watch on the communicators on c-span2. >> donald trump is elected as the next president of the united states. follow the transition. we will take you to key events as an happens. c-span.ve on listen on our free c-span app. up next, u.s. army war college history professor talks about events leading up into entry into world war i and common misperceptions.

>> he completed his bachelor's egree from the university of michigan and his masters. with background in social, and american ch history, he's published widely theme of war in the many books include "dance of the fewer rest" and others, the wall street named as one of the five best books ever the war.bout october 2012 basic books mrubd the blood of free men. history of the liberation of paris. "the end of ished world war ii and the remaking of europe." this month city press published path to war," a history of the 1917.can response, 1914 to

michael lcome dr. neiberg. > i want to thank you for the invitation to be here. i've had several good friends who have come in the past and always encouraged to me to be here. this talk is based on a larger a book that jerry mentioned, looking at american responses to the war in europe when it began in 1914 until u.s. history in 1917. his is a subject that i'm afraid we as a community of historians have not treated well. either looked at it exclusively from the lens of woodrow wilson and his close we've takenisers or a couple of hallelujah truths in more '30s, mixed

half truths from the '60s and shook it up. the real story of these years is far more complex and far more interesting. my book asks questions about what the rest of the united was doing outside of washington, d.c. and wilson's advisers. what was america thinking about the events going on? to the they respond massive changes at home and abroad that the war was ushering matter?hy does it i want to start with this image 1914, "life" magazi magazine. for the quality of it. november 1914, very early in the war, in the first couple of months. take a look at both the name of a map of europe for permanent peace and i would like details.ok at a couple the two images on the left, from the top, is from belgium. he i am a mountain on the bottom is the great french cathedral which the germans had 1914.d in the fall of

i would like to you take a look at the map. you notice about it? there is no german on this map. notice france goes all the way to vienna, belgium is poland enlarged, a new is created. the hungarian empire is broken up. the only thing i want to do with image and i'll come back to this theme some more, what i to do is show you one important theme which is the american people as a whole were ally from the start. now that didn't mean they wanted to get involved in the war. wanted t mean that they to see american foreign policy tilt too much one way or the sympathieshere their were is quite clear. i'll talk more about that in a bit. 1914, however, it was quite lear that the american people thought this war would be short and thought this war would not cause them to make great changes that they did things. as i'll show you, events will rove that that's a false

assumption. i wanted to dispel one myth. that is, that the american mere bystanders and didn't pay attention to what was going on. lently false. they knew that the events that were going on in europe were scale and in their scope. they also knew that what happened in europe would affect a m in the united states on political, economic, and social level. this was the greatest news story age.e the greatest, many people said, since 1865. people the american react exactly the way woodrow and the nted them to, famous speech he gave at the end f august asking america to be strictly neutral. wilson himself didn't follow that guidance. ost americans favored the allies. seeing the germans as the ggressors and the ones who started an unnecessary war for a rather small cause. the president, however, they german government, not the german people. particular auto grat

political systems and cristocrat particular social systems. governments, they argued, not to war, an idea americans still hold true to this day. 1914 called for regime change well before that part of the a political lexicon. still, until 1917 most americans oped to keep their country out of the fighting but that did not keep most americans from giving heir time and money and sometimes their lives to the allied cause, especially to france. which i'll return in a little bit. it also meant that the united tates had no problem with wilson's economic policies which tended to favor the allies dramatically. wilson's definition of neutrality maximized american profits while tying the united a quite the allies, favorable overlap of economic and moral reasons. made for many americans enemies of the germans if their eyes. to do really what i want tonight. i want to take you on a journey. page, is a north

carolina newspaper who was a firm backer of president wilson. rewarded him by naming him the ambassador to great court of saint james'' in 1913. when the war broke snowfall wrote this page letter to the president. now or never, he said, i thank ocean, for the atlantic thank god we're out of it. just over a year later, he wrote wilson, in er to which he said, if germany wins, be shotoe doctrine will through. we shall have to have a great army and navy and please in 1915, this was considered a bad thing. it meant you would have to spend a lot of money on something that you used to not have to spend a on. of money suppose england wins, we shall have merely an academic dispute. t's a matter of life or death for english speaking civilization. and walter hunt page felt so about this he left england, came back to the united white house,to the

wilson wouldn't see him. he sat on the front porch until woodrow wilson showed up. is a little ahead of where most americans were although he was not ahead of his ambassadors in europe including the american ambassador to germany. so in a sense what i want to do take you through journey. from 1914, where americans could ay, thank god it's somebody else's problem to october 1915, r i would argue a few months after that a few months later than that when americans were talking about the war in europe for them, hereth in the united states, that's the journey i want to take you you on. want to start by introducing to you someone you may not have heard of. her but in rd of 1914 she was one of the most famous people in the united mary roberts reinhart, later called the american agatha hristie, one of the most popular writers in the united states. she was offered the chance in the spring of 1915 to go to the and be the first

woman ever allowed into the trenches. hereas at a cocktail party in new york city in front of the entire cocktail party her husband forbade her from going. mary roberts reinhart turned to her husband and said i do not ntend to let the biggest thing of my life go by without having been a part of it. by the time the cocktail party her husband had agreed to let her go on condition that the "saturday evening post" take insurance ve life policy on her and that the "saturday evening post" pay her enormous sum the of $1,000 per dispatch. a remarkable figure, it's pretty even today. in some ways mary roberts reinhart's germany from ittsburgh, pennsylvania, through new york to london to berlin, to belgium, into the renches and back home typifies the way that americans were going to view the war for many months. she went to europe with some pro allied sympathies but to condemn both sides in the dispatches she planned to send back to the "saturday evening post." she saw of the war,

however, the more she blamed the germans and the more she elieved that the british and french were fighting on the side of the right. hat is, the side of dells, the side of the weak. -- nd, this woman was no like most american journalists operating in europe the columns she wrote warned americans not believe what the british media was reporting. said, believe what we american journalists can prove. believe what we saw with our own eyes. what we saw is bad enough. believe necessary to the lurid stories the british are trying to tell out of belgium. owneve what we saw with our eyes. hird, she saw early on that although the united states had seeing britain and france succeed american interests and british and french interests did not overlap. therefore, if the united states were to get involved in the war,

