America and the Great War

Guest: Margaret Wagner, Author of “America and the Great War,” Senior Writer and Editor in the Library of Congress Publishing Office This year marks the 100th anniversary of America’s entry into World War I. That entry came three years after the war first broke out and fighting engulfed Europe. For three years, America resisted joining the fight, instead offering aid to both sides. Facing pressure from both sides to join the war, Americans in the early 1900s were asking the same question many are asking today: Is it really our job to police the world’s conflicts? To come to the aid of other democracies just because they’re democracies?  Historian Margaret Wagner traces America’s path from neutral isolated nation to military power and defender of democracies abroad in her new book "America and the Great War."