Want To Go Clubbing?

 

Imagine you are creating a new club. What kind of club would it be? Would it be an athletic club or team? Would it be intellectual? What would the purpose or goal of your club be? How would you recruit new members? What are the membership requirements or rules?

Following WWI President Wilson sought to create a 'League of Nations,' or club, where countries could gather peacefully and resolve their quarrels. At the Treaty of Versailles in France he outlined his '14 points' promoting openness, encouraging independence, and supporting freedom. At it's heart was his idea of 'peace without victory;' a peace inspired by noble ideals, not greed and vengeance.

What is Fight Club? What are the '8 Rules of Fight Club?' How was Wilson's club different? What did critics think of his ideas?

What was the great debate about ratification  in the US Senate?

Who were the RESERVATIONISTS? IRRECONCILIABLES? INTERNATIONALISTS?  

WHICH SIDE WERE YOU ON?

Johnny Got His Gun

Johnny Got His Gun is an anti-war novel written in 1938 by American novelist Dalton Trumbo and published in September 1939. Joe, a young American soldier serving in World War I, awakens in a hospital bed after being caught in the blast of an exploding artillery shell. He gradually realizes that he has lost his arms, legs, and all of his face (including his eyes, ears, nose, teeth, and tongue), but that his mind functions perfectly, leaving him a prisoner in his own body. Joe eventually successfully communicates this with military officials after several months of banging his head on his pillow in Morse code. He wants to be placed in a glass coffin and toured around the country in order to demonstrate to others the true horrors of war. however, he realizes that the military will not grant his wish. As Joe drifts between reality and fantasy, he remembers his old life with his family and girlfriend and reflects upon the myths and realities of war.

1) What was the human cost of the 'Great War?'

2). Which country suffered the most? The least?  Use facts from the text to support your answer.

3) What is Dalton Trumbo's message?  Was war worth it?  Why/ not?

4) What would your 'SOS' to the world be?

5) Write a poem describing the experience of war.

1917: Life In the Trenches

'Trench Warfare' became synonymous with battle during WWI.  Soldiers on the Western Front spent months living in the muddy, rat-infested, dreary channels dug deep into the ground.  Above the trenches was only sky exposing armies to the weather and the constant barrage of artillery and poison gas shells, as well as machine gunners and snipers.  

So what was life actually like for the men serving tours of duty in the trenches?

What new technologies made WWI different from other previous wars?  How did technology change the way war was fought?

How has the inhumanity of trench warfare been depicted in the movies regardless of which side you were on?

How is man's capacity for war different from the beasts?

Over There

1. Listen to "Over There," a song written during World War I by George M. Cohan, an American composer and entertainer. Then answer these questions:

• What is the mood of this music? Does the mood match the lyrics? Explain.

• According to this song, why should young men fight in the war?

• What do you think Cohan's purpose was in writing this song?

2. Listen to "On Patrol in No-Man's Land," a song written by James Reese Europe in 1919 about his experience as a lieutenant in the 369th Regiment of the U.S. Army. Then answer these questions:

• What is the mood of this music? Does the mood match the lyrics? Explain.

• According to this song, what dangers do soldiers have to look out for?

• What do you think Europe's purpose was in writing this song?


3. What differences are there between "Over There" and "On Patrol in No-Man's Land"? Which song gives a more realistic version of what the war was like for combatants?

MORE WWI MUSIC

Propaganda

This propaganda leaflet was dropped by German airplanes behind American lines during World War I. Nearly 370,000 African Americans were drafted into the U.S. Army starting in the fall of 1917 (they were not allowed to join the Marines, and the Navy took African Americans only as cooks and kitchen help). Although more than half of the black troops were in combat units, they remained segregated from white troops. Subjected to racist harassment (including demeaning insults from white officers), black troops were continually reminded of their second-class citizenship. By stressing racist conditions in the United States, leaflets such as this attempted to destroy morale and encourage desertion among African-American troops.

1) To whom is the document addressed?

2) Who do you think wrote the document? Why?

3) What arguments are used to make those points? Do you find the arguments convincing? Why or why not?

4) What was more dangerous: propaganda or machine guns? Explain.

5) Write a letter in response to the document? What would you say in reply? (1 paragraph)

Harlem Hellfighters

More than 2 million Americans served in Europe during World War I. Eager to promote democracy around the world, many entered the war with great enthusiasm. But their first taste of battle left them more realistic about the horrors of war.

After reading the excerpt from Max Brooks The Harlem Hellfighters answer these questions in your Interactive Student Notebook:

1) Why did so many men, especially African Americans, enlist to go 'Over There?'

2) Would you stay or would you go?  Why?

3) Why is the large number of casualties during World War I typically not discussed?

4) Many of the 369th Regiment decided to stay in France after the war. Why might they have done this?

5) What comparisons can you make between the Harlem Hellfighters and the Buffalo Soldiers?

Zimmermann Telegram

In January of 1917, British cryptographers deciphered a telegram from German Foreign Minister Arthur Zimmermann to the German Minister to Mexico, von Eckhardt, offering United States territory to Mexico in return for joining the German cause. This message helped draw the United States into the war and thus changed the course of history. The telegram had such an impact on American opinion that, according to David Kahn, author of The Codebreakers, "No other single cryptanalysis has had such enormous consequences." It is his opinion that "never before or since has so much turned upon the solution of a secret message." In an effort to protect their intelligence from detection and to capitalize on growing anti-German sentiment in the United States, the British waited until February 24 to present the telegram to Woodrow Wilson. The American press published news of the telegram on March 1. On April 6, 1917, the United States Congress formally declared war on Germany and its allies.

Can you decode the message?

The first 'wall' along our southern border with Mexico was started during WWI 100 years ago; not because we feared the Mexicans or radical Islam, but because we feared the Germans!

What is the legacy of the Zimmerman Telegram today?