it would have to be for american reasons. not to bail out the british or french. and fourth, by the time of the of the ship, mary wanted to see the german army defeated preferably by the french, the british and the russians, with the united supporting them from the outside. this is a page from her war time diary. no, that's not page from her war time diary. that's a page from her war time diary. she came back to the united states as an even greater celebrity. 1915.me back in march much more famous, much wealthier of just before the sinking the lucitania. the great question of the ship was not whether or not it would the united states into the ar, almost no one argued for war. the question was, what it would to force the united states do? reality that the, that the united states would with unable the great of it was

question of the age. react to europe, no longer europe's war? changes do we americans need? do we need to change our business practices. do we need to build a bigger navy or army? nature ed to change the of that army? related to those questions were larger questions over which the united states had little control. how much longer will this war last? will win it? the car bring positive change? have a united states moral responsibility to act on the side of the right against the side of the wrong? as no should come surprise to anybody in this room that americans did not agree on questions.s to those they certainly did not follow president. in the wake of the ship, altitudes grew much harsher and ship.st because of the this is a political cartoon from the new york tribune in october the 15, and you can see

image here, it's the kaiser, sword, an ottoman sword dripping with blood while the aiser is also wearing an ottoman fez and the text reads with us. most americans blamed germany, not the ottoman empire for the atastrophe happening to the armenians. they believed that. he ottoman empire could not have done what it did, would not ave, had the germans not been supporting them. armenia drew tremendous sympathy states.united a christian population living inside a muslim empire trapped man en the other know empire and the russian empire. hiladelphia held an armenian day to raise awareness. in addition, the threat to the to grow days seemed by day especially here in new york city. were sabotage campaigns undergoing in american factories. of attempted assassination

j.p. morgan jr. at his home in long island by a deranged german connection tod no the german government. there was a bomb planted in the vice president's office in the by the same ing man. hose who know the story of jersey city know there was a pier who took munitions from the heartland overseas in. july of 1916 german agents blew blackier up, known as the tom explosion. it's now where liberty state park stands today. to the back the piers are still there. you can see the outline of them and there is one terribly worded to tellqviste-- tell investors happened there. > they expelled two german diplomatst one of them went on to become the last german chancellor before the accession adolph hitler. there were allegations that erman officials were trying to buy american newspapers and even rying to rig american elections.

h.l. came forward with a plot that gaerl agents had approached and useuy his newspaper it as a mouthpiece for german worldwide. his response, i am american and born of american parentage. time he believed that his german ethnicity and his american identity were now conflict with one another. at the same time, he stopped writing articles about germany. he with drew from an article he supposed to write about. >> there was german intrigue in belief that was poncho's actions, the invasion of the southern united states columbus, new mexico, could never have happened had germany not been behind it. was happy to ncho fuel in order to try to make it seem like he had big southern plains source. roberts was a firm believer in what became known as preparedness. building up american strength so that the united states would not be dragged into the war. the goal was not to make america fight, but to make

america too strong. one would rds, no attack us. the movement was led by largely led s and by people like theodore roosevelt who was furious that wasn't doing more and i can talk more about that in the discussion. at&t this ad, this is an a from the fall of 1915 and you can see the text, we're repared, what you may not be able to see in the bottom left, that circle, that's paul revere 1775 underneath it. guy there on the telephone, is bell telephone system, showing the modern paul revere warning system, which is an intercontinental guy there o the he paragraph reads, bell system is a distinctly by ican achievement made americans for america. nd its like is not to be found anywhere in the world. this was partly led by people like roosevelt on the personnel on the industrial side,

led by others, who feared if the united states wasn't prepared whoever won this war would the united states next. his fear was that the united states would become like china, powerful country with no defenses carved up by european enemies. led by people like mary roberts reinhart, who argued that the united states ready, whatever that meant. plan vans proposed a whereby american employers would still pay their employees who went off to get military training. thomas edison created a committee for scientific preparedness to get industry ready to go. charles mayo of the mayo clinic teamed up with two doctors out pittsburgh to create a community for medical preparedness with chapters in 47 of the 48 states. here in new ersity york city, the president of columbia, ordered preparedness done on the faculty. this today.g he went to the entire faculty at columbia university and said, g-staff how the army's

system is wired. identify where on that system you can be most useful to the in an emergency. he did this in 1916 and every columbia's r of faculty responded. >> this is the idea behind preparedness. t's not the idea to get the united states necessarily ready to fight a war, but to make the united states so strong that the countries of europe would have to pay attention to what we wanted and for reasons that i be happy to discuss in the q&a preparedness only produced half measures. t gave the united states a slightly larger navy, it gave the united states a reserve officers training corps program united states a whole lot of parades. essentialhlighted the american problem. knowing that needed to be disagreeing about how to do that. it also highlighted the ineffectiveness of government and this is really what theodore roosevelt what eneral leonard wood and others are saying, if the government is incapable of preparing us, then private industry and private will do it.

of course, as theodore roosevelt had done in 1898. how, in other words, can we be neutral and safe at the same time? as i said, little of that fear, little of that suspicion translated to german americans. the vast majority of them, at least since the american civil were disproportionately catholic. that is, a lot of those same german americans have come from specifically to get away from the depression system. german americans were quite proud of it, the single most assimilated group in the united immigrants and ours,"ic of this, "one of won the pulitzer certificate prize in 1920. who gives up on plans to study in germany because of how repulsed he is by actions, but never turns his back on the german americans in his own community. ugly me they are such looking people the folks around here ain't ugly looking, asks their housekeeper? replies, the ugly ones are

doing the killing while the ermans on the home front are nice, like our neighbors. a woman with s, not a few sentiments of her own wrote german americans are not vandals, the german we know has come here to escape has wrecked g that the old world. in coming to this land of the ree he's followed an ideal as steadily back in the fatherland his kindred are following the and war.s of hate the key, in other words, was not the people but the system under which they lived. this would change as soon as the united states entered the war, in the introductory remarks you about a similar nar you're going to headlined on constitutional law and the hanges that went on in the united states during -- world war i. we can talk more about that as well. n example of this, the most prominent german catholic in the united states, from chicago, gave a number of addresses on topic.

