This book discusses the years just before, during, and after The Great War. The subtitle is “The Great War, A Violent Peace, and Democracy’s Forgotten Crisis”. Hochschild starts with the entry of the United States into the War to End All Wars, and it was a little messier than we probably realize. Many people wanted the United States to enter the war, but there were also people who did not. The government considered those people to be unpatriotic, to say the least, so Congress passed the Espionage Act in order to restrict the voices of the people who were opposed to the war. In general, “Big Business’ was in favor of increasing production in the ramp up to war. Organized labor, or at least labor that was trying to be organized, was not as enthusiastic.
The Postmaster General at the time was an enthusiastic proponent of the Espionage Act, and censored a number of publications. Labor leaders, and some of the rank and file, were tried under the act, and many were convicted and served jail sentences, mainly for just expressing their opinions. Censorship lasted well after the end of the war, due to fears of “Bolshevism” after the coup in Russia. This is the era when the accusation of being a Communist started to be a real threat. Xenophobia, disguised as patriotism, affected many aspects of life as well. This is also the period when the first racial barriers to entry into the United States were created.
While it is hard to imagine much of what is detailed in this book happening today, we have to remember two things. First, it was a different world. There are now more guardrails in place, and less public acceptance of people’s rights being abrogated. Second, we were at war, and a war that was not on our shores, which maybe made the “enemy” harder to identify. But people always seem to need someone to demonize. In this era, if you were non-white, an immigrant, or a member of a labor union or the “wrong” political party, America could be a dangerous place for you.
If this was your family, how would you research them? This is the era our grandparents and great-grandparents lived through. They might have passed down some family stories from this era. You will probably find quite a few of the registration forms for your male ancestors, for either WWI or WWII. A few men will have documents from both, even if they didn’t serve. You should be able to find people in the 1910 through 1950 census, and in 1920 and 1940, you might find some service members with their units. As always, newspapers might tell you stories that did not get passed down.