ABSTRACT
The Civil War dragged on almost three times as long as the later World War I so far as American participation was concerned. The Civil War was a personal war to most participants. By contrast, American participation in World War I became a legend of futility and deception. The liberal goal of World War I—to “save the world for democracy”—became a mockery of progressivism such as the “freeing of the slaves” never—even under the greatest provocation of disillusionment and radical malice—quite became. By contrast, the strength of the Republican party in post-Civil War decades and, however calculated or contrived, its policy toward blacks, enabled the latter to wear emblems of service in the war for the Union proudly and with profit. The journalism of the Civil War was one of its accomplishments. It pushed into the background the “personal journalism” that had so often earlier made editorials more important than sluggishly acquired “news.”.
