War World I Home Front

Bombing of the Coventry Cathedral

     In World War I, European Powers had already been fighting for three years by the time that America entered the war. America was expected to help their war-torn allies. Britain being one of Americas allies, needed help. They constantly under attack and sometimes bombed. Everyone had their way of contributing if they were over in Europe. They also had their way of helping in America.
     During the war, people acted on their own initiative to help the war effort. This is what makes a home front a home front. Many people contributed by simply wearing their uniforms. The people who made the uniforms were also contributing to the war effort. Therefore factory workers who made uniforms, guns, ammunition, and more were just as helpful to those in the military. War bonds were created to finance the war since taxes were not enough, everyone was encouraged to buy a war bond. From the BBC website about War World I, it is described as "truly a peoples war."

Recipes to make deserts without sugar

     Since European countries had already been at war, their countries were torn apart. Especially their farm-lands. The U.S. was expected to feed Britain and help them regain their loss of food. The Congress established the U.S. Food Administration. Herbert Hoover was appointed by President Wilson to be the head of the Food Administration. Hoover increased food shipments, which he eventually gets blamed for the cause of great depression. The food administration was seen as positive propaganda to help the war effort. It was sometimes difficult to ship food to Europe because a major part of WWI was that each side blockaded each other, and they made sure the enemies supplies could not be reached to them. On the home front, people acquired new recipes to save food. The food recipes would be sweets without sugar, without wheat, and potato possibilities. Programs such as "Meatless Monday" and "Wheat less Wednesday" became apart of the American everyday life. From reliable sources, I found letters to the government from the people of Mississippi. Some of these people were happy to be supporting the war with this new administration. Others were concerned and thought that the government had no right to go to peoples houses and make them authorize to the U.S. food administration. The major saying of the time was that "food will win the war."

American Women operate telephones in France

     It is also to be said that women on the home front had new job opportunities. Many women would exchange their pre-war jobs to jobs that supported the war. This was also because the home front was became a social reform. Women were able to serve in the Army, Navy, Nurse Corps, Navy Yeomen, Marines, and Coast Guard. This was a huge step for women in this time. Women also became overseas operators and drivers. Women didn't have to take this big jobs though, they could stay on the home front and volunteer and help out any way they could with the war effort.


American Women get sworn into the Navy Yeomen

     The home front was a source that provided money to soldiers and to arm them. That is another way how anyone and everyone was involved in the war effort. Some groups of people, including pacifists and socialists shared belief that the war was not necessary and not the right thing to do. Some of these people were arrested and sometimes possibly punished in a rude way. Near the end of the war, there was a crisis of a food and supply shortage in America. This is partly why Hoover is blamed for the initial cause of the Great Depression. There was also a worldwide spread of the "Spanish flu" which led to the influenza pandemic. This wave of disease caused a death of 20-100 million people.


AVL: Book Chapter from "Reader's Companion to Military History" 1996, p.210 by J.M. Winter

AVL: Book Chapter 9 from "Everyday Life: War World I" 2006, p.66

BBC - History, The Home Front in World War I by Peter Craddick-Adams

National Archives at New York City, Food Will Win the War: On the Home Front in World War I, Primary Source

National Archives at Atlanta, The Mississippi Home Front in World War I, Conserving Food for the War effort

National Women's History Museum, War World I