by G. J. Meyer
First published 2018
G.J. Meyer examines how America entered World War I and emerged as a global superpower. The book centers on President Woodrow Wilson's leadership during this transformation. Meyer traces the heated debates over American involvement, the provocations that pushed the nation toward war, and the consequences of that decision. On April 6, 1917, the United States declared war on Imperial Germany. The country entered the conflict as the weakest major military power but finished as the world's richest and mightiest nation by November 11, 1918. Meyer explores the domestic changes that accompanied the war, including economic expansion, federal power growth, anti-German hysteria, and constitutional rights suspensions. He profiles key figures like Theodore Roosevelt, Henry Cabot Lodge, Eugene Debs, and military commander John J. Pershing, alongside European leaders such as David Lloyd George, Georges Clemenceau, and Kaiser Wilhelm II. The author argues that while American intervention enabled Allied victory, the vindictive peace treaty set the stage for an even deadlier conflict twenty years later.
Genres: history, 20th-century, political-science, non-fiction, biography-memoir, military-history, world-war-i, american-history
Vibes: intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: historical-drama, political-intrigue
Setting: America, Germany, Europe
Period: 1917, 1918
651 pages · Paperback · Bantam