USAHEC Educators' Toolbox: World War I and Interwar

The First Battle of the Marne produced the so-called Miracle of the Marne, when French and British forces stopped the initial German drive on Paris in 1914. Hundreds of thousands of casualties later, with opposing forces still dug into trench lines, the Germans tried again to push their way to Paris and to victory. The Second Battle of the Marne (July 15 to August 9, 1918) marks the point at which the Allied armies stopped the massive German Ludendorff Offensives and turned to offensive operations themselves. The Germans never again came as close to Paris nor resumed the offensive.

World War I marked the first war in which the United States government and military took full responsibility for the identification, burial, and memorialization of those killed in battle, and as a result, the process of burying and remembering the dead became intensely political. The government and military attempted to create a patriotic consensus on the historical memory of World War I in which war dead were not only honored but used as a symbol to legitimize America's participation in a war not fully supported by all citizens. The saga of American Soldiers killed in World War I and the efforts of the living to honor them is a neglected component of United States military history. In this fascinating yet often macabre account, Lisa M. Budreau unpacks the politics and processes of the competing interest groups involved in the three core components of commemoration: repatriation, remembrance, and return. She also describes how relatives of the fallen made pilgrimages to French battlefields. The pilgrimages were largely attended by American Legionnaires and the Gold Star Mothers, a group formed by mothers of sons killed in World War I, which exists to this day. Throughout, and with sensitivity to issues of race and gender, Bodies of War emphasizes the inherent tensions in the politics of memorialization and explores how those interests often conflicted with the needs of Veterans and relatives.

On April 2, 1917, Woodrow Wilson thrust the United States into World War I by declaring, "The world must be made safe for democracy." For the 380,000 African American soldiers who fought and labored in the global conflict, these words carried life or death meaning. Relating stories bridging the war and postwar years, spanning the streets of Chicago and the streets of Harlem, from the battlefields of the American South to the battlefields of the Western Front, Chad L. Williams reveals the central role of African American soldiers in World War I and how they, along with race activists and ordinary citizens alike, committed to fighting for democracy at home and beyond. Using a diverse range of sources, Williams connects the history of African American soldiers and veterans to issues such as the obligations of citizenship, combat and labor, diaspora and internationalism, homecoming and racial violence, "New Negro" militancy, and African American historical memories of the war. Democracy may have been distant from the everyday lives of African Americans at the dawn of the war, but it nevertheless remained a powerful ideal that sparked the hopes of black people throughout the country for societal change. Torchbearers of Democracy reclaims the legacy of black soldiers and establishes the World War I era as a defining moment in the history of African Americans and peoples of African descent more broadly.

In the early days of November 1918, over a million of General John "Black Jack" Pershing's doughboys emerged victorious from the bloody mists of the Argonne Forest. The battle, lasting 47 devastating days, was the largest Allied offensive of the largest war the world had yet seen. The shocking butcher's bill tallied more than 26,000 Americans dead on the field, and nearly 100,000 more being transported to the hospital. The toughness of the American Soldiers, coupled with Pershing's exemplary leadership, demonstrated to the world, and especially the German adversary, the formerly untested American Army had come of age.

Based on his recent book, Forty-Seven Days: How Pershings's Warriors Came of Age to Defeat the German Army in World War I, Dr. Mitchell Yockelson will lecture on General Pershing's leadership during the Battle of the Meuse-Argonne. The talk will center on Pershing's management of the American Expeditionary Forces' First Army during the struggle. He will discuss how, through excellent leadership, the Americans accomplished what the French and British failed to do over the preceding four years: beat the Germans.

Dr. Mitchell Yockelson is the author of Forty-Seven Days: How Pershing's Warriors Came of Age to Defeat the German Army in World War I; Borrowed Soldiers: Americans under British Command, 1918; MacArthur: America's General; and Grant: Savior of the Union. His work has appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, and the Los Angeles Times, and he has appeared on 60 Minutes, Fox News, PBS, and the History Channel. He has received the Army Historical Foundation's Distinguished Writing Award and earned his doctorate from the Royal Military College of Science, Cranfield University, in the United Kingdom. Yockelson is an investigative archivist at the National Archives and Records Administration, historical advisor to the U.S. World War One Centennial Commission, and former professor of military history at the United States Naval Academy. He leads World War I battlefield tours for the Smithsonian Journeys and New York Times Journeys series, and frequently lectures on military history.

In 191 days of fierce combat on the brutal front lines of World War I's bloodiest trenches, one of the American Expeditionary Force's units performed above and beyond the call of duty. The unit lost 280 men killed, but never gave up an inch of ground or lost a single man captured. Back home, the unit received accolades and the nom de guerre, "The Harlem Hellfighters," despite the prevailing racism of the day and the fact that the entire unit was black. In the trenches, however, the unit, self-identified as "The Harlem Rattlers," still dealt with racism and bigotry despite their proven prowess in combat. Dr. Jeffrey Sammons of New York University, and Dr. John Morrow, Jr. of the University of Georgia expand on the story of the 369th Infantry Regiment and take it beyond the injustices on the field of battle in their book, Harlem's Rattlers and the Great War: The Undaunted 369th Regiment and the African American Quest for Equality. In this lecture, they will go even further, connecting the African American Soldiers' struggle against the Germans and their own command to the wider context of racism in the Army and how the Harlem Rattlers set the groundwork for the Civil Rights Movement.