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World War I and America: Told by the Americans Who Lived It

127 selections by nearly ninety soldiers, airmen, nurses, diplomats, statesmen, political activists, journalists, and others More

Edited by A. Scott Berg

“Situated at or near the top of America’s long list of ‘forgotten wars’ is the Great War of 1914–1918. The United States entered the conflict belatedly, and most Americans soon regretted having done so at all. Now, a century later, comes A. Scott Berg’s brilliant anthology to make remembering possible and even imperative. The result is gripping, simultaneously sobering and illuminating.”—Andrew J. Bacevich, author of America’s War for the Greater Middle East: A Military History

Overview
News & Views
Table of Contents
Contributors

Overview

News 55 organizations in 25 states and DC win funding in Round One of LOA’s World War I and America initiative
May 5, 2020

Story of the Week Henry A. May, “Influenza on a Troopship”
March 27, 2020

Story of the Week Woodrow Wilson, “Memorial Day Address at Suresnes”
May 30, 2019

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Companion website: Please visit WWIAmerica.org for an interactive timeline, a reading group guide, and video readings and commentary by historians and veteran-writers.

“The world must be made safe for democracy,” Woodrow Wilson declared a century ago, as he led the nation into war. World War I and America: Told by the Americans Who Lived It brings together 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 repression that divided postwar America. The writing gathered here illuminates, 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?

Among the writers: war correspondent Richard Harding Davis witnesses the burning of Louvain; Edith Wharton tours the war zones in the Argonne and Flanders; John Reed records the devastation in Serbia and Galicia; diplomats Henry Morgenthau and Leslie Davis report on the extermination of the Armenians; Jane Addams and Emma Goldman warn against militarism; pilots Victor Chapman and Edmond Genet describe flying with the Lafayette Escadrille; infantry officer Hervey Allen recalls the hellish fighting at Fismette; nurses Ellen N. La Motte and Mary Borden depict the “human wreckage” brought into military hospitals; suffragist Carrie Chapman Catt connects the war with the struggle for women’s rights; and Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes considers the limits of free speech in wartime. W. E. B. Du Bois, James Weldon Johnson, and Jessie Redmon Fauset expose the contradiction between the nation’s claim to be fighting for democracy abroad and its brutal treatment of African Americans at home. The international role of the United States is debated in strikingly contemporary terms by Wilson and his critics, as the nation grapples with its emergence as a leading world power.

A coda presents three iconic literary works by Ernest Hemingway, E. E. Cummings, and John Dos Passos that capture the postwar disillusionment felt by many Americans. Includes headnotes, a chronology of events, biographical and explanatory endnotes, and an index.

A. Scott Berg, editor, is the author of Wilson (2013), an acclaimed biography of the twenty-eighth president, Kate Remembered (2003), Lindbergh (1998), which won the Pulitzer Prize for Biography, Goldwyn (1989), and Max Perkins: Editor of Genius (1978), winner of the National Book Award. Berg has been assisted by an editorial advisory board comprised of historians Jennifer D. Keene (Chapman University), Edward G. Lengel (University of Virginia), Michael S. Neiberg (U.S. Army War College), and Chad Williams (Brandeis University).

This Library of America series edition is printed on acid-free paper and features Smyth-sewn binding, a full cloth cover, and a ribbon marker.

Project support for this volume was provided by Elihu Rose, in memory of Pvt. Samuel B. Rose (1889–1964), of Company G, 322nd Infantry Regiment, 81st (Wildcat) Division, American Expeditionary Forces, France 1918.

This volume was also made possible by World War I and America, a two-year Library of America initiative supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities that brings veterans and their families together with the general public to explore the continuing relevance of the war by reading, discussing, and sharing insights into the writings of Americans who experienced it firsthand.

