former first lady michelle obama's memoir, then it is terra westover's recount growing up in idaho mountains. in her formal education at the age of 17, and educated. followed by the late colonist charles krauthammer essays and speeches titled the point of it all. bill o'reilly and martin dude guard on of the captivity of nazi fugitives. including the wall street journal's noah harare's of human history. many of these authors have appeared on book tv. you can watch them online booktv.org. [inaudible] >> good afternoon, nice crowd.

thank you for joining us today. the first of three events here today of politics and prose bookstore. i am bob hardy the managers of class and trips in both groups. and welcome. so currently we are offering 40 to 45 classes. many of you might not know that but we have an incredible community of instructors and if you get a chance to go on the website, politics and prose prose/classes you will see the broad range of classes that we do. class trips in both groups. before we get started, please silence your cell phones from ringing. cspan is filming and we are audio taping. when we go to q&a please go to the single microphone so that we can record what you are asking.

and if you haven't yet purchased the book we have copies for sale at the register from. on behalf of our owners bradley graham and alyssa muscatine in the end tire staff at politics and prose, i am delighted to welcome garrett peck, the great look at america in world war i in its aftermath. we love garrett, the chronicles of washington, d.c., he is an author of seven books, including in what women in washington, d.c., the civil war and america's poet. he is he leads tours inspired by his books including the one related to his latest work, which will take place april 14. the great world walking tour in washington, d.c. i encourage you to sign up and treat yourself to one-of-a-kind experience. through the lens of a historian,

the truly unique perspective on the people in this experience of this cosmopolitan city of the early 20th century. garrett's new book, chronicles of the american experience during world war i in the unexpected changes that rocked the country and its immediate after pack, aftermath, women's suffrage and prohibition, these better outcomes overshadow the great worse. tremendous impact on the american nation that is not documented in our history books. this timely book for examines the first global and the tremendous political and social changes that were set in motion a century ago as we commemorate world war i centennial. by the end of it for empires in their world houses have fallen. communism was a lease, and the map of the middle east was redrawn, a portrait of which, the former president of

princeton university he fashioned his life as an individual of a scholar and as an italian president of the united states he was thrust into a global decision-making role. mobilizing the country for the war and sending the american soldiers into trench warfare in at the end negotiating the piecework that changed course of history. wilson created the defective service act, soldiers were issued dog tags, the 16th amendment, the income tax always created, garrett covers so many facts that i am just picking a few of them. he covers historical figures and their contributions to this historical time and change the emerging this book. theodore roosevelt, mitchell mankin and john j pershing, the great war in america presents us with an incredible opportunity to re-examine the country's role in the global age.

historian garrett peck who i am thrilled to introduce you today, garrett. [applause] holy cow, there's a big crowd here today. thank you all so much for coming today. thank you bob for introducing to me and thinking to the politics and prose staff. you have no idea how great the staff is. if you have not had a chance to interact, they know about books. it is wonderful to see after the great recession, ten years ago how much that terribly impacted bookstores. it is taken bookstores a long time to recover so it is been really, really great to see the people want to read books again. it is really wonderful. i think ten years ago people are really scared of digital and the really swung back. after we had time with her candles and what i think people have rediscovered that a book is more user-friendly than any device. in yet i got a kindle as well, and what you'd you travel is

what you need to have, but it is wonderful to see that people are throwing their way back to bookstores. thank you also much for coming back today and really honored. i want to talk for the next 20 minutes or so and then we have q&a. but i want to talk about my research for this topic and about world war i and why shows the topic. in the impact of the work and why's it so seldom ever. world war ii gets all the attention. when americans think about the 20th century, it's the american century it becomes the american century because of world war ii right. it is world war i this is the stage for it. you would not have had world war ii without world war i. world war i is the most important war of the 20th century. yes i just said that.

