World War I
& the Red Scare
TRIPLE
ALLIANCE
TRIPLE
ENTENTE
CENTRAL
POWERS
ALLIED
POWERS
1914 - 1918
APRIL 6th, 1917
Knightsbridge, 1919
Why did the United States
enter World War I… on the
side of Great Britain?
Why did the United States
ente…on the side of Great
Britain and the Allies?
Standard View
The Lusitania
deaths = 1198
deaths = 1128
4,200,000
OTHER REASONS?
1) Cultural Ties
80%
2) Enhanced U.S.
World Role
3) Economic
4x
1914: $753 million
1916: $3 billion
$27 million
$2.3 billion
$27 million
4) Practicalities of
Naval Warfare
British Blockade
U-Boat Blockade
“rules of war”
Undeclared
submarine warfare
OPPOSITION
Traditional Suspicion
Traditional Suspicion
Washington’s Farewell Address
“Why, by interweaving our destiny with
that of any part of Europe, entangle our
peace and prosperity in the toils of
European ambition, rivalship, interest,
humor or caprice? It is our true policy to
steer clear of permanent alliances with any
portion of the foreign world…” (1796)
Congress
373-50
“Dough-boys”
300,000 / 300,000
Farmers
“Where The Fate Of The War Rests”
“Upon the farmers of this country,
therefore, in large measure rests the fate of
the war and the fate of the nations. May
the nation not count upon them to omit no
step that will increase the production of
their land or that will bring about the most
effectual cooperation in the sale and
distribution of their products?”
Socialists
1920: >900,000
Immigrants
Immigrants
APATHY?
“Symbolic Politics”
Good vs Evil
“Hate the Hun Campaign”
SAUERKRAUT
“LIBERTY
CABBAGE”
HAMBURGER
“LIBERTY
STEAK”
“LIBERTY
MEASLES”
ANTI-RADICAL
Espionage and
Sedition Acts
1917-1918
6000/ 1500
“RED” EMMA GOLDMAN
2 years >>>
WALTER MATHEY
Rev. CLARENCE WALDRON
“A Christian can take no part in the war.”
Rev. CLARENCE WALDRON
> 15 years
JOHN WHITE
JOHN WHITE
“[The] murder of innocent
women and children by
German soldiers was no
worse than what the
United States’ soldiers
did in the Philippines.”
JOHN WHITE
> 21 months
“BIG BILL”
HAYWOOD >>> IWW
“BIG BILL”
HAYWOOD >>> 30 YEARS
“RED SUMMER”
1919
Strikes, Prohibition,
Suffrage, Race Riots,
Bombings, Influenza
A. Mitchell
“Palmer Raids” >>> 1919-20
A. Mitchell
“Palmer Raids”
“[The] blaze of revolution
[was] eating its way into the
homes of the American
workmen, its sharp tongues
of revolutionary heat…
licking the altars of the
churches, leaping into the
belfry of the school bell,
crawling into the sacred
corners of American homes,
burning up the foundations
of society.”
May 1, 1920?
May 1, 1920?

World War I and the Red Scare