Andrew Johnstone
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- August 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780801453250
- eISBN:
- 9780801454738
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9780801453250.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
This book tells the story of how internationalist Americans worked between 1938 and 1941 to convince the American government and the American public of the need to stem the rising global tide of ...
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This book tells the story of how internationalist Americans worked between 1938 and 1941 to convince the American government and the American public of the need to stem the rising global tide of fascist aggression. As war approached, the internationalist movement attempted to arouse the nation in order to defeat noninterventionism at home and fascism overseas. This book's examination of this movement undermines the common belief that the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor wrenched an isolationist United States into global armed conflict and the struggle for international power. The book focuses on three organizations—the American Committee for Non-Participation in Japanese Aggression, the Committee to Defend America by Aiding the Allies, and Fight For Freedom—that actively promoted a more global role for the United States based on a conception of the “four freedoms” later made famous by FDR. The desire to be free from fear was seen in concerns regarding America's immediate national security. The desire to be free from want was expressed in anxieties over the nation's future economic prosperity. The need for freedom of speech was represented in concerns over the potential loss of political freedoms. Finally, the need for freedom of worship was seen in the emphasis on religious freedoms and broader fears about the future of Western civilization. These groups and their supporters among the public and within the government characterized the growing global conflict as one between two distinct worlds and in doing so, set the tone of American foreign policy for decades to come.Less
This book tells the story of how internationalist Americans worked between 1938 and 1941 to convince the American government and the American public of the need to stem the rising global tide of fascist aggression. As war approached, the internationalist movement attempted to arouse the nation in order to defeat noninterventionism at home and fascism overseas. This book's examination of this movement undermines the common belief that the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor wrenched an isolationist United States into global armed conflict and the struggle for international power. The book focuses on three organizations—the American Committee for Non-Participation in Japanese Aggression, the Committee to Defend America by Aiding the Allies, and Fight For Freedom—that actively promoted a more global role for the United States based on a conception of the “four freedoms” later made famous by FDR. The desire to be free from fear was seen in concerns regarding America's immediate national security. The desire to be free from want was expressed in anxieties over the nation's future economic prosperity. The need for freedom of speech was represented in concerns over the potential loss of political freedoms. Finally, the need for freedom of worship was seen in the emphasis on religious freedoms and broader fears about the future of Western civilization. These groups and their supporters among the public and within the government characterized the growing global conflict as one between two distinct worlds and in doing so, set the tone of American foreign policy for decades to come.
Andrew Johnstone
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- August 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780801453250
- eISBN:
- 9780801454738
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9780801453250.003.0010
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
This epilogue assesses the significance of the organized internationalist movement. It suggests that the greatest public impact of the internationalist organizations came from the Committee to Defend ...
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This epilogue assesses the significance of the organized internationalist movement. It suggests that the greatest public impact of the internationalist organizations came from the Committee to Defend America by Aiding the Allies (CDAAA). The American Union for Concerted Peace Efforts (AUCPE) gave the collective security movement a more immediate focus; the Non-Partisan Committee for Peace through Revision of the Neutrality Law (NPC) then offered a test case of what could be done by mobilizing opinion behind a key legislative issue. The CDAAA built upon that experience, and from its creation in May 1940 through the heated debate over Lend-Lease, it successfully reflected the majority of popular opinion that desired greater aid to Britain short of American involvement in war. The chapter also argues that the fact that Americans had turned their backs on non-interventionism by 1945 indicates that the internationalist movement had been a success, and in many respects it was. Isolationism as it was known before the war was all but dead.Less
This epilogue assesses the significance of the organized internationalist movement. It suggests that the greatest public impact of the internationalist organizations came from the Committee to Defend America by Aiding the Allies (CDAAA). The American Union for Concerted Peace Efforts (AUCPE) gave the collective security movement a more immediate focus; the Non-Partisan Committee for Peace through Revision of the Neutrality Law (NPC) then offered a test case of what could be done by mobilizing opinion behind a key legislative issue. The CDAAA built upon that experience, and from its creation in May 1940 through the heated debate over Lend-Lease, it successfully reflected the majority of popular opinion that desired greater aid to Britain short of American involvement in war. The chapter also argues that the fact that Americans had turned their backs on non-interventionism by 1945 indicates that the internationalist movement had been a success, and in many respects it was. Isolationism as it was known before the war was all but dead.
Fiona Paisley
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- November 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780824833428
- eISBN:
- 9780824870133
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Hawai'i Press
- DOI:
- 10.21313/hawaii/9780824833428.003.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Pacific Studies
This chapter investigates the origins of the Pan-Pacific women's cultural internationalist movement within a larger Pacific-based call for a new world civilization. It then describes the first ...
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This chapter investigates the origins of the Pan-Pacific women's cultural internationalist movement within a larger Pacific-based call for a new world civilization. It then describes the first Pan-Pacific Women's Conference held in Honolulu in 1928. Initially anticipated as a women's forum on maternal health, the Pan-Pacific Women's Association (PPWA) quickly emerged as a reform network with wide-ranging welfare and social justice interests reflecting those of its predominantly middle-class clientele from both sides of the Pacific. While Western women's agendas concerning social reform and the parameters of cultural internationalism dominated these early years, the paradigm of East-West exchange would be central to its purpose. The second half of the chapter focuses on the protest made by the Chinese delegates concerning Pan-Pacific internationalism's claim to speak for the future of all women in the region.Less
This chapter investigates the origins of the Pan-Pacific women's cultural internationalist movement within a larger Pacific-based call for a new world civilization. It then describes the first Pan-Pacific Women's Conference held in Honolulu in 1928. Initially anticipated as a women's forum on maternal health, the Pan-Pacific Women's Association (PPWA) quickly emerged as a reform network with wide-ranging welfare and social justice interests reflecting those of its predominantly middle-class clientele from both sides of the Pacific. While Western women's agendas concerning social reform and the parameters of cultural internationalism dominated these early years, the paradigm of East-West exchange would be central to its purpose. The second half of the chapter focuses on the protest made by the Chinese delegates concerning Pan-Pacific internationalism's claim to speak for the future of all women in the region.
Leah Bassel and Akwugo Emejulu
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- January 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781447327134
- eISBN:
- 9781447327158
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
- DOI:
- 10.1332/policypress/9781447327134.003.0006
- Subject:
- Sociology, Gender and Sexuality
In this chapter we take a step back to think across the three cases, and ‘beyond’ them. In Section 1, we reflect on our cases in order to avoid the analytical straightjacket of national ‘models’ that ...
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In this chapter we take a step back to think across the three cases, and ‘beyond’ them. In Section 1, we reflect on our cases in order to avoid the analytical straightjacket of national ‘models’ that can obscure similarities as much as they also elucidate differences. In Section 2, we move ‘beyond’ these cases in the sense of thinking about the internationalist and autonomous dimensions of intersectional and minority women-led organising that we see in the creative, subversive and influential voices and actions of new actors and movements in both France and Britain.Less
In this chapter we take a step back to think across the three cases, and ‘beyond’ them. In Section 1, we reflect on our cases in order to avoid the analytical straightjacket of national ‘models’ that can obscure similarities as much as they also elucidate differences. In Section 2, we move ‘beyond’ these cases in the sense of thinking about the internationalist and autonomous dimensions of intersectional and minority women-led organising that we see in the creative, subversive and influential voices and actions of new actors and movements in both France and Britain.
