Speaking at the upcoming First Friday Forum, sponsored by the Lafayette-Orinda Presbyterian Church (LOPC), Adam Hochschild paints a vivid picture of the repression and vigilantism that overtook America in the four years following the country’s entry into WWI with his presentation Post WWI Challenges to American Democracy.
The second lecture in the Lafayette-Orinda Presbyterian Church’s (LOPC) compelling six-part First Friday Forum speaker series, Post WWI Challenges to American Democracy, is Feb. 2, when award-winning author and UC Berkeley journalism lecturer, Adam Hochschild, shines a light on a dark chapter in America’s past. It will also be streamed via Zoom.
By all accounts, the period between America’s entry into the First World War and the Roaring Twenties was the worst of times, when “the foundations of American democracy” faltered under the multi-pronged threat of racial violence, war, labor unrest, xenophobia and a global pandemic – all of which may seem resoundingly familiar.
But far from referring to contemporary events, Hochschild will remind his audience – or perhaps introduce them to – a largely forgotten slice of early 20th century history.
American Midnight: The Great War, a Violent Peace, and Democracy’s Forgotten Crisis is Hochschild’s eleventh book and one that paints a vivid picture of repression and vigilantism in the turbulent era between America’s entry into WWI and 1921. The president at the time, Democrat Woodrow Wilson, has often been accused of fanning the flames of discord.
In that time period, the U.S. government targeted anti-war advocates by passing new laws like the Espionage Act of 1917 and allegedly abused – sometimes fatally – conscientious objectors in military prisons, as well as cracked down on minorities, immigrants, socialists and labor union members. Civil liberties were blatantly disregarded and freedom of speech severely curtailed when over 70 newspapers and magazines were forced to close after they were banned.
One of The New York Times’ “most anticipated books of Fall 2022,” Hochschild’s well-researched and readable analysis of this country’s history reveals what one reviewer calls “the American problem” – defined as “the inability to embrace the other,” often with tragic consequences.
Some may argue that, despite the fact this shocking era is more than a century in the past, little has changed in regard to repression, bigotry and injustice. Ultimately, the message conveyed by Hochschild’s latest book is that we still need to be reminded of how “the contempt for the rule of law flowed directly through the intervening decades to poison our own.”
Throughout his career, Hochschild has never been afraid to defend human rights and stand up for social justice: as a college student he dared work on an anti-government newspaper in South Africa when the country was deeply mired in apartheid ideology; for a time during the landmark year of 1964, he could be found in Mississippi defending civil rights, and was unashamedly against America’s involvement in the Vietnam War.
In the 1970s, Hochschild also served as a co-founder, editor and writer for Mother Jones, the non-profit American progressive magazine named in honor of Mary Harris Jones, self-proclaimed “hell-raiser” and America’s most famous 19th century female labor activist.
As to awards, Hochschild probably needs several shelves to house the numerous honors and trophies he’s garnered during his long career as author, journalist, historian and lecturer.
The First Friday Forum takes place at 1:30 p.m. on Feb. 2 in the Sanctuary of the Lafayette-Orinda Presbyterian Church at 49 Knox Drive, Lafayette. Contact lopc.org/first-friday-forum/ to sign up for in-person attendance or register to stream via Zoom. The First Friday Forum team has also put together an easily accessible archive which holds an impressive collection of previous presentations on a variety of past subjects.
