Smithsonian's History Explorer Resources Related To "West Point in the Twentieth Century"

West Point in the Making of America Homepage

Mon, 16 Jul 2012 15:29:15 GMT

This website looks at the lives of selected West Point graduates who attended the Academy between 1802 and 1918. Students will also learn about the U.S. Army's major functions in 19th and early 20th century America: building the nation's infrastructure of roads, bridges, canals, and railroads; exploring its territories from the Mississippi to the Pacific; and fighting its wars-the role of the West Pointers in engineering, exploration, and war.

World War I

Mon, 16 Jul 2012 15:35:28 GMT

Americans reluctantly entered Europe's "Great War" and tipped the balance to Allied victory. The United States emerged from the war a significant, but reluctant, world power. Students will learn about American involvement in World War I and how American industrial and military might broke the stalemate that had existed for three bloody years on Europe's Western Front in this section of the online exhibition, The Price of Freedom: Americans at War. A non-flash version of this site is available: World War I.

World War II

Wed, 03 Apr 2013 17:24:47 GMT

Students will learn how Americans joined the Allies to defeat Axis militarism and nationalist expansion. Sixteen million Americans donned uniforms in this section of the online exhibition The Price of Freedom: Americans at War. The millions more who stayed home comprised a vast civilian army, mobilized by the government to support the war effort. The world-wide conflict that led to the emergence of the United States as an economic and military superpower is divided into sections that allow students to focus either on a specific aspect of the war, or the conflict as a whole. The sections included are titled: Axis Aggression, America Enters the War, Mobilizing for War, "You're in the Army Now", Battle of the Atlantic, The Mediterranean Theater, Storming Fortress Europe, The Pacific Theater; So Others Might Fight; Morale Boosters and Victory and Peace. A non-flash version of the site is available: World War II.