1870 Special Message Regarding the Annexation of Santo Domingo
Many teachers place the beginning of imperialism in the 1890s - this shows it was alive and well (and maybe connected with Manifest Destiny) in the 1870s
Joint Address to Congress Leading to a Declaration of War Against Germany (1917)
On April 2, 1917, President Woodrow Wilson delivered this address to a joint session of Congress and called for a declaration of war against Germany. The resulting congressional vote brought the United States into World War I.
"The March of the Psychos": Measuring Intelligence in the Army
In this lighthearted, anonymous commentary, from the April 1918 issue of the army post newspaper Camplife Chickamauga, a would-be poet mocked psychologists with gentle humor.
The War and the Intellectuals: Article by Randolph Bourne -
1917 article against the war
Debs, Statement to the Court after being convicted of violating the Sedition Act
Eugene Debs delivered his Statement to the Court after being convicted of violating the Sedition Act. This speech was a plea in his defense for his and other socialists’ freedom of speech
Babel Proclamation, May 1918 | State Historical Society of Iowa
Teachers who think it is funny to tell students about Frankfurters being replaced by "Hot Dogs" and Sauerkraut being replaced by "Liberty Cabbage" should look at this law from Iowa to see the reality of xenophobia in the United States in 1918. The Governor of Iowa proclaimed the only English should be spoken in public
The Delome Letter
The following letter is the controversial De Lome letter. The Spanish diplomat's letter was critical of U.S. President McKinley and the prospects for peace . It was leaked to the U.S. press, forcing the recall of the highly capable minister.
Hawaii-United States Treaty -1849
Hawaii-United States Treaty - 1826
Commodore Matthew Perry: When We Landed in Japan, 1854
American Leaders Speak: World War I
Excerpts from Pershing, Gompers and Gerard
1917: War Is "a Blessing, Not a Curse": The Case for Why We Must Fight
Shortly before President Woodrow Wilson’s call for war on April 2, 1917, the editors of a conservative magazine, the North American Review, laid out the basic arguments for U.S. participation.
Zimmermann Telegram (1917)
This telegram, written by German Foreign Secretary Arthur Zimmermann, is a coded message sent to Mexico, proposing a military alliance against the United States. The obvious threats to the United States contained in the telegram inflamed American public opinion against Germany and helped convince Congress to declare war against Germany in 1917.
Report of Minnesota Commission of Public Safety : Minnesota Commission of Public Safety : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive
Awake! America. Object lessons and warnings : Hornaday, William T. (William Temple),1918
This book is an example of racism and anti-German sentiment in the United States in 1918. Could be used by teachers for DBQs, quotes or just a "Do Now" where students try to find good quotes themselves. Give students five minutes and this book, just to skim around and share quotes with the rest of the class as an introduction to a lesson
Letter from Ida B. Wells to President Wilson
Would your students believe that the President of the United States wrote an order to black officers and soldiers to stay away from public places where their presence was resented? If you believe that - do you teach it? This letter from Ida B Wells might be the vehicle to do that
1917: “It Has No Popular Support”: Robert M. La Follette Votes Against a Declaration of War
"A Crowd of Howling Negroes": The Chicago Daily Tribune Race Riot, 1919
The Chicago Daily Tribune, long considered the most antagonistic of all the city's papers toward African Americans, detailed the day's violence, the good deeds of white policemen who were sent to Chicago's South Side, and the injuries they sustained at the hands of black rioters.
"Let Us Reason Together": W. E. B. Du Bois Defends Black Resistance
In an editorial immediately following the Chicago race riot of 1919, Crisis editor W. E. B. Du Bois argued in favor of acts of self-defense and armed resistance, despite the editorial's conciliatory title, "Let Us Reason Together."
1915: William Jennings Bryan, Protest Over the Sinking of the Lusitania
1916: Woodrow Wilson: Peace Without Victory
African American Odyssey: World War I and Postwar Society (Part 1)
Article and links to primary documents from the Library of Congress
"I Didn't Raise My Boy to Be a Soldier": Singing Against the War
"Get the Rope!" Anti-German Violence in World War I-era Wisconsin
In a statement made on October 22, 1918, John Deml, a farmer in Outagamie County, a heavily German and Scandinavian area of Wisconsin, described the nativist mob that had visited him two days earlier.
Victory on the Menu: Recipes and Rationing
Contributed by readers, this "month's worth of recipes" printed in August 1917 demonstrated conservation in action, as well as women's ingenuity in redesigning menus to observe rationing guidelines.
Housewives in Uniform: Domesticity as Military Duty
Presenting domestic work as patriotic effort, this U.S. Food Administration campaign in Good Housekeeping offered women a membership shield and even provided instructions for sewing a "patriotic" housekeeping uniform.
"We Had to Be So Careful"A German Farmer's Recollections of Anti-German Sentiment in World War
Anti-German Broadside
From the Library of Congress
"Please, Let Me Put Him in a Macaroni Box" The Spanish Influenza of 1918 in Philadelphia
Shocked by the scale of the influenza outbreak, none could fathom the lack of respect shown for those who had died
Woodrow Wilson -- "This is War"
War Message to Congress April 2, 1917