World War I Podcast

By MacArthur Memorial; Amanda Williams

What's World War I Podcast about?

World War I created many of the political, cultural, and economic fault lines of the world today. Produced by the MacArthur Memorial, this podcast explores a wide variety of topics related to World War I. 

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World War I Podcast episodes:

04.04.2024
World War I Poetry: Lost Voices and New Voices
How does World War I poetry help us understand the complexity of the experience of the war? Why was poetry so important then? Why does the poetry of World War I continue to have such resonance? To answer these questions,...
03.14.2024
The Trenches: Reality vs Movies
When most people think of World War I on the Western Front, they probably think of trenches. Trench systems were present along most of the 475 miles from the English Channel to the Swiss Alps. It wasn’t just one straight...
02.16.2024
The Lost Battalion - Part II
Part II In early October 1918, several companies of the US 77th Division found themselves surrounded in the Argonne Forest during the Meuse-Argonne Offensive. Led by Major Charles Whittlesey, the Lost Battalion, as it came to be known, survived a hellish...
02.12.2024
The Lost Battalion - Part I
Part I In early October 1918, several companies of the US 77th Division found themselves surrounded in the Argonne Forest during the Meuse-Argonne Offensive. Led by Major Charles Whittlesey, the Lost Battalion, as it came to be known, survived a hellish...
01.04.2024
The Congress of Vienna and the Roots of World War I
Between September 1814 and June 1815, against the backdrop of Napoleon’s exile to Elba and his brief return, the Congress of Vienna worked out a new way to balance the power of the Great Powers and avoid future conflict. This...
12.04.2023
Learning from the Circus: Transportation and Logistics in WWI
In 1914, as German forces quickly outmaneuvered Allied armies in the opening days of the war, there was some suspicion among the Allies that the circuses that had traveled around Europe in the years before the war – many of...
11.01.2023
W.E.B. Du Bois and World War I
When World War I began, the famed historian, sociologist, and civil rights activist W.E.B. Du Bois was at the height of his influence. When the United States entered the war, he encouraged African Americans to “close ranks” and support the...
10.11.2023
Douglas MacArthur's 2nd Distinguished Service Cross and the Côte de Châtillon
In the winter of 1918, General John J. Pershing presented then Brigadier General Douglas MacArthur with his second Distinguished Service Cross. The award was for actions in France at the Côte de Châtillon between October 14-16, 1918. The citation ends...
09.07.2023
The US Army and the Rehabilitation of Wounded Soldiers
In 1890, half of the US Government’s budget was devoted to disability pensions for Civil War veterans. This enormous financial burden combined with medical advances led to a different approach when it came to the US Army’s care of wounded...
08.02.2023
Portugal and the Portuguese Expeditionary Corps in WWI
Between 1914-1916, Portugal walked a delicate line. While actively engaged in an undeclared war with Germany in Africa, Portugal was not a combatant in Europe, nor did it officially declare neutrality. It stayed out of the war, but it provided...
07.02.2023
Patriot Priests: French Priests in the French Army
When WWI began in 1914, Catholic priests were virtual pariahs in France. This was the result of a trend towards anti-clericalism that began with the French Revolution and continued in fits and starts into the 20th century. Prior to WWI,...
06.06.2023
Identifying a World War I Unknown Soldier
On Feb. 8, 2022, a local undertaker was digging a grave in the cemetery at Villers-sur-Fère, a small village in northeastern France near the Ourcq River, where the U.S. Army’s 42d Infantry Division pushed back German forces in 1918. At...
06.03.2023
Sgt. York and the Other Sixteen
On October 8, 1918, seventeen American soldiers of Company G, 2nd Battalion, 328th Infantry, 82nd Division flanked a German machine gun nest, surprising and capturing dozens of German soldiers. Acting Corporal Alvin York – a conscientious objector turned warrior –...
05.04.2023
The Order of Prince Danilo I
In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby tells the novel’s narrator about his World War I military service and a particularly heroic engagement in the Argonne Forest. He ends his story by explaining: “I was promoted to be...
04.21.2023
Ottoman and Turkish Perspectives on Gallipoli
The Battle of Gallipoli was fought on the Gallipoli Peninsula from February 19, 1915 to January 9, 1916. The Entente Powers hoped to knock the Ottoman Empire out of the war by seizing control of the Dardanelles and then putting...
03.15.2023
Woodrow Wilson and Women's Suffrage
When WWI broke out in 1914, women in eight states – mostly in the west – had the right to vote. Women in the other 40 states that made up the US at that time did not have the right...
03.01.2023
Mr. President, How Long Must We Wait?
The ratification of the 19th Amendment in 1920 removed obstacles to American women exercising their right to vote, but it didn’t happen without a fight - and the final stage of that fight took place against the backdrop of World...
02.09.2023
Charles Young: For Race and Country
In 2022, US Army COL Charles Young was posthumously promoted to brigadier general – a rank he likely would have advanced to during World War I. In 1917 he was the highest ranking African American officer in the US Army....
02.03.2023
Woodrow Wilson After World War I
Part 3 of 3. Andrew Phillps, curator of the Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library in Staunton, VA returns to the World War I Podcast to discuss Wilson and the aftermath of World War I as well as Wilson's legacy as a...
01.17.2023
Woodrow Wilson During World War I
Part 2 of 3. Andrew Phillps, curator of the Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library in Staunton, VA returns to the World War I Podcast to discuss Wilson’s evolving response to World War I and his role as a wartime president. This...
12.28.2022
Woodrow Wilson Before World War I
Part 1 of 3. Woodrow Wilson - the professor turned president and a very complicated figure in American history. He campaigned to be a domestic policy president and later in favor of neutrality but ended up a wartime president. WWI...
12.11.2022
Princess Mary's Christmas Gift
In 1899, Queen Victoria decided to send a small brass box containing chocolate to her soldiers fighting in the Boer War. Approximately 123,000 of these gifts were distributed. They were well received and are a fascinating part of material culture...
11.06.2022
The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier
During WWI, efforts were made on all sides to provide servicemen with identity tags to assist with identifying remains. This helped in some cases, but given the nature of the battlefields, many bodies were never recovered or were not identifiable....
10.24.2022
The Cameroon Campaign (1914-1916)
Africa is sometimes referred to as a “sideshow” of World War I, but that label is misleading. As with modern Europe, it is impossible to understand modern Africa without understanding it’s experience of WWI. The Cameroon Campaign of 1914-1916 was...
09.20.2022
World War I and Modern Medicine