what should german americans do germany risis with began to build? he was himself the grandson of a union veteran in the civil war about this topic for the umpteenth time, he said, that this is e rather late in the day to ask he german americans to prove his patriotism. he did that more than half a century ago," referring back to civil war. when the crisis really came lose in 1917, he said should war break out, german americans would support the united states in the little drummer boy the orphan asylum to the aged folk's home he old and germans considered themselves german american, eisenhower proved the case quite clearly. german americans, and i'll talk the irish americans in a little bit, also did not want to brush of ed with the disloyalty. a tremendous difference between german americans born in the german americans born

in germany. many german americans described crisis that was going on as what happens when a wife and mother disagree. mundelein said why do mothers disagree a lot, mother is the raised you, wife is the one you're living with right now, when a wife and mother who wins, his anticipates, the wife. that was the analogy he drew. many others did as well. german americans ended up splitting politically in the 1916 election and voted in patterns very close to the people as a whole anticipates, the wife. that was with the exception of the socialist vote, in certain large cities milwaukee. in other words, there was no german vote any more than there irish or jewish vote although woodrow wilson tried ery carefully to tar his rival new york's own charles evan hughes with accusations as being pro kaiser candidate. something similar happens with irish americans. his is a political cartoon shortly after the easter rising in 1916 the cartoon is called irish patriots, and it has the sultan

the e ottoman empire, kaiser of germany, and the bulgarian empire, the wearing of green on irish instruments. in 1914, irish americans liked difficulty is s ireland's opportunity. in other words, whatever is bad good for us.s but the loosetainian made it no better germany was as an tournament and many irish made the argument that ireland, country, was a lot like belgium, another small catholic country run over. he big difference comes with the easter rising and i can explain ate little bit here but in the t more into it q&a if you want. 916, a small group of irish patriots known as the irish public brotherhood takes over large sections of dublin and other parts ofof the country in a rebellion against the british. the britishmay know put it down forcefully and violently. from the beginning the british unpopular in the

united states. ven america's most pro-british spokespersons, theodore roosevelt among them, roundly criticized the british, not just for the violent response but for execution of many pretty much without trials. however, the easter rising of things to e irish americans. was no that germany better an international sponsor of patron than great britain. took some of the leaders from germany in the submarine and landed them in ireland. hey promised weapons and support and in the end they did nothing. irish ond was, that american leaders, especially, accusation of irish american disloyalty. the argument went we're irish american but we're american. count on us not to do what they did in dublin. irish more, what americans came to realize, although many of them didn't best hope that the

for ireland was that the united states and great britain were in the winning coalition of the war. and the reason is, that woodrow ilson had begun to speak of national self-determination. in other words, the best hope for ireland going forward was win the war, because britain had cell over -- control over ireland, great on could force britain to accept self-determination for ireland. wilson had already determined by irish were hat the not a nation. that the irish could be well epresented within the larger british structure. something he didn't make public until 1919. so irish americans will be quite unhappy with wilson to say the least. there are very few woodrow ireland.rkers in i was just in the czech republic, there are lots. there are very few in ireland. i can discuss jewish americans a little bit as well. the pattern there is a little there is some t similarities as well. but i wanted to close with this an irish american

actor, living here in new york city, when asked about his loyalty, he said i'm a new yorker. just assume shoot an irish man as a german in new city. you guys laughed. other places there was no laughter. i told you american fears about coming close to american soil was on the rise and i would like to show you the image that i use most often. could have chosen others. this is not "life" magazine map. 1916 s from february 10, so again, note how early this february, 1916. you'll notice a few things on this map. absolutely love it. two cities in the american west, boise, idaho, diplomats that persona non ed grata and had kicked out. what is new york city? pittsburgh shah,

is -- i would like you to notice a couple of other things. mexico is identified mexico the province of with will hemsburg as the capital. on the fears that the problems america was experiencing in what we would of today the failed state mexico, are german inspired. worse still german funded or mexican ll part of a german alliance. also notice florida is identified as dra cone yeah. the caribbean was major american fear. one of the things that happens united reparedness, the states begins to arm and fortify puerto rico and the united tates purchases the danish virgin islands from denmark to become the united states virgin islands. is when the 4 panama canal was opened. the united states is worried about it. west coast becomes known as chippanica, and there is this right here in the new

mexico-arizona area called the american reservation. anybody that's a psychologist that one all you want. and baja, california is referred austraiia. his fever was the united states could be torn apart and cut up nto its various constituent pieces. the atlantic ocean is called -- the gulf of mexico, the gulf of one that i haven't talked about yet if you could pan out, my favorite part of image in wed this calgary once. anada is referred tos barbarians. [laughter] >> now, in case there are any in the room, i don't think they are referring to canada here. they are referring to is the possibility that if there is enough pressure on britain and pressure is hat about to come in the battles that i heard y'all are going to in the near future, if the british and french are under enough they might give up

parts of their north american possessions in order to get out war. and anybody that knows anything about 18th century and 19th this is istory, typically how the great powers have treated north america so ear is not so much that the canadiens are going to turn into barbarians, the rangers are canada somebody from here tomorrow, so maybe, or if the but the fear is, british are under enough pressure, remember, canada is empire, what tish they might do is say to the germans in the peace treaty, give you halifax. we'll give you toronto. e'll give you whatever you want, just get us out of this. the french similarly, still have and ssions, guadeloupe martinique in the caribbean. it's possible, that what the face, in other words, is a future, where there is an alliance between germany, mexico, and japan. remember, these fears will come back in a couple of months, when

the zimmermann telegram proves this isn't just paranoia, while, t the same time, britain and france are trading parts of their north american possessions as the price of getting out of war. two things to note about that. one, obviously, this is a trategic outcome that's unacceptable to the united states. even if it doesn't go nearly as this. and two, the conclusion that any people reached, neutrality has now made u.s. less safe, not more. we may have done the right thing war, but g out of this we're now in a more dangerous situation than we were when we started. certainly the conclusion of mary roberts reinhart and the conclusion of theodore roosevelt. point is, the united states an lose this war even if, or maybe especially if it does nothing. the date here. it's just a couple of months fter that statement that page made to president wilson about this being an existential threat states.united

economics is also a huge factor. this one is from the "chicago tribune." you'll recognize new york city there, the docks of new york ity appear in this image as magnets pulling the hard currency of europe over to this side of the world. side of the atlantic observation and you can see the american banker is pounds, marks, rubles banks lookwhile e.u. exasperat exasperated. economics is an enormous factor. the united states economy was in recession. the war brings us out of the almost immediately. everybody everywhere is making money. everywhere is making money. new york city especially was booming. philadelphiarks in signed a deal for $127 million russians. any stone ammunition company, also in philadelphia, signed and to sell the british

french two million shells and 50 million rifle cartridges. fat contract a from the pennsylvania national guard, preparedness movement. of course,contracts, came jobs and salaries, after years of hard times. european goods, things that americans used to buy overseas, luxury goods, thing like eyeglasses, pencils, bibles, that americans used to buy from europeans, we now bought from here at home. even the wheelers way out in nebraska, in one of ours, are making money on wheat prices going up. everybody is making money. record profits for pig farmers, camera rofits for salesman. american per capital income for 1,164 and going down. 1,868 and going up. with this success, there you can see, oh, sorry, sorry. a slide that i also like to

