World War One and the Crisis of America

WORLD WAR ONE AND THE CRISIS OF AMERICA
Name:
Grade Course:
Tutor`s Name:
(20 March 2012)
World War One and the Crisis of America
In the entire history of American concerning assaults upon civil liberties, it is the First world war one and its aftermath that has really provoked the interest of many historians. The major reason that has made many historians to focus on this war is the fact that, initially, the thus had promised to stay neutral in the European war. The banks were even supposed to lend money to both sides participating war. This was to occur if and only if American trade will be allowed, and merchant ships were crossing Atlantic Ocean to trade in Europe. However, this came to an end, when German was blocked by British Naval, which made Germany to declare the use of unrestricted submarine warfare. As a result, this term paper critically discusses examples of the expanding state power and loss of civil liberties in the US during the First World War. Secondly, it also looks at how CPI enables the manufacturing of patriotism and propaganda under Wilson`s war effort during the First World War. In doing this, the paper will be citing examples from ‘Andrew Kolin, (2011) State Power and Democracy`, and Susan Brewer (2009).
In his book State Power and Democracy, Andrew Kolin (89), has looked at the slow but steady increase in state power along with gradual losses of democracy in the US in the early 20th century. Based on his argument "Wartime provides governments with opportunities to operate outside legal boundaries. Wars allow state power to expand in scope and scale so that government can create a steady, permanent erosion of civil liberties and the rule of law" (Kolin, 102). The U.S government enacted Sedition Act of 1918, where Americans were forbidden from "disloyal, profane, scurrilous, or abusive language" Kolin, (107), about the government of the United State flag or even the armed forces while they were at war. It is the same act that gave powers to the post master general to deny delivery of mails to individuals who were considered as being dissenter of any policy enacted by the government during war. This can be seen as being a violation to the freedom of speech and expression. This made many people to be prosecuted for no good reason. For instance, after making an anti-war speech in Ohio, Debs was a rested arrested under this Sedition ac, he was prosecuted for his attempts to arouse mutiny. As a result, he was sentenced to serve a jail term of 10 year. Apart from that, his rights to vote again were withdrawn. Moreover, before the enactment of Sedition act of 1918, the passing of Espionage Act in 1917 made degraded civil liberty apart from indicating the expansion of state powers during war in the US. It is this law that set punishments for anybody found interfering with the foreign policies along with Espionage (Kolin 139). In addition, this act allowed heavy punishments and imprisonment to anybo...