it is more important than world war ii. world war ii is a place equal where they had to go refi all the issues that did not get resolve that should've got resolved in paris at the pierce peace conference. all it did was set up the stage for the next war. and this is actually how i got introduced to the topic which was way back in college which was back in the 1980s. i wrote an essay in one of my history classes, one of the final exams i wrote a compare contrast essay of the treaty of vienna. that was in 1815 of the pulley on a course. it contrasted to the treaty of versailles in 1919. i got an a on my essay and then i got a handwritten letter from a professor in my mailbox, he said this was graduate letter work in my essay. and i saw the letter my scrapbook. and i have had this question in my head about a peace treaty that leads to the next war. he is in a treaty supposed to help lead to peace. and can war solve societies questions and the problems we have with each other. so obviously the treaty led to

world war ii. and that is what i wanted to jump into with this book itself. it's taken about a four year process of researching and writing this book. i just got hundreds of pages of handwritten notes going through all the literature around it. ultimately you have to shrink it all back, they gave me hundred 40000 words to play with but if i wrote every single person in the story would end up with a ten volume book. who's gonna want to read that right so you have to focus back on what is the most important stories to cover. in my key influence, if i was one implantable that went into this was james mcpherson's book, a great summary book of the civil war. so i read that book through many times and i still use it as a reference. so that really became my model.

i tell the story, our story, the american story about us in the great war. world war i is by the way, the most idealistic war if a war can be idealistic, this is immersed idealistic war that we had ever got involved in. if you recall from the wonder wealth in the present at the time, when he issued this call to war through the war address on april 2, 1917 the very famous words, the world must be bored. remember those words, this is the idealism that we had going into this war. as thinking that we are literally going to save the world from itself. because the war had been going on for nearly three years in this horrible french warfare. in one gigantic siege. the united states stay neutral

because we are heavily divided society, we had a great number of irish-americans and german-americans. we do not want help with english for obvious renewed sense. and then you also had a lot of hawk like for former president theodore roosevelt. wilson really tried his best to keep the country out of the war. and instead try to offer arbitration to the different sides. no one of course wanted that all because they all thought they could win this war. and then finally in one single word where the united states got involved in world war i was because some marines. the german submarine campaign a lot of people think that that led us to entering the war in 1915, weeding into the war for another two years. so rather it was lusitania's like the symbol but it was a submarine campaign. the germans had re- declared

this under circuit war campaign in 1917 and that's what drew us into the war itself. it was in essence a license to kill americans at high seas. at this moment on in american history we realize at this point on that are too big oceans on either side of us are not going to keep us safe anymore if german submarines can torpedo american ships on high seas will guess what we can be attacked other times. her harbor happens, we had 911, we got 2016 election got attacked, so the world is a dangerous place. in one of the key lessons in which wilson was trying to create with the new world order of peace, to the league of nations. that was his idea of how we would in war by having a structure for the world to be able to mitigate these conflicts before they break on to violence.

and that was the idea of the league of nations and he baked us into the treaty of reside. and of course we never did. wilson's administration kinda becomes his last year, year end a half as he races around the country trying to convince the senators to ratify the peace treaty and ultimately he suffers a stroke and that the end of his presidency 17 months early. but again he met the american involvement in the war. it's in a remarkable period for the united states. considering -- anybody know how large our army was before world war i broke out? it was a hundred and 8,000 soldiers. that was it. in largely set up for the frontier. we declared world war against germany in april 6, 1917 and we

dropped 4.7 million young men and we sent 2 million of them to fight in france this is never happened before ever in american history and we are only in the war for 19 months. it is amazing wilson gets criticized for a lot of stuff that he is certainly a leader. he did an incredible job mobilizing the country, mobilizing the economy mobilizing 4.7 doughboys, not quite happen of went to fight over in france. we ended up beating the germans and then we suffered a hundred and 57 casualties by the way and majority of whom were deaf from the influence of either us in 1917. but americans victories on the battlefield and earned us a spot at the peace table. and that is why wilson got to go to paris to negotiate the peace treaty and that was probably one of the mistakes. it is a huge abroad topic, war. especially a war that we are only involved in for 19 months and of which we are only

involved in the fighting for about the last five months of the war itself because randy create the army and then train it. in the build all the ships and so wanted to get to europe. it's a huge endeavor. the war cost is about $50 million. , back then. probably closer to a trillion dollars today. it is remarkable in the american history. in ultimately the outcome from it is we don't like the outcome. the peace process, we have the treaty of reside, wilson goes off to. she spent seven months negotiating the peace treaty, we sit back and then right before the war ended congress had flipped the midterm election so now the republicans controlled congress and that changed the whole political dynamic because you're seeing even this moment right now this control the house or to the president loses a lot of power. he loses a lot of leverage. so you have to negotiate over these things and wilson was not

