The war to end all wars? Commemorate the 100th anniversary of the US entry to World War I at PPHM. Hear from students and historians, along with a special preview of Panhandle PBS’ American Experience: The Great War. Refreshments will be provided by Palace Coffee. The program is free. Call Samantha Biffle at 651-2242 for more information. Program is a collaboration between PPHM, WT History Department and Panhandle PBS.
Panelists and their topics include:
Dr. Bruce Brasington
Turnip Winter: The Western Front in Early 1917
By the winter of 1916-1917, the war had become total. Civilians now suffered alongside the men in the trenches. On the front, the war seemed as if it would never end, time now frozen in trenches of mud and blood. At home, everywhere there was discontent and unrest. A laborer in England wanted better pay and complained about inflation; widows in France mourned their dead. In Russia, revolutionaries planned to change the world. In Germany and Austria, people starved. America would soon begin its "Great Crusade." Her destination, however, would not at all resemble Jerusalem.
Dr. Bryan Vizzini
The Zimmerman Telegram in the Context of the Mexican Revolution
Germany’s gamble in sending the Zimmerman Telegram often raises eyebrows. What, so the reasoning goes, made Germany think for even a moment that Mexico might be persuaded to make war on the United States? In fact, U.S. relations with its southern neighbor were at their ebb, U.S. naval forces having fired upon the city of Veracruz in 1914, and Pancho Villa’s 1916 attack on Columbus, NM having precipitated President Wilson’s sending of the so-called Punitive Expedition into Mexico that same year. As Mexican forces fired upon American soldiers, the odds of war in fact seemed greater than ever.
Dr. Brian Ingrassia
Mobilizing Minds: America's Great War Home Front
To fight a modern war like World War I, nations had to mobilize as many resources as possible. These included natural resources, money, and manpower, as well as minds. As soon as the United States entered the war in April 1917, the federal government began conducting a multifaceted propaganda and censorship campaign. University professors monitored foreign-language publications while "Four Minute Men" were dispatched to give speeches around the country. As George Creel, head of the Committee of Public Information (CPI), put it, his job was to "advertise" America. Thus the intellectual resources of a deeply divided nation were mobilized for the Great War and, through various means, Americans soon found themselves unified behind the war effort--whether they liked it or not.
This program is part of World War I and America, a two-year national initiative of Library of America presented in partnership with The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, the National World War I Museum and Memorial, and other organizations, with generous support from The National Endowment for the Humanities.