The Great War and Democracy's Forgotten Crisis
The Bill Press Pod
BP Pods
4.7 • 601 Ratings
🗓️ 29 November 2022
⏱️ 37 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
American Midnight: The Great War, a Violent Peace, and Democracy's Forgotten Crisis is the title of a new book by legendary historian, Adam Hochschild. It covers 1917 to 1921. Years which saw America enter World War I, suppress dissent of any kind, ignore white riots killing black people, encourage rampant anti-Semitism, and the crippling assault on a political party that had garnered 6% of the vote in the previous national election. All overseen by President Woodrow Wilson. He was certainly a progressive in some of his policies, but when the crisis of the war came, he became a would-be autocrat. The history of this period, has resonance to what we've been through during the Trump administration. And the danger that Trump or someone like him could use a crisis to once again strip Americans of their fundamental rights.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello, friends and neighbors. |
| 0:08.2 | Good to see you again. |
| 0:09.4 | And welcome back to the Bill Press Pod. |
| 0:12.7 | You know, with all the violence and civil unrest stored up by Donald Trump, |
| 0:16.3 | we've heard a lot of warnings lately, especially if Trump were ever to get back in power, |
| 0:21.6 | God forbid, about the risk of a total breakdown of democracy. |
| 0:26.6 | You know what they're talking about. |
| 0:28.6 | Declaration of martial law, violent riots by white mobs against homes and businesses of law-abiding |
| 0:34.6 | black Americans, FBI agents rounding up and deporting anybody who dared |
| 0:39.9 | criticize the government, magazines and newspapers censored by the government, publishers thrown in |
| 0:46.0 | jail, would be Jewish immigrants denied entry into the country. An American Jews arrested and sent |
| 0:52.6 | back to Europe only because they're Jews. |
| 0:56.1 | Ha, you think this could never happen? Breaking news, it already has here in the United States |
| 1:03.7 | of America between 1917 and 1921, during and right after World War I under President Woodrow Wilson. Yep, it's all laid out |
| 1:15.5 | in a powerful new book, American Midnight, by the legendary historian Adam Hulkshield. Believe me, |
| 1:23.7 | you'll be as shocked as I was to learn what this government got away with in those four years. |
| 1:31.1 | And Adam Hochschild warns us, if it happened once, it could happen again. |
| 1:36.6 | Adam Hochschild, good to reconnect with you after several years. |
| 1:40.0 | And congratulations on American Midnight, your latest dynamite book, Adam. |
| 1:45.9 | Good to have you here on the Bill Presspot. |
| 1:48.4 | Thank you, Bill. |
| 1:50.2 | So in this book, you focus on these four years, 1917 to 1921, which really represented a breakdown of democracy. |
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