World War I, or the Term Paper

In addition, in Congress few voices spoke out against the war, since they wanted to use the war to end the IWW and socialism.

Johnson and Tindall/Shi's books were sometimes difficult to get through, because of all the names and facts. I found myself reading and rereading parts of Johnson's book to get the gist of what he was saying. Despite the fact that Tindall's was to be a narrative, it did not seem like that in most cases. Although there are photos to break up the copy, in many cases it is jam packed with too much information. The paragraphs should have been broken up more, since they were long and with small type. Like Johnson, it was necessary to reread sections to truly get the underlining message.

Zinn's book, despite its definite editorial slant against the war, was an easy read. The quotes from a variety of people, as well as anecdotes, articles, etc., added to the interest and the knowledge about that era. The easy-to-read style made it much easier to read about this period, which is difficult to understand in its entirety.The concept of looking at history from the point-of-view of the people is an interesting one.

Zinn, however, did not go as deeply into the some of the incidents leading up to the war that were mentioned in Johnson's and Tindall's books. It is necessary to read more than Zinn's book to understand the WWI era. The best of all worlds would be a book that covers the war in an objective manner, presenting both sides, in a less formal way as Zinn does. If the Tindall/Shi book was edited down and made more reader friendly and included some of the "narratives" in Zinn's book, this would be the right approach. World War I is a difficult time to understand with all the underlying personal agendas and the ramifications that resulted from the treaties. For the layperson, it has to be clear and user friendly, as well-rounded.

References

American Destiny. Book 12: Making the World Safe for Democracy. Great Britain: Orbis, 1986.

Johnson, Paul. A History of the American People. New York: Harper Collins, 1997

Tindall, George Brown and Shi, David. America:….....