show, some americans were not this table with all of money. some americans thought that this put american in a very bad moral we're making is, money off the tragedy that's in europe. some americans donated part of that money, a symbolic part of they oney, to the people saw suffering. this is an ad from the pittsburgh press, i picked this it's a day to raise money for the serbians, at the that i grew up going to so i thought it was kind of interesting. then, the big football conference, about donating all the profits from ts 1915 football season to charity. they said no but they agreed to pass around buckets that people could throw change into. americans gave enormous sums of money. almost all of it went to serbia, poland and france and belgium, of course. philadelphia t industrialist, called for raising $100 million for belgium

alone. philadelphia alone raised enough field o buy two entire hospitals for the french army. in just three hours, philadelphia's jewish community quarter of a million dollars for relief of jews in poland. going s sums of money for charity. in a l come back to this second. i want to quote mary one more time. she described pittsburgh as catastrophe and one newspaper in iowa ran this headline. to our present prosperity? in other words? can america profit from a war? can america profit from the suffering of others? what kind of nation does it make us? as you might be able to imagine british and germans for heir own reasons were both highly critical of the united states. for making money off of a war hat the americans wanted britain to win and german being critical because of the united states industrial and financial systems are essentially working benefit of the germans.

when i was over in france, i found a wonderful, wonderful where a french senior officer referred to the united states as our great neutral ally. and that's for reasons, as i aid, both practicality, money, and morality. most american trades overseas, ocean 1914 to ic 917 required british ships, british credit and british insurance. >> some americans gave more than money. his is a group that were volunteer americans, some quite wealthy, not all of them wealthy but many quite wealthy, who left comfortable lives here in the united states, went to france and first joined the then forelegion and joined a volunteer fire squadron, that would fly in the army. the guy that founded sit the guy holding the lion cub there. these guys had two lions cubs, whiskey and soda. his name is billy. of father was the president

the pennsylvania railroad. then the largest corporation in america. he had one of the first owned airplanes in the united states. his group, the lafayette is going to go on to compile a record, a war tremendous combat record. and p.r. people on both side of were quite quick to pick up on it. a great p.r. tool, showing the between their two countries. theodore roosevelt gave them money. them money.lt gave they hosted lar vicious parties. they weren't under anybody's command. tell ench didn't want to them what to do and they weren't part of the american force yet. that this is where the fighter pilot mystique comes from. do anything they wanted, they flew in the bath robes because they didn't like uniforms. they threw enormous parties in paris. t the same time, they had a

tremendous combat record. trained when foreign dignitaries to visit to knock the foreign dignitary down and growl and just when the foreign ignitary was just scared enough, whiskey or soda would look them on the forehead. this is the memorial that is just west of paris, in a not -- it's unfortunately that easy to get to. it was in bad shape, why is it here?ng thank you. it was in pretty bad shape. the french government paid to to do a lot with it. the memorial they built. some of you may know this nurses nd doctors came from 47 of the 48 american states to serve in france. there was a charity group, a grant and a of daughter of grover cleveland, two american presidents, went blind. care for the the blinded french veterans. j.p. morgan's daughter, ann a tremendous life of philanthropy helping out the french. chateau, a little

which still stands as a monument to franco-american friendship. other writers and famous people were there. people who weren't famous were there. he important point is there is no equivalent to this, to the central powers. i can't find any documentary the only thing i can really find are two doctors who went saechbd in the austrian his paperse of them, are in kansas city. politicalre to make a statement, i'll here because people are suffering and i took n oath which is very different from the folks at lafayette are saying. they are saying i'm ready to die and give my life for france and there were people who did give their life for france people that eral are in this photograph. joyce, of course, dying 1916, ically on july 14, service of the french arm army. roberts reinhart again. i think no one captured what was in march of 1917 better

than did mary roberts reinhart. february, 1917, after germany declared it would resume unrestreeted submarine warfare the zimmermann came out, german asking mexico to create a german-mexican japanese alliance and if war begins asking mexico to invade the american southwest to get back had lost in at it the mexican american war in 1846-1848. stuff. serious and i can tell the story of that because it's brilliant if you want me to. outpoint is all of that was there. and it still wasn't clear what wilson was going to do. said, i'll go to the white house and skin him alive. partisanship is not new, guys. mary roberts reinhart sat down gets publishedy, in march, and she wrote this piece for the "saturday evening post."

declaration of war speech is a perfect distillation of what was going on but i think pari-roberts reinhart is even better. hat i want to focus on is that penultimate, the paragraph that begins brit and france, the main theme that she wrote is if the united states gets involved in this war we can't allow in theutions like we did american civil war. she had two teenage boys. she knew what that meant. likely that they would fight. and she wrote, on that theme, if in this war we allow the few to for us, then as a nation we have died and our ideales have died with us. though we win, if we all have this burden alike then do we all lose? but she also wrote, reason the to get tates had involved in this war was that britain and france shared parts our e american ideal, democratic heritage came from them. since 1914, she wrote, british fighting fore been the ideal on which my country was founded. of the pushmination

seans, germany threatened those had broken se it loose something terrible. something that must be killed, the world dies. there are no higher stakes than that. and whether this looks good from a hundred years or not it's undoubted, unquestioned, that americans way most felt in 1917. united states in her view had no alternative. her own had seen with eyes. a war for which she knew the united states people were not prepared. knew the which she american government was not prepared. she knew the united states still had not developed strategic goals for. i want to end this with a little new york city touch. from here is times square. sits in tatue that times square, that's on the top left, hee wrote his most famous until the 1950s,

until elvis came along, the most famous recorded song in american history, as he was coming from new rochelle, new york, to grand went tostadium, where i escape a rainstorm, song he wrote was "over there." it the day after the american entry into the war in 1917. here are two versions for how he wrote the song but the one he wrote on the train is a little better. upposedly, he went to the ring announcer at madison square garden, sang the song for them nd the ring announcer said, george, that's your hit. it's symbolic of two things to me. first, the change from 1917 to 1915, when, as some of you know, song in the r united states was a song called "i didn't raise my boy to be a soldier." controversial song from the start. theodore roosevelt, in the way could eodore roosevelt have, another new york city guy, he said anybody that doesn't like -- that likes that song like a song that ould say, i didn't raise my

girl to be a mother." however, after the sinking of he ship and after the reparedness movement, even the song's writer backed away. didn't suggest that song to suggest moral equivalence. beidn't mean for anything to read as anti-war or anti-preparedness. the second thing i find interesting is that there were popular recorded ersions of "over there" in 1917. this song was written by a long m. co-hen an, george were sung versions from a jewish american singer in illinois. y the great italian opera singer, and billy murray, an irish american singer out of philadelphia. to me at's important because it shows the unity of americans going into the first world war, that there were these versions to appeal to communities.

