During the First World War it was the task of the U.S. Department
of Justice, using the newly passed Espionage Act and its later
Sedition Act amendment, to prosecute and convict those who opposed
America's entry into the conflict. In "Unsafe for Democracy,"
historian William H. Thomas Jr. shows that the Justice Department
did not stop at this official charge but went much further--paying
cautionary visits to suspected dissenters, pressuring them to
express support of the war effort, or intimidating them into
silence. At times going undercover, investigators tried to elicit
the unguarded comments of individuals believed to be a threat to
the prevailing social order. In this massive yet largely secret
campaign, agents cast their net wide, targeting isolationists,
pacifists, immigrants, socialists, labor organizers, African
Americans, and clergymen. The unemployed, the mentally ill, college
students, schoolteachers, even schoolchildren, all might come under
scrutiny, often in the context of the most trivial and benign
activities of daily life. Delving into numerous reports by Justice
Department detectives, Thomas documents how, in case after case,
they used threats and warnings to frighten war critics and silence
dissent. This early government crusade for wartime ideological
conformity, Thomas argues, marks one of the more dubious
achievements of the Progressive Era--and a development that
resonates in the present day.
Best Books for Special Interests, selected by the American
Association of School Librarians
"Recommended for all libraries."--Frederic Krome, "Library
Journal"
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