My Amazon Review of Adam Hochschild's "American Midnight: The Great War..............."

Red Scare 1917-21

I thoroughly enjoyed Adam Hochschild’s book on the Spanish Civil War (See:Shulmaven: My Amazon Review of Adam Hochschild's "Spain in Our Hearts: Americans in the Spanish Civil War, 1936-1939"  ) and was very hopeful that his book on the crushing of civil liberties during and immediately after World War I would be as good. Unfortunately, I was disappointed. To be sure Hochschild does a very good job in covering the era, but I believe he over does it. It is one civil liberties violation after another with the evil Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer and his Bureau of Investigation aide J. Edgar Hoover ferreting out socialists, Wobblies, communists, labor union organizers ad Black Americans coming home from the war. The author leaves no doubt in the reader’s mind that he is man of the Left.

It is too much and ignores the real scare that was facing Americans, the very deadly influenza pandemic. Simply put, his book lacks context and he leave out the fact that part of the fear of Bolshevism was based o the fact that Lenin and Trotsky took Russia out of the war to the very real detriment of the American soldiers arriving in France. Further he doesn’t go into detail about the breakup of socialist party into a socialist and a communist faction.

Nevertheless, I learned much from the book. Hochschild shows the full extent of press censorship accomplish by Postmaster General Albert Burleson. In those days magazines were distributed by mail and the postal authorities had the ability to suspend mailing privileges of any publication it deemed contrary to the Espionage Act.

I also learned of  Leo Wendell an accomplished government spy and provocateur entrenched deep in the labor movement. One of the leading red hunters of the day was the very anti-immigrant Senator Albert Johnson of the state of Washington. In 1924 he would go on to write the Johnson-Reed drastically restricting immigration.

Woodrow Wilson does nothing to stop the attacks on civil liberties and, in fact, he refuses to pardon of commute the sentence of Socialist Party leader Eugene Debs. It would take the election of Republican Warren Harding to commute Debs’ sentence many others. It was Harding who put an end the Red Scare.

One of the heroes in the book is Department of Labor official, Louis Post. He personally stopped a huge number of deportations and embarrassed Palmer before a congressional committee thereby hurting his presidential prospects.

In sum Hochschild has given us a sese of this sordid time in American history. However, it would have helped if spent more time on the lives of every day American were trying to live normal lives.

For the full Amazon URL see: Red Scare 1917-21 (amazon.com)

 

My Amazon Review of Peter Fritzche's "Hitler's First Hundred Days"

Into the Heart of Darkness

This dry and academic, yet captivating book by University of Illinois history professor Peter Fritzche takes us on a 100 day trip into the very heart of darkness that would become Nazi Germany. In late morning of January 30, 1933 German president Paul von Hindenburg would meet with former chancellor Joseph von Papen, National People’s Party leader Alfred Hugenberg and National Socialist Party leader Adolf Hitler to name the 43 year old Hitler as chancellor of Germany. Within 100 days Hitler would have absolute power over all of Germany.

Fritzche tells the story through diaries and press accounts of how educated everyday Germans succumbed to Hitler’s siren call. Through persuasion, rhetoric, parades, pageantry, bonfires and the jackbooted thugs of the S.A., democratic Germany yielded to a one party dictatorship. Hitler evoked the unity of August 1914 when Germany, at least on the surface, was united for war and the shame of defeat of November 1918 where the new social democratic government surrendered to the Allied Powers.

Simply put the Nazi message of nationalism trumped the class message of both the socialists and the communists.  And it was that nationalist message that fueled the hatred for the Jews by labeling them outside the German nation. It was during this time that the Dachau concentration camp was established and by April 1^st the government proclaimed a nationwide boycott of Jewish businesses under the slogan “Jews Drop Dead.” It would be a few more short steps toward the holocaust that was to come.

It is not that the Nazi’s were initially super-popular. The Nazi alliance only received 52% of the popular vote in the March election. Nevertheless with full power Hitler intimidated his opponents and those who were not enamored of his regime initially acquiesced and later moved to full support as the economy improved and as they got caught up in the growing nationalist fervor.

Fritzche’s book drives home historian Ian Kershaw’s belief that the Bolshevik Revolution was the defining moment of the 20^th Century because it hardened the Right and divided the Left. The reason that Germany’s reactionary elements backed Hitler was their fear of communism and under Stalin’s orders the German Communist Party refused to align with the socialists. In fact it was a Nazi-Communist alliance that brought down the Center government of Heinrich Bruning in May 1932 setting the stage for Hitler.  Fritzche notes that when Moscow reversed itself and supported popular front alliance the socialists beat back the French Right in both 1934 and again in 1936. If only Stalin had adopted his popular front position in 1932.

Although many readers might find this book rough going, there are many lessons to be learned. Above all we should not take our freedom and liberties for granted. Hitler demonstrated to all who can see that liberal democracy can be a very fragile thing. Cherish it.

As an aside I couldn’t help but noting that Weimar came into being on November 9, 1918, Kristallnacht took place on November 9, 1938 and the Berlin Wall fell on November 9, 1989. Quite a coincidence.

For the full amazon URL see: https://www.amazon.com/review/R1BUEMXXPALITD/ref=pe_1098610_137716200_cm_rv_eml_rv0_rv