World War One (I), 1914-1918, the era of compulsory, compliance, and consequences. During these years President Woodrow Wilson enforced his power over the people of the United States. He used tactics like censorship to silence the American people, propaganda to enlist people to pay for the War, and conscription to force people to fight in the War. The United States did not join the War until 1917 after President Wilson reelection. His campaign slogan “he has kept us out of the war” is argued how he won his reelection yet later in 1917 when he got the U.S into the War the American people felt betrayed.
My argument will focus on how the government reacted to ordinary people, negatively speaking about the War and the administration. Also, how imprisonment of loved ones affected the communities of the ordinary American people. The assumption today about the Espionage Act is that Congress purpose was to suppress all criticism about the War and the draft. This claim is not exactly true, Congress made several amendments to the Act, yet President Wilson and his administration distorted the Act for their own motives. The Sedition Act of 1918 was a new amendment. This amendment restricted harmful actions against the government, the Constitution, or the military. …show more content…
Jeanette Keith contested the master narrative in her book. She organized the events about the white southerners, discussing how the white southerners were actually more against conscription and the War. She also elaborates on how the dissenters of the War lived prior to being captured. Lengel’s book focuses on the memoirs and diaries of civilians and soldiers during the period of the first World War. From the secondary literature I found, they discuss existing perspectives about the reason behind the acts of Congress in passing amendments and rewriting