At the turn of the 20th Century, many in the West were quite confident that they were living in the most civilized era in history. Progress had at last won out over barbarism – or so it seemed. Then the...
08.02.2022
World War I Code Talkers
WWI saw a dramatic evolution in the technical collection of intelligence. From the start, SIGINT – the interception of communication signals – played a major role in the war. As the war went on, it was clear that secure communications...
07.07.2022
The Approaching Storm: Roosevelt, Wilson, Addams and Their Clash Over America's Future
America’s path to World War I was complicated. Although committed to a nominal policy of neutrality for most of the war, the pre-war years for America involved an internal battle over the nation’s future. Most could agree that America should...
06.07.2022
Maine's 103rd Infantry Regiment in the Great War
Prior to World War I, most people regarded the National Guard as the militia, not as a valuable part of the nation’s strategic reserve. The 1916 National Defense Act – a piece of legislation that a young officer named Douglas...
05.02.2022
Podcast Update
The World War I Podcast is going on a brief hiatus for a month. During this short break though – feel free to keep sending in topic suggestions or if you’re an author or publisher, keep sending those review copies....
04.03.2022
The Environmental Impact of World War I
Throughout history, war has had a profound impact on the natural environment. It is frequently linked with famine, pollution, and other ecological disruptions that lead to disease or plagues of pests. Often however, we tend to think of the environmental...
03.03.2022
American Women War Correspondents in WWI
When World War I began in Europe, American journalists rushed to cover the war. Most assumed they would cover the new war as they had covered other wars, but the scale, brutality, and duration of the war required a more...
02.03.2022
The 1919 Tour de France
The Tour de France is one of the greatest endurance competitions in the world. An annual multi-stage men’s bicycle race, the Tour takes riders through France, and occasionally through neighboring countries. The competition began in 1903 and 2022 will see...
01.03.2022
American Journalists in the Great War
When World War I began in Europe, American journalists rushed to cover the war. The decades prior to 1914 had been filled with colonial conflicts, revolutions and wars around the world. Many reporters assumed they would cover the new war...
12.01.2021
Marshall and MacArthur: Antagonists in WWI?
During World War I, General John J. Pershing considered Douglas MacArthur his finest battlefield commander and George Marshall his finest staff officer. Pershing preferred Marshall to MacArthur but acknowledged that they were very different men. To Pershing, Marshall had a...
11.03.2021
France, Wine, and World War I
World War I had a profound effect on the French wine industry. The Champagne wine region was a battleground for most of the war. In addition, the loss of markets, labor shortages and production problems presented huge challenges for the...
10.03.2021
The Marines at Blanc Mont
Today when most people think of the USMC in WWI, they think about Belleau Wood. They don’t tend to think of the role Marines played in taking Blanc Mont in the Champagne sector in 1918. The French understood the importance...
09.15.2021
Douglas MacArthur's Rapid WWI Promotions
When the US entered World War I, Douglas MacArthur was a major attached to the US Army General Staff. About 14 months later, he was a brigadier general. Prior to the war’s conclusion in November 1918, he was on the...
08.06.2021
WWI Archaeology: Excavating and Identifying Human Remains
Due to farming, construction, or archeological projects, the remains of soldiers killed in World War I continue to be unearthed along what was once the Western Front. Although the conflict ended more than 100 years ago, historians, archaeologists, and scientists...
07.01.2021
C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, and the Great War
The Chronicles of Narnia has sold more than 100 million copies in 47 languages. The Lord of the Rings has sold 150 million copies in 38 languages. The authors, C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien, were combat veterans of World War...
06.03.2021
The Philippines and World War I
World War I was a very interesting and complicated moment in the U.S./Philippine relationship. Many Filipino's supported the war effort - hopeful that a war to make the world "safe for democracy" would also lead to Philippine independence. Filipinos served...
05.12.2021
Baseball and World War I
When the United States entered World War I in April 1917, baseball had been America's national past time for about 60 years. The start of the war also coincided with the start of the 1917 MLB season. Many professional ballplayers...
04.06.2021
Behind the Scenes: Smithsonian WWI Treasures
With limited space to tell so many stories, museums always have some very interesting items in storage. The Smithsonian is no different! In this episode, Dr. Frank Blazich, Curator of Military History in the Smithsonian's Division of Political and Military...
03.15.2021
Marguerite Harrison - America's First Female Foreign Intelligence Agent
During World War I, Marguerite Harrison became the first female foreign intelligence agent employed by US military intelligence. While relatively unknown today, she played a major role in normalizing the idea of a woman working in American intelligence. She also...
03.01.2021
Douglas MacArthur and the Spanish Flu
In 1918, armies on both sides of WWI were stricken by the Spanish Flu. Douglas MacArthur suffered a period of illness during this period that was unrelated to his bouts with mustard gas. Did he contract the Spanish Flu? In...
02.17.2021
The Western Front, 1914-1916
From the Schlieffen Plan to Verdun, the critical years of 1914-1916 set the stage for major upheavals in 1917. For expert analysis of this period, we sat down with Dr. Michael Neiberg, author of Fighting the Great War and Dance...
10.20.2020
The USCG in WWI
What was the United States Coast Guard doing during World War I? We sat down Dr. William H. Thiesen, Atlantic Area Historian for the United States Coast Guard, to discuss the history of the Coast Guard and how World War...
07.21.2020
The Russian Revolution
By the end of 1916, the Allied and Central powers were exhausted and were facing serious political, economic and social problems. For Russia, a country already struggling with the structural problems of autocracy, the troubles of 1916 led to...
07.08.2020
Siam and World War I
Many small countries entered World War I with the hope of gaining some sort of advantage in the post-war period. Most of these countries did not contribute troops or any other substantial aid to the combatants. Siam is a notable...
05.13.2020
The Pigeon Service
While radio and telephone were becoming more and more a part of the battlefield, these communication technologies also had weaknesses on the World War I battlefield. A secure, reliable, low tech communication option was needed. Armies on both sides...
04.06.2020
The Path to War
America’s path to World War I was complicated and involved some deep cultural shifts. What changes drove the evolution from neutrality to war? What role did immigrant and minority groups play in this shift? And, did the American people...

