Zinns View of WWI (The Great War)
So I’m reading A People’s History of The United States by Howard Zinn, and the book is pretty good. I mean the guy takes a pretty anti-capitalist standpoint at a few times though. He quotes W.E.B. Du Bois when he says,
“It is no longer the merchant prince, or the aristocratic monopoly, or even the employing class that is exploiting the world: It is the nation, a new democratic nation composed united capital and labor.” (363 Zinn).
Paraphrased, Zinn believes that there’s this subconscious or recognized need in capitalists to take advantage of Africa and its resources which led to American government calling for war. He doesn’t really specify on who really are the people wanting to do this, but he does point out that America wasn’t really gung-ho about getting into all of it. In the first six weeks of the war, only 73,OOO people volunteered, requiring congress to start a draft. Zinn then continues to say how it was the government that created this whole hype for the war. He says they set up a huge propaganda campaign, draft, and an anti protesting agenda.
anyway.. I need to do a science lab, so peace.