by the way, this is making money off this stuff and you'll notice here is no african-american singer of this song which suggests, of course, segregated army that's going to go and the world ar to make safer for democracy. it also shows how far the united people nd the american were willing to go to guarantee their safety in 1917. and i want to finish with this and then i'll be happy to open it up to q&a. in my view what the american 1917, were doing in april was preventing the threat that germany posed to their homes. stopping things like the black tom explosion, stopping things like the threat that that map like thetopping things zimmermann telegram, from getting in the way. that important? we will celebrate, we will commemorate the end of the first world war here in a couple of 11.s on november that's the day the armistice was when ferdinand negotiated an end to the fighting. pick. the day we on november 12, 1918, already came the calls from the united troops home ng the

and the war, stop the spending, get back to normalcy. in other words, we don't commemorate june 28, 1919, which the treaty of versailles is signed. why that matters and why i think the i think the book, and evidence in the book suggests, what the american people thought they were doing in april 1917 stopping the threat to the united states. they did not think they were following woodrow wilson on the that would lead him to the treaty . you and i'll be happy to take any questions you might have. [applause] >> we've got a bunch. there is a microphone coming around. to pint outust like that there was also, at this 1915, a rting in about very lively invasion of american literature. >> absolutely. absolutely. >> i have read a fair amount of it and it's all, and i mean, all anti-german. it.ll of all of it. either it specifies the germans calffully s very

around it. in fact, there are three of them hat i bought aimed at teenagers, young adult fiction. the last one is called the defense of pittsburgh which issy being that's where i'm from and it reads just like "red dawn." it's up to us, defending against the germans. volume two, which is the defense of brooklyn. >> there you go. >> so you guys failed so we had bail you out. i'm just kidding, i would never say that to a guy from brooklyn. you, michael. >> there was an oversight, poland is not exist until 1980. map.ad been off the if they came to the united states, they would be the population group. it wasn't german americans. >> that's correct. >> so you didn't american polish jew.can you may correct it if you're so inclined. it's significant because after poland was larger than lativa, estonia and hungary this was not a

minor ethnic group. >> and the polish legion created done on the south side of pittsburgh. but you're right about that. the question. the beginning thing about world war i sit ended four umpires, germans, austria, hungary ran, russia and turkish ottoman. french and nd the empire.tish >> i'm concerned that we may have adopted some british values into the american military system, for example, in 1922, the crestempire. >> i'm concerned that at the mi reversed.it was >> duty honor, country is an interesting motto. it's the ore sense if other way around. is duty without honor. this was prompted by an -- by some captain in

d.c. >> i don't know it's the case of the west point motto. a wonderful thing to take a look at. i don't have a direct answer but it wouldn't surprise me if they point, if they went back and said top to bottom, let's look at everything, are we doing everything the way we want to do it. there is a strong antibritish streak in the american army world war i. most americans don't like accepting this but the army we modeled and pattern ourselves at wanted to he one we work with the most was actually the french and the australians british, hey hated the too, or disliked them in a cousinly kind of way that we did. at west point there is a statue. the end of world war i there, ere tight ties between the academy and france and those things go away in the world war they are very strong in

the first. > are there any parallels with french americans, russian americans, greek minutes, talian americans, having the same thing, where they are kind of having to prove they are bona ide, that they are americans, too. and second, during the war, propaganda, official with people like -- the committee, i wonder if they are s from the interwar, or pre-war stuff you've been terms of that n culture.merican >> the british and french don't have to prove their loyalty britain he goal that and france have line up with the goals of the united states. russia is more complicated and i here but k about it the russian revolution is extremely important because it americans that the war might have the positive benefit of bringing democracy to russia. we're not done

with a century later. people that come from eastern europe, hope is, if you can bring democracy to russia, a poland that makes sense, create a czech that makes rid of those backward empires the war might have things positive that you could pull away from. as, of course, americans would argue, the american civil the war of the war, 1898 did. he's econd question, yes, icking up on themes, he's not creating this out of thin air. on, you know, destroy this beast. rest icking up on the air toecrat particular nature. he's picking up on things that talk t there and i can about more of those. my question is why is the traditional explanation, i have never heard your point of view very interesting, thank

you, that it really all hinged into the war, really all hin,ed on submarine warfare, and in a factual sense, let's the british had done worse, any sense you have that the united states may not have entered the war, absent that. historian. my standard throw away answer is i only discuss counterfactuals with a scott in front of me at a bar because i like to have of me to provent a case. what i can say, at the end of american view nt was, we will support the british and french with everything that still not ut this is our fight. by february, march, and april of radically view has changed and it's because of the zimmermann telegram, it's unrestricted submarine warfare, because of the fears of sabotage, new york city mobilizes before the united does, before the

declaration of war, to guard the bridges and guard the harbors tunnels that they threat.e all at the new york national guard buys ts own sea planes in order to patrol the airspace over new york city before the u.s. gets involved in the war. so there is this sense, there is security is t our at risk. but until unrestricted submarine warfare and the zimmermann telegram, dominant view is we'll support it, finance it, provide weapons, do whatever we can do but it's still their fight, not ours. early 1917 changes that. >> i have two questions. first of all -- >> where are you? issue right here. stand.t the issue of the recent 30 or 40 years of literature on the intervention in the first world war stresses the act that one of our weaknesses was the overemphasis on marksmanship, the individual tim talks about that.

