Uploaded February 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
The First World War was not only a seismic event in world history. Like the American Civil War and Reconstruction, it was a watershed moment for democracy in the United States.
Over the past century, observers have pondered the enduring impact of the Progressive Era, whose aspirations – built on Abraham Lincoln’s legacy for equality – propelled both Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson into power. One of the most influential vestiges of the Era that can be traced in our time is the American Fund for Public Service. It helped set in motion the modern law of free speech; it financed the campaign that led to Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, outlawing segregated schools; and it nurtured the model of the labor unions to which nearly 15 million Americans now belong.
Discover the astonishing story of a lost world of men and women who remade American democracy amid the reverberations of the Great War with John Fabian Witt, professor at Yale Law School and author of Pulitzer Prize finalist “Lincoln’s Code: The Laws of War in American History” and most recently, “The Radical Fund: How a Band of Visionaries and a Million Dollars Upended America.”
For more information about the National WWI Museum and Memorial visit theworldwar.org
The First World War was not only a seismic event in world history. Like the American Civil War and Reconstruction, it was a watershed moment for democracy in the United States.
Over the past century, observers have pondered the enduring impact of the Progressive Era, whose aspirations – built on Abraham Lincoln’s legacy for equality – propelled both Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson into power. One of the most influential vestiges of the Era that can be traced in our time is the American Fund for Public Service. It helped set in motion the modern law of free speech; it financed the campaign that led to Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, outlawing segregated schools; and it nurtured the model of the labor unions to which nearly 15 million Americans now belong.
Discover the astonishing story of a lost world of men and women who remade American democracy amid the reverberations of the Great War with John Fabian Witt, professor at Yale Law School and author of Pulitzer Prize finalist “Lincoln’s Code: The Laws of War in American History” and most recently, “The Radical Fund: How a Band of Visionaries and a Million Dollars Upended America.”
For more information about the National WWI Museum and Memorial visit theworldwar.org
