America's Greatest Blunder: The Fateful Decision to Enter World War One

by Burton Yale Pines

Overview

Entering World War One against Germany was America's greatest blunder of the 20th century. America had no reason to join the 3-year-old struggle. By sending two million doughboys to the Western Front, America shattered the battlefield stalemate, allowing Britain and France to impose a devastating peace on Germany, thus igniting toxic German cries for revenge. Absent America's entry into the war, the exhausted combatants would have sought a peace of compromise. There would have been no victor, no vanquished, no Versailles Treaty, no German demands for revenge, no Hitler and surely no World War II and even no Cold War. The tale of how America stumbled into war is told by America's Greatest Blunder. It chronicles America's journey from sensible neutrality to its war declaration. It then describes how legions of doughboys won the war, giving victory to Britain and France - thus launching the young century on its course of decades of unprecedented violence.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780989148702
Publisher:	RSD Press
Publication date:	10/29/2013
Pages:	452
Sales rank:	612,310
Product dimensions:	5.80(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.10(d)

Editorial Reviews

10/14/2013
Pines provides an epic exercise in historical speculation in this detailed and thought-provoking review of the United States entry into WWI. His daring thesis, buttressed by a sweeping review of sentiment at the time, is that U.S. intervention into a war in which American interests were not threatened laid the basis for a disastrous peace agreement, a vengeful postwar spirit, and ultimately WWII and the Cold War. Contending that the Allies and Central Powers were too exhausted to continue the fight, Pines maintains that, had U.S. troops not entered the conflict, a negotiated peace would have ensued. The surrender terms imposed on Germany, he argues, led to a legacy of bitterness that helped foster subsequent Nazi rule. Pines's re-examination of the atmosphere of those times is fascinating food for thought as we approach 2014, 100 years after the start of "The War to End All Wars."

Publishers Weekly

2013-10-30
A detailed look at one of history's greatest turning points: the American decision to intervene in the first world war. In this painstakingly detailed, thoroughly researched analysis, Pines (Out of Focus, 1994, etc.) examines the circumstances that led President Woodrow Wilson to take the United States into World War I in April 1917 and that decision's short- and long-term consequences. Without that intervention, the author writes, there would have been "[n]o punishing Versailles peace treaty, no humiliation of Germany, no German drive for revenge, no Hitler, no World War Two and likely no Cold War." These are all familiar hypotheticals, but Pines reinvigorates them with new perspectives and energetic prose. For example, he highlights the British propaganda campaign to sway isolationist America; the departure of staunch neutrality advocate William Jennings Bryan from Wilson's administration and its effect on American foreign policy; and the March 1917 collapse of Russian czarist rule. He draws attention to the fact that huge portions of America's manufacturing and agricultural economy were invested in the European war. Pines also looks at the most-discussed factor in American intervention: the German sinking of the Lusitania in 1915, which killed 128 Americans. For Pines, however, the bulk of the blame falls on Wilson himself, whose 1916 re-election slogan ("He kept us out of war!") belied his interventionist leanings. The book balances expertly narrated accounts of WWI battles with vigorous extrapolations of what might have happened if those battles hadn't been fought. American doughboys weren't needed to save the Allies from defeat, Pines contends--"they were needed only to hand them victory" and at an enormous cost. While some of this book's theories may seem a bit complacent (German militarism, for instance, was a cultural fact regardless of the Treaty of Versailles), its main arguments are immensely insightful. A carefully and winningly argued case against military adventurism.

Kirkus Reviews

This is an excellent overview of WWI. Well written, well researched, informational and compelling. I thoroughly enjoyed the book. [It is] a fascinating story of America's involvement in World War I. The author takes the reader through a detailed account of the war in a well-referenced documentary with a very descriptive narrative. Consider it a compilation of every history book written about the war. The author's descriptions throughout the book are well-written. "

The author's description of the Western Front brings a feeling of being there and most certainly allows the reader to feel the power and horror of war. We are taken through the Wilson administration and his failure as a peace broker. The United States entered World War I on April 6, 1917, following a Declaration of War on Imperial Germany by Congress. In June 1917 the first American troops arrived in France. The American soldiers became known as "doughboys" and the author does an excellent job of taking us on the journey of war.

I highly recommend this book for history buffs and those who would like to learn more about WWI, but don't want to read 30 or 40 books on the subject. This book will give an accurate overview. I thoroughly enjoyed it. (5.0 stars — out of five)

Readers' Favorite Book Reviews - Carol Thompson

This primer to American history asks “what-if” of the nation's entrance into WWI, exploring the options with a well-paced and thoroughly researched narrative.

The entry of the United States into World War I was "one of history's rare pivot points," says veteran journalist and former Time magazine editor Burton Yale Pines, who believes US participation in that war was, as the title of his book states, America's Greatest Blunder. Pines details how the United States went from being neutral—with citizens who were firmly anti-British, he says—to jumping into the war on the Allied side. The result, Pines asserts, was not only victory but also a punitive peace accord that "shaped the fate of most of the rest of the century," and not in a good way.

[The book's] eight chapters deal with a quick overview of the war before and after the U.S. entry, and how Britain—with the help of American bankers and industrialists—manipulated public and political opinion to push America into a war it did not want to join. Pines laments how the US failed to reign in the victorious Allies at Versailles and details the effectiveness of pro-Allied propaganda.

This work is a good primer for anyone who seeks to understand how a nation can be dragged into war. It also provides a good overview of the U.S. participation in WWI on the strategic and political level. Pines spends very little time in the trenches or on the battlefield, instead focusing on the often stormy relationships between American commander General John "Black Jack" Pershing and his British and French counterparts. The author also gives a thorough analysis of why and how Germany launched its final, desperate offensives (their "last card" and final "roll of the dice," as he puts it) and why they failed.

Pines's key point is that without US entry, the two exhausted sides would have eventually come to the conference table to settle things, as was done at the end of the equally devastating Thirty Years War in 1648... Pines offers a number of "what if" conclusions to a WWI that ends without American participation. While none of them are pretty, he asserts that "it is nearly impossible to imagine a worse, uglier, more self-destructive course than that which the 20th Century took" because of America's involvement. (Four Stars -- out of Five)

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