America's Reign of Terror: World War I, the Red Scare & the Palmer Raids

by Roberta Strauss Feuerlicht

Discusses the causes, events, and effects of the campaign to suppress dissent in the United States between 1917-1920.

Genres: American History

119 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1971

Reviews

[Christopher Saunders · Rating 4 out of 5]

Roberta Strauss Feuerlicht's America's Reign of Terror was one of those books I stumbled across as a precocious kid looking for history books that didn't cover the usual topics. Well, this certainly fit the bill: a short, nonfiction account of the World War I-era repression of civil liberties in the United States - the Espionage and Sedition Acts, the Wilson Administration's persecution of antiwar activists, violence against German immigrants and African-Americans, the Wobblies and American Legion, the Seattle and Boston Police Strikes, the Palmer Raids targeting communists and Eugene Debs' presidential campaign from within a prison cell. The book is written for a juvenile audience, which makes its vivid descriptions of government repression, terrorism and mob violence all the more striking - and left a vivid impression on me, as a demonstration that the government isn't always your friend, society isn't always equal and that people, unfortunately, can't always be counted on to do the right thing (lessons which weren’t lost on me, growing up in the shadow of 9/11). An adult is better advised to read a more mature book on this subject, like Robert K. Murray's Red Scare or Adam Hochschild's recent American Midnight. Still, I appreciate Ms. Feuerlicht for introducing me to this difficult, important piece of history at an early age, and I hope that younger, intellectually curious readers continue to discover it.

[Randall Sobien · Rating 5 out of 5]

You read this, and you want to think of it as history... history that grade school somehow seemed to skip over.

Then you look around. You see and hear calls for the same sort of actions today. It isn't just history. It's a constant danger that can always happen again, perhaps even worse, simply by a few too many people being goaded into a frenzy.

This is an important read for those concerned about safeguarding essential liberties.

[Jamie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Somehow all of my history classes managed to gloss over this horrible destruction of civil rights surrounding WWI. Very well written and a quick, informative read.