Frederick Douglass Events throughout Massachusetts in July

MassHumanities has put together a series of events commemorating the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation. Their focus on Frederick Douglass is a bold choice, highlighting one of the great black orators who contributed to the changing of the tone in the North regarding slavery and ultimately forcing the United States government to take a stance against it. 

Remaining events include readings of "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July" on July 1 at City Hall Plaza, Worcester, MA, Reading Frederick Douglass and the Emancipation Proclamation on July 2 at the Massachusetts State House in Boston, MA, and The Third Annual Reading of Frederick Douglass' Speech at High Rock Tower at the Top of Circuit Ave. off High Rock St. in Lynn, MA on July 3. Information on all of these events can be found here.

The Boston event is particularly compelling, given its taking place in the midst of Harborfest, Boston's week-long Fourth of July celebration, which draws millions. Such a high profile location is sure to get this important history event a lot more attention than is customary. 

“Work! Save!! Win!!!”: Selling the Cost of World War I in America - Part 3: Boy Scouts and Other Children

Boy Scouts & Child Bond Sellers

            Secretary McAdoo and George Creel, as we have seen, often stumbled upon fundraising approaches from outside sources. Indeed, Creel complained in his memoir of the “flood of people that poured into Washington during the war, each burdened with some wonderful suggestion that could be imparted only to an executive head.” Though he conceded it was their “right as citizens, but it was equally the case that the idea might have real value.”[1] Such was the case with the Boy Scouts.

A Boy Scout aides Lady Liberty in raising
War Funds.

            As bond sellers, the Boy Scouts were perfect. In line with their mission, President Wilson lauded giving “every Scout a wonderful opportunity to do his share for his country under the slogan ‘Every Scout to Save a Soldier.’”[2] Not only could they save soldiers; they could do it for free.

            Initially, the young bond salesmen were unsuccessful. Apparently, they had a tendency to lose their nerve after knocking on the door. Partnering remedied the problem, and scout tandems sold 139,654 bond subscriptions worth over $23 million in the First Liberty Loan.[3]

Discussion about Boston's Italian-American North End, June 26!

Capossela's book on Italian-American life.

The North End Historical Society is hosting an interview with Dom Capossela, a restauraneur, author, and native North End Italian-American. "The interview will cover Dom's love of the North End, Italian cooking, and how the neighborhood that was once a tight-knit community of Italian-Americans came to be known as the gem of the city of Boston," according to NEHS.

This is an excellent opportunity to listen hear about the cultural make-up of a Boston immigrant community first-hand, and to ask questions that might better help you understand Italian-American society in post-World War II Boston.

The discussion will be hosted at the Nazzaro Community Center, 30 North Bennet St., Boston, MA, 02113. This event is free and open to the public.

David Kennedy Talks about American Society, "The Good War," and Enjoying Sins

Here's a great talk by David Kennedy, a history professor at Stanford and author of the Pulitzer prize-winning Freedom From Fear: The American People in Depression and War, 1929-1945. I highly recommend it.

David M. Kennedy: Freedom From Fear: The American People in Depression and War, 1929-1945 from The Gilder Lehrman Institute on Vimeo.

“Work! Save!! Win!!!”: Selling the Cost of World War I in America - Part 2: Four-Minute Men

Four-Minute Men

            Visuals weren’t the only approach the government used to sell Liberty Bonds. They had salesmen in the flesh, as well.  The so-called “Four-Minute Men” were a masterful collaboration between the Committee of Public Information and local volunteer groups.

A poster promoting the Four Minute Men.
Courtesy of Library of Congress.

            Initially proposed to Committee of Public Information (CPI) director George Creel by a stranger named Donald Ryerson, the idea was initially to have a respected member of the community speak during the four minutes it took to change silent movie reels at a movie theater. During that time, a slide explaining that the man would be speaking for four minutes was projected on the screen, and declared approved by the CPI.[1]

While the organization was not exclusively aimed to sell bonds, it did spend almost four of the program’s 17 active months during the war doing precisely that.[2] Like the posters advertising the Liberty Loans, the Four-Minute Men were generally positive and fact-based in the beginning, focusing on the impressive achievements of the American people and the needs of their allies. As time went on though, instructions from the CPI became more colored with negative depictions of Germans, and atrocity stories were greatly encouraged.[3]

“Work! Save!! Win!!!”: Selling the Cost of World War I in America - Part 1: Introduction and Posters

Woodrow Wilson was less than a month into his second administration as President of the United States when he asked Congress to declare war on Germany. It was an unlikely position for the President, who had, in his inaugural address, just reaffirmed the nation’s neutrality in Europe’s war.[1] His famous reelection campaign slogan, “He Kept Us Out of War,” was suddenly replaced by an appeal to make the world “safe for democracy.”[2]

            At the time, The United States had very little in the way of a standing army, which was reflected in their annual budget. On the day that Congress passed the declaration of war on Germany, the entire national budget was $1 billon. Just a year later, war spending would force it to increase by 2000% to $20 billion.[3]

Figure 1 - Poster promoting Liberty Bonds.
All images in this post courtesy
of Library of Congress. 

Raising revenues by such an extreme amount proved a daunting task for the Treasury Department, but Secretary George McAdoo, along with the newly minted Department of Public Information, popular magazines and newspapers, and home front armies of volunteers from organizations like the Boy Scouts, The Four-Minute Men, and local bond drive organizers effectively sold bonds over the course of America’s 18-month involvement “over there” through posters, editorials, articles, lectures, social events, and door-to-door sales. These efforts, as we will see, played on a wide range of emotions and beliefs of Americans, ranging from pride in community and nation, to guilt and obligation, to depictions of belligerent enemies as monsters, non-Europeans, and amoral.  

            Regardless of their angle, these varied and often decentralized approaches at fundraising were all directed at The Department of Treasury’s “Liberty Loans”, of which heavy-loaded requests for purchase were made of the American people four times from April 24, 1917 to September 28, 1918.

Read about posters after the jump!

A new focus: Cultural History of America!

The previous incarnation of this blog hoped to focus on the history of my home city of Boston. In that capacity, I ultimately wrote very little and had trouble maintaining my enthusiasm. After deciding to reconsider the Boston History Blog last year, the page went completely silent while I attended graduate school at University of Massachusetts-Boston, where I am pursuing my MA in History.

In this year of study, I've found that my interest in history lies rather firmly in cultural history. I've written a number of papers, done loads of research, and have discovered plenty of things about American culture that are of great interest to me, and I hope will be to you, as well. With this in mind, I am assembling a new collection of short articles, series' of articles, book reviews, etc. which I will be posting starting July 4 on this page. Posts will come twice a week, and will focus primarily on cultural history of the American home front during the World Wars. I will, from time to time, deviate from that period, but 20th century will be the page's primary focus.

What do I mean by "cultural history?" I've seen a lot of definitions. For my purposes, cultural history will deal with the social, political and cultural life of the American people at home. This means anything from the political motivations of bond drives to ethnic groups' support or opposition to the war at home to community efforts to grow food.

I'm very excited about this work, and hope to be able to share it with you.

I've also created a new twitter handle: @CulturalHistUSA. Please follow us and bookmark this page. I look forward to being part of the online dialogue about how Americans came to be Americans through collective cultural experience.

Best,
Matt Wilding