willing to he was very stubborn personality as well as senator henry cabot lodge these two stubborn individuals neither one of them were willie willing to compromise over this peace treaty. in lodge wanted to add some amendments which he called reservations to the treaty and wilson was not having anything of it. he said you will help my treaty up or down and that is it. and all the european outlines were telling wilson like go-ahead except the reservation it's okay. just get the treaty ratified and we will go from there. after all the united states created league of nations. and wilson cannot compromise on this issue and refuses to compromise and ultimately he sabotages his own treaty. they voted twice and they voted it down twice. because wilson has told the democrats not to support the treaty. as a result the united states

never ratifies the peace treaty and we never join the league of nations. our own creation, under wilson's creation we never join the league of nations which is incredible the book itself as you can tell, i used wilson quite a bit throughout the book because he is the commander-in-chief during the war. his essential character of the war but there are lots of other voices i bring to the floor as well. you'll hear a lot from theater roosevelt who is constantly sniping at wilson because he is part of the angle files who want the united states to into the war early on on the side of great britain. you also hear from a great number of german-americans predominantly hl mencken. he was an outlier for the first time. he was a wonderful crank. in german-american you can tell from his last name.

a second-generation german-american who doesn't speak german. he doesn't seem to like democracy. but he is one of those people who essentially it is silent during the war itself because we created a. to this time in the espionage act that the president had to self censor herself. some people like making her very critical of the war had to be silence. he voluntarily silenced himself and then spoke up again in february 1920. so i quote from him quite a bit can by the way his first article he writes in february 1920 is called classic macon style is a chronicle of buncombe. and he refers to wilson strutting around the world in his halo. he is a very funny writer and i quote from him quite a bit but a kind of writes a spoiler, counterbalance. so i'm trying to look at so many different viewpoints about this war national unity is almost

impossible in a number two in jesus we certainly see that right now. pearl harbor you had a moment. because we got attacked. so the isolations were suddenly like now we have to go to war. the country result to go to war that night. world war i we had no national unity around this question. there are a lot of centers around this war and they were simply just silence. the end result was they were still there though in the course a come striking back later on. i think it is really interesting to look as well as a lot of the outcomes that come from the war that we call the aftermath so the war itself was a pandora's box. the greek metaphor. the greek mythology of pandora's box is war and all these things starts coming altered the box when pandora opens it. you never know the outcome when you go to work. or the consequences. so i look at a couple key things in the book, course the peace process and the failure of the peace process.

then add a chapter that looks at four key other, for other key outcomes that come from the war. those being the race riots of 1919, probably close to a race whether we ever got to in the country. largely over white southerners who were upset african-americans being treated with equality. it is so remarkable at this moment. we had over a quarter million african-americans fought for the country in world war i. and they did this in part because they believed that if they serve their country loyally and faithfully that they could come back they would be able to show that we are good citizens tomb we fought for our country and died for country to tweet us with respect and equality, that's why southerners were having any of that. they were the enforcers of this caste system. the jim crow law system they

imposed after the civil war. as a result we get 25 race riots in cities around the country. including here in washington, d.c. for 40s and 1919. i do lead a tour of the jazz history tour. we see some of those sites and that to her. we'll probably see that the summer at politics and prose. so that is one of the outcomes. the country also got its first red scare. .. . >> but one of which was at the

attorney general mitchell palmer with this man-made crisis known as the red scare and he engages in this roundup which is incredible we had no aclu at the time we did get that by the way as a result of the war that is an outcome from the red scare. literally we rounded up thousands of left leaning people to deport them it is remarkable after wilson had a stroke and palmer was on his own doing this with a young 24 -year-old j edgar hoover at his side it was a remarkable moment we should really be member of american history. one of the better outcomes from world war i that women earn their white - - their

right to vote so it is a huge deal hundreds of thousands of women served in the american vet one - - red cross and for the u.s. army they were not in uniform but i consider them to be veterans trying to get veteran status but in addition for the first time ever more will women have served in the united states navy and marine corps. so women did their part starting in 1920. and then we have prohibition we do have a century long temperance movement but using

the german-americans and that's when they propose the 18h amendment this is something we need to do to defeat the kaiser's army and those who can beat the germans. but that is part of the propaganda mostly during the war itself. everybody thinks this is the right thing to do to win the war so the very last stage to put it over the top was nebraska that came january 16, 1918. two months after the armistice the 36th state to vote so