World War I and America: Told by the Americans Who Lived It is kept in print by a gift from Mary Carr Patton to the Guardians of American Letters Fund.
News & Views

News 55 organizations in 25 states and DC win funding in Round One of LOA’s World War I and America initiative
May 5, 2020

Story of the Week Henry A. May, “Influenza on a Troopship”
March 27, 2020

Story of the Week Woodrow Wilson, “Memorial Day Address at Suresnes”
May 30, 2019

Story of the Week Harry S. Truman, “Waiting for the Armistice”
November 12, 2018

Story of the Week Ashby Williams, “I Am Not Dead”
October 5, 2018
Table of Contents

The New York Times: Heir to Austria’s Throne Is Slain • Death of an Archduke: Sarajevo, June 29, 1914
Hugh Gibson: from A Journal from Our Legation in Belgium • The War Begins: Belgium, July–August 1914
Walter Hines Page: Memorandum • “The Grand Smash Is Come”: London, August 1914
Hugo Munsterberg to the Boston Herald • Defending Germany: Massachusetts, August 1914
Walter Hines Page to Woodrow Wilson • Britain Goes to War: London, August 1914
Woodrow Wilson: Statement on Neutrality • Washington, D.C., August 1914
Richard Harding Davis to the New York Tribune • The Fall of Brussels and Burning of Louvain: Belgium, August 1914
Theodore Roosevelt to Hugo Munsterberg • “Justice and Fair Play”: Long Island, October 1914
W.E.B. Du Bois: World War and the Color Line • “White Imperialism”: New York, November 1914
Nellie Bly to the New York Evening Journal • “Hungry, Wet, Weary”: Przemyśl and Budapest, October–November 1914
George Santayana: The Logic of Fanaticism • “A Vain Hatred”: England, November 1914
Alfred Bryan: I Didn’t Raise My Boy to Be a Soldier • “My Boy Belongs to Me”: New York, January 1915
Edith Wharton: In Argonne • “The War-Vision”: France, February–March 1915
John Reed: Goutchevo and the Valley of Corpses • “A Fifty-Mile Grave”: Serbia, April 1915
Charles E. Lauriat Jr.: from The Lusitania’s Last Voyage • “The Final Plunge”: Off the Irish Coast, May 1915
Woodrow Wilson: Address to Naturalized Citizens at Convention Hall, Philadelphia • Philadelphia, May 1915
The New York Times: Roosevelt for Prompt Action • “There Are Things Worse Than War”: New York, May 1915
William Jennings Bryan to Gottlieb von Jagow • “The Sacred Freedom of the Seas”: Washington, D.C., May 1915
Henry Morgenthau to William Jennings Bryan • Reports of Armenian Massacres: Istanbul, May 1915
W.E.B. Du Bois: Lusitania • “The Lie Unveiled”: New York, June 1915
Robert Lansing to Gottlieb von Jagow • “The Rights of Humanity”: Washington, D.C., June 1915
John Reed: Zalezchik the Terrible • With the Russian Army: Galicia, June 1915
Edith Wharton: In the North • Ypres and Dunkirk: Flanders, June 1915
Henry James to Herbert Henry Asquith • Changing Nationality: London, June 1915
Leslie Davis to Henry Morgenthau • “To Destroy the Armenian Race”: Eastern Anatolia, June–July 1915
Henry Morgenthau to Robert Lansing • “A Campaign of Race Extermination”: Istanbul, July 1915
Jane Addams: The Revolt Against War • An Appeal for Peace: New York, July 1915
Richard Harding Davis to The New York Times • A Response to Jane Addams: New York, July 1915
Alan Seeger: Diary, and letter to Elsie Simmons Seeger • Second Battle of Champagne: France, September–October 1915
James Norman Hall: Damaged Trenches • Battle of Loos: France, October 1915
Henry Morgenthau to Robert Lansing • Assessing the Ottoman Leadership: Istanbul, November 1915
Theodore Roosevelt to William Castle Jr. • “A More Ignoble Sentiment”: Long Island, November 1915
Emma Goldman: Preparedness, the Road to Universal Slaughter • “The War Anesthesis”: New York, December 1915
George E. Riis to The Brooklyn Daily Eagle • The Ford Peace Ship: Scotland, December 1915
Alan Seeger: I Have a Rendezvous with Death • “Some Scarred Slope”: France, Winter 1916
Ellen N. La Motte: Alone • Gas Gangrene: Flanders, Spring 1916
Woodrow Wilson: Address to Congress • Washington, D.C., April 1916
