America's War, as Viewed by Publishers and the Public
A Sudden Belligerent
In April 1917 President Woodrow Wilson, his administration and Congress found themselves no longer able to walk the tightrope of strict neutrality they had cautiously trod during the preceding thirty-two months. From August 1914 to this critical moment in 1917, the United States experienced escalating frustrations with the British blockade (including seizure/impound of merchant vessels destined for neutral ports and the blacklisting of American…
World War I Sheet Music at the Library of Congress
In 2013-14 the Library of Congress Music Division cataloged and scanned 14,004 unique titles, editions or printings of classified M1646 World War I sheet music. Although there are examples as early as 1914 and as late as 1920, the bulk of material comes from the years the United States participated in the war, 1917-18 and is music published in the United States. The number…
Major Themes
Cause, the Enemy and Ideals Although the United States' ultimate reason for entering the war was Germany's declaration of unrestricted submarine warfare, and although the single incident that most turned American popular opinion toward France and Britain was the sinking of the Lusitania, the manner in which submarine or U-boat warfare is depicted and the relatively few Lusitania songs in the collection may be…
Observations and Conclusions
The Committee on Public Information's "war for the American mind" centered on patriotism, democracy, the assimilation of all into a unified America, and as the agency gained in influence and power, attacks on enemies and suppression of dissent. Much has been made here and elsewhere of the CPI's overreaching attempts to control information, but it was not the only stakeholder in the nation's ideological…