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THAT LIBERTY SHALL NOT PERISH: AMERICAN PROPAGANDA AND THE POLITICS OF FEAR, 1914-1919 by ZACHARY CHARLES SMITH (Under the Direction of John H. Morrow, Jr.) ABSTRACT This dissertation attempts to provide an understanding of the widespread anxiety, vigilantism, suppression of dissent, and violation of civil liberties that took place in the United States from 1917 to 1919 and argues that it can be found in some Americans‟ understanding of and reaction to racially-charged propaganda. As the United States inched toward war with Germany in 1915 and after declaring war in April 1917, many propagandists began referencing the allegedly inherent characteristics of Germans as evidence of German American disloyalty and the existence of a vast “Pan-German” plot to undercut or even destroy American democracy. The imagined conspiracy grew to encompass most of the fears that had plagued the Anglo Saxon middle-class since the 1870s – immigrant radicalism, race suicide, the capability of “racially inferior” immigrants to assimilate and self-govern, and the continued deference of African Americans. To many anxious Americans, Germany and German Americans became a very real entity to which these long-held fears could be transferred. American propaganda produced during the First World War, though, was not a cynical ploy to fool the American people into supporting intervention on the side of the Allies. Leading Americans – politicians, editors, and social elites – were convinced that a global German conspiracy threatened the security of the United States and hoped to enlist the American people in staving off the existential threat they believed racially degenerate Germany allegedly posed. This dissertation paints a unique picture of the United States in the Progressive Era and contributes to literature on the history of emotions, race/ethnicity, progressivism, American culture, war‟s impact on society, and the First World War in general INDEX WORDS: Americanization, Anglo-Saxon, assimilation, Bolshevism, Christianity, Committee on Public Information, conspiracy, Council of National Defense, George Creel, Darwinism, degeneration, Department of Justice, espionage, fear, garrison state, German-Americans, Germany, immigration, invasion, Lamarckism, Lusitania, masculinity, militarism, Military Intelligence Division, military preparedness, Monroe Doctrine, Prussianism, National Security League, nativism, neurasthenia, paganism, Pan-Germanism, progressivism, propaganda, race, race suicide, racial degeneration, rumor, sabotage, Social Gospel, Teuton, whiteness, Wilhelm II, Woodrow Wilson, Zimmerman Telegram THAT LIBERTY SHALL NOT PERISH: AMERICAN PROPAGANDA AND THE POLITICS OF FEAR, 1914-1919 by ZACHARY CHARLES SMITH BA, Purdue University, 2003 MA, University of Georgia, 2007 A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of The University of Georgia in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY ATHENS, GEORGIA 2012 © 2012 Zachary Charles Smith All Rights Reserved THAT LIBERTY SHALL NOT PERISH: AMERICAN PROPAGANDA AND THE POLITICS OF FEAR, 1914-1919 by ZACHARY CHARLES SMITH Major Professor: John H. Morrow, Jr. Committee: James C. Cobb Stephen Berry Kathleen Clark Electronic Version Approved: Maureen Grasso Dean of the Graduate School The University of Georgia May 2012 iv DEDICATION To Curt and Deb v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS While the deficiencies in this dissertation are my own, its completion would not have been possible without the help and support of my friends, family, colleagues, and professors. I want to think the Pebble Creek Crew (Jennifer Wunn, Steve Nash, and Jim Gigantino), Sally Kazin, Michael Kazin (not the one you might think), Kathryn Tucker, Bea Burton, Jason Manthorne, LaShonda Mims, Tammy Rosser, Jenny Schwartzberg, and Ashton Ellett for reminding me that it is sometimes okay to take the blinders off. The support of my parents (to whom this dissertation is dedicated), Jeremy, Casey, Chelsea, Grandma Phyllis, and Nathan Allen for keeping the corn fields feeling as much like home as they ever have. The fact I never get squat done when I am “back home again in Indiana” is a great compliment to them. A special thanks goes out to the Andersons – Doug, Tina, Alex, and Allison – who again have provided me with a home away from home, this time during a far more successful graduate school venture. The History Department staff, Laurie Kane and Sheila Barnett in particular, are the glue that keeps LeConte Hall from falling in on itself and deserve mine and the entire department‟s undying thanks. I am eternally grateful to Jim Cobb, Steve Berry, and Kathleen Clark for serving on my dissertation committee. Their thoughts, suggests, and insights will continue to shape this project into the future. The