America in World War I Introduction | America in the Great War | Sinking of the Lusitania | America Declares War Sabotage at Home | Posters at War | Armistice

Move your cursor over the photograph. Click higlighted areas for more information Private Shook attempts to move a mule team hauling an ammunition wagon stuck in the mud and holding up the advance of the whole column. Near St. Mihiel, France, September 13, 1918 Private Shook is under a lot of pressure. A cantankerous team of mules is refusing to budge, paralyzing a battle-bound column that stretches for miles behind. America is at war and for the first time in her history she has sent her army to fight on European soil. Her entire economy has been mobilized to achieve one goal - the defeat of Germany. The social impact of these actions will have lasting effects long after the war's end. Establishing the vote for women and the enactment of Prohibition were immediate outcomes. Among more far-reaching influences were a "live for the day" attitude that spawned the Roaring Twenties and a diplomatic retrenchment that sought to isolate America in the vain hope of avoiding the world's problems. The fate of Private Shook and the obstinate mules is unrecorded. What we do know is that after World War I, America will never be the same. Select the articles in this section to learn more about America's involvement in World War I - the "War to end all Wars." Related EyeWitness Accounts: A Death at the Battle of the Somme, 1916 Gas Attack, 1916 The Unknown Soldier Comes Home, 1921