Phillip Capper, CC BY Beneath the trenches scarring Europe’s fields languish the corpses of young men subjected to the barbarity of a global catastrophe glossed over as the Great War. Despite the visibility of these haunting earthen wounds, U.S. perceptions of the First World War are distorted by the alleged triumph of democracy and freedom – that is, if Americans can even recall the supposedly insubstantial world war. Likely due to the U.S.’ prolonged neutrality and the dist