Item Detail
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30976
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0
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2
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English
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Soldiers, Savers, Slackers, and Spies : Southeastern Utah’s Response to World War I
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Utah and the Great War : The Beehive State and the World War I Experience
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Salt Lake City, UT
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University of Utah Press. Copublished with the Utah State Historical Society.
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135-155
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"What happens when the shots fired at Sarajevo in 1914 reverberate into the isolated villages of a region in transition from the pioneer days of the past couple of decades to the modern era? The sparsely populated southeastern Utah’s reaction to the outbreak and course of the war was, in many ways, similar to other parts of rural Utah. War brought a patriotic fervor that sent some young men as volunteers. Others waited for the selective service draft to call them to the colors. Of those found eligible for the draft, some sought deferments as the care of wives, children, and other dependents held sway. Those not eligible for military service contributed to the war effort in different ways—the purchase of liberty bonds and other wartime contributions, adhering to meatless and wheatless days, growing victory gardens, collecting scrap and other reusable items, writing letters to servicemen, and producing and donating socks and sweaters. Alert to the possibil-ity of enemy spies and saboteurs active in the vicinity, wary observers sometimes found what they thought to be evidence of their presence even in a most unlikely place as southeastern Utah. [Editor]