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| From LOC |
Washington, D.C. : National Geographic, c2010.
88 p. : ill. (some col.) ; 26 cm.
This is one of those short, but visually stunning and well written books that National Geographic has been putting out for young readers (e.g. photobiographies Bylines & Knockout about Nelly Bly & Joe Louis, respectively, or Denied, Detained, Deported about abuses of US immigration).
I really enjoyed reading this book for the way that Bausum brings alive the times of WWI and makes the assaults on liberties and freedoms by the US government feel very contemporary. She is good at comparing the various attempts to propagandize, censor, and stifle dissent to similar actions that have accompanied other US wars, including the latest "war on terror."
I was struck, in reading the book, at how US trends of anti-intellectualism and blind patriotism have strong roots in domestic policies during WWI. In the frenzy of anti-German propaganda (see graphic above), not only was German language instruction virtually wiped out of the US education system, but over half the states banned teaching any foreign language.
There is a lot to recommend about this book to any student interested in US history during the period of WWI and its aftermath.
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