Discussions about US Entry into World War I in American Society (1914—1917)

Abstract

The article is devoted to the analysis of the public opinion of the United States of America regarding the participation of the American state in the First World War, which in Western historiography is referred to as the “Great War”. Based on a wide range of English-language sources (American press, posters, speeches by politicians, representatives of the church, public associations), the authors concluded that the American society ambiguously assessed the fact of the participation of the United States of America in the military conflict. One group of American citizens advocated intervention in the war to prevent relentless German submarine action and to determine the participation and role of the American state in making peace. Another group of the American population believed that the entry of the United States of America into a military conflict would facilitate the penetration of a militarized culture into the country, which would threaten American values. The proposed study may be of interest and be useful for rethinking the experience of interaction between the state and society in the process of solving the most important tasks, as well as for revealing certain issues of public reaction to the problems of the state during wartime.