What's World War I Podcast about?

Download our free app to listen on your phone

World War I Podcast episodes:

World War I Poetry: Lost Voices and New Voices

The Trenches: Reality vs Movies

The Lost Battalion - Part II

The Lost Battalion - Part I

The Congress of Vienna and the Roots of World War I

Learning from the Circus: Transportation and Logistics in WWI

W.E.B. Du Bois and World War I

Douglas MacArthur's 2nd Distinguished Service Cross and the Côte de Châtillon

The US Army and the Rehabilitation of Wounded Soldiers

Portugal and the Portuguese Expeditionary Corps in WWI

Patriot Priests: French Priests in the French Army

Identifying a World War I Unknown Soldier

Sgt. York and the Other Sixteen

The Order of Prince Danilo I

Ottoman and Turkish Perspectives on Gallipoli

Woodrow Wilson and Women's Suffrage

Mr. President, How Long Must We Wait?

Charles Young: For Race and Country

Woodrow Wilson After World War I

Woodrow Wilson During World War I

Woodrow Wilson Before World War I

Princess Mary's Christmas Gift

The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

The Cameroon Campaign (1914-1916)

World War I and Modern Medicine

World War I Code Talkers

The Approaching Storm: Roosevelt, Wilson, Addams and Their Clash Over America's Future

Maine's 103rd Infantry Regiment in the Great War

Podcast Update

The Environmental Impact of World War I

American Women War Correspondents in WWI

The 1919 Tour de France

American Journalists in the Great War

Marshall and MacArthur: Antagonists in WWI?

France, Wine, and World War I

The Marines at Blanc Mont

Douglas MacArthur's Rapid WWI Promotions

WWI Archaeology: Excavating and Identifying Human Remains

C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, and the Great War

The Philippines and World War I

Baseball and World War I

Behind the Scenes: Smithsonian WWI Treasures

Marguerite Harrison - America's First Female Foreign Intelligence Agent

Douglas MacArthur and the Spanish Flu

The Western Front, 1914-1916

The USCG in WWI

The Russian Revolution

Siam and World War I

The Pigeon Service

The Path to War