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Summary A storm was brewing overseas in Europe. Germany attacked the Allies: Britain, France, US. The misery of modern war was suffered in the trenches. Human woe, but "never such a war again." For twenty years or so. Chapter With Henry Ford displaying business ingenuity, the brothers Wright were showing that the "great white bird" could be reality. The news from Mexico was troublesome, as Pancho Villa killed Americans. We might succumb at normal times to retribution, but a greater stage was set in Europe. Germany was ready to engage the "Allies" - Britain, France, and Russia. Archduke Ferdinand of Austria was killed, and German troops would now demand retaliation. (These events occurred, ironically, as Europe's "Great Illusion" claimed that "war was history.") The horrors of a modern war abounded: poison gas and weapons throwing flame, as infantry was killed en masse and tanks besieged the trenches. Germany controlled the seas, and sunk the neutral Lusitania, and by degrees aroused Americans. But Wilson "kept us out of war," and pacifists and socialists insisted we ignore the fight in Europe, though our intervention might have gained a quicker victory. Too long a time, though, we abstained, and now began the propaganda of the war machine: the hamburger's a "freedom sandwich," poster boards demean the German "Huns" and "apes." And now the public was in fear: a tough Sedition Act was passed ensuring no one smear America (though freedoms, for the greater part, remained). And business (with its "dollar men") unflaggingly sustained the war, supplying all its needs; and with the army small, Selective Service was begun, and soon the draft would call the "doughboys" out for General Pershing, hitting France relentlessly, with Alvin York depicting the romance of bravery in battle -- but in Europe, countless dead (some seven million) lay in graves, and anguish lay ahead for Germany, as Wilson's "Fourteen Points" would devastate the Deutschen Mark. So "Never such a war again!" But fate would see the Germans rise again, and Lenin's Communist regime. With Sacco and Vanzetti tried for anarchist attacks, and deadly bombing Communists still running free, there still remained some liberal extremist sympathy. |