Transcript The Home Front - UNITED STATES HISTORY

THE HOME FRONT
19.2
OBJECTIVES
Analyze how the American government mobilized
the public to support the war effort.
 Describe opposition to the war
 Outline significant social changes that occurred
during the war.

KEY PARTS
America Mobilizes for War
 Opposition and Its Consequences
 The War Changes American Society

INTRODUCTION
Read section 19.2
 Answer critical thinking questions 4&5.

AMERICA MOBILIZES FOR WAR
War impacts the lives of everyone who lives in
the countries involved.
 It takes people to produce the food that soldiers
eat, the guns they fire, and the uniforms they
wear.
 It takes men to fill the slots as soldiers and go off
to war.
 President Wilson pushed for volunteer service.

CONT.
Wilson passed the Selective Service Act in May of
1917 authorizing the draft of young men for
military service in Europe.
 On the first day of it enactment more than 9.6
million Americans registered for the draft and
were assigned a number.
 Over the course of the war 2.8 million men were
drafted. In total the number of men in uniform
was 4.8 million.

CONT..
Once this occurred Wilson worked to shift the
national economy into wartime production.
 The War Industries Board (WIB), headed by
Bernard Baruch was formed to regulate
industries and agriculture to supply the war
effort.
 The Committee on Public Information (CPI) was
formed to educated Americans on the War and
why we were involved and to grow nationalism.

CONT…
The CPI distributed 75 million pamphlets and
6,000 press releases and assembled 75,000
speakers who gave speeches on America’s war
aims and the nature of the enemy as well as the
needs of the Nation.
 George Creel was the director of CPI, he was a
writer so he knew the importance of dramatizing
the situation to the public.

OPPOSITION AND ITS CONSEQUENCES
The draft created controversy, some Americans
believed it was an illegal intrusion of the federal
government.
 Some men refused to cooperate with the Selective
Service process (they were imprisoned or court
marshaled)
 12% of men dodged the draft by various means.

CONT.
Another group resisted the draft by becoming
conscientious objectors, people whose moral or
religious beliefs forbid them to fight in wars.
 The United States was not open for debate on the
War.
 In June 1917 Congress passed the Espionage Act,
allowing postal authorities to ban treasonable or
seditious newspapers, magazines, or printed
materials from the mail. (anything opposing the
War)

CONT..
Anyone found obstructing the war effort could be
punished with up to a $10,000 fine and 20 years
of imprisonment.
 German Americans during this time did face
some discrimination.
 The United States also quit teaching German in
public schools and quit playing Beethoven and
Brahms in music.

THE WAR CHANGES AMERICAN SOCIETY
The war changed the economic, political, and
social changes to the life of Americans.
 New opportunities opened up for women, African
Americans, and Mexican Americans.
 As the men went off to war, someone was needed
to fill their jobs.
 Women filled jobs that were vacated by men, and
also began taking jobs with the Red Cross, or the
American Women’s Hospital Service.

CONT.
The help that women provided during the war is
what convinced congress to pass the nineteenth
amendment.
 Giving women the right to vote.
 African Americans were allowed to enlist in the
military. Roughly 367,000 African Americans
served in the military.
 Mexican Americans found jobs working on
ranches and large farms that were producing
goods for the war effort.
