Globalizing the US History Survey’s Treatment of the First World War

Teaching about the First World War often centers around the diplomatic history of nations and empires, and the experience of White European and North American combatants on the Western Front. U. S. History surveys that treat the First World War emphasize President Wilson’s decision-making, the Zimmerman Telegram, and the passage of the Espionage and Sedition Acts that opened the door to prosecuting war dissenters. The experience of colonized subjects from Africa seldom come to the foreground.

I wrote a learning module published with History of the 21^st Century titled Africans and the African Diaspora in the First World War. By having students work with a variety of sources, including editorials, oral interviews, images, and official documents and conference resolutions, this module answers a need for more student-centered materials for instructors who wish to take the history of the First World War beyond Europe. It also can serve for U.S. History instruction that aims to globalize understanding of U. S. history and U.S. involvement in the First World War. The module chiefly treats the war as experienced by Africans, both on the continent of Africa and in Europe. The module also features the experience of African Americans, including Du Bois’ 1915 essay in The Atlantic Monthly: “The African Roots of the War” and his famous 1918 “Close Ranks” piece in The Crisis. By including African American experiences, students can see how the striving for proving manhood and loyalty – key to their motivations in signing up for military service -- resonate with the experience of colonized Africans. Featuring the insights from Du Bois’ understanding of the colonial and African roots of the war demonstrates that this leading African American intellectual had a global disposition, by no means parochially limited to events on U. S. soil.