ABOUT THIS BOOK

There has been much scholarship on how the U.S. as a nation reacted to World War I, but few have explored how Alabama responded. Did the state follow the federal government’s lead in organizing its resources or did Alabamians devise their own solutions to unique problems they faced? How did the state’s cultural institutions and government react? What changes occurred in its economy and way of life? What, if any, were the long-term consequences in Alabama? The contributors to this volume address these questions and establish a base for further investigation of the state during this era.

Contributors:

David Alsobrook, Wilson Fallin Jr., Robert J. Jakeman, Dowe Littleton, Martin T. Olliff, Victoria E. Ott, Wesley P. Newton, Michael V. R. Thomason, Ruth Smith Truss, and Robert Saunders Jr.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Martin T. Olliff is Director of the Archives of Wiregrass History and Culture and Assistant Professor of History, Troy University, Dothan. His articles have appeared in Essays inBusiness and Economic History; Alabama Review; Provenance: Journal of the Society of Georgia Archivists; and Agricultural History.

REVIEWS

“This attractive collection of perceptive and well written essays is a significant scholarly contribution.”

—Betty J. Brandon, editor of Southern Women: Histories and Identities

“The book captures well how Alabama citizens both black and white, confronted a War that challenged the notions of citizenship and military preparedness.”

—Colin J. Davis, author of Waterfront Revolts: New York and London Dockworkers, 1946–1961

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Contents

Acknowledgments

1.
Introduction: Alabama, April 1917

Olliff, Martin T.

2.
Military Participation at Home and Abroad, 1917–1918

Truss, Ruth Smith

3.
“Tenting Tonight on the Old Camp Grounds”: Alabama's Military Bases in World War I

Newton, Wesley Phillips

4.
Alabama's Black Baptist Leaders, the Progressive Era, and World War I

Fallin, Wilson

5.
A Call to Arms for African Americans during the Age of Jim Crow: Black Alabamians'. Response to the U.S. Declaration of War in 1917

Alsobrook, David

6.
From the Cotton Field to the Great Waterway: African Americans and the Muscle Shoals Project during World War I

Ott, Victoria E.

7.
Mobile in World War I

Thomason, Michael V. R.

8.
The Alabama Council of Defense, 1917–1918

Littleton, Dowe

9.
“Can All We Can, and Can the Kaiser, Too”: The Montgomery Cooperative Canning Club

Olliff, Martin T.

10.
World War I: Catalyst for Social Change in Alabama

Saunders, Robert

11.
Memorializing World War I in Alabama

Jakeman, Robert J.

Notes

Contributors

Index