most all the others have voted during the war itself. everyone decided it was the patriotic duty nobody thinks of the consequences what happens when you take beer away from americans. [laughter] so prohibition just deregulate the alcohol market. them plenty of bootleggers pop up. but as a consumer you had no idea what you were buying. there were no more regulations. and then denatured alcohol with flavoring the 18th amendment is the only amendment that has ever been repealed in american history noble experiment lasting less than 14 years. all of these things happen but i just want to refresh these things for you that maybe you

haven't gone deeply into like john pershing. and then hopes to get open by 2021 if anybody wants to contribute. but i wrote some of them down but i have a list. here are some he may recognized happening one century ago as mark twain said history doesn't repeat itself but it rhymes.

america first. woodrow wilson originated this in 19152 weeks before the lithuania was sunk that america needs to stay neutral in order to offer mediation to the different sides. america is a selfish country we all get a raw deal we will screw the rest of the world back that is the current iteration of america first. fake news. they didn't call it fake news back then but there is lots of propaganda one evolving the senator from wisconsin who made a speech in minnesota whereby he said the germans were not justified of the

lusitania but the reporter flipped it around to say that the germans were justified and it caused a national scandal the senate threatened to impeach him he went on to make this incredible three-hour speech on the floor of the senate not just defending himself but to make a case for war time in the democracy. later they even reimburse him for the court costs. so we see this a lot on the left and the right with identity politics back then they call that --hyphen ism. german-american irish-american.

certainly we see a lot of identity politics and with the last presidential election. the question over immigration what does it mean to be a good or real american? don't forget at the time of the war the highest proportion meant ever first of second born americans it's incredible one third of americans are either born overseas or parent were. in 1924 we slammed the gates shut and said we don't want anyone else coming into this country if you're not from western europe basically said we don't want you here if you are not from norway so we

slammed the gates shut that held through 1965. that is incredible now we are overdue for another immigration reform. everybody knows that here. also fear of the other. at the time there is always this need to have that domestic enemy you need to fear. we had the fear of anarchist now those of us who grew up and had a different meaning but back then those who are trying to use violence over the government and also mitchell palmer and the attorney general today our fear is latinos and muslim terrorists to replace one group with another it is amazing in society we have to go through and fear these other cultures in the unknown. lastly, this is a very relevant question in 1917 in 1919 as it is today what is

america's role in the world? we learn in 1918 we were a global superpower earning a place at the peace table. then of course, we took it back to say we don't like what we are seeing we will go back and pretend we are not engaged again. and then we end up having to fight the war again one generation later world war ii. one of the people who picks up this legacy from woodrow wilson is harry truman and essentially he takes wilsonian diplomacy that is the promotion of democracy and he is the one who takes the legacy forward not only in the united nations but also a global role who by the way builds all the institutions that enable the united states to win the cold war.

it's remarkable i was reading george w. bush memoirs and also donald rumsfeld they mention the crucial role truman played to build the institution to help us win the cold war. many of those feel like they are under threat today. but our global role, are we america first? or do our alliances allow us with our fellow democracies? it is a remarkable time with history doesn't repeat itself but it does running. - - ryan. thank you for coming today i know the room is very warm but we will get you into questions and then have the book signing afterwards there is a microphone and i can repeat the questions thank you for coming. [applause]

. >> i am curious about the immigration compared to today. when the doors were shut it wasn't against the irish are the germans. it was against the italians of middle east and the jews from eastern europe. not the people we opposed in the war. why? they always had a problem with immigrants like the irish but why these groups at this time? . >> and it's not just those groups also asians that are excluded completely from the immigration act. it is amazing. in part white america wants to make sure the country stays white of course, they were so

much darker and this was part of it and they are catholic we still had a dominant protestant culture so the immigration act in essence tries to keep white protestants only can those can come into our country. it's not one of our finer moments so what about later on in the thirties? we could have saved so more jewish people looking for a home fleeing germany and no country would take them. and frank a german jew they managed to find a home in amsterdam of course, she dies later but a lot more people could have been saved if we would have welcomed more refugees. >> i really enjoyed the book. but i have a broader question so we are about to hit the