completion of this dissertation in a relatively timely manner would not have been possible without the financial assistance of the UGA Graduate School and the Dissertation Completion Award. This award allowed me to turn writing into nine-to-five job, lessening the strain vi under which I otherwise would have been working. The result is a more thoughtful and polished study than I otherwise could have pulled off. Finally, two people in particular deserve extra special thanks. John Morrow has been my advisor and mentor for seven years and during that time he has offered indispensible advice and encouragement, facilitated my research, taught me how to handle bullies, and had my back even when my performance did not merit it. My old pal Michael Howell once told me that “major professor” and “advisor” translates as “doktorvater” (or something like that) in German. Even if Howell had no idea what he was talking about, I can think of no better term to describe what John Morrow has meant to me while I have been at UGA. Last but far from least is my muse, best friend, and bride-to-be, LeeAnn Reynolds. She has been along for the entire ride that was this dissertation and has brought out of me a strength I was not aware I possessed. Without her this project may have never been started, let alone finished. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .................................................................................................v LIST OF FIGURES ......................................................................................................... viii CHAPTER INTRODUCTION: FEAR, PROPAGANDA, AND DEFINING THE AMERICAN WAR EFFORT ..................................................................................1 1 RACE, ANXIETY, AND THE SEARCH FOR SOLUTIONS, 1865-1914....36 2 ARMING THE NEURASTHENIC NATION: AMERICAN MANHOOD AND THE CASE FOR MILITARY PREPAREDNESS, 1914-1917 ...................83 3 THE HYPHEN AND THE HUN: THE ORIGINS AND DEVELOPMENT OF WARTIME SPY HYSTERIA, 1914-1917 ....................................................139 4 HUNTING THE HUN AT HOME: SELLING AND COMBATING THE TEUTONIC SPY CONSPIRACY, 1917-1918....................................................188 5 BEATING BACK THE HUN: WARTIME FEARS OF FOREIGN SUBJUGATION, 1917-1918 ...............................................................................249 6 FOR GOTT UND COUNTRY: GERMAN SPIRITUAL BACKWARDNESS AND THE DEMOCRATIC MILLENNIAL MISSION, 1914-1918 ..................321 EPILOGUE: THE RISE OF THE RED MENACE AND THE POSTWAR PRODUCTION OF FEAR ..................................................................................368 REFERENCES ................................................................................................................395 viii LIST OF FIGURES Page Figure 1-1: Thomas Nast, Harper‟s Weekly, February 27, 1886 .......................................59 Figure 1-2: Thomas Nast, Harper‟s Weekly, June 5, 1886 ................................................60 Figure 2-1: McClure‟s Magazine, March 1916 ...............................................................119 Figure 2-2: Newark Evening Star, from Current Opinion, May 1915.............................126 Figure 2-3: Columbus Evening Dispatch, from Current Opinion, June 1915 .................126 Figure 2-4: New York Herald, from Current Opinion, July 1915 ...................................128 Figure 2-5: Brooklyn Eagle, from Literary Digest, August 5, 1916 ................................133 Figure 3-1: New York Times, from New York Times Current History, June 1915 ..........160 Figure 3-2: Wichita Beacon, from Literary Digest, October 1915 ..................................169 Figure 3-3: Chicago Daily News, from Literary Digest, October 1915 ..........................169 Figure 3-4: From New York World, whose editor, Frank Cobb, was a press ally and personal friend to the President............................................................................179 Figure 4-1: “Don‟t Talk,” U.S. Army, ca. 1917 ..............................................................198 Figure 4-2: “Eternal Vigilance is the Price of Victory,” ADS, ca. 1917 ........................198 Figure 4-3: “Have You Met This Kaiserite?” CPI, 1917 .................................................199 Figure 4-4: “Spies and Lies,” CPI, 1917..........................................................................199 Figure 4-5: Literary Digest, November 24, 1917 ............................................................212 Figure 4-6: New York Evening World, from Literary Digest, April 20, 1918 .................212 Figure 4-7: Literary Digest, April 27, 1918 .....................................................................229 ix Figure 4-8: Everybody‟s Magazine, July 1, 1918 ............................................................229