On April 6th 1917, in defence of its allies Britain, France and Russia, the US declared war on the Central Powers and officially entered World War One (WW1). The war had both positive and negative effects on the US economy and American society as a whole. This essay will evaluate the impact the war had on the US economy through analysing its effect on industry and agriculture. It will also show the impact it made on society in the US through the impact on race, gender, health and Progressivism.
On the whole, the impact of World War One (WWI) was mainly positive on the US economy as it created growth in industry and agriculture. At the beginning of the war, the US was experiencing recession, however 44 months of consecutive growth from 1914-1918 …show more content…
Due to the flu originating in Africa and then eventually spreading to the battlefields in Europe, it eventually made its way to military bases in the US. The virus arrived in Fort Riley, Kansas in 1918 and after infecting the military eventually spread to the civilian population. Influenza was a highly contagious viral infection which was shown to be particularly deadly by the fact that it caused between 50-100 million deaths around the globe . Despite the massive advances in medicine at the time, there was a struggle to find a cure to the deadly disease which ended up killing 550,000 people in the US alone. This was 6 times higher than US military casualties in France during the war . The flu was eventually controlled through vaccines discovered in the 1940’s but by then it had already had a devastating impact on American …show more content…
The progressive movement was an era where improvement was promoted in American society, by making government more efficient and expert, by promoting equality, improved education and morals in society . The progressive movement however could be domineering in its approach and the war was used by some reformers to take a harder line with their policies. This was particularly evident in relation to prohibition . The government for example used the war to its advantage by perpetrating the myth that the availability of beer was actually a plot by the Germans to weaken the American population and that it was dwindling scarce resources away from the production of Food to the production of liquor. They also argued that because of the war, they needed every man working to his full capacity instead of being intoxicated. With the introduction of prohibition being directly linked to the war it gave the illusion that prohibition was a patriotic cause to support which in turn helped it attract increase backing from the public . An example of this is shown by a poster exhibited by the Ohio Dry Federation which showed the image of a soldier in the trenches and
On the whole, the impact of World War One (WWI) was mainly positive on the US economy as it created growth in industry and agriculture. At the beginning of the war, the US was experiencing recession, however 44 months of consecutive growth from 1914-1918 …show more content…
Due to the flu originating in Africa and then eventually spreading to the battlefields in Europe, it eventually made its way to military bases in the US. The virus arrived in Fort Riley, Kansas in 1918 and after infecting the military eventually spread to the civilian population. Influenza was a highly contagious viral infection which was shown to be particularly deadly by the fact that it caused between 50-100 million deaths around the globe . Despite the massive advances in medicine at the time, there was a struggle to find a cure to the deadly disease which ended up killing 550,000 people in the US alone. This was 6 times higher than US military casualties in France during the war . The flu was eventually controlled through vaccines discovered in the 1940’s but by then it had already had a devastating impact on American …show more content…
The progressive movement was an era where improvement was promoted in American society, by making government more efficient and expert, by promoting equality, improved education and morals in society . The progressive movement however could be domineering in its approach and the war was used by some reformers to take a harder line with their policies. This was particularly evident in relation to prohibition . The government for example used the war to its advantage by perpetrating the myth that the availability of beer was actually a plot by the Germans to weaken the American population and that it was dwindling scarce resources away from the production of Food to the production of liquor. They also argued that because of the war, they needed every man working to his full capacity instead of being intoxicated. With the introduction of prohibition being directly linked to the war it gave the illusion that prohibition was a patriotic cause to support which in turn helped it attract increase backing from the public . An example of this is shown by a poster exhibited by the Ohio Dry Federation which showed the image of a soldier in the trenches and