Christopher Capozzola

This is a book about how World War I transformed the nature of the American state and its relationship to society. Capozzola uses the "I want you" Uncle Sam recruiting poster as a trope to describe how the state became more invasive during the war. He cites two competing ideas of the relationship. Volunteerism had long been the American call war, but the needs of modern warfare in Europe were much higher than volunteerism could accommodate. As a result, the state expanded its coercive power. It limited civil rights such as freedom of speech and expression. It crushed any dissent to the war effort with jail time. When official methods did not work, or were not convenient, the state gave support to voluntary associations like the American Protective League that used vigilantism to harass people and organizations opposed to the war.

The APL was indicative of how the United States dealt with the conflict between volunteerism and coercion: it concealed it. The draft was not presented as coercive, but was the entire populace volunteering en mass. The APL was a form of coercion, but kept up the facade that it was just patriotic citizens protecting their country. Similarly, the American Legion and the KKK policed the unpatriotic after the war. By then, however, the acceptability of violence had dropped because their was no war effort to support. The American Legion withdrew into politics while the KKK was suppressed by the state.

The change during the war was unmistakable and unreversible. The state had expanded dramatically, including an income tax, selective service and a greater ability to monitor society. Although it was not as great a change as was seen in the New Deal, WWI laid the groundwork for a state more intrusive than any seen before in the United States.… (more)