History Commons^™

Finding A Place For World War I In American History: 1914-2018, Jennifer D. Keene

History Faculty Books and Book Chapters

"World War I has occupied an uneasy place in the American public and political consciousness.1 In the 1920s and 1930s, controversies over the war permeated the nation’s cultural and political life, influencing memorial culture and governmental policy. Interest in the war, however, waned considerably after World War II, a much larger and longer war for the United States. Despite a plethora of scholarly works examining nearly every aspect of the war, interest in the war remains limited even among academic historians. In many respects, World War I became the “forgotten war” because Americans never developed a unifying collective memory about …

World War I Collections In Manuscripts & Folklife Archives At Western Kentucky University, Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

This is a list of collections in the Manuscripts & Folklife Archives holdings of WKU’s Department of Library Special Collections that relate to World War I. Included are letters and diaries of soldiers and civilians, military records and papers, research projects, photographs, scrapbooks and other, mostly unpublished material. Our collections are particularly strong in documenting the experiences of Kentuckians at home and overseas, and of others who found themselves in Kentucky (most notably, at Camp Zachary Taylor, the Army training facility in Louisville) during the war and its immediate aftermath.

The 1918 Anti-British Revolt In Najaf: Local Primary Sources Vs National And Religious Narratives, Mohammed Harba

MSU Graduate Theses

This research examines the diverse historical narratives of the 1918 Najaf Revolt against British forces during the concluding months of World War I on the Mesopotamian front. For a century, two distinguishable narratives have been developed and promoted in Iraqi literature: Pan-Arabist and religious, reflecting the objectives, motivations, and present-mindedness of two political eras in modern Iraqi history. Several local primary sources, mostly memoirs of Najafis who witnessed or participated in the revolt, have been re-surfaced and re-visited during the past twenty years. These primary sources shed new light on the established Pan-Arabist narrative or the recent religious framing of …

Indentured On The Western Front: The Chinese Labour Corps And The British Coolie Trade, Emily Sanders

Honors Theses

This thesis examines the recruitment, transport, and working conditions of the Chinese Labour Corps in World War I in comparison to the twentieth century British ‘coolie’ trade of Chinese indentured laborers on the basis of labor contracts, written testimonies, newspaper articles, books, photographs, and historical records. This thesis argues that the Chinese Labour Corps methods of recruiting, transport, and conditions of work were very similar to, if not the same as, the twentieth century British coolie trade. The Chinese Labour Corps can in many ways be said to be an extension of the preexisting British coolie trade, rather than an …

Haskins, Lee Owsley, 1890-1964 (Sc 3525), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid and scans (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 3525. Letters to Captain Lee Owsley Haskins, written by his family in Bowling Green, Kentucky during his World War I military service. His father describes his business activities, discusses his son’s plans after the war, and reports in November 1918 of the ebbing of the influenza epidemic and the Board of Health’s plan to “lift the Ban.” His mother refers to his recent surgery, and his sister writes of the arrival of a troop train in Bowling Green and the soldiers’ march downtown for canteen service.

The American Army Air Service During World War I'S Hundred Days Offensive: Looking At Reconnaissance, Bombing And Pursuit Aviation In The Saint-Mihiel And Meuse-Argonne Operations., Duncan Hamlin

History Undergraduate Theses

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to research and analyze the American Army Air Service during the Hundred Days Offensive of World War I. Aviation was a relatively new concept to warfare in the beginning of World War I in 1914 and brought many new concepts to the battlefield, such as aerial observation and reconnaissance, aerial bombing and achieving air superiority. The research conducted reflects the desire to understand the impact American aviation had on ending the war in 1918 and helps others understand the importance and sacrifice made by hundreds of American airmen. The American Air Service played …

Making Good : World War I, Disability, And The Senses In American Rehabilitation, Evan Patrick Sullivan

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This study looks at how disabled American soldier-patients and the US Army used the senses as tools of rehabilitation after the Great War. Contemporaries argued that, when the hundreds of thousands of American soldiers came home wounded or sick after the Great War, the men needed to make good. The phrase “making good” meant that sacrifice in the war was not enough, and veterans had to become socially and economically independent, and return to heterosexual relationships. In an effort to return to normalcy, the US Army relied on rehabilitation, which aimed to medically and socially re-integrate the men into society.