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Calling all History teachers!Don’t let this week go by without talking to your students about World War I. This Thursday, April 6, marks the100^thanniversary of the United States’ declaration of war on Germany. On April 2^nd, 1917, PresidentWoodrow Wilsonhad asked Congress for the declaration, stating that it would be a “war to end all wars” and that it would “make the world safe for democracy.” All-out war had been raging in Europe since August 1914. Wilson had kept America out of the fighting, even after the sinking of theLusitaniain May 1915, which had 128 Americans on board. Germany had resumed unrestricted submarine (U-Boat) warfare on all commercial ships heading toward Britain. In addition, British Intelligence intercepted a secret German diplomatic communication, called theZimmermann Telegram,这提出了一个德国之间的军事同盟ny and Mexico. These events, plus the fact that the United States had loaned massive amounts of money to the allies and feared it would not get that money back if the Central Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria) won, tipped the scales in favor of war.

The Selective Service Act was signed May 18, 1917. In the United States, over 9-and-a half million men, ages 21 to 31, signed up at their local draft boards. One of those men was my grandfather, Thomas Young Mason. Tom was a 30-year-old farmer from Logan County, Kentucky, when he signed his draft card on June 5, 1917. The reason I know this is because I found a copy of his draft card while searchingAncestryLibrary.com, available viaProQuest. I was surprised at how easy it was to find information about my grandfather. I can’t say that I know a lot about his time during the Great War. He died years before I was born, and my family never was much for telling war stories. I do, however, have some nice photographs of him in his WWI uniform. I also have, at home in my basement, the very hat he was wearing in those photos.

My grandfather was one of the lucky ones who made it home from the War. Europeans bore the brunt of the casualties with 9 million military men killed and over 30 million wounded.World War Iwas one of the most tragic events in modern world history, and the “peace” that was reached at its end led directly to the Second World War.

eLibraryhas many resources teachers can use to explain this momentous time in world History. A really good high schoollesson plancalled “Wilson & American Entry into World War I” can be found at EDSITEment!, a National Endowment for the Humanities website. While you and your students are conducting research on this topic, don’t forget to check outProQuest’sawesomeTrench Journals and Unit Magazines of the First World War, a digital collection of writings produced near the trenches and on the home front. During this 100^thanniversary of the United States’ entry into World War I, it might be a good idea to take some time out from your regular class assignments and get your students involved in a discussion on this timely topic. One idea would be to have your class watch theAmerican Experiencedocumentary“The Great War,”which premieres onPBSApril 10.

Factoids:

While Woodrow Wilson often gets credit for the phrase “the war to end all wars,” delivered during his April 1917 speech before Congress, many historians assume that he got the idea from a 1914 book by H.G. Wells entitled “The War That Will End War.”

The United States officially declared war on Austria-Hungary on December 7, 1917. Twenty-four years later, on December 7, 1941, FDR asked Congress for a declaration of war against the Empire of Japan, marking America’s entry into World War II.

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