The World Remade
America in World War I
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- $5.99
Publisher Description
A piercing, indispensable account of America’s pivotal involvement in World War I, rich with fresh insights into the tumultuous politics and towering historical figures that defined the era—from the New York Times bestselling author of The World Unmade
“[The World Remade] succeeds brilliantly . . . Meyer tells the story with brio. Characters come alive and the past seems near.”—Publishers Weekly
After years of bitter debate, the United States declared war on Imperial Germany on April 6, 1917, plunging the country into the vicious European conflict that would redraw the globe. When it declared war, the United States was the youngest of the major powers and militarily the weakest by far. On November 11, 1918, when the fighting stopped, it was not only the richest country on earth but the mightiest.
With the mercurial, autocratic President Woodrow Wilson as a primary focus, G. J. Meyer takes readers from the heated deliberations over U.S. involvement, through the provocations and manipulations that drew us into the fight, to the battlefield itself and the shattering aftermath of the struggle. Though America’s entry into the Great War was instrumental to the defeat of Germany, victory led to a peace treaty so ill-conceived, so vindictive, that the world was put on the road to an even bloodier confrontation.
On the home front, Meyer recounts the break-up of traditional class structures, the rise of the progressive and labor movements, the wave of anti-German hysteria, and the explosive expansion of both the economy and federal power, including shocking suspensions of constitutional protections that planted the seeds of today’s national security state.
Stunning in scope, The World Remade interweaves the many strands of this story into a gripping narrative that casts new light on one of the darkest, most forgotten corners of U.S. history and adds a compelling, uniquely American dimension to our understanding of the seminal conflict of the twentieth century.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Meyer (The Borgias) marks the centenary of America's entry into WWI with a volume to complement his 2006 book on WWI, A World Undone, in which he largely left the U.S. out of the picture. Here, with great skill and fidelity to fact, Meyer fills that gap to relate the complex tale of a nation venturing back into world affairs after a century of comparative isolation. Necessarily, European events intrude, from the 1914 assassination of Archduke Ferdinand through the long slog of battlefield terror. But Meyer keeps his eye resolutely on American affairs to depict a nation struggling to create a military force, deal with internal opposition, and go to Europe's aid. Like so many writers of popular history, Meyer tells the story with brio. Characters come alive and the past seems near. But as with so many volumes of popular history, the tale is all there is; neither interpretation nor grand idea intrudes. Meyer adds little to the existing record, opting to rely on earlier historians and meld their work "into a single narrative of what is now known." Fortunately, Meyer succeeds brilliantly with his basic narrative approach, and any reader who wants to learn about American participation in the war will benefit from this book.
