The Selective Service Act had a great effect during World War I, on both soldiers and their families at home. Many things were happening in America that heightened tension such as Nationalism and Competition. Americans had divided loyalties and their opinions were crystallized. German Submarines violated neutral rights that led Wilson to prepare and enter America into the war. Being involved in a war led to the United States needing to build an army and construct a wartime economy. The government then had to shape public opinion about the war. The draft had created many to resist it and led to many being court-martialed and imprisoned. Lasting effects of the draft are still seen today, in both the government and the people.
Leading up to the United States entering the war, the country went through many things that led to join in the war. America was going through a Progressive Era in the years between 1890 and 1920. “The nation had a newly urban and diverse society, new technological capabilities, and a new industrial economy that had grown with astonishing speed in the 25 years following the Civil War” (Introduction: The Progressive Era). Also, the nation had developed a new status in the world and enlarged power in the international community. Some of the decisions the nation had made by 1920, are now clear, were wrong, but others had positive effects. “These crucial decades take their familiar label, the Progressive Era, from reformers and reform-minded people who were called progressives” (Introduction: The Progressive Era).
As 1894 opened, the depression that began in 1893 continued, business failed and industrial workers resented the refusal of the Cleveland administration to take any responsibility for their distress. “Millions of other middle-class and working Americans, who were neither farmers nor industrial workers, lived in fear that they too might soon lose their jobs” (“The Crisis of the ‘90s”). Those who remained financially secure...