Over Here: The First World War and American Society
by David Kennedy
Progressive Era-WWI
Military & Foreign Policy
Politics
Thesis:
US involvement in WWI ultimately led to an end in the Progressive Era. Progressive rhetoric was used to build public support for the war but ultimately made the people feel manipulated. To fund the war, much of the advancements towards democratic power instituted by progressives were abandoned.
Specific examples/evidence that supports the
thesis:
Summary:
The author explores the internal American effects of World War I. Domestic changes were drastic during the war period.
The author explores the internal American effects of World War I. Domestic changes were drastic during the war period.
Under the auspices of the Espionage Act of June 1917 (which allowed Postmaster-General Burleson to aggressively censor the mail) and the Sedition Act of 1918 (which prohibited "any disloyal, profane, scurrilous, or abusive language about the form of government of the United States"), outspoken members of the left (among them Eugene Debs) were arrested and locked away for voicing dissent.
After the war, Wilson's 14 points were given little attention or reflection in the Treaty of Versailles, calling an end to the war. A treaty that was never ratified by the US. In addition the League of Nations, created to avoid another World War and to force countries to disarm, pushed for by Wilson, was not joined by the US and ultimately fell apart.
After the war, Wilson's 14 points were given little attention or reflection in the Treaty of Versailles, calling an end to the war. A treaty that was never ratified by the US. In addition the League of Nations, created to avoid another World War and to force countries to disarm, pushed for by Wilson, was not joined by the US and ultimately fell apart.
What does this tell us about Military and Foreign Policy in the Progressive Era-WWI?
Up to the point of US involvement in WWI, the US was proudly avoiding the war. The US was spending resources on Progressive reform efforts and had no interest in spending it on a European War. In order to support the war efforts President Wilson instituted policies that decreased the free expression of the people. In an attempt to frame US involvement as a moral imperative, Wilson gave his speech on the 14 points. Establishing a list of actions that, he and his advisers believed would prevent another World War, these included disarming, and destroying alliances, giving colonies their independence, and free trade. Unfortunately the 14 points were not adopted in the Treaty of Versailles and the treaty was not ratified by the US Senate, by then largely controlled by big business who had an interest in tariffs.
Up to the point of US involvement in WWI, the US was proudly avoiding the war. The US was spending resources on Progressive reform efforts and had no interest in spending it on a European War. In order to support the war efforts President Wilson instituted policies that decreased the free expression of the people. In an attempt to frame US involvement as a moral imperative, Wilson gave his speech on the 14 points. Establishing a list of actions that, he and his advisers believed would prevent another World War, these included disarming, and destroying alliances, giving colonies their independence, and free trade. Unfortunately the 14 points were not adopted in the Treaty of Versailles and the treaty was not ratified by the US Senate, by then largely controlled by big business who had an interest in tariffs.
What does this tell us about Politics in the Progressive Era-WWI?
The moral evangelism of the Progressive era had to re-frame their rhetoric to fit the war. Wilson always felt the minds and the hearts of the people must be won, he created the Committee on Public Information to bombard the public with the justifications for America's entry into WWI. Additionally, Espionage and Sedition Acts were passed to silence opposing opinions on the war. The US public, including Progressives mostly bought into the propaganda but found themselves demoralized by the outcome. Big business got richer and the power of the people was greatly reduced.
What parts of the book can be applied to lectures?
General Thoughts:
Excerpts from Book Reviews:
"Here now we have the first contemporary synthesis of work accomplished with regard to America's internal experience in World War I."
"Wilsonians' (and Americans' continuing) unwillingness to exercise power in any formal, straightforward, or forceful way-of their phobic refusal to carry out the rationing, taxing, requisitioning, and coercing that European governments had long since undertaken. Such a renunciation of authority had a second unfortunate effect as well, for it led of necessity to the Wilson administration's deliberate propagandizing and agitation of the public as a means of achieving needed discipline, whipping up a patriotic hysteria that would ultimately undermine progressive forces politically and help to undo the benefits that groups like workers, blacks, and women derived from the war."
