Jeanette Keith's War Chapter Summary

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The common idea that southerners were for the Great War, can be contested because of how rural southerners were suppressed. Jeanette Keith, the author of Rich Man’s War, Poor Man’s Fight: Race, Class and Power in the Rural South during the First World War, focused on World War I, specifically on the Home Front. She introduces three larger themes; War Mobilization, State’s Rights, and Race and Class issue that can be found amongst the seven chapters in Rich Man’s War, Poor Man’s Fight. Keith fights the master narrative about southern whites. “White southerners, the nation’s most militaristic people, stand always ready to fight their country’s wars.” In several examples, she shows the southerners appeal against war from a peaceful outburst …show more content…

Smith was an average man who left for War but went AWOL after taking leave. Later in the book Keith discusses Smith and similar deserters more in-depth. The troops that dragged him away from his family were sent to the region to acquire all the deserters and slackers around “the DeKalb, Warren, Van Buren, White and Cumberland counties that were harboring them.” Harboring was a major issue in parts of the South and in some cases was charged as a crime. Keith goes into detail about several incidents of slackers and deserters being housed and harbored by family members for example the Cleburne County slackers and draft evader. The intimidation tactics used on the family eventually made the deserters surrender to surrounding counties. These people were charged because of the defenses taken up against local sheriffs. Keith connects the high number of deserters in the South to the slackers’ ability of getting away with it weather it be hiding in the mountains or in nearby …show more content…

Watson believed people were being deprived of their civil liberties. Watson wrote about his socialist beliefs in his national newspaper the Jeffersonian. The readers of his newspaper did not obtain a copy of his latest version because of the Wilson administration denying Watson’s mailing privileges. After Wilson and the postmaster silenced the rural radical press it allowed propaganda to flourish and dominate the field. Addition to Watson’s views other Socialist unions were under attack. These unions were private about their meetings, but the members of the unions were under harsh surveillance. After an intense investigation the unions eventually disbanded or were arrested for conspiracy. Moreover, Keith examines how race and class influenced rural locals all over the South. In Texas, blacks were put under surveillance because locals believed they would take up arms and take their women. Also, after the Espionage Act many blacks in Texas were being scared into silence. Keith talks about the Bureau records and how an agent overlooked “white violence against blacks” for merely speaking extremely about events related to the

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