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Summary A wartime quest for global markets and the 'liberty' of others made us all forget domestic policy. Dissenters went to jail, for they were likely to incite seditious acts (despite their First Amendment right). Chapter "The war to end all wars" would see another war in twenty years. And World War 1 would underscore imperial intentions. Over boundaries they fought - for markets, influence, and colonies. For gold and diamonds, said Du Bois, and ivory and minerals in Africa. "Democracy" united capital and labor to exploit a world in darkness, an "abyss of blood." Adroit the strategy, connecting one's prosperity to foreign markets gained through war, authority unquestioned, patriotic citizens, and less attention on domestic issues like the stress of class disputes. So when the Lusitania - transporting war supplies - was sunk, the media and government began a propaganda surge to stir the nation with a patriotic urge while hiding the realities ("all quiet on the western front"). A curious phenomenon, the claim of righteous war as tens of thousands seek deferment from the draft. And, oddly, at the peak of frenzy for the freedom fight our government arrests detractors of the war, as their dissent was called sedition. Debs admitted guilt, was jailed, as Teddy Roosevelt slurred the Socialists and hailed the war as noble. The "Defense Society" and vigilantes and a media decree opposed resisters, Socialists, and malcontents - a country thoroughly policed at the expense of First Amendment freedoms. Now the war was done, with tens of millions falling victim to the gun, disease, starvation - all to serve the interests of money men. As "Johnny Got His Gun" attests to strains of human torment on the battlefield, the post-war fears, as Socialists refused to yield, attest to corporate and government control. The raids on immigrants and deportations stole the dreams of innocents. Suspected anarchists like Sacco and Vanzetti, much like Communists a generation later, felt the gravity of disagreeing in the land of liberty. |