03779nam 2200649Ia 450 991095315420332120251116234900.00-299-22893-22027/heb08793(CKB)2670000000016011(SSID)ssj0000344124(PQKBManifestationID)11264510(PQKBTitleCode)TC0000344124(PQKBWorkID)10306762(PQKB)10517758(OCoLC)550648583(MdBmJHUP)muse12285(Au-PeEL)EBL3444892(CaPaEBR)ebr10348731(OCoLC)932318071(dli)HEB08793(MiU)MIU01000000000000011661690(Perlego)4442274(MiAaPQ)EBC3444892(EXLCZ)99267000000001601120080327d2008 ub 0engurcn|||||||||txtccrUnsafe for democracy World War I and the U.S. Justice Department's covert campaign to suppress dissent /William H. Thomas, JrMadison, Wis. University of Wisconsin Pressc2008xi, 251 p. illStudies in American thought and cultureBibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph0-299-22896-7 0-299-22890-8 Includes bibliographical references and index.Setting the stage -- Methods and ideology -- Policing the clergy -- Policing the left -- Policing Wisconsin -- Vigilantism.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 Studies in American thought and culture.World War, 1914-1918Protest movementsUnited StatesPeace movementsGovernment policyUnited StatesFreedom of speechUnited StatesWorld War, 1914-1918Protest movementsPeace movementsGovernment policyFreedom of speech940.3/1Thomas William H.Jr0MiAaPQMiAaPQMiAaPQBOOK9910953154203321Unsafe for democracy2243923UNINA