Kansas and Kansans in World War I

“World War I destroyed empires, redrew the maps, and in no small measure, molded today's world. Blake Watson reminds us that this seismic world-changing event also shaped, and was shaped by, local realities and individuals. He illustrates how Kansas was a microcosm of the sacrifice, heroism, patriotism, xenophobia, and prejudices of America in the Great War.”—Richard S. Faulkner, author of Pershing’s Crusaders: The American Soldier in World War I

“Blake Watson’s compelling Kansas and Kansans in World War I provides an important examination into the contribution of a Great Plains state to the American Expeditionary Forces during World War I. Like many rural states, the impact of Kansas on the American war effort, and the individual experiences of Kansans, is often overlooked and seldom highlighted in Great War histories. Through the use of personal letters and diaries, Watson offers an intimate glimpse into the profound impact of the Great War on Kansas as well as its resilient residents. Watson has created an important resource for anyone seeking to understand the human experience of warfare and how the citizens of one state, often known more for growing wheat and raising cattle, contributed to Allied victory.”—Christopher Warren, vice president of Curatorial Affairs and chief curator, National World War I Museum and Memorial

“In its kaleidoscopic recovery of a now-distant moment in time, this book could not be more impressive, and the caliber of Blake Watson’s research is simply extraordinary. I suspect we are looking at the results of decades of work here. Even a reader already familiar with the broad outline of Kansas history during the First World War will find fresh new information.”—Steven Trout, author of Serpents of War: An American Officer’s Story of World War I Combat and Captivity

“In 1917, Kansans went to Europe to join World War I. And the war came to Kansas too, remaking the state’s politics, economy, religion, education, and landscape. Assembling both familiar and newly uncovered sources, Blake A. Watson moves from wheat fields to the fields of France, telling a local story with global resonance.”—Christopher Capozzola, author of Uncle Sam Wants You: World War I and the Making of the Modern American Citizen

“Kansas and Kansans in World War I is a well-researched study that uses the voices of individual Kansans, including African American men, to enliven the narrative of their personal experiences in the military and on the battlefront. Evaluation of the homefront includes the various means by which the national government entered the lives of citizens, the growing anti-German sentiment that impacted German Americans, especially the Mennonite, as well as the remembrances that Kansans chose to commemorate the service of men and women during the war. This work fits well into the growing scholarship of the complexities associated with patriotism, loyalty, government-citizen relationship, and the racial contradictions between segregation at home and in the military while fighting a war to liberate people overseas and make the world safe for democracy.”—Petra DeWitt, author of The Missouri Home Guard: Protecting the Home Front during the Great War