do.others i was wondering what you have on that and secondly, as you just the blackearlier, had tom explosion out there in new jersey, and you have this very active espionage network in the united states, that we find out later, in in the 1930s, is revealed, because the germans sort of tried to to rate themselves from separate themselves from it, so i'm wondering what tapes you have on that and related to that, the impetus for the sedition act and espionage act. >> the law enforcement communities here's in the new york-new jersey area, had no that the germans were behind this. had no doubt. they had evidence. there is a wonderful story that take too long to tell but essentially, old elevated west had in in that you guys new york, german is being tracked by the secret service. he falls asleep on that train. and realizes he's at the wrong stop, jumps out, a secret service guy grabs his bag the other side of

the car with the documents. they take the documents up to new hampshire which is where is at the time, they open them, wilson proves everything, that the police had believed but do anything about because of jurisdictional issues, the laws on the books allow the police to do the things they wanted to do. they get the first ever telephone tap in new york city's history to listen in on some germ agents and wilson still as to ident says i don't want be involved in this. so he gives the documents to the new york orld and the world publishes them in full. so there is no doubt among, i vast majority of americans, that somehow germany is behind this. to her it goes all the way kaiser, to those two diplomats that eventually wilson had to persona non grata, there is no doubt germany is behind it it takes until the 1930s to prove in court. reats one because our own mythology says every american boy knows how to shoot a rifle. everybody seriously involved in knewefense of this country

that was ridiculous. so, you had to get to the point you would accept the fact you had to train these guys. you had some who were anti-preparedness, who are saying, william jennings bryant an one, if the country faces emergency, young men will volunteer like they did in 1816 you have professionals coming back and saying this is not the war of 1861, i don't think you know what you're talking about. that.sn't this isn't that. and one of the things they are oncerned about, of course is the very unmarshal attitude of 1914 and can youth in 1915. yeah. excellent talk. question first -- i'm not sure if you believe it, but i think do, but i believe that the zimmermann, without it being unencrypted given to the noticans, we probably would give in to the war. we can argue, you can argue that question, but

the americans did not de crypt it. that was done by the british. right. >> okay. bell,ey gave it to edward who was an american spy. >> right. was there anybody that in america, let's not release knit was there anybody in britain that said not release everyone realize this would get us into the war? >> everybody realized, that's again, o confirm, zimmermann telegram doesn't come out of nothing. the zell man telegram comes a year after this map. it comes a year after all the invasion literature, all of that we were talking about, the british are concerned if they release the zimmermann telegram the germans will know british have broken the code. so they do something really clever and sophisticated. there are, in fact, two zimmermann telegramses there is one that goes from germany

o the -- there is another one that goes from the german delegation in washington to mexico city. one and ase the second the translation from german to spanish changes a couple of words. germans assuming the will say, code wasn't broken, mexicans were sloppy with their security. happens, zimmermann himself is approached, you didn't really write that stupid you?ram, did zimmermann was in a press conference and he said, yes, i did, because he knows they are to find, our right? he knows by that point they are going to find out and he's thinking, okay in this case i out what the reaction of mexico and japan will be quickly and mexico and japan back off, no, we want no part of this game, we're not doing this. yeah, there is this wonderful intricate back history. they have got this wonderful juicy piece of intelligence and want to use on't it. so fortunately, they come up with this scheme, it's actually idea, to release the version.

and it works. to ecently, i read farewell arms by hemingway and the main encounter eems to loot of italian american soldiers. how prevalent was that and was t do to prescription or loyalty? >> i'm so glad you asked that question. about the s the war time of the sinks of the ship. as you know, philadelphia and of these cities had immigrant aid societies that don't exist anymore. their job was to help italians here, help them assimilate into american culture. 1915, what they do is they mission to helping italians with officer commissions and with military andice that want to go back fight the italian army. it helps them to get back to italy. of hey are helping tens thousands of italians get back -- get back to italy in in the italian army. that's where those guys are coming from. the american government is holy hole -- wholly supportive. sympathy with of

the italian american desire to go back and serve for a cause that the united states thinks is the right cause. you're right and it's tens of thousands and those immigrant aid societies immediately switch their mission. our job is now to help those italy.t back to i'm glad you asked that question. fascinating footnote. >> thank you for the presentation. ou mentioned before, you want to go back and talk a little bit persian t the expedition and how much it unprepared, .s. was and the other thing, the map, talk about japan a little bit more because japan technically british side he and was doing things in the pacific against german colonies u.s. had a great japan so talk about those two topics. >> essentially a lot of this is anti-japanese fears and racism that has nothing to do with any strategic worry. 1915 or 1916 e in

is worried about the japanese landing in san francisco. what they are worried about is fifth colonists. did go to war there are all of these japanese americans they are sayingwcolumnists, wht they are worried about, is if we did go to war, there are these japanese-americans and we don't know who they are or how to control them. my guess is it is a reflection of racism more than it is strategy. this is part of what drives the preparedness movement. the american army goes into probably the most photographed person in north america in 1916 and they can't find him. the government that we are trying to support, their troops are firing at american troops. american newspapers are la is on aponcho vil hill laughing at how incompetent the american army is. sometimes the parades they would hold would have an anti-german flair and sometimes an

anti-mexican flair. is it kentucky -- filled in their national guard dispatch meant with prisoners. this is an example of a main progressive feed that you don't do something with. they are yelling and screaming. the secretary of the army, lily garrison, we have to get rid of the national guard system. we need a federal system. it becomes a major sticking point in 1916. it is one of the reasons the preparedness movement does not really do anything. it stalls in congress because it is fighting.

it's ok. in other words, it's ok to make money. that is what we will do here. the economic issue, to me, is three years of

profiting, three years of making money off of it. --coming from one of the they changed some of the towns. berlin became new berlin. there was pressure to stop inaking german insurgents -- certain parts of states. it was ridiculous. teacher to teach both german and english. how widespread -- actuallyi think it's not widespread et al. before the entry into the work. once it gets into the work, it is spotty. school find cases where

german out of the curriculum. there are many arguing, this is what you should do. they need to learn american, learn english, become americans fully. it is not a black and white thing we have depicted it. american prominent saying, make them american. get the german language out of them. make them learn english in the schools. they can learn german at home. that is building before the war and the were increases it. it is spotty, depending on where you are when you are. >> hi. the war required and unprecedented economic mobilization, reach of national power and the economic and military spheres. many of the things touched ably upon federal power in terms of preparedness, but to what extent was the reach of

central power in terms of mobilizing the country to go to war anticipated by popular sentiment? did it play a role in people for or against the war? michael: you may or may not know this. thereorld war i began, was no law that prevented a european company or government from selling its stocks in the united states, converting them to gold, and taking the gold out. mid-july, the united states is facing a crisis where it could literally run out of gold. in norman's problem, as you can imagine. the gold standard is still the basis. the united states government took the unprecedented step of shutting down every stock market in the united states from july until october, 1914,' . to only reason it was able reopen was that congress finally agreed to pass the federal reserve act.

