"A People's History of the United States" Ch. 14 Reflection

425 Words2 Pages
A People’s History of the United States: Reflection Chapter 14 War Is The Health Of The State This chapter is all about how war often put the United States back on track. The period in history discussed here, the early twentieth century, is no exception. Socialism was growing, and there was worry about the health/condition of the state, and whether it would be able to do the “right” thing. The US had stayed out of WWI, with President Woodrow Wilson stating that the US would stay neutral in the war. It was provoked into entering the war, however, when Germany announced that it would attack any United States submarines bringing supplies to its allies. Indeed, Zinn points out very clearly that, “It was unrealistic to expect that the Germans should treat the United States as neutral in the war when the U.S. had been shipping great amounts of war materials to Germany’s enemies,” (Zinn 362) and I think that statement summarizes very nicely the attitude that most everyone had during WWI. My reaction to this chapter is that it was very short, but had good meaning and a good lesson that can still be applied. I see this point in history as the United States focusing very intently on the war it was thrust into, while the people were still unsettled and demanding changes in freedom of speech and automatic military enrollment. Also, again there was that subtle (and sometimes not-so-subtle) push for socialism to take over, and the war allowed the government to destroy the IWW (Industrial Workers of the World), a force they had fought with internally for many years. However, just before the declaration of war, the IWW newspaper wrote, “‘Capitalists of America, we will fight against you, not for you! Conscription! There is not a power in the world that can make the working class fight if they refuse,’” (Zinn 372). This changed my thinking in that before reading, I had
Open Document