The American Expeditionary Forces in World War I; Military Institutional Change at the Dawn of Modern Warfare

Abstract

This dissertation traces the institutional change of the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) as it transformed during the First World War. It argues that the AEF was a human-centric construct and therefore traces its metamorphosis from the level of the individual to the organization writ large. Beginning with the mental models of its members, it became the product of their changed mental models and resulting ideologies. Its rapid adaptation was a response to the exigencies of World War I and facilitated by its cultural malleability and vibrant knowledge economy. Its transformation was rapid and effective. With the aid its allies and their resources, new ways of addressing the challenges of the war were resourced to create the first modern American military institution. While current interpretations of the AEF’s experience and its contributions to the war effort focus on individual agency, they fail to put the Doughboys transformation into the context of the institution they were a part of. The current literature very well answers the question of what changed but misses answering the questions of how and why. While there is growing consensus that the AEF’s contribution to the war was definitive, there is less understanding as to how a staff of 191 men grew to become a modern two-million-man force. This dissertation is designed to address this gap.