that progressive innovation that ever but he thought would be the end and ruin the united states, or its opponents did. now you have a situation where you need new economic tools to prevent this economic disaster from happening. the federal reserve act becomes the wedge that the administration uses. once the gold crisis is pasr they -- past, and they had trucks going down the road filled with gold as a confidence-building measure, because at that time, all money thebased on gold -- that is image i had appear. i don't know what slight it is. that one. that is another important significance of this. the goal that went that way is way.oming this after the gold crisis, wilson's reluctance to use economic instruments for all kinds of reasons i can get into if you really want to.

he was really reluctant at the peace conference after the war as well in a way that harry truman was not. truman was perfectly ready to go to the europeans and say, you need money, we have money, this is how we will do it. that was not woodrow wilson's way. they didld crisis, something no american government ever thought about doing. but wilson treads lightly. when the war starts, he thinks about things in a different way. it's a complicated question. --it sounds like michael: they are, but they are assuming the private sector will do it. >> [inaudible] michael: correct. allow jpmorgan to make his loans. it may not be the best thing in the world. it is better than the government printing money and doing it that way. that kind of attitude. yeah. you explain how the

mechanics of declaring the war, how the actions came about? did he ask congress to declare war? michael: he did. actuallyi think happens, there is so much pressure on wilson. several of his cabinet members right in their private letters, if wilson does not take this country to war, i have to resign. that included his son-in-law, the secretary of the treasury. tremendous pressure. new york state mobilizes. new york city mobilizes. places are telling wilson, congress passed a law authorizing wilson to do everything short of war. in other words, basically handing the president a blank check. what they wanted him to do was come to them and ask for the declaration of war that they very much wanted to give him with a couple of exceptions. hiseld a meeting with cabinet and ask everybody's

opinion around the room. every single member of the cabinet votes for war in late march. all wilson says is, thank you, gentlemen, i have heard what you have to say, and he walks out of the room. the advisors are writing, if he does not go to war now, i can't be a part of the cabinet. hardn writes, i am kind of on wilson, i came to dislike the guy, but the declaration of war speech that he gave in april is brilliant. i tell my students at the army were college, it is the single most american thing ever written. it talks about going to war against government, not people. it talks about creating a better out ofa better peace work. it talks about creating international linkages. it's beautiful. that's what congress wanted him to do. he could have said, guys, let's le's go, and congress would have voted for it. >> [inaudible] from theit is a week moment wilson says, i really want to discuss this with my

cabinet, until he goes and -- >> [inaudible] is no voting. there is voting in the congress. there are two senators. you can look it up easily enough. a small number vote against the declaration of war. it is very small. >> hi. i heard after the revolutionary war, there were a lot of german prussians in the united states, they did not know if they should make the official language english or german and a german voted possibly to make it english. if that was true and we were speaking german, what with the outlook be on the war? michael: benjamin franklin wanted the language to be hebrew because it was a non-european language. a lot of stuff was under discussion. [laughter] mom, if you're watching on c-span, i got that right. the point is to assimilate.

it is the point that german-american leaders talk 1917.a lot in 1914 to we might be german-americans, but we are americans first. that is the argument that they are making. >> first, the lusitania was carrying munitions and that is the reason they gave for blowing it up. michael: nobody in the united states fought that. very few people, i should say. if an airliner went down tomorrow with americans on it flying on vacation to rome, if it came out there was something in the cargo hold that should not have been there, i don't think many americans would say there for everyone on the plane deserved to die. it was the same thing in 1915. it was legal and the people traveling with their babies to london could not possibly have known.

yes, it's true. i don't think it matters. >> i. thank you. there was a lot around these issues. what motivated that? that,question, related to historians generally conclude that we had as much reason to support germany as we did -- michael: i think that's wrong. i'm sorry. i interrupted your question. >> that was the question. is that true? michael: the pacifist movement in the u.s., some people are genuine pacifists who can see the genuine horror of what is going on in europe. there are people who argue that the united states should stay out of it. after the lusitania, after black his happens, the

numbers dwindle. andrew preston, a brilliant historian, canadian historian teaching now at cambridge, believes that by the end of 1916 , the pacifist movement in the united states came down to individuals you can spot and name. there is no national movement because they are so out of step. everybody agrees war is horrible , we get that, but again, staying neutral and pacifist has not helped. to your other point, most americans also don't see the german government, the german form of government, german form of society, as what they want to identify with. again, here is the key difference. the german people the americans have no problem with. this will be an issue in the postwar period, too. the americans go into the occupation zone in the rhine river. the aristocratic system germans are running is absolutely

anathema to what americans want to do. wilson's demand at the end of the war, when they begin negotiations over an armistice, wilson's demand is, get rid of the kaiser, get rid of the aristocrats, and put a democratic system in place. i won't negotiate with the system you have to do have to change the system. most americans are fully supportive of that. it is similar to the end of world war ii, fleshing out the whole german system is not something the americans think they need to do. change who is in power. change the nature of the political representation, and you are fine. who's got the mic? yes, sir. .ichael: oak -- >> ok looking at the amount of speaking about what happens with belgians after the german can'ton of belgium, i

what's thee -- belgians did in the congo. michael: sure. --2016, it feels a lot like michael: that could be true from our perspective a century later, but there was no doubt that in 1914, 1915, the belgians were sympathetic. i did some research in colombia. they led a movement. the germans burned the belgian university town with the entire library and manuscripts. colombia led the movement to replace every book that was lost. there was deep support for belgium in the united eights. -- are absolutely right that the united states. you're absolutely right that it was a horrible, imperialist

nation when it came to africa. but there were innocent people who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. great christie's detective is a belgian refugee who comes to london. if you know the movies and books, anytime anyone describes him as french, he gets very upset. it is reminding people what happened to the belgians. >> it is clear that earlier when the u.s. did not want to go to war -- how much of an advocate were they for peace? were there formal actions by wilson to try to broker peace? did they ever have any chance at all? michael: after he was reelected in 1916 by a razor thin margin, in an election that had a most nothing to do with the war, wilson decided to take another shot at it. he went to the european

government and he said, give me what your war aims rp or tell me what it is you are fighting for and we will negotiate it. we will serve as the mediators as the oh roosevelt had done to win the first american nobel peace prize. williams jenning bryan thought that was what he was trying to do. -- germans the reality is there was nothing to negotiate. it is a different book that i wrote, but this isn't a war over who controls -- there was nothing to negotiate. it comes to the realization at the end of 1916. this will happen when one side is exhausted on the other side is less exhausted. we want the winning side to be the british and french. back there was a treaty of berlin -- >> there was a treaty