William B. Seabrook: from Diary of Section VIII • “Baptism of Fire”: France, May 1916
Victor Chapman to John Jay Chapman • Flying over Verdun: France, June 1916
Mary Borden: Conspiracy • Broken and Mended: France, Summer 1916
Herbert Bayard Swope: Boelcke, Knight of the Air • A German Ace: France, October 1916
Theodore Roosevelt: Speech at Cooper Union • Wilson’s Failures: New York, November 1916
John Jay Chapman to the Harvard Alumni Bulletin • A “Monument to Zero”: Massachusetts, January 1917
Robert Frost: Not to Keep • “To Go Again”: Winter 1917
Woodrow Wilson: Address to the Senate • Washington, D.C., January 1917
H. L. Mencken: “The Diary of a Retreat” • U-Boat Warfare: Germany, February 1917
Robert Lansing: Memorandum on the Severance of Diplomatic Relations with Germany • Washington, D.C., January–February 1917
New York Tribune: Germany Asks Mexico to Seek Alliance with Japan for War on U.S. • The Zimmermann Telegram: Washington, D.C., February 1917
Edmond C. C. Genet: Diary • The Lafayette Escadrille: France, March 1917
Woodrow Wilson: Address to Congress on War with Germany • Washington, D.C., April 1917
George Norris: Speech in the U.S. Senate • “Let Europe Solve Her Problems”: Washington, D.C., April 1917
George M. Cohan: Over There • “The Yanks Are Coming”: New York, April 1917
Majority Report of the St. Louis Socialist Convention • Opposing Capitalist War: Missouri, April 1917
Walter Lippmann: The World Conflict in Its Relation to American Democracy • “A Union of Liberal Peoples”: Philadelphia, April 1917
Herbert Hoover: Introduction to Women of Belgium • Feeding Belgium: April 1917
The New York Times: German Airmen Kill 97, Hurt 437 in London Raid • Bombers Over London: England, June 1917
Woodrow Wilson: Flag Day Address in Washington, D.C. • Washington, D.C., June 1917
Randolph Bourne: The War and the Intellectuals • “The Riveting of the War-Mind”: New York, June 1917
Carlos F. Hurd to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch • The East St. Louis Race Riot: Illinois, July 1917
Norman Thomas: War’s Heretics, a Plea for the Conscientious Objector • “The Social Value of Heresy”: New York, August 1917
Jessie Fauset to The Survey • “Moral Disintegration”: New York, August 1917
John Dos Passos to Rumsey Marvin • “The War Is Utter Damn Nonsense”: France, August 1917
Martha Gruening: Houston, an N.A.A.C.P. Investigation • Black Soldiers Rebel: Texas, August 1917
Dorothy Canfield Fisher to Sarah Cleghorn • Defending Free Speech in America: France, September 1917
James Weldon Johnson: Experienced Men Wanted • Black Leaders for Black Troops: New York, November 1917
Carrie Chapman Catt: Votes for All • Every Woman’s Struggle: New York, November 1917
Mary Borden: Unidentified • “This Nameless Man”: France, Autumn 1917
Charles J. Biddle: from The Way of the Eagle • Shooting Down a “Hun”: France, December 1917
Bernice Evans: The Sayings of Patsy • Wartime Work for Women: New York, December 1917
Woodrow Wilson: Address to Congress on War Aims • Washington, D.C., January 1918
Shirley Millard: from I Saw Them Die • “Stabbing Cries of Pain”: France, March 1918
John J. Pershing: Remarks to the Officers of the 1st Division • The “Will to Win”: France, April 1918
Shirley Millard: from I Saw Them Die • “How Can I Be Glad?”: France, May 1918
Floyd Gibbons: Wounded—How It Feels to Be Shot • Battle of Belleau Wood: France, June 1918
Frederick A. Pottle: from_ Stretchers_ • Treating American Wounded: France, June 1918
James Weldon Johnson: “Why Should a Negro Fight?” • Rights and Duties: New York, June 1918
W.E.B. Du Bois: Close Ranks • “The Crisis of the World”: New York, July 1918
Hubert H. Harrison: Why Is the Red Cross? • Refusing Black Nurses: New York, July 1918
Ernest Hemingway to His Family • Wounded at the Front: Italy, July 1918
Woodrow Wilson: Statement on Lynching • Washington, D.C., July 1918
James Reese Europe: On Patrol in No Man’s Land • “Ain’t It Grand?”: France, July 1918
Shirley Millard: from I Saw Them Die • “Real Nobility”: France, July 1918
