Subject and Course Guides: U.S. History After 1865: World War I

Online Resources

The League of Nations - Office of the Historian
The League of Nations was an international organization, headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, created after the First World War to provide a forum for resolving international disputes. Though first proposed by President Woodrow Wilson as part of his Fourteen Points plan for an equitable peace in Europe, the United States never became a member.
Stars and Stripes: The American Soldiers' Newspaper of World War I, 1918-1919
Library of Congress Collection
The Volunteers: Americans Join World War I, 1914-1919
Individual Americans immediately volunteered for humanitarian and military service primarily with the Allies after World War I broke out in 1914. They volunteered as ambulance and truck drivers, as hospital workers, as flyers, as doctors and nurses. They crossed into Canada and received military training and were sent to Europe to fight under Allied flags. Americans joined the French Foreign Legion.
World War I: The Great War
So massive was the destruction wrought by this conflict that many thought it would be the war to end all wars—hence the eventual designation of it as “The Great War.” The United States had over 4.7 million men—and several thousand women—in uniform during World War I. While small in number, VHP’s WWI collections are a treasure trove of original primary sources, all of which offer insights into the experience of serving in the Great War.
World War I Documents - Internet Archive
Non-fiction texts related to the First World War 1914-1918.
World War I Sources - Sam Houston State University
Find and search American History primary source collections on the Internet
World War I Special Agencies - National Archives
These specialized agencies were established to handle matters relating to issues arising from World War I. The Department of State Central Decimal File for the period of the war includes records relating to the work and activities of these agencies, too. Some of those records are online.
Predecessor: The League of Nations
United Nations - Predecessor: The League of Nations
Women in World War I - National Museum of American History
With the onset of World War I, women took on these same roles and newer ones, but their service during this conflict was significantly different from that of earlier wars.

Databases

African American Newspapers (Parts I-XIV)
A collection of African American newspapers contains a wealth of information about cultural life and history during the 1800s and is rich with first-hand reports of the major events and issues of the day, including the Mexican War, Presidential and Congressional addresses, Congressional abstracts, business and commodity markets, the humanities, world travel and religion.
American History in Video
Provides over 6,000 videos to stream, including more than 3,000 documentaries, related to American history.
American History in Video allows students and researchers to analyze historical events, and their presentation over time, through documentaries, commercial and governmental newsreels and archival and public affairs footage. The collection currently contains over 6,000 videos, including more than 3,000 documentaries. It is the only online source for the full runs of newsreels from the United News and Universal Newsreel; important documentaries and series from The History Channel®; and archival footage. The collection covers all eras of American history, from the American Revolution to the Sixties. It can be searched/browsed by title, subject, topic/theme, publisher, and/or content type. Updated regularly.

NOTE: Users can register for a personal account to create custom clips, shareable playlists, folders, and more.
American Periodicals (1740 - 1940)
Provides access to full-text periodicals covering the American experience from the colonial era to the beginning of World War II.
American Periodical Series Online (APS Online) contains over 1,000 full-text periodicals published between 1740 and 1940, including special interest and general magazines, literary and professional journals, children's and women's magazines, and many other historically-significant periodicals. Titles in this database include: Benjamin Franklin's General Magazine; the first American professional journals; America's first scientific journal, Medical Repository; popular consumer magazines still in publication, such as Vanity Fair, Harper's Magazine, and Ladies' Home Journal; regional and niche publications; and groundbreaking journals like The Dial, Puck, and McClure's. Users are able to search the complete text, including tables of contents, by boolean and keyword operators. Articles are linked to the corresponding page images, downloadable in PDF format. Updated daily.
Gale OneFile: War and Terrorism
Researchers accessing the more than 1.7 million articles in Gale OneFile: War and Terrorism will gain valuable insight into conflicts and their causes, impact, and perception on a global scale. This definitive collection for analysts, risk management professionals, and students of military science, history, and social science is comprised of more than 200 subject-appropriate, full-text periodicals that are updated daily.
JSTOR: The Scholarly Journal Archive
JSTOR provides access to more than 12 million academic journal articles, books, and primary sources in 75 disciplines.
JSTOR (Journal Storage) is an archive collection of over 620 full-text scholarly journals primarily from university presses and professional society publishers. Additional titles are added to the collection as back files are digitized. Subject areas include: African American Studies, Anthropology, Asian Studies, Botany, Ecology, Economics, Education, Finance, Folklore, History, History of Science Technology, Language Literature, Mathematics, Philosophy, Political Science, Population Studies, Public Policy Administration, Science, Slavic Studies, Sociology, Statistics.
Military & Government Collection
Focused on current military affairs, covering areas of engineering, public affairs, public policy, and international affairs
This database is focused on current military affairs, covering areas of engineering, public affairs, public policy, and international affairs. Includes full text for nearly 300 journals, 245 pamphlets, and CountryWatch country reports. Indexing and abstracting is provided for nearly 400 titles.
North American Immigrant Letters, Diaries, and Oral Histories
This collection includes 2,162 authors and approximately 100,000 pages of information, so providing a unique and personal view of what it meant to immigrate to America and Canada between 1800 and 1950.
Composed of contemporaneous letters and diaries, oral histories, interviews, and other personal narratives, the series provides a rich source for scholars in a wide range of disciplines. In selected cases, users will be able to hear the actual audio voices of the immigrants. The collection will be particularly useful to researchers, because much of the original material is difficult to find, poorly indexed, and unpublished; most bibliographies of the immigrant focus on secondary research; and few oral histories have been published.
This work in progress is composed of the personal narratives of immigrants to North America, including Canada
North American Women's Letters and Diaries
This database includes diaries, journals, and letters written by women visiting or living in North America between the years 1700 and 1950.
This work in progress, when completed, will be the largest collection of women's diaries and correspondence ever assembled and include the personal experiences of 1,500 women from all social classes.
Oral History Online
Oral History Online is a database of English language oral histories.
Oral History Online contains more than 34,000 pages of full-text content including Ellis Island oral history narratives and rare Black Panther Party interviews. It is also an index to free oral history information on the Web. Indexed oral histories represent information from archives, repositories, and individuals around the world.
ProQuest Historical Newspapers: The Austin American Statesman (1871–1980)
This historical newspaper provides genealogists, researchers and scholars with online, easily-searchable first-hand accounts and unparalleled coverage of the politics, society and events of the time.
ProQuest Recent Newspapers: The New York Times
Full-page images of the New York Times from 2008 to recent (1 month embargo). This digitized newspaper provides genealogists, researchers and scholars with cover-to-cover access to recent newspaper content. Every page is full-text searchable.

