Shortly after the Armistice, the United Kingdom held its first general election in eight years.

In the United States, midterm elections were held just before the armistice.

In both campaigns, the shape of the peace treaty with Germany was much on everyone's mind.

But those elections would influence more than the peace

treaty, they would shape the character of both nations for years to come. Welcome to the

history of the 20th century.

Music Episode 100,000, Episode 173, The Cacky Elections

Back in episode 158, I talked about the domestic political situation in the U.S. during the war.

By mid-1918, two political trends were evident.

First, the Wilson administration's management of the war was coming under fire.

Soldiers were not being trained and deployed fast enough.

Military equipment was not being produced quickly enough.

Second, wartime hysteria was reaching dangerous extremes.

America went a little bit crazy in 1918, with prosecutions under the Espionage Act,

and even worse, vigilante justice breaking out against Americans accused of not

supporting the war or secretly aiding the enemy. We've seen some of these cases already.

Again, the Wilson administration was criticized for not cracking down hard enough on anti-war descent.

By 1918, this led to the introduction of the Sedition Act,

it was intended to strengthen the Espionage Act by making it a crime to use, quote,

disloyal, profane, scurrilous, or abusive language regarding the U.S., its government, its military, or the war effort.

It passed the House of Representatives 293 to 1, with the only no vote coming from a socialist.

Republicans in the Senate were more vocal in their opposition, though the bill passed

...