Carl Sandburg wrote numerous poems during the 1916-18 period about war and the burdens of war falling on working people. We will look at four of these poems in this episode - Buttons, And They Obey, Wars, Grass - which are not specific to World War I but are about the relationship of those who fight and those who lead them.

Sandburg was in the army during the Spanish-American War of 1898 and he combines his experiences then to the horrors of war in general and to the specific events of the "War to End All Wars". He identified as a socialist during this period and his poems reflect this humanistic reaction to world events.

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