LIFE World War I: The Great War and the American Century
()
About this ebook
Includes:
- How the actions of teenage Bosnian nationalists set the war in motion-and why European leaders could not (or would not) stop it
- The birth of modern warfare and the brutal results that came with poison gas, airplanes and tanks
- American leaders facing a future in which isolation is no longer an option
- How the underprepared U.S. military helped put an end to years of war-and emerged one of the world's great fighting forces
- Plus: the Versailles Treaty and the League of Nations and how they failed to avert an even more cataclysmic war two decades later
Read more from The Editors Of Life
LIFE Bob Dylan Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5LIFE Queen Elizabeth at 90: The Story of Britain's Longest Reigning Monarch Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5LIFE Diana: A Princess Remembered Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5LIFE Inside the Disney Parks: The Happiest Places on Earth Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5LIFE The Rat Pack: The Original Bad Boys Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5LIFE Walt Disney: From Mickey to the Magic Kingdom Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5LIFE Pearl Harbor: 75 Years Later: The Attach - The Aftermath - The Legacy Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5LIFE The Moon Landing: 50 Years Later Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5LIFE The World's Most Haunted Places: Creepy, Ghostly, and Notorious Spots Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5LIFE Royal Weddings: Grandeur, Romance, and Tradition Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLIFE Chicago Cubs: Champions at Last Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLIFE The Enduring Legacy of Harper Lee and To Kill a Mockingbird Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLIFE Anne Frank: The Diary at 70: Her Life and Her Legacy Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5LIFE Mickey Mouse at 90: LIFE Celebrates an American Icon Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLIFE Casablanca: The Most Beloved Movie of All Time Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLIFE Sherlock Holmes: The Story Behind the World's Greatest Detective Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5LIFE 1968: The Year That Changed America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5LIFE Robert. F. Kennedy (BAZ Billing): An American Legacy, 50 Years Later Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLIFE The Vietnam Wars: 50 Years Ago--Two Countries Torn Apart Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5LIFE Hidden Hollywood: Rare Images of a Golden Age Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5LIFE The Dead Sea Scrolls: The Race to Solve an Ancient Mystery Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLIFE Queen Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5LIFE John F. Kennedy: The Legacy Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLIFE Dogs: Why We Need Them. Why They Need Us. Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLIFE Cats Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5LIFE The 1960s: The Decade When Everything Changed Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5LIFE The Great Space Race: How the U.S. Beat the Russians to the Moon Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLIFE Remembering Kurt Cobain: The Icon at 50 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLIFE Manson Family Murders Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5LIFE Godzilla Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Related to LIFE World War I
Related ebooks
LIFE D-Day Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5LIFE A Story of America in 100 Photos Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLIFE Pearl Harbor: 75 Years Later: The Attach - The Aftermath - The Legacy Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5LIFE The Moon Landing: 50 Years Later Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5LIFE The 1960s: The Decade When Everything Changed Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5LIFE The Vietnam Wars: 50 Years Ago--Two Countries Torn Apart Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5LIFE Heroes of World War II: Men and Women Who Put Their Lives on the Line Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLIFE 1968: The Year That Changed America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Score of a Lifetime: 25 Years Talking Chicago Sports Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLIFE Movies of the 1980s: A Look Back at the Decade's Best Films Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5LIFE Woodstock at 50 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLIFE John F. Kennedy: The Legacy Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPEOPLE Olympics 2016: The Best of the Games: Gold and Glory Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPEOPLE The Story of the Beatles Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLIFE Around the World in 80 Places: From Scenic Cities to Sensational Vistas to the Seven Seas Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPEOPLE Celebrating Beatlemania Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLIFE Paradise Found: 100 Places - Beautiful Beyond Belief Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLIFE Remembering John Lennon Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRock and Roll Meltdown: The Circus Nightclub Story 1979 – 1983 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLIFE The Beatles Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5LIFE Gone Too Soon: The 27 Club - Rock Icons Who Died Too Soon Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Chicago 77: A Community Area Handbook Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLIFE Jesus Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLegends Never Die: Athletes and their Afterlives in Modern America Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings100 Things Minnesota Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLos Angeles's Historic Ballparks Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLIFE Robert. F. Kennedy (BAZ Billing): An American Legacy, 50 Years Later Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLIFE First Ladies: Portraits of Grace and Leadership Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBusch Gardens Tampa Bay Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5
Wars & Military For You
Masters of the Air: America's Bomber Boys Who Fought the Air War Against Nazi Germany Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sun Tzu's The Art of War: Bilingual Edition Complete Chinese and English Text Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Art of War Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Resistance: The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Killing the SS: The Hunt for the Worst War Criminals in History Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Last Kingdom Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Daily Creativity Journal Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a Nuclear War Planner Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Art of War: The Definitive Interpretation of Sun Tzu's Classic Book of Strategy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Blitzed: Drugs in the Third Reich Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Making of the Atomic Bomb Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Faithful Spy: Dietrich Bonhoeffer and the Plot to Kill Hitler Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Art of War & Other Classics of Eastern Philosophy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mein Kampf: The Original, Accurate, and Complete English Translation Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings77 Days of February: Living and Dying in Ukraine, Told by the Nation’s Own Journalists Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The God Delusion Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Only Plane in the Sky: An Oral History of 9/11 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Rise of the Fourth Reich: The Secret Societies That Threaten to Take Over America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Band of Brothers: E Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne from Normandy to Hitler's Eagle's Nest Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Unacknowledged: An Expose of the World's Greatest Secret Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Doctors From Hell: The Horrific Account of Nazi Experiments on Humans Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Girls of Atomic City: The Untold Story of the Women Who Helped Win World War II Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5God Is Not One: The Eight Rival Religions That Run the World--and Why Their Differences Matter Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for LIFE World War I
0 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
LIFE World War I - The Editors of LIFE
1941.
