Women of the Far Right: The Mothers' Movement and World War IIThe majority of American women supported the Allied cause during World War II. and made sacrifices on the home front to benefit the war effort. But U.S. intervention was opposed by a movement led by ultraright women whose professed desire to keep their sons out of combat was mixed with militant Christianity, anticommunism, and anti-Semitism. This book is the first history of the self-styled "mothers' movement," so called because among its component groups were the National Legion of Mothers of America, the Mothers of Sons Forum, and the National Blue Star Mothers. Unlike leftist antiwar movements, the mothers' movement was not pacifist; its members opposed the war on Germany because they regarded Hitler as an ally against the spread of atheistic communism. They also differed from leftist women in their endorsement of patriarchy and nationalism. God, they believed, wanted them to fight the New Deal liberalism that imperiled their values and the internationalists, communists, and Jews, whom they saw as subjugating Christian America. Jeansonne examines the motivations of these women, the political and social impact of their movement, and their collaborations with men of the far right and also with mainstream isolationists such as Charles Lindbergh. Drawing on files kept by the FBI and other confidential documents, this book sheds light on the history of the war era and on women's place within the far right. |
Contents
The Context of the World War II Mothers Movement | 1 |
Elizabeth Dilling and the Genesis of a Movement | 10 |
The Fifth Column | 29 |
The National Legion of Mothers of America | 45 |
Cathrine Curtis and the Womens National Committee to Keep the US out of War | 57 |
Dilling and the Crusade against LendLease | 73 |
Lyrl Clark Hyning and We the Mothers Mobilize for America | 87 |
The Mothers Movement in the Midwest Cincinnati Cleveland and Detroit | 101 |
Agnes Waters The Lone Wolf of Dissent | 138 |
The Mass Sedition Trial | 152 |
The Postwar Mothers Movement | 165 |
The Significance of the Mothers Movement | 179 |
Can We All Get Along? | 187 |
Notes | 191 |
Bibliographical Essay | 243 |
| 257 | |
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Common terms and phrases
Agnes Waters AJC F Albert America First Committee America First Party American Women anti-Semitic antiwar April Baldwin bill Blacks Blue Star Mothers British Bulletin Bund Carlson Chicago Tribune Christian Right Cleveland communists Congress conspiracy Coughlin Council of Minnesota crusade Curtis Dilling papers Dilling's Dworkin Elizabeth Dilling fascist FBI file February feminism feminists fight foreign Frederickson gender Gerald L. K. Smith German groups Hitler Hyning Ibid Ingalls isolationist Jeansonne Jewish Jews Joy papers July June leaders Legion of Mothers Lend-Lease Lindbergh March McEnaney Meeting report Memo ment Minnesota papers Misc Mothers of America movement National Blue Star National Legion nationalist Nazi NLMA Norris November October Old Christian Right organization peace Pelley Philadelphia political president propaganda Red Network Ribuffo Senate Soviet Stanley tion ultraright United Mothers University Press Washington White Winrod woman Women United Women's Voice World World War II wrote YIVO F York Zwisler