Washington at War: The Evergreen State in WWI

Led by historian Lorraine McConaghy, the program begins with an illustrated introduction to the war’s themes before offering a “Readers’ Theater:” a script read aloud together, allowing participants to speak the history they are discovering. The script includes excerpts from newspapers, diaries, writings, speeches, and correspondence, and is based on extensive research in primary source material focused on the war’s impact on Washington — and how Washington impacted the war. The reading covers the period between the successful Prohibition referendum in 1914 through Seattle’s General Strike and President Woodrow Wilson’s visit to Washington in 1919. Learn about and discuss this dramatic period of immigration, wartime industrialization, women’s rights, social change, radical labor, epidemic disease, and worldwide turmoil.