The Illusion of Victory: Americans in World War I

by Thomas Fleming

Book Overview

The political history of the American experience in World War I is a story of conflict and bungled intentions that begins in an era dedicated to progressive social reform and ends in the Red Scare and... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 046502467X
• ISBN13: 9780465024674
• Release Date: May 2003
• Publisher: Basic Books
• Length: 576 Pages
• Weight: 2.18 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.7" x 6.4" x 9.5"

Customer Reviews

learn the truth about wilson the farce

I knew almost nothing about WWI besides the standard high school history textbook line that glorifies Wilson as a visionary leader. Clearly, as Thomas Fleming demonstrates conclusively - the evidence clearly shows Wilson out to be a demagogue, a myopic idealist and a fool.I learned a great deal about the story of WWI from America's perspective, about how British propoganda fooled millions into supporting the war in Britain's favor and I gained a new perspective about Germany in WWI vs. Germany in WWII - the 2 are vastly disimilar. At times I thought Fleming to be very biased, but I couldn't find any flaws in his reasoning or his use of sources. He backs it all up and makes a convincing revisionist case against Wilson.Entertaining, well written and elucidating!

An Excellent, Disturbing History

Thomas Fleming has written an excellent disturbing history of American's experience in the First World War--and an equally excellent, disturbing biography of the president who "kept us out of war," and then brought us into that war, Woodrow Wilson. Wilson is generally rated as among our best presidents. He was, as Fleming reveals, a disaster--as a war leader, as a politician, as a diplomat, even as a person. Should be required reading in any class on the time period.

stimulating read

One of the first things I look for in books of this genre are the references. Had Fleming been less diligent in annotation, I might agree with critics who found errors or disagreed with his analysis. However, I found it a stimulating read precisely because it presents an alternative point of view.As it's the first printing, one hopes the factual errors will be corrected for later editions, however, the value of the book is in seeing the period as the prelude to a century of wars rather than the war to end war.The wars within and without our borders evolved from this period. It was an ending and a beginning. Fleming makes his prejudices quite clear so that readers can take them for what they're worth. However, the book is very timely as we enter a new century defined, to date, by war.Questions of succession and globalization as well as questions of homeland security are defined in a new way by seeing how they played out almost a century ago.No one book should be considered the defining statement of such a tumultous time. But, I truly believe this work by Fleming is important to the dialogue.The very idea of a president not respecting his own advisers, being out of the country for months at a time, and allowing his wife to have more control over his office than elected and appointed officials should be anathema in any age.This is more than a discussion of Wilson and the war. It is an illustration of the politics of power and the reasons why our constitution defines things as it does. It also illustrates how the constitution can be sidestepped by egos over intellect.Whether one agrees with Fleming or not, this is a timely and necessary discussion.

Excellent, insightful, look at the dawn of the modern world

This is a fascinating, entertaining, and truly eye-opening book. Like Thomas Fleming's earler The New Dealers' War: FDR and the War Within World War II, "The Illusion of Victory" is not only a great survey of events that shaped the modern world, but also a much-needed puncturing of one of the twentieth century's most over-inflated reputations (in the former case, FDR's, in this one Woodrow Wilson's) and a very timely reminder of how war overthrows all aims. Most of all, though, this is just extremely well-written history. It is definitely worth a read. Today, more than three-quarters of a century after the end of the first world war, the myths of that conflict, of America's place in it, and Woodrow Wilson's role in keeping us out, and getting us in, are more pervasive than ever. Fleming reveals not only what a failure Wilson truly was, but how the idealism for which he is so celebrated today was not only sacrificed on the altar of international politicking and hatred, but was poisoned even by the president's own messiah complex and uncompromising partisanship. Fleming paints Wilson as a truly unpleasant figure. And while I can imagine that many readers might consider this an overly negative portrayal -- and accuse Fleming of abandoning the serene and godlike objectivity so many historians maintain (or simulate) -- Fleming has the facts to back up his conclusions. The energy with which Thomas Fleming gores sacred cows like Wilson and FDR is one of his more distinctive characteristics, and it's one I, for my part, particularly value. As I said, there are many especially timely lessons contained in this book. One of the most striking concerns the remarkably vicious campaign against anti-war, or even insufficiently pro-war, elements in the United States, led by the government itself and its partisans. Whatever your opinions on the contemporary "USA PATRIOT Act," you'll have to admit that John Ashcroft has not even remotely approached the reign of terror carried out in the U.S. during world war one in the name of "100 percent Americanism." This discovery is just one of the many unsettling things readers may learn for the first time between these covers. Another concerns the equally vicious propaganda campaign against Germany, begun in the U.S. by the British and later enthusiastically adopted by the U.S. government. As other observers have argued, enciting hatred seems to be essential to carrying out the war aims of mass democracies. It's not enough to say we disagree with an opposing government's policies; the enemy -- citizens as well as governments -- have to be painted as subhuman, tarred with accusations of unimaginable atrocities, and condemned to nothing less than absolute, crushing defeat. Fleming does an excellent job showing how French, British, and even American leaders participated in the stirring-up of this blood-hatred of the Germans, and incited the American people to give in to it as well. The corollary of this, of course, is that s