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American Midnight
American Midnight: The Great War, a Violent Peace, and Democracy's Forgotten Crisis | Adam Hochschild
4 posts | 5 read | 12 to read
From legendary historian Adam Hochschild, a groundbreaking reassessment of the overlooked but startlingly resonant period between World War I and the Roaring Twenties, when the foundations of American democracy were threated by war, pandemic, and violence fueled by battles over race, immigration, and the rights of labor "A riveting, resonant account of the fragility of freedom.”—Kirkus, STARRED review The nation was on the brink. Mobs burned Black churches to the ground. Courts threw thousands of people into prison for opinions they voiced—in one notable case, only in private. Self-appointed vigilantes executed tens of thousands of citizens’ arrests. Some seventy-five newspapers and magazines were banned from the mail and forced to close. When the government stepped in, it was often to fan the flames. This was America during and after the Great War: a brief but appalling era blighted by lynchings, censorship, and the sadistic, sometimes fatal abuse of conscientious objectors in military prisons—a time whose toxic currents of racism, nativism, red-baiting, and contempt for the rule of law then flowed directly through the intervening decades to poison our own. It was a tumultuous period defined by a diverse and colorful cast of characters, some of whom fueled the injustice while others fought against it: from the sphinxlike Woodrow Wilson, to the fiery antiwar advocates Kate Richards O’Hare and Emma Goldman, to labor champion Eugene Debs, to a little-known but ambitious bureaucrat named J. Edgar Hoover, and to an outspoken leftwing agitator—who was in fact Hoover’s star undercover agent. It is a time that we have mostly forgotten about, until now. In American Midnight, award-winning historian Adam Hochschild brings alive the horrifying yet inspiring four years following the U.S. entry into the First World War, spotlighting forgotten repression while celebrating an unforgettable set of Americans who strove to fix their fractured country—and showing how their struggles still guide us today.
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Amie
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This was difficult to read because of the horrible acts described, but it is important to know this history.

TieDyeDude Wow, that sounds intense! 6mo
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Hooked_on_books
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This book looks at an era in American history filled with requirements of loyalty, vicious anti-immigrant rhetoric, jailing (or attempting to jail) those with different political opinions, censorship of written materials certain people don‘t like and more. Sounds awfully familiar, doesn‘t it? But it‘s about the era starting in 1917. While my attention to this did wane in places, overall it‘s an interesting, topical book.

Leftcoastzen I‘m glad you reviewed it , one I wanted to check into but forgot to write it down , Palmer raids , right? 8mo
Hooked_on_books @Leftcoastzen That‘s part of it, yes. He paints a picture of that whole era. 8mo
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Floresj
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Really interesting history of WWI and a few years afterward. There was a lot of new information for me- prison for those opposing the war, socialism, immigration, entering the war, diplomatic relations, etc. the author subtly connected today to 100 years ago in an interesting and thoughtful manner. Well written and provided lesser known, yet important, history of the US.

SamAnne Stacked. 2y
10 likes3 stack adds1 comment
review
Floresj
post image
Pickpick

Really interesting history of WWI and a few years afterward. There was a lot of new information for me- prison for those opposing the war, socialism, immigration, entering the war, diplomatic relations, etc. the author subtly connected today to 100 years ago in an interesting and thoughtful manner. Well written and provided lesser known, yet important, history of the US.