Secondary Research - In our Collection

Breaking the Heart of the World by John Milton Cooper
ISBN: 0521807867

Publication Date: 2001-09-24

"The fight over the League of Nations at the end of World War I was one of the great political debates of the American twentieth century. President Woodrow Wilson, himself a key architect of the League, was uncompromising in his belief that the United States would rise to a position of leadership in the peaceful union of states that he had envisaged.
Changing the World by Alan Dawley
ISBN: 9780691122359

Publication Date: 2005-07-25

Introduction -- The new internationalism -- Empire and reform -- Messianic America -- World war and revolution -- World leader -- The millennial moment -- Retreat from reform -- Progressive rebirth -- Conclusion
Doughboys, the Great War, and the Remaking of America by Jennifer D. Keene
ISBN: 9780801874468

Publication Date: 2003-09-15

In Doughboys, the Great War, and the Remaking of America, Jennifer D. Keene argues that the doughboy experience in 1917-18 forged the U.S. Army of the twentieth century and ultimately led to the most sweeping piece of social-welfare legislation in the nation's history--the G.I. Bill.
Financial Missionaries to the World by Emily S. Rosenberg
ISBN: 0674000595

Publication Date: 1999-11-01

Recently, a volatile global economy has challenged the United States to rethink its financial policies toward economically troubled countries. Emily S. Rosenberg suggests that perplexing questions about how to standardize practices within the global financial system, and thereby strengthen market economics in unstable areas of the world, go back to the early decades of the century, dollar diplomacy - the practice of extending private U.S. bank loans in exchange for financial supervision over other nations - became America's major approach to stabilizing economies overseas and expanding its influence." "An innovative, interdisciplinary study, Financial Missionaries to the World illuminates the dilemmas of public/private cooperation in foreign economic policy and the persistent paradoxes of exercising financial power in the global marketplace.
Mobilizing Minerva by Kimberly Jensen
ISBN: 9780252032370

Publication Date: 2008-02-08

Negotiating gender and citizenship: Context for the first world war -- Gender and violence: Context and experience in the era of the world war -- "Whether We Vote of Not-We Are Going to Shoot": Women and armed defense on the home front -- "The Fighting, Biting, and Scratching Kind": Good girls, bad girls, and women's soldiering -- Uncle Sam's Loyal Nieces: Women Physicians, citizenship, and wartime military service -- Helping women who pay the "Rapacious Price" of war: Women's medical units in France -- A Base Hospital is not a Coney Island Dance Hall: Nurses, citizenship, hostile work environment, and military rank
A Nation under Our Feet by Steven Hahn
ISBN: 0674059581

Publication Date: 2009-07-01

This is the epic story of how African-Americans, in the six decades following slavery, transformed themselves into a political people--an embryonic black nation. As Steven Hahn demonstrates, rural African-Americans were central political actors in the great events of disunion, emancipation, and nation-building. At the same time, Hahn asks us to think in more expansive ways about the nature and boundaries of politics and political practice.
Torchbearers of Democracy by Chad L. Williams
ISBN: 9780807833940

Publication Date: 2010-09-20

Democracy at war : African Americans, citizenship, and the meanings of military service -- The "race question" : the U.S. government and the training experiences of African American soldiers -- The hell of war : African American soldiers in labor and combat -- Les soldats noir : France, Black military service, and the challenges of internationalism and diaspora -- Waging peace : the end of the war and the hope of democracy -- The war at home : African American veterans and violence in the long "red summer" -- Soldiers to "new Negroes" : African American veterans and postwar racial militancy -- Lest we forget : the war and African American soldiers in history and memory.
Uncle Sam Wants You by Christopher Capozzola
ISBN: 9780195335491

Publication Date: 2008-07-21

Uncle Sam wants you: World War I and the making of the modern American citizen
Why Wilson Matters by Tony Smith
ISBN: 0691183481

Publication Date: 2019-01-08

The liberal internationalist tradition is credited with America's greatest triumphs as a world power-and also its biggest failures. Beginning in the 1940s, imbued with the spirit of Woodrow Wilson's efforts at the League of Nations to "make the world safe for democracy," the United States steered a course in world affairs that would eventually win the Cold War. Yet in the 1990s, Wilsonianism turned imperialist, contributing directly to the invasion of Iraq in 2003 and the continued failures of American foreign policy.Why Wilson Matters explains how the liberal internationalist community can regain a sense of identity and purpose following the betrayal of Wilson's vision by the brash "neo-Wilsonianism" being pursued today.