The Last Days of Innocence: America at War, 1917-1918. Harries, Meirion and Susie Harries. (New York: Random House, 1997. Pp.xi? 573. Illustrated. ) Merion and Susie Harries in The Last Days of Innocence are husband and wife historians from England who used their overseas perspective to fashion a detailed account of America’s efforts in World War I. The Harries provide a refreshing look at the country’s role in the war. America’s effort in World War I illustrates how ill-prepared the United States was in the early twentieth-century as the country entered and directed itself in a large-scale war. The Harries link account, anecdote, and examination providing a well-written account of the U. S. experience in the Great War. Although, the United States contributed to the victory, the country suffered humiliation at home and abroad resulting in the loss of the peace in spite of all America’s industrial capacity despite President Wilson’s grand design to export democracy. In America a few groups longed to enter the war, most of the country dragged their heals to the fight. The Harries effectively used French reports to illuminate the operational strengths and weaknesses of an American military fighting …show more content…
The Last Days of Innocence exposed the fight for freedom in Europe while freedom decayed at home. By the end of the war in 1918, back home suspicions and surveillance were like a snake slithering through the grass. America only lost seventy-five thousand men compared to the million lost from other countries while the war uncovered a large white underclass with physical and educational deficiencies. The intolerant majority were unwilling to let the black minority to rise to underclass status. Government exploded into a bureaucracy which infringed on every aspect of life, never going away. Immigrants suffered hostility while systems of censorship and surveillance spurned all constitutional