1917–1920

When Woodrow Wilson addressed Congress in April 1917, he proclaimed that World War I would be fought for the cause of humanity, not for mere conquest. The president and his supporters justified U.S. intervention on the ground that while Germany stood for reaction, that is, extreme political conservatism, the United States and its allies fought for liberalism. Confident that an American victory would make the world safe for their brand of democracy, Progressives also assumed that at home the war could be conducted in accord with their principles. Progressives had always valued efficiency, harmony, and the search for a “constructive social ideal.” Now, many reasoned, wartime mobilization would be entrusted to the very experts in whom they had such confidence. Nagging social conflicts would be swept away in a wave of patriotic unity. The terrible realities of war soon shattered these expectations. Far from making the world safe for anything at all, the war undermined progressivism and unleashed revolutionary forces on an unparalleled scale.