Hervey Allen: from Toward the Flame • Battle of Fismette: France, August 1918
Ernest Hemingway to His Family • “Hurting Like 227 Little Devils”: Italy, August 1918
Frederick Trevenen Edwards to Frederick Edwards • The St. Mihiel Offensive: France, September 1918
Eugene V. Debs: Speech to the Court • “Gold Is God”: Ohio, September 1918
Willa Sibert Cather: Roll Call on the Prairies • “Living in the War”: Nebraska, Summer 1918
Ashby Williams: from Experiences of the Great War • “The Hellish Thing”: France, September 1918
Edward C. Lukens: from A Blue Ridge Memoir • Battle of the Meuse-Argonne: France, September 1918
Horace Pippin: from “Autobiography, First World War” • The “Harlem Hellfighters” Attack: France, September 1918
Ernest W. Gibson: from “History of First Vermont and 57th Pioneer Infantry” • “The Dreaded Influenza”: Crossing the Atlantic, September–October 1918
Henry A. May: from History of the U.S.S. Leviathan • Influenza on a Troopship: The Atlantic, September–October 1918
Woodrow Wilson: Address to the Senate on Woman Suffrage • Washington, D.C., September 1918
Ashby Williams: from Experiences of the Great War • “I Am Not Dead”: France, October 1918
Damon Runyon: Runyon Sees Return of Lost New York Battalion • Surrounded in the Argonne: France, October 1918
Woodrow Wilson: Second and Third Peace Notes to Germany • Washington, D.C., October 1918
John J. Pershing to the Supreme War Council • Setting Armistice Terms: France, October 1918
Harry S. Truman to Bess Wallace • Waiting for the Armistice: France, November 1918
Robert J. Casey: from The Cannoneers Have Hairy Ears • “The Silence Is Oppressive”: France, November 1918
Elizabeth Shepley Sergeant: from Shadow-Shapes • Wilson Arrives in Paris: France, December 1918
Sam M. Lewis and Joe Young: How ’Ya Gonna Keep ’Em Down on the Farm? • “After They’ve Seen Paree”: New York, Winter 1919
Oliver Wendell Holmes: Opinion in Schenck v. United States • “A Clear and Present Danger”: Washington, D.C., March 1919
Ray Stannard Baker: Diary • Wilson at the Peace Conference: France, March–April 1919
Vernon E. Kniptash: Diary • Returning Home: Germany and the Atlantic, March–April 1919
Elmer W. Sherwood: Diary • “Snobbishness and Caste”: The Atlantic, April 1919
Clyde D. Eoff to Josephine Eoff • Old Trucks and New Cars: Germany, April 1919
W.E.B. Du Bois: Returning Soldiers • Returning to “A Shameful Land”: New York, May 1919
Charles R. Isum to W.E.B. Du Bois • Confronting Injustice: Los Angeles, Winter 1919
Will Rogers: from Rogers-isms: The Cowboy Philosopher on the Peace Conference • “The Peace Feast”: May 1919
Woodrow Wilson: Memorial Day Address at Suresnes • France, May 1919
Claude McKay: The Little Peoples • “The Big Men of the World”: New York, July 1919
George Creel: The “Second Lines” • American Propaganda: 1917–1919
Woodrow Wilson: Address to the Senate on the League of Nations • Washington, D.C., July 1919
Newton D. Baker and Woodrow Wilson: An Exchange • Naming the War: Washington, D.C., July 1919
Henry Cabot Lodge: Speech in the U.S. Senate on the League of Nations • “This Murky Covenant”: Washington, D.C., August 1919
W. A. Domingo and Claude McKay: “If We Must Die” • “The New Negro Has Arrived”: New York, September 1919
Woodrow Wilson: Speech at Pueblo, Colorado • Colorado, September 1919
Oliver Wendell Holmes: Dissenting Opinion in Abrams v. United States • “Free Trade in Ideas”: Washington, D.C., November 1919
William N. Vaile: Before the Buford Sailed • Deporting Radicals: New York, December 1919
Ezra Pound: from Hugh Selwyn Mauberley • “Walked Eye-Deep in Hell”: England, Spring 1920
Norman Fenton: from Shell Shock and Its Aftermath • Measuring Psychic Wounds: 1919–1920
Frederick Palmer: from The Folly of Nations • Recalling Wartime Deception: 1917–1920
Ludwig Lewisohn: Myth and Blood • A Dissenting Professor: Ohio and New York, 1914–1921
Warren G. Harding: Address at the Burial of an Unknown American Soldier • Arlington, November 1921

