History 2-3 page paper - "To what extent did WWI alter the status of Americans between 1914-1920"?

AnalyzingAnalyzing

Scouts. Creel’s propaganda campaign was highly effective. However, while the campaign promoted patriotism, it also inflamed hatred and violations of the civil liberties of certain ethnic groups and opponents of the war.

Attacks on Civil Liberties Increase Early in 1917, President Wilson expressed his fears about the consequences of war hysteria.

A PERSONAL VOICE WOODROW WILSON “ Once lead this people into war and they’ll forget there ever was such a thing as tolerance. To fight you must be brutal and ruthless, and the spirit of ruthless brutality will enter into the very fiber of our national life, infecting Congress, the courts, the policeman on the beat, the man in the street. Conformity would be the only virtue, and every man who refused to conform would have to pay the penalty.”

—quoted in Cobb of “The World”

The president’s prediction came true. As soon as war was declared, conformity indeed became the order of the day. Attacks on civil liberties, both unofficial and official, erupted.

ANTI-IMMIGRANT HYSTERIA The main targets of these attacks were Americans who had emigrated from other nations, especially those from Germany and Austria-Hungary. The most bitter attacks were directed against the nearly 2 million Americans who had been born in Germany, but other foreign- born persons and Americans of German descent suffered as well.

Many Americans with German names lost their jobs. Orchestras refused to play the music of Mozart, Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms. Some towns with German names changed them. Schools stopped teaching the German language, and librarians removed books by German authors from the shelves. People even resorted to violence against German Americans, flogging them or smearing them

The First World War 597

C

THE ENEMY WITHIN After the United States entered the war, government propaganda helped inflame prejudice against recent immigrants. In the suspicious atmosphere of the time, conspiracy theories flourished, and foreign spies were believed to be ever ywhere. This cartoon reveals the hysteria that gripped the countr y in 1917.

SKILLBUILDER Analyzing Political Cartoons 1. What is happening in this cartoon? 2. What does the cartoonist suggest will happen

to “enemy aliens”?

SEE SKILLBUILDER HANDBOOK, PAGE R24.

MAIN IDEAMAIN IDEA

C

Developing Historical Perspective

What effect did the war have on the lives of recent immigrants?