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World War 1 The American Soldier Experience Summary

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The book, World War I: The American Soldier Experience by Jennifer D. Keene, examines the daily lives of the soldiers, diversity within the ranks and how the post war affected the lives of soldiers. The author gives us detailed history about how World War I started and mainly how the United States was thrust into the trenches. It explains how World War One is considered the first total war. The United States and President Woodrow Wilson stood behind the idea of neutrality and trying to enforce peace efforts which was hard to sustain. The sinking of the three American merchant ships by the German U-boats thrusted the United States into the first World War in April 1917. This war required all Americans to fight for their country home and away. Over fifteen percent of American males served in the military and over millions saw combat. Even though it was great to fight for your country everything was not what is seemed. The book pushes the reader into the lives of these soldiers and why many …show more content…

Many of them worked hard on the Homefront in factories while over 15,000 volunteered to travel overseas. Keene mentions in the book that most women were nurses, they were not allowed to serve on combat or non-combat roles but were able to go into battle to help them wounded. Keene used this part of the text to emphasize the unchanged gender roles such as the women being considered an officer rank but was not able to utilize their position due to the gender and racism against African American women who were not able to volunteer. The text mainly referred to the unchanged gender roles but failed to emphasize the fact that African American women were not able to contribute to their civic duty . Mentioned only one time in the text the author should have expressed how the NAACP also tried to work hard to help black women, but they were only wanted because of the shortage of nurses during the

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