, 1919) --|t "The new negro has arrived" : New York, September 1919 /|r W.A. Domingo and Claude McKay ("If we must die") --Speech at Pueblo, Colorado, September 25, 1919 /|r Woodrow Wilson --|t "Free trade in ideas" : Washington, D.C., November 1919 /|r Oliver Wendell Holmes (Dissenting opinion in Abrams v. United States, November 10, 1919) --|t Deporting radicals, New York, December 1919 /|r William N. Vaile (Before the Buford sailed) --|t "Walked eye-deep in hell" : England, Spring 1920 /|r Ezra Pound (From Hugh Selwyn Mauberley) --|t Measuring psychic wounds, 1919-1920 /|r Norman Fenton (From Shell shock and its aftermath) --|t Recalling wartime deception, 1917-1920 /|r Frederick Palmer (From The folly of nations) --|t A dissenting professor, Ohio and New York, 1914-1921 /|r Ludwig Lewisohn (Myth and blood) --|t Address at the burial of an unknown American soldier, Arlington, November 11, 1921 /|r Warren G. Harding --|t Soldier's Home /|r Ernest Hemingway --|t My sweet old etcetera /|r E.E. Cummings --|t The body of an American /|r John Dos Passos.