Unit 8: Iowa During and After WWI

How To Use This Page

On this page, you will find a curated collection of videos, resources, guides, and opportunities for exploration that are tied specifically to Iowa during and after World War I. Educators and lifelong learners can use the compelling and supporting questions to guide their learning and focus their exploration on the major topics. The lectures, videos, featured content, and readings can be completed at each learner's own pace and will provide necessary knowledge and background to craft and deliver Iowa History lessons in a K-12 classroom.

Compelling and Supporting Questions

Compelling and supporting questions are designed for each unit and the materials below will provide content and context for teachers, students, and lifelong learners.

Compelling Question

How does World War One and the 1920s influence Iowa?

Supporting Questions

1. How did Iowans support the war effort?
2. How did WWI affect liberties at home?
3. How did Iowa become more diverse in the early 20th Century?
4. How did automobiles change life in Iowa?
5. Why did the KKK expand in the 1920s?

Overview

Iowans mobilized to support the United States during the First World War. Men joined the military, while people at home gave money to the Red Cross or bought war bonds. Iowa’s women donated millions of hours of volunteer time to the Red Cross. The war was paid for by Liberty Loans, where people invested in bonds sold by the government. The government told people how much to buy. Those who didn’t invest enough were seen as unpatriotic. Neighbors and the government pressured them to buy bonds, leading to some conflict. Excessive patriotism often led to intolerance, intimidation, and threats. German immigrants suffered badly, with German newspapers closing and German books being burned. Iowa Governor William Harding issued the “Babel Proclamation,” which made the use of foreign languages in public illegal. This did not occur in any other state. 

Iowa had training camps for the American military. Black men and white men trained at Camp Dodge near Des Moines. Black officers trained at Fort Des Moines, the only such facility in the country. Merle Hay, an Iowan from Glidden, was one of the first soldiers killed in the war. More than 110,000 Iowans served in World War One.

The war ended in November 1918 but the following years were still dramatic. Even before it was over a flu epidemic began spreading around the world. It killed 675,000 Americans and about 7,700 Iowans in 1918 and 1919. After the war ended, farm prices collapsed and Iowa fell into a long agricultural recession in the 1920s. National Prohibition began in 1920. Alcohol production and sale was banned but not consumption. Liquor was easily available and prohibition was a failure. 

New immigrants had come to Iowa in the early 1900s. Mexicans migrated to Iowa seeking work and fleeing a civil war in their home country. They worked on farms and railroads and often lived in poverty, the victims of segregation and discrimination.. Other immigrants came from the Middle East. Muslims built the first mosque in Iowa in Cedar Rapids.

Millions of new immigrants, as well as the postwar economic downturn and cultural changes, led to the growth of the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s. It had started as a terrorist white supremacist organization after the Civil War. In the 1920s it was newly popular, with millions of supporters. Tens of thousands joined it in Iowa. The KKK in Iowa supported prohibition, opposed immigration and saw Blacks, Jews, and Catholics as unAmerican. There were cross burnings and marches in Iowa. But the Klan collapsed after a series of scandals among its leaders.

New forms of communication and transportation changed the lives of Iowans. Automobile ownership became widespread after World War One. They gave people greater independence, especially farm families who could easily travel away from home much faster. There was an increased demand for good roads. Movies were popular and the advent of the radio brought news, music, sports and politics directly into people’s lives far quicker than ever before.

Think Like a Historian

In this video, historian Emiliano Aguilar discusses historical thinking skills like contextualization, contextualization, and comparison, especially as it relates to connecting personal histories with larger stories. 

Major Topics of Study

When learning about the Iowa during and after WWI, some of the key areas to cover might include:

• Start of 6-on-6 women’s basketball
• World War I on the battlefield and at home
• Babel Proclamation – restricting rights at home
• “Culture wars” → immigration/nativism, religious fundamentalism, urbanization, pop culture, prohibition, KKK, shifting gender roles

Notable Iowans

Exemplary and significant people in Iowa history from this time period could include many of the below figures. Wherever possible, links to Iowa's digital biography provide opportunities for further exploration.

Historic Sites

Iowa is full of valuable historic sites. The below sites provide opportunities to explore the value of place-based learning and the importance of storytelling through historic sites.

• Germania → Lakota in Kossuth County (Sauerkraut Days)

State Historical Society Objects, Documents, and Photos

Objects, documents, and photographs from the State Historical Society of Iowa are excellent catalysts for further inquiry in the classroom or for independent lifelong learners. 

Video Resources

If you are looking for longer, more detailed discussions or lectures related to the themes discussed in this unit, the following resources provide further context and information.

Further Reading

This curated collection of readings allow teachers, students, and lifelong learners to explored a curated collection of primary sources, articles, books, and essays that supplement and provide depth to the topics covered in this unit.