Woodrow Wilson and World War I, 1917-21

The entry of the United States into World War I was a major turning point in the history of the twentieth century, for it assured the victory of the Allies over Imperial Germany in November 1918. In this stirring and scrupulously researched new volume in The New American Nation Series, Robert Ferrell has illuminated the crucial role of Woodrow Wilson as a wartime President and his tragic inability to gain passage in the Senate for the Treaty of Versailles--and thereby U.S. entry into the League of Nations.The United States sent two million men to fight in France, in a tremendous nationalist fervor that gripped both the soldiers and the unprecedented civilian support system that grew up almost overnight. American industry mobilized to produce the necessary ships, tanks, and planes, although without the effectiveness of the buildup in World War II. The American fighting men were untested and in part poorly trained, but they prevailed by sheer numbers and in a year and a half the war was over.Upon return from the Peace Conference, President Wilson was virtually immobilized by a crippling stroke and isolated from the battle in the Senate over the treaty and the League. The country was almost leaderless for months until the Democratic party's defeat in the election of 1920.Woodrow Wilson and World War I is an account of great military accomplishment and--alas--of great political failure, in which the country showed it was not ready to accept its pivotal role in world affairs.