Amazingly detailed look at the American home front in World War I. Although the detail could bog down a casual reader (otherwise making it 4 stars because of readability issues), that detail is also what makes this book fabulous. The author's ability to tease out complex international connections (for example, American incarnations of socialism) as well as talk about domestic responses to those fears (lynching of German Americans in St. Louis and other locations)--among other political, social, and economic contexts he illuminates for the reader--makes this book exceptional. If you want to really know how Americans fought against joining the war, made the turn for supporting intervention, and how the war affected their daily lives back in the states, you should look no further. ( )