A bracing, indispensable account of America's epoch-defining involvement in the Great War, rich with fresh insights into the key issues, events, tumultuous politics, and towering historical figures that defined the era and led to the emergence of the United States as the dominant global power.

 

After years of bitter debate and provocations on all sides, the U.S. declaration of war on Imperial Germany on April 6, 1917, plunged the country into the savage European conflict that would destroy--and remake--the world. Meyer interweaves the many strands of his story into a gripping narrative that casts new light on one of the darkest, most forgotten corners of U.S. history. In the grand tradition of his earlier work A World Undone--which centered on the European perspective--The World Remade adds a new, uniquely American dimension to our understanding of the seminal conflict of the twentieth century. Key topics and insights include a new look at the class-driven politics underlying debate on the war; a fresh portrait of an ego-driven, increasingly isolated Woodrow Wilson and his small circle of advisors, prime for manipulation by the British and French; incisive analysis of the dynamics that led to war, America's massive mobilization and the performance of its troops on the battlefield; and new scrutiny of Versailles and the aftermath that led to an even bloodier conflagration twenty years later. Domestically, 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.