The Illusion of Victory; America in World War I
Jerry Bauer (Author photograph) New York, N.Y. Basic Books, 2003. First printing [stated]. Hardcover. xi, [1], 543, [3] pages. Map. Illustrations. Includes Acknowledgments, Notes, and Index. Chapters include War Week; Big Lies, Greed, and Other Hoary Animals; Enlisting Volunteers and Other Unlikely Events; Creeling and Other Activities That Make Philip Dru Unhappy; Seeds of the Apocalypse; The Women of No-Man's-Land; Politics is Adjourned, Ha-Ha-Ha; Fights to the Finish; Peace That Surpasses Understanding; Peace That Surpasses Understanding II; Chilling the Heart of the World; Illusions End; and A Covenant with Power. Thomas James Fleming (July 5, 1927 – July 23, 2017) was an American historian and writer and the author of over forty nonfiction and fiction titles. His work reflects a particular interest on the American Revolution, with titles such as Liberty! The American Revolution And The Future Of America, Duel: Alexander Hamilton, Aaron Burr, and the History of America and Washington's Secret War: The Hidden History of Valley Forge. Fleming served as president of the Society of American Historians and the PEN American Center. Fleming also spent ten years as chairman of the New York American Revolution Round Table and was an Honorary Member of the New York State Society of the Cincinnati since 1975. Fleming published books about various events and figures of the Revolutionary era. He also wrote about other periods of American history, and wrote over a dozen well-received novels set against various historical backgrounds. He said, "I never wanted to be an Irish-American writer, my whole idea was to get across that bridge and be an American writer" In this groundbreaking book, acclaimed historian Thomas Fleming undertakes nothing less than a drastic revision of Americas experience in World War I. He reveals how the British and French duped Wilson and the American people into thinking the war was as good as won, and that there would be no need to send an army overseas. He describes a harried president making speech after speech proclaiming America's ideals while supporting the Espionage and Sedition Acts that sent critics to federal prisons. Meanwhile, a government propaganda machine created a hate driven "war will" that soon spilled over into attacks on ethnic Americans. On the Western Front, the Allies did their utmost to turn the American Expeditionary Force into cannon fodder. At the Paris Peace Conference, the cynical Europeans mocked President Wilson and his ideals, and browbeat him into accepting the vengeful Treaty of Versailles, sowing the seeds of World War II. The political history of the American experience in World War I is a story of conflict and bungled intentions that begins in an era dedicated to progressive social reform and ends in the Red Scare and Prohibition. Thomas Fleming tells this story through the complex figure of Woodrow Wilson, the contradictory president who wept after declaring war, devastated because he knew it would destroy the tolerance of the American people, but who then suppressed freedom of speech and used propaganda to excite America into a Hun-hating mob. This is tragic history: inexperienced American military leaders drove their troops into gruesome slaughters; progressive politics were put on hold in America; an idealistic president's dreams were crushed because of his own negligence. Wilson's inability to convince Congress to ratify U.S. membership in the League of Nations was one of the most poignant failures in the history of the American presidency, but even more heartrending were Wilson's concessions to his bitter allies in the Treaty of Versailles. In exchange for Allied support of the League of Nations, he allowed an unfair peace treaty to be signed, a treaty that played no small role in the rise of National Socialism and the outbreak of World War II. Thomas Fleming has once again created a masterpiece of narrative American history. This incomparable portrait shows how Wilson sacrificed his noble vision to megalomania and single-mindedness, while paying homage to him as a visionary whose honorable spirit continues to influence Western politics. Condition: Very good / Very good.
Keywords: Woodrow Wilson, Clemenceau, Newton Baker, Censorship, George Creel, Conscription, Dissent, Edward House, Henry Cabot Lodge, Robert Lansing, League of Nations, Lloyd George, John J. Pershing, Propaganda, Theodore Roosevelt, Joseph Tumulty, Jerry Bauer
ISBN: 046502467X
[Book #82298]
Price: $45.00