1913-1921

On the origins of World War I, the best summary of various factors and interpretations is offered by James Joll, The Origins of the First World War (London, 1984). On United States neutrality during 1914-17, the standard work is Ernest R. May, The World War and American Isolation (Cambridge, Mass., 1959). There is a voluminous amount of writings on President Woodrow Wilson’s diplomacy both during the period of neutrality and after the decision for war. The most detailed and reliable study is the multivolume biography by Arthur S. Link, of which two volumes are particularly relevant: Wilson: The Struggle for Neutrality (Princeton, I960), and Wilson: Campaigns for Progressivism and Peace (Princeton, 1965). For a more compact survey, see Robert H. Ferrell, Woodrow Wilson and World War I (New York, 1985). An extremely interesting contrast between Wilson and former president Theodore Roosevelt is drawn in John Milton Cooper, The Warrior and the Priest (New York, 1983). See also the same author’s The Vanity of Power (Westport, Conn., 1969) for a discussion of antiinterventionism during the war.