Monday 1/24: World War I: What Happened, Why, and What Was It Like?

Zoom link for class is here. The passcode is 715045.

The recording of the class can be found here.

Please read/watch the following for class (PDFs to read are below. Hold your cursor over the top right corner of each document, and then click on the arrow -- it should open):

• Please watch this short documentary film from the British newspaper The Guardian, which was produced for the 100th anniversary of the start of WWI in 2014.

• Eric Hobsbawm, “The Age of Total War” (overview of WWI)

• President Wilson and Senator Norris (R-NE) debate war (1917)

• David Kennedy, “Over There” (experiences of US soldiers)

• The Espionage Act (1918) and Anti-war speech by Eugene Debs in Canton, OH, June 1918, excerpt

• Major General Smedley Butler, “War is a Racket” (1933), excerpt

• If you have the opportunity to watch the films "1917" or "They Shall Not Grow Old," you are welcome to do so -- they provide a good visual sense of the experience of combat.

Questions to consider for class:

• Why/how did World War I start? In the US, what arguments were made for and against it? Do you see any similarities to some current day controversies?

• Eugene Debs and many other Americans were arrested and imprisoned under the 1918 Espionage Act. Should free speech rights and dissent be curtailed in wartime? What are the arguments on both sides?

• According to David Kennedy, what was the experience of serving ‘over there’ like for American soldiers?

• How does ‘total war’ differ from the wars Americans have fought in recent decades?

• What does General Butler argue? Is he right?