of berlin. there any reason we could not have forced that in 1935? that was have said -- enough leverage for us, france and poland interfered with what germany was doing. was fdr not able to summon the will to enforce the treaty? michael: again, different talk, different book. the debate in the united states after world war i is whether the u.s. should develop or be a part of international institutions wanted, or whether it wanted to be isolationist. that is the term we have misunderstood. two people in the 1920's, it did not mean ignore europe. europe onnteract with a leader -- on a unilateral

basis. we will be a with the world the way we want to deal with the world. what we will do, we will handle europe the way we want to handle it. that is what henry cabot lodge and others are arguing against the treaty of versailles. wereu have a system that a between poland and czechoslovakia could drive the --ted states in the 1930's are far more complicated. is the countryy deeply divided domestically was in no position to interfere in a productive way. the other thing i might say, america's great power has normally been economics. i'm talking about the prewar period. that instrument of power just

isn't fair. -- there. >> i am surprised you said no one could have known there were armaments on the lusitania. they took out newspaper ads warning people. michael: they did. >> and exhibit was done on world war i that failed to mention that and they got quite a few questions. my real question, forgive me if you addressed this, in reading books on world war i, i have been puzzled to try to understand why germany got so much of the blame when it seemed to be that austria was the problem because of the way it treated serbia. the latest book i read, explained britain for instigating it through diplomacy, russia and france trying to encircle germany. so, i wonder how much of our understanding of world war i is

and theby world war ii way we read the germans from that point of view. michael: the first thing i would say, it is quite clear, it is painfully obvious, most americans blame germany. the reason is they believe, and this is -- how much of this do i want to go into? i will try to do it quickly. if i don't do it well enough, catch me afterward. the shooting of the archduke in june of 1914, nobody cares about thierry nobody cares about it. the smallok diplomatic crisis and encouraged austria to make a world where outfit. to most americans, the crisis is on the danube and is a diplomatic crisis. believe great britain has any responsibility, nor do i believe france has any responsibility for what happens next. austria decided to take this small crisis and escalated into a major crisis.

the reason they do is because for the first time in decades, austria-hungary is the victim, not the perpetrator. it is an opportunity that will not come again. what does germany do with the opportunity? it claimed russia was coming after them and then it -- to most americans, the only explanation for that is that the aristocracy has gold of its own and is sending its people into this slaughter on the western front and sending europe into a slaughters for gold that nobody understands except the german aristocracy. the dominant american view is if you get rid of the idiots that are running germany, this problem won't come back. it's the same thing we do in 1945. the problem is in germany. volkswagen go right back to what it is doing. we will take a small number of

people at nuernberg and hang them. most americans, and i would concur wholeheartedly, britain and france have nothing to do with this. this war did not begin on the rhine river over the border between germany and france. it did not begin because france wanted to get anything back. it has nothing to do with any of that. france is in this war for the most noble reason of all. another army crossed the border. i can get into all of this much more if you want. i don't buy this thing about britain at all. britain was pursuing its state interest, but the crisis that occurs on the danube, the british say over and over again, it has nothing to do with us, unless either britain or france -- either germany or france, excuse me -- trust me. if either germany or france

decide to take over the belgian coastline. britain wants belgian neutral is so nobody can use it against them and the reason france moves slowly, one reason, is the british made it clear they are no happier with france controlling the coastline than they are germany. one side is clearly acting in defense and the other side is clearly not. true that pershing wanted to keep troops -- michael: he said he thought it was important to drive home to the germans that they had lost. as good as that argument looks in retrospect, nobody was willing to do it with him, including woodrow wilson. nobody was willing for sound political reasons to take the victory you got and risk throwing it away by putting an army into germany itself. >> one more question. they had the spanish influenza.

1918. could that have been germ warfare from germany? no.ael: we think it probably started in kansas, for riley, kansas, probably. >> how is the rental was hl mencken -- how influential was hl mencken? people,give us important people other than -- michael: pick of the book and look in the index. that is a smart answer. the german americans are making the point over and over again, my grandparents were german, but it does not mean my loyalties are there. this is the most important event of their lives. there's a newspaper publisher who joined one of the new york

newspapers. fascinating as a german-american negotiating this stuff. theodore roosevelt had a regular column in "the kansas city star," which is great to read because of the nasty things he says about wilson. it makes the rhetoric of today look not all that bad. a lot of americans are writing. i don't know if i can give you too many names off the top of my head, but i tried to quote as many of them in the book as i could. mic? -- who's got the mic? the one central power you don't talk about, the church. anything where they are getting attacked, essentially, as potential enemies, subversives? michael: not as much because everyone understands the ottoman

empire is a diverse place, much more diverse -- i should not put it that way. americans understand the empire is this incredibly complicated web of people. a bitmenians elicit quite of sympathy. for the most part, the ottoman empire is seen as this backward thing that needs to be modernized. you may know this. at the paris peace conference, the british and french wanted the united states to take over mandates in palestine and wilson refused to that. -- to do that. >> was there anybody on the american side who spoke negatively about the creation of as davidh corridor lloyd george did in england, who warned about the potential for chaos and violence in the enclaves where germans were left in isolated areas, and what they created in poland? michael: the peace conference is

another incredibly complicated topic. what they're trying to do is create states that can be economically sufficient, in other words, be able to feed themselves and contribute to the economy, they have to be strategically sound, and they have to be ethnically sound. that is almost impossible to do. things like the polish court or are created to try to square the circle. createdh corridor are to try to square the circle. everything is in private papers. an american was at the paris peace conference and he tried to warn the american delegation that what they were doing was never ever going to work, and no one wanted to listen to him. he was giving them bad news. britishnard keenan, the economist, was critical of what was going on. he left the paris peace conference and wrote one of the most famous books of the time period.

my favorite is william bullitt. he left the peace conference early because of the reasons you are articulated. he said, i'm going to the south of france to watch the world go to hell. plenty of people could see what was coming. thank you, everybody. [applause] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2016] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] >> interested in american history tv? visit our website. see the schedule or watch a recent program.

monday night, president of audi of america talks about autonomous cars and his prediction of when they will be on the market. >> when you see what uber is doing, you see a lot of proclamations executives are making, the automotive business where you are used to a lot of hype and when it comes to everyday matters, a little bit of hype is ok. when it comes to matters such as this, it is disingenuous. when someone says autonomous or autopilot or self driving, the consumer thinks, i hit a button and that car will take me anywhere in america under any condition. that is not the case. >> watch the