Why the USA Joined WW1
Warfare
History Hit
4.5 • 943 Ratings
🗓️ 17 June 2022
⏱️ 34 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
It's easy to forget there was a time before the special relationship, when the United States might never have gotten involved in the First World War.
Three figures, two presidents and a social reformer - Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, and Jane Addams - were key in shaping American foreign policy as the Great War commenced.
In this episode James is joined by Neil Lanctot to find out why the US entered the European theatre of WW1 when so many of its citizens were against the idea back in the heyday of American isolationism.
Neil's book Approaching Storm, The: Roosevelt, Wilson, Addams, and Their Clash Over America's Future is available on Amazon here.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | At the outset of the First World War, America's three most influential thinkers of the time |
| 0:06.3 | were torn on how the US should proceed in the world. |
| 0:10.0 | These were Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, and Jane Adams. |
| 0:14.1 | Each believed the United States must assume a more dynamic role in confronting the growing |
| 0:19.6 | international problems on the world stage, but they disagreed how to approach what soon proved |
| 0:25.4 | to be an unprecedented global catastrophe. |
| 0:29.0 | To take us through the politics of the United States prior to the First World War, we have Neil Lankto on the podcast. |
| 0:35.0 | Neil is the author of a new book, The Approaching Storm. |
| 0:39.0 | He takes us through the story of these three extraordinary leaders and how they debated, quarreled and were split over the future |
| 0:46.2 | of the United States. |
| 0:48.3 | Here is Neil Lankto on the approaching storm. |
| 0:50.8 | Enjoy. Enjoy. Hi Neil, welcome to the Warfare Podcast. How you doing today? |
| 1:12.7 | I'm doing great. Thank you so much for having me. |
| 1:15.0 | Not a problem at all. |
| 1:17.5 | I'm excited for you to take us on a journey back through history to the early 1900s. A time when America's place as the world's |
| 1:26.0 | greatest power was far from secure or even certain and Britain still ruled the |
| 1:32.4 | waves and so much more. |
| 1:34.3 | Because it's here in your latest book that you begin in this crucible, |
| 1:39.0 | this cauldron of thought in the United States about how America, the new world, should confront the old |
| 1:46.6 | world and its looming world war. |
| 1:49.8 | So take us back to that moment in history, Neil. |
| 1:52.2 | Where should we begin? |
... |
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