Food Will Win The War - Episode #58

Highlights

Food Will Win The War - an overview | @01:55

History through the lens of Food - Dr. Libby O’Connell  | @05:40

War in the sky | @10:30

America Emerges - Dr. Edward Lengel | @11:45

Great War Project - Mike Shuster | @17:25

Great War Channel on Youtube - Indy Neidell & Flo Wittig | @21:05

Family’s History - Ambassador Carol Moseley Braun | @29:25

Remembering Veterans - Dr. Richard Slotkin | @34:30

A Century in the Making - Maquette on Fox and Friends | @42:45

Speaking WWI - Hooverized Recipes | @44:45

States - Ohio web site - Amy Rohmiller | @46:10

The Buzz - Katherine Akey | @52:25

and more....----more----

Opening

Welcome to World War 1 centennial News - episode #58 - It’s about WW1 THEN - what was happening 100 years ago this week  - and it’s about WW1 NOW - news and updates about the centennial and the commemoration.

Today is February 9th, 2018 and our guests for this week include:

Dr. Libby O’Connell, talking to us about the food administration’s rationing directives 100 years ago this month

Dr. Edward Lengel, with a story about an interesting military demonstration by the doughboys at New York’s Hippodrome

Mike Shuster, from the great war project blog with the AEF’s first military engagements of 1918

Indy Neidell and Florian Wittig from the Great War Channel on YouTube talking with us about producing this long running video series

Ambassador Carol Moseley Braun telling us about her family’s connection to WW1

Dr. Richard Slotkin who examines the shifting ethnic and cultural landscape in America during WW1

Amy Rohmiller introducing the Ohio WW1 centennial effort and their new website

Katherine Akey, with some selections from the centennial of WWI in social media

All that and more --- this week -- on WW1 Centennial News -- a weekly podcast brought to you by the U.S. World War I Centennial Commission, the Pritzker Military Museum and Library and the Starr foundation.

I’m Theo Mayer - the Chief Technologist for the Commission and your host. Welcome to the show.

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Preface

Food will win the war!

That was the rallying cry for Herbert Hoover…

A mining engineer by training, an entrepreneur by character and a public servant by circumstance.

Herbert Hoover was in Europe in 1914 when it all hit the fan. He stepped up and helped organize the return of around 120,000 Americans who got stranded. He led 500 volunteers in distributing food, clothing, steamship tickets and cash to get the Americans home.

Hoover, who would become the 31st President of the United States remarked: QUOTE: I did not realize it at the moment, but on August 3, 1914, my career was over forever. I was on the slippery road of public life."  

And so It is no surprize that President Woodrow Wilson tapped the young Hoover to run his wartime food administration…

And what a challenge food production and management had become. The men who farmed put on uniforms. Armies of them needed to be fed, shiploads of food needed to be transported and in europe after 3 ½ years of devastation and fighting the populations were starving.

[MUSIC]

With that as an overview, let’s jump into our wayback machine and go back 100 years to the war that changed the world!

World War One THEN

100 Year Ago This Week

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It’s late January 1918 - President Wilson issues a proclamation in the "Official Bulletin" - the government’s war gazette published by George Creel’s Committee on Public Information for the administration.

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DATELINE: January 28, 1918

HEADLINE:

President’s Proclamation Calls Upon People of Nation to Reduce Consumption of Wheat and Meat Products in Order to Feed America's Associates in the War

Wilson’s proclamation opens with:

"MANY causes have contributed to create the necessity for a more intensive effort on the part of our people to save food in order that we may supply our associates in the war with the sustenance vitally necessary to them in these days of privation and stress. The reduced productivity