Download American Homefront WKSHT

Name: _______________________________________
Date: ______________
Mr. Armstrong
SS8 | AIM #: ________
The American Home Front During WWI
When the US entered World War I, approximately one-third of the nation
(32 million people) were either foreign-born or the children of immigrants,
and more than 10 million Americans were derived from the nations of the
Central Powers. Furthermore, millions of Irish Americans sided with the
Central Powers because they hated the English.
Because of this perceived conflict of loyalties, the Wilson administration
was convinced that it had to mobilize public opinion in support of the war.
To influence public opinion, the federal government embarked on its first
ever domestic propaganda campaign. Wilson chose muckraking journalist
George Creel to head the government agency, the Committee on Public
Information (CPI). The CPI placed pro-war advertisements in magazines
and distributed 75 million copies of pamphlets defending America's role in
the war. Creel also launched a massive advertising campaign for war bonds
and sent some 75,000 "Four-Minute Men" to whip up enthusiasm for the
war by rallying audiences in theaters. The CPI also encouraged filmmakers
to produce movies, like The Kaiser: the Beast of Berlin,that played up
alleged German atrocities. For the first time, the federal government had
demonstrated the power of propaganda.
(Digital History)
Critical Questions:
1. What was the significance of America’s population when it entered WWI in 1917?
2. What problems could this potentially lead to?
3. What did President Wilson do to promote public support for the war efforts?
4. According to this reading, what was the purpose of the CPI?
Interpreting “CPI” Propaganda Posters
Directions: Interpret the propaganda posters and read their explanations before determining if they were effective in trying to mobilize American
support for the war. Explain why you think they were or were not effective. You may use bulleted response format.
Poster
Explanation
Effective? Why? Explain.
“Beat Back the Hun”
Publicity campaigns for the
Treasury Department's Liberty
Loan bonds produced some of
the war's most compelling - and
gruesome - posters. Many
posters promoted German
hatred, such as this one,
showing a blood-thirsty Hun
looking over war-torn Europe
and across the Atlantic Ocean to
America. The Liberty Bond
posters were inflammatory, but
highly effective. Americans would
purchase more than $23 billion
worth to help the war effort.
“Remembering Belgium”
In 1914, when Germany invaded
Belgium, newspapers described
the act as the "Rape of Little
Belgium." Afterwards, the
German soldier was often
depicted as a savage "Hun," an
offensive term harking back to
the nomadic tribe that had
terrorized Europe under their
barbaric leader, Attila, in the fifth
century A.D. Ellsworth Young's
illustration portrays an evil
German soldier as a Hun, leading
an innocent Belgian girl off,
seemingly to be raped.
“The Greatest Mother in the
World”
This was the most famous Red
Cross poster during the war, and
perhaps the most effective.
Featuring a Red Cross nurse
holding an injured soldier, the
poster is evocative of
Michelangelo's Piet·, a
Renaissance sculpture of Mary
holding the baby Jesus. The
poster helped encourage more
than 16 million Americans to join
the Red Cross during a weeklong Christmas Drive campaign.