centennial of most of these events. you are in charge. how would you want us as a society or a world to commemorate these events and have discussions at the big 100 year mark? . >> the centennial of the armistice not quite two months ago and i was very pleased. is a very big day in dc i was very pleased it's never appropriate to celebrate war but we should certainly commemorate our soldiers so there was the national cathedral there was a service the dc war memorial of all of the inhabitants in the national guard where there that time we had a tremendous ceremony hundreds of people showed up it is cool to see

how many people commemorated this. going forward there's more we want to look at i'm on the board of the woodrow wilson house we are re-examining many of those things ourselves we just went through a process to re-examine wilson and race and how african-americans were treated during his time which was no good. a century has passed so it is overdue but reading books helps also a public discussion and how they are still so relevant and what is our global role? ultimately i'm opening one - - i'm hoping we can get the pershing park site opened as a national memorial for world war i as it is long overdue. >> i'm interested in the world war i literature fiction as played specifically johnny got his gun.

a farewell to arms by ernest hemingway and under fire. there are so many. the song by sebastian fox they all dealt with world war i and what part did they play? . >> i have quite a bit about literature that i covered all of these writers writing about the war like hemingway and ee cummings who was a volunteer in france writes his first book, a novel about being imprisoned by the french for refusing to denounce the germans. so the different writers who cover these topics in part they see the big picture and what it means but i want to

keep it as the country at war. literature is a very important aspect he was silent but then strikes back in a big way. thanks for asking. >> i have a local poets and historians and over the discourse i have a poem on the centennial of the armistice i realized it hasn't been totally commemorated locally but i am a coach of wholeness writers i would like to present you with that but being native born historian as a kid i had my eyes treated doctor holmes was one of the ophthalmologist who had gone

to vietnam. her house i believe was next-door to palmer's residence so there were some scars from the explosion i'm very interested didn't palmer on the people he rounded up? and also briefly held? . >> read was an american citizen but emma goldman and berkman they were the first rounded up in the first 285 percent to the right soviet union that was nicknamed the soviet park. >> every time i see someone like nick mulvaney or kelly conway making statements i feel the parallels a lot of attempt to suppress or arch

conservatives think gathering in bookstores is a seditious activity i'm curious of the number of people that express themselves because it opens up our periphery we are not just caught up in this fake news. those that make it should claim it but thank you and i will give you a copy. >> thank you i appreciate that. >> you said what got us into the war was the submarine warfare? during the second world war there was a lot of submarine warfare going on and it's my perception that the public didn't have a clue this was going on the ships were sunk was there a campaign?

what motivated and why didn't anybody know if that was true? . >> world war i. >> the question was about the submarine campaign of the public was aware and the answer is yes. >> but not world war ii? . >> starting that submarine coast then it was more tightlipped. but in 1917 when the germans start the warfare campaign , they are sinking dozens of ships but we are not at war but it is reported on every's ship that is sunk is a poker as more americans are being killed. >> while we are waiting for the memorial to be billed and completed, one of my first

jobs out of college was working at the virginia hospital maybe with some volunteer work that they can look into in the second thing for the past five years i have been volunteering with the program called the honor flight where they fly every veteran they can find to washington for free to take them around to the memorials. as part of the ground crew we show up at the various airports to greet them as they come off the plane so that's another activity while we wait for the memorial. >> it's fantastic you do this i have seen this it is great and also with korean war veterans now talking about world war ii but i saw an article a couple months ago in the post about bob dole who is

95 and every saturday he goes to the world war ii memorial to greet the veterans. we saw him at the bush funeral last month. he is a treasure. . >> could you talk about 9/11 that did not happen in 1916 in new jersey with the explosion? and how that affected franklin roosevelt 20 years later? the assistant secretary of state for the navy in 1916 and foreign-born espionage saboteurs in america how did that affect his feeling of the internment camps? and does that give credence to what i used to think was a very immoral decision that

historical precedent? . >> i do talk about his role during world war i i didn't get into world war ii but black tom is now a new jersey state park directly opposite of the statue of liberty. and right in the middle of new york harbor, this is where they were congregated and put on ships july 1916 german saboteurs could get to the site and blow it up a huge explosion damages the statue of liberty the explosion knocked out windows miles away you can hear it for three states that bird for a couple of days. unreal of your active