CODA
Ernest Hemingway: Soldier’s Home
E. E. Cummings: my sweet old etcetera
John Dos Passos: The Body of an American

Chronology
Biographical Notes
Note on the Texts
Notes
Index
Contributors

Jane Addams
Hervey Allen
Newton D. Baker
Ray Stannard Baker
Charles J. Biddle
Nellie Bly
Mary Borden
Randolph Bourne
Alfred Bryan
William Jennings Bryan
Robert J. Casey
Willa Sibert Cather
Carrie Chapman Catt
John Jay Chapman
Victor Chapman
George M. Cohan
George Creel
E. E. Cummings
Leslie Davis
Richard Harding Davis
Eugene V. Debs
W. A. Domingo
John Dos Passos
W.E.B. Du Bois
Frederick Trevenen Edwards
Clyde D. Eoff
James Reese Europe
Bernice Evans
Jessie Fauset
Norman Fenton
Dorothy Canfield Fisher
Robert Frost
Edmond C. C. Genet
Floyd Gibbons
Ernest W. Gibson
Hugh Gibson
Emma Goldman
Martha Gruening
James Norman Hall
Warren G. Harding
Hubert H. Harrison
Ernest Hemingway
Oliver Wendell Holmes
Herbert Hoover
Carlos F. Hurd
Charles R. Isum
Henry James
James Weldon Johnson
Vernon E. Kniptash
Ellen N. La Motte
Robert Lansing
Charles E. Lauriat Jr.
Sam M. Lewis
Ludwig Lewisohn
Walter Lippmann
Henry Cabot Lodge
Edward C. Lukens
Henry A. May
Claude McKay
H. L. Mencken
Shirley Millard
Henry Morgenthau
Hugo Munsterberg
George Norris
Walter Hines Page
Frederick Palmer
John J. Pershing
Horace Pippin
Frederick A. Pottle
Ezra Pound
John Reed
George E. Riis
Will Rogers
Theodore Roosevelt
Damon Runyon
George Santayana
William B. Seabrook
Alan Seeger
Elizabeth Shepley Sergeant
Elmer W. Sherwood
Herbert Bayard Swope
Norman Thomas
Harry S. Truman
William N. Vaile
Edith Wharton
Ashby Williams
Woodrow Wilson
Joe Young

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