| abstract |
Not all wars are memorialized in the same way. Some are celebrated, others are vilified,
and still others almost entirely forgotten, except possibly for the military that participated and
their families. Military members do not choose the war they are part of; it is a result of the timing
of their birth. As such, some people volunteer, some people are told to volunteer; or in military
parlance, voluntold. Some wars are not even declared shooting wars. But World War I was
different. New Jersey was not fully engaged until the United States declared war in in 1917, yet
was supporting the belligerents with ammunition and their components for the years prior. New
Jersey was instrumental to the war effort both before the US entered the war and after, through
the contributions of its people, geography, and industry, along with its ability to memorialize this
effort. Europe had been fully engaged in a shooting war since 1914. This paper aims to fill a
large gap in current scholarship related to New Jersey's contributions to World War I, also
known as "The War to End All Wars." In 1787, New Jersey (NJ) became the third state to ratify
the U.S. Constitution and the first state to sign the Bill of Rights. Since then, New Jersey has
memorialized several events over the past 240 years. This study will explore and discuss how a
few of these local World War I memorials came to be and why, along with what they tell us
about how New Jerseyans supported the war and its participants. The most popular statue was
created by E.M. Viquesney and is called The Spirit of the American Doughboy. Eight of these
statues can be found in various towns in NJ. Copies of it have been used in almost every state.
Miniature versions were sold, and you can find lamps with it on for sale. In addition to
memorialization, this paper will discuss the entry of the United States in "The War to End All
Wars" and how New Jersey supported the combatants, even before the United States was
officially a belligerent party in the war. In addition, this discussion will touch on how the United
States evolved from an unprepared nation with an untrained military to a fully supplied and
mobilized modern army that participated in a large-scale war.
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