Democracy and the Wartime State

Or, what World War I laws tell us about nationalism today

Eugene V. Debs, giving a speech in Canton, Ohio in June 1918. He would be arrested for it, and convicted under the Espionage and Sedition Acts of wartime US.

Today we’re going back to World War I and its immediate aftermath—at least, as both pertain to US domestic policy. We’re going to look at the Espionage Act of 1917, Sedition Act of 1918, and 1919 tr…