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World War I and the Making of the Modern American Citizen
IN APRIL 1917, THE UNITED STATES embarked
on World War I—with little history of conscription,
an army smaller than Romania’s, and a
political culture that saw little role for the federal
government other than delivering the mail.
Uncle
Sam Wants You tells the gripping story of the
American homefront in World War I, revealing how
the tensions of mass mobilization led to a significant
increase in federal power in Washington.
Christopher
Capozzola shows how, in the absence of a strong federal
government, Americans at first mobilized society
by stressing duty, obligation, and responsibility over
rights and freedoms. But the heated temper of war
made America the scene of some of the nation’s most
serious political violence, including notorious
episodes of outright mob violence. To solve this problem, Americans turned over
increasing amounts of power to the central government.
In the end, Americans of the
WWI era created a new American state, and new ways of being American citizens—
many of which we are still stuck with today.
Hardback, 334 pages, #SAM, $38.
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