Texas and World War I by Gregory W. Ball, and: North Carolina’s Experience during the First World War ed. by Shepherd W. McKinley, Steven Sabol, and: The American South and the Great War, 1914–1924 ed. by Matthew L. Downs, M. Ryan Floyd (review)

The centennial of World War I has contributed to new published studies about the conflict and its impact. The three works under review focus on the home front in southern states and battlefront encounters by southern men. Together they offer new insight into regional experiences during a national emergency and thus fit well with the growing number of local studies about American involvement in the First World War. Individually, they demonstrate that, although the need to produce foodstuffs and weaponry hastened the transition of the agricultural economy of the South into a more modern and industrialized one, social and political traditions changed at a much slower pace despite new challenges brought on by the war.

Texas and World War I by Gregory W. Ball is a concise study that evaluates the many changes the war caused in Texas. The author expertly places the arrival of World War I into the context of Texas’s heightened sense of preparedness for military action owing to the unrest along its border with revolutionary Mexico. Texans, like so many Americans, greeted the declaration of war with public assertions of patriotism, formed home guard companies in several communities to counter any potential threats from Mexico, joined American Red Cross chapters, and purchased more Liberty Bonds than required. The state’s Council of Defense created hundreds of county and community councils to coordinate the war effort at the local level. Despite drought conditions, Texas increased food and livestock production. Women in Texas, as they did throughout the nation, conserved food, served as nurses, and worked in factories. Although strained racial tensions contributed to the Houston riot in 1917, African Americans nevertheless held patriotic meetings, supported the war effort, and sent their men to war.

Texans were also suspicious of foreigners, especially German immigrants who were not naturalized citizens. Newspapers fanned growing anti-German sentiment by publishing rumors of German spy activities and the arrests of suspected saboteurs. Ball, however, does not evaluate just how many of the accused actually received convictions under the Espionage Act (1917) and whether any of the existing German-language newspapers suffered as a result of the Trading with the Enemy Act (1917). Such analysis could have measured the depth of anti-German sentiment in the state.

The remaining chapters focus on military aspects, especially the implementation of the Selective Service Act in Texas (1917), the turning of men into soldiers at several training camps in the state, and their experiences on the western front in Europe. The author effectively illustrates that the appeal to the volunteer spirit to enlarge the ranks of the Texas National Guard and the drafting of men into the regular army was quite successful because the state was already prepared for military action due to unrest along the Texas-Mexico border. Ball concludes that the war also had a political impact on the home front because younger politicians, such as Sam Rayburn, replaced the older ones and guided the nation into a new political direction by asking what power the national government had over its citizens.

Ball has read numerous Texas and out-of-state newspapers and letters to learn about the battlefield encounters of Texas soldiers assigned to the Thirty-sixth and Ninetieth Army divisions. These primary accounts are the best aspect of this well-structured study. The...