Transcript A people`s history of the United States

Chapter 14
War Is The Health of The State
-Sharon Friedman
“On May 7, 1915, during World War 1, almost 1,200 people were
killed when the British passenger ship RMS Lusitania was torpedoed
and sunk by a German submarine off the coast of Ireland. - The United
States now had its pretense to enter the war in 1917. The attack
resulted in widespread support for the United States' entry into WW1. “
Woodrow Wilson, the
President of the United
States during and three
years after the First World
War. Wilson called WW1,
“The war to end all wars.”
He stated that our entrance
into the war was, “to make
the war safe for
democracy.”
“George Creel was the United States government’s official
propagandist. He headed the committee on public information
whose purpose was to persuade Americans that the war was
right. “
“A conscientious
objector is "a person
who, on the grounds
of conscience, resists
the authority of the
state to compel
military service"
65,000 men during
World War 1, refused
to fight on the
grounds of freedom of
thought, conscience,
and/or religious
beliefs.”
“Financier Bernard Baruch headed the War Industries Board, the
most powerful of the wartime government agencies. Bankers,
railroad men, and industrialists dominated these agencies.”
Espionage Act of 1917: “A
Unites States federal law
having harsh penalties for
anyone engaged in disloyal
or treasonable Activities.
Banned “rebellious”
newspapers, magazines,
and other printed materials
from the mail. It was
intended to prohibit
interference with military
operations or recruitment, to
prevent insubordination in
the military, and to prevent
the support of U.S. enemies
during wartime.”
Sacco & Vanzetti- Anarchist movement
“Both adhered to a strain of anarchism that advocated relentless warfare
against a violent and oppressive government. They were Italian-born
anarchists who were convicted of murdering two men during the armed
robbery of a shoe factory in South Braintree Massachusetts, United
States in 1920.”
“By 1925, the case had drawn worldwide attention. As details of the trial
and the men's suspected innocence became known, Sacco and
Vanzetti became the center of one of the largest Cause célèbres in
modern history.”
Image 6: “The American Protective League was a World War I-era
private organization that along with federal police like the Bureau of
Investigation worked in support of the anti German Empire movement
and against anti-war citizens and organizations. This represents a very
sad part of American history. This is about as close as the US
government ever came to sanctioning vigilantism. Formed by A.M.
Briggs, a wealthy Chicago businessman, at its height of power the APL
had 250,000 members in 600 cities.”
“These two books are fictionalized accounts of the horrors of World War 1. Each
are anti-war novels. Johnny Got His Gun is an anti-war novel written in 1938 by
American novelist and screenwriter Dalton Trumbo. All Quiet on the Western Front
is a novel by Erich Maria Remarque, a German veteran of World War I. The book
describes the German soldiers' extreme physical and mental stress during the war,
and the detachment from civilian life felt by many of these soldiers upon returning
home from the front.”
“In 1914, a serious recession had begun in the United States. The war
opened during a period of hard times, businesses throughout the country
were depressed and unemployment was serious. By 1915, war orders for the
allies, had stimulated the economy. By April 1917, more than 2 billion dollars
worth of goods had been sold to the allies. America became bound up with
the allies in a faithful union of war and prosperity.”
“In the summer of 1916, during a Preparedness Day parade in San Francisco, a
suitcase bomb exploded killing ten and wounding forty more. Two labor leaders,
Thomas Mooney and Warren Billings, were convicted in separate trials and
sentenced to be hanged.”
“Throughout the war
millions of soldiers
experienced and
endured the horrors
of trench warfare.
The trenches were
always full of
stagnant water and
mud. Sometimes
they would collapse
burying the soldiers
inside alive. Tens of
thousands of rats
swarmed through the
trench systems,
biting sleepers,
attacking the
wounded, and
gnawing on the
dead. Corpses of
men and horses
often laid for days
before they could be
Reference Page
Zinn, Howard. A people's history of the United States. New York:
Harper Perennial Modern Classic, 2005. Print.