{"id":793,"date":"2014-10-27T22:08:05","date_gmt":"2014-10-27T22:08:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/archives.library.illinois.edu\/sousa\/?p=793"},"modified":"2024-05-22T19:58:11","modified_gmt":"2024-05-22T19:58:11","slug":"many-voices-great-war-americas-songs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/sousa\/2014\/10\/27\/many-voices-great-war-americas-songs\/","title":{"rendered":"Many Voices: The Great War in America\u2019s Songs (New Smithsonian Institution Exhibit Opens at the Sousa Archives Today)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>When World War I began in 1914 the United States proclaimed that it would follow a policy of strict neutrality \u201cin thought and deed,\u201d and President Wilson firmly believed that peace was the only course of action needed to resolve the European conflict.\u00a0 Many Americans felt the same way, but as the war\u2019s atrocities, both fictional and real, were publicized, some politicians and military leaders began to voice their support for military intervention.<\/p>\n

After the United States declared war against Germany on April 6, 1917 the country witnessed a dramatic mobilization of industry and financial resources to produce trained soldiers, food, munitions, and equipment which were in short supply at the start of America\u2019s involvement.\u00a0 The federal government set up hundreds of temporary agencies with over a million new employees to help redirect the nation\u2019s economy.\u00a0 America\u2019s sheet music industry joined forces with the U.S. Committee on Public Information to help sell the ideals of patriotism, sacrifice, and volunteerism to the American public as the only way to win this war.<\/p>\n

This special exhibition from the Smithsonian Institution\u2019s National Museum of American History depicts the diverse portrayals of soldiers\u2019 lives, recruitment of African-American soldiers, women\u2019s support for the war effort, and the country\u2019s financial and personal sacrifice through the melodies, lyrics and sheet music illustrations that were produced between 1917 and 1919.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When World War I began in 1914 the United States proclaimed that it would follow a policy of strict neutrality \u201cin thought and deed,\u201d and President Wilson firmly believed that peace was the only course of action needed to resolve the European conflict.\u00a0 Many Americans felt the same way, but as the war\u2019s atrocities, both […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":511,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-793","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-in-the-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/sousa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/793","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/sousa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/sousa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/sousa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/511"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/sousa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=793"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/sousa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/793\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4708,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/sousa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/793\/revisions\/4708"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/sousa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=793"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/sousa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=793"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/sousa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=793"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}