Documents from Reading the American Past

Chapter 22

Introduction to the Documents

With the declaration of war against Germany in 1917, the United States unmistakably asserted its status as a major power in world affairs. European nations had admired American economic might for decades and watched the politics of the nation's constitutional democracy with interest for more than a century. Now, by entering the war and claiming a decisive voice in the peace, the United States took its place as one of the powerful industrial nations that would shape global history in the twentieth century. The following documents illustrate the idealism of President Woodrow Wilson's supporters, the bitter criticism of the war by American socialists, the experience of combat, the postwar suppression of political radicals, and outbreaks of violence against African Americans.