"Kennedy also discusses the war's cultural dimension. From diaries and other literary material he evokes the overseas experience of Pershing's "doughboys" and also describes and interprets the cultural struggle over the war's meaning in both literary and popular culture in the 1920s. Kennedy suggests, moreover, that as a cultural phenomenon the war crisis reveals a number of core American social values, including a deeply rooted suspicion of concentrated public power and a bias toward voluntarism in the construction of social institutions."
"Among the book's many strengths are a first-rate synthesis of recent work on economic and financial mobilization; a critical evaluation of Wilsonian economic diplomacy; convenient summaries of the war's impact on various social groups, including liberal intellectuals, women, blacks, organized labor, and political radicals; and a useful commentary on congressional and national party politics based upon private manuscript collections"
"Wilsonians' (and Americans' continuing) unwillingness to exercise power in any formal, straightforward, or forceful way-of their phobic refusal to carry out the rationing, taxing, requisitioning, and coercing that European governments had long since undertaken. Such a renunciation of authority had a second unfortunate effect as well, for it led of necessity to the Wilson administration's deliberate propagandizing and agitation of the public as a means of achieving needed discipline, whipping up a patriotic hysteria that would ultimately undermine progressive forces politically and help to undo the benefits that groups like workers, blacks, and women derived from the war."
"Kennedy also discusses the war's cultural dimension. From diaries and other literary material he evokes the overseas experience of Pershing's "doughboys" and also describes and interprets the cultural struggle over the war's meaning in both literary and popular culture in the 1920s. Kennedy suggests, moreover, that as a cultural phenomenon the war crisis reveals a number of core American social values, including a deeply rooted suspicion of concentrated public power and a bias toward voluntarism in the construction of social institutions."
"Among the book's many strengths are a first-rate synthesis of recent work on economic and financial mobilization; a critical evaluation of Wilsonian economic diplomacy; convenient summaries of the war's impact on various social groups, including liberal intellectuals, women, blacks, organized labor, and political radicals; and a useful commentary on congressional and national party politics based upon private manuscript collections"
My Highlighted Passages:
""war had killed something precious and perhaps irretrievable in the hearts of thinking men and women, namely a faith in the reasonableness, plasticity, and fundamental decency of "the people." (92)
"the war thus demonstrated the distasteful truth that voluntarism has its perils. Reliance on sentiment rather than strengthened sovereignty to mobilize a people for total war compounded the problem of requiring all people to do what but few people wished. That kind of coercion, no less insidious for its indirection -- perhaps doubly objectionable on that count -- had deep roots in liberal democratic culture, and was to become a salient feature of twentieth-century American life." (143)
"In effect, writers such as Hemingway, Dos Passos, and Cummings use the way to "launch a second attack on the cultural authority of the Old Guard -- the Old Guard that had promoted American entry into the war, and employed the full force of its rhetorical power to describe the war in terms compatible with its ancient values...The postwar writers of disillusionment protested less against the war itself than against a way of seeing and describing the war."
""war had killed something precious and perhaps irretrievable in the hearts of thinking men and women, namely a faith in the reasonableness, plasticity, and fundamental decency of "the people." (92)
"the war thus demonstrated the distasteful truth that voluntarism has its perils. Reliance on sentiment rather than strengthened sovereignty to mobilize a people for total war compounded the problem of requiring all people to do what but few people wished. That kind of coercion, no less insidious for its indirection -- perhaps doubly objectionable on that count -- had deep roots in liberal democratic culture, and was to become a salient feature of twentieth-century American life." (143)
"In effect, writers such as Hemingway, Dos Passos, and Cummings use the way to "launch a second attack on the cultural authority of the Old Guard -- the Old Guard that had promoted American entry into the war, and employed the full force of its rhetorical power to describe the war in terms compatible with its ancient values...The postwar writers of disillusionment protested less against the war itself than against a way of seeing and describing the war."
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