sabotage. they were never caught whoever it was that we are pretty sure it is the germans. so it is amazing but to the other point of internment camps we did have four in the country and basically where we sent german nationals. not naturalized citizens but rather the first group there were 91 german ships when the war broke out they fled to the united states and the royal navy could not capture them. so they sat there until we declared war and of the secret service and attached one - - national gord - - national guard put them into the camps. but that pales in comparison to world war ii rounding up her own citizens 125,000

japanese americans and sent them off to camps. >> do you have an opinion if the war ended too soon? . >> i think it could never and it too soon in that regard. >> as you explained we put 4 million men in uniform but only got half of them over there. and from my understanding the idea was the americans would come and get battle experience and then there would be enough to drive the germans back into germany to teach the germans was not worth it and a lot of people think of that was done , there would be a lot less likelihood of world war ii. >> even at the time the armistice was unpopular in the weeks leading up there were rumors. and people like theodore

roosevelt said held now we need to kick their butts but the french were more than willing to get a piece out of this they were fighting the war on their territory more than four years and with the armistice they literally got everything they could out of germany. they had to evacuate the territories, the french got their properties back and then the rhineland is germany so militarily to the armistice we got what we could have gotten now on the flip side is the fact through the piece the germy one - - the german army never surrendered and this is why revisionists like adolf hitler uses the point to say the german army was still in the field we were not defeated but because they never surrender therefore the communist and the jews they stand up and we will get even

with them. this was a core part of fascist ideology victimization we are victims and we will get even with them then hitler wants to get even with his enemies as well as conquer europe and exterminate large groups of people the german army was defeated but they surrendered technically and he leverages that point to get the power. >> one of the points you haven't mentioned is the 14 points from wilson and everything he had and there was the exact opposite of what the winning powers wanted. there was no way the treaty of versailles could ever make everybody happy orlando went back to italy three or four months to fight with his people so my question is really if wilson and his

nature he could not admit he was never wrong. and then the second thing is during world war i we nationalize the railroads we didn't do this in world war ii but we must have learned from our mistakes because sometimes you do learn. the great presentation and also of the iww in 1919. >> there is so much to cover. we did nationalize the railroads but we had to because they were in terrible condition you try think about four.7 million men to france all over the united states coming from new york city or hoboken and many states like pennsylvania there railroads were terrible.

they started to have bottlenecks so late 1917 they realize we have to nationalize the railroads we will not take ownership but assume national control to apply capital so they can very quickly be upgraded to move men and supplies to get into france. of course, world war ii they were in better shape so they didn't need to. >> my grandfather was in world war i in france and was promoted within two weeks he had another promotion within three weeks and then another promotion quite soon after that which gives me an idea of the carnage. so do you ever discuss what happens to the soldiers when they come back to the states? .

>> it's amazing when they come back they get their victory parades but very quickly when the peace process goes sour the country within a couple years there's a big national survey of people believed getting involved in the war was a mistake so the veterans don't get a lot of recognition but they do organize the american legion so the veterans represent their interest and also to get together but every person who is gone to war their experience is unique and only they themselves understand what they have gone through we saw this a week and a half ago by peter jackson and it is a documentary of the british soldiers at war and nobody could relate to their experience.

nobody can if you are four years in a trench with technological damage your friends are killed and shocked nobody can relate to that so that experience of war is indescribable. nobody can. we have time for one more question. >> i was interested in what you might think the what-ifs in terms of how things are differently with the us administration at the time like the zimmerman telegram and how is that handled? could things have gone a different way had somebody

else been in the white house at the time? could that have led to a totally different history of american involvement? . >> it's hard to say you don't get to go back and replay history it is all theoretical. no one has a crystal ball the magic eight ball. the documentation of what we have it we can certainly wonder had wilson delegated the peace negotiations instead of doing it himself which is a moment of hubris that only he could negotiate the peace treaty but it is the state department's job but he has enough of an idea that only he can do it and make some mistakes along the way that is one of the questions i wonder could the treaty have been

fair or different but ultimately it was harsh to gemini - - germany impeding on their honor i don't know if that could have been changed even with a different negotiator because france wanted to get germany they were tagged twice in 40 years but you could never say definitively we don't get to go back to replay that but thank you for the question and for coming today. [applause] [inaudible conversations] happy new year. [inaudible conversations]

. >> hello. >> how areou