Hey everyone, in this post I'd like to point out how big of a role nationalism and public opinion played in the United State's during the Great War. As we all know, the three
isms that began the war were imperialism, nationalism, and militarism. After US entry into the War, huge waves of patriotic idealism spread throughout the country. Several
thousands of people enlisted in the Army to defend democracy. Posters showed images of United States soldiers "Halting the Hun", saving the liberty of those abroad
as well as at home. One of the biggest contributors to the universal patriotism in America was the Creel organization that employed more than 150,000 workers to spread ideals
and disperse political propaganda. Songs were sung about the United States involvement, and anyone who spoke out or acted against the War effort was sent to prison under the
Espionage Act of 1917 and Sedition Act of 1918. People went into a mania against Germany. As we talked about in class, Sauerkraut became "liberty cabbage" and hamburger became "liberty steak" for sounding too German.
How crazy would it be if we went to war with China or somewhere and chow mein became "'merica noodles". The insanity shown by these actions really shows how patriotic the individual American was.
Also supporting the war was the effort of the Nations Factories, pressed by the mantra "Labor will win the war". Councils were made for economic mobilization, and the "work or fight" rule was instated in 1918 where
someone who didn't work would be drafted. No one was exempt from supporting the war. The American Federation of labor doubled its membership to over three million during this time, furthering the labor push.
Women also played a large role in labor during this time, pouring into factories and fields where men vacated their positions. The entire country pressed itself into a wartime effort,
unifying for a common cause.
Severe changes in lifesyle also occurred. People began to Grow gardens in their backyards to lessen stress on the food supplies. Food exports in the United States to
triple. Also there were "heatless Mondays" "lightness nights", and "gasless Sundays", All to conserve for the War effort.
All of the country experienced a huge wave of nationalism that pressed for the war effort, I think it is important to understand the pubic opinion during this time, because it
plays a huge influence on the war, and it is interesting to see how crazed an individual can become when part of a common effort.
Hey Nathan! Thanks for the post - I really enjoyed how you touched upon a lot of topics. One that I looked further into were the victory gardens that, like you said, were made to lessen the stress on the food supplies. They made the Women's Land Army of America in WWI that allowed 20,000 urban women to join America's agricultural sector between 1917 and 1921. This was the first time that city women were recruited into a government-sanctioned and well organized labor groups in physically demanding fields. They were largely managed by women themselves that were young and typically college-educated. This was a bit weird for people because women's role started to change a lot during this time. I think that it's really cool how this act of nationalism like you said can end up becoming a social change. Because the women started becoming "Victory Growers" they ended up showing themselves equal, even in terms of jobs in physical labor. Just goes to show the domino chain: the war created a sense of nationalism which created a desire and need for women to grow their own food which created social changes for women in society.
ReplyDeletehttp://ucanr.edu/sites/thevictorygrower/Historical_Models/Womans_Land_Army_of_America,_ca_WWI/
Thanks again for the post Nathan!
Great post Nathan! I think it is also valuable to point out that this complete involvement of a nation in a war is something characteristic of "modern warfare". World War I is usually considered to have ushered in the idea of modernized and mechanized wars. And with this idea came total social involvement in the war. As technology developed there was not only more ways in which the war effort relied of the labor of the masses, but also more ways for information about the war to spread, creating the ability for this sense of connectedness and nationalism.
ReplyDeleteI think that the your point about individual patriotism is very valid, but I think that this is still happening today and certainly has happened before. Think of the movies. For many, if not a majority of movies from the Cold War Era, the main villains are Russian or some other sort of communist. This goes from action movies like the Rambo series and Ivan Drago in Rocky IV to some cartoons, like Boris in the Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoons.
ReplyDeleteToday, many bad guys in movies are those that we think of as bad guys in real life: communists, terrorists, drug lords. As we've gone through history, our movie villains reflect who we vilify in real life, from the Germans to the Japanese to the Russians and now towards Middle Easterners. Just because we don't rename our foods or put up posters with slurs on them (though that has happened) doesn't mean that we aren't affected mentally by what's around us.
Sources:
-http://hypervocal.com/entertainment/2011/a-brief-history-of-hollywood-villains-and-americas-collective-fears/
-http://www.complex.com/pop-culture/2012/11/25-most-memorable-communist-villains-movies/
-For the ultimate extreme of this idea (like that the government is controlling us and we need to resist) take a look at: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article34123.htm
Oh, and great post by the way. Should have mentioned that earlier.
DeleteHey Nathan, great post!
ReplyDeleteI feel like this intense nationalism that we saw during World War I can also be seen after the 9/11 strikes. Across America, people flied national flags and wanted to go into the Middle East and find the creator of the strikes and kill them and protect America. And like the Germans during World War I, many Arabic looking people were arrested without due process of law, losing rights that citizens may lose in times of war. Middle East looking people were prejudiced against due to their race and appearance despite the fact that they could be very patriotic Americans.
Although we may see the things we did back then as bad, and what we do in times of pressure as justified, maybe the best way to look at things is to see how the history books will see what we did and how they would judge our actions. Just something to keep in mind.