Introduction
A Crisis that Redefined Us
By Leon Panetta
Former Secretary of Defense and Special Advisor to the United States World War One Centennial Commission
HARRIS & EWING/PAUL THOMPSON/FPG/HULTON/GETTY
ON ARMISTICE DAY, 1921, the body of an unidentified American, exhumed in France, was carried from the U.S. Capitol, above, to Arlington, Virginia, where President Warren G. Harding officiated at the dedication of the Tomb of the Unknowns.
On April 6, 1917, the United States entered the world’s stage by declaring war against Germany and joining the Allies in their fight to make the world safe for democracy. In the 19 months that followed, 4.7 million American men and women served in the Great War. Doughboys, as the American men in uniform were called, came from all walks of life: college students, lawyers, store clerks, farmers, and sharecroppers. All served—whites, African Americans, Native Americans, and recent immigrants from across the globe.
The two million troops that deployed overseas during World War I were led by General John J. Pershing, who organized the men into the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF). Pershing’s untested warriors proved themselves in pitched, grinding battles on the western front, at Cantigny, Belleau Wood, Château-Thierry, and St. Mihiel, and in the 47-day Meuse-Argonne Offensive, which involved more than one million doughboys. Still other Americans fought on battlefields in Italy, northern Russia, and Siberia. By the time the fighting ceased with an armistice at 11 a.m. on November 11, 1918, more than 115,000 Americans had died for their country, including more than 53,000 as the result of combat. At the time it was said this was the War to End All Wars.
No one could imagine that an even costlier world war would break out almost 20 years later.
Not only did World War I change how future conflicts would be fought and introduce technological advances in the treatment of battlefield casualties—such as the use of mobile X-ray machines, motorized ambulances, antiseptics and prosthetics—it also helped to bring the United States into the modern age. Despite these achievements, few people today fully recognize the contribution made by American men and women in 1917 and 1918.
World War I is the only major conflict involving the American military that does not have a national memorial in Washington, D.C. But, for decades after the war, monuments and memorials sprang up in cities and towns across the country. Streets, parks, and other landmarks were named for the great hero General Pershing. In 1981, the American Battle Monuments Commission placed one such memorial to Pershing and the AEF in Washington, just a block from the White House. Known as Pershing Park, the 52-by-75-foot plaza includes an eight-foot statue of Pershing and walls on the east and west sides of the memorial. One wall contains battle maps, while the other bears a transcription of Pershing’s tribute to the officers and men who served under him. And yet, over time, the park became neglected and was rarely visited.
Today, the United States World War One Centennial Commission, for which I proudly serve as a special advisor, has made it a core mission to establish a World War I memorial at Pershing Park to remind average people, just like those who wore a uniform a century ago, to step forward every day to protect and defend our country.
1914–1917
War in Europe and Peace at Home
As the world descends into conflict, the United States struggles with whether to join in
ROBERT HUNT COLLECTION/MARY EVANS
CANADIAN TROOPS leave their trenches and head over the top at the Battle of the Somme. The 141-day offensive in 1916 failed to break through the German line and led to more than one million dead and wounded of all nationalities.
As the Austro-Hungarian archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife, Countess Sophie Chotek, strolled through a bazaar in Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia-Herzegovina, on June 27, 1914, they passed carpet shops and coppersmiths, singing street clowns and citizens who happily greeted the couple. But as these visiting royals made their way through the market’s winding paths, they were not aware that 19-year-old Gavrilo Princip stalked