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Nativism in the Interwar Era

Lause, Chris, LAUSE
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1530571623203858

Abstract Details

2018, Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, History.
This thesis examines developments in American nativist thought in the interwar era, with a particular focus on the Great Depression years. Starting in World War I, nativist concerns grew increasingly focused on ideology, guided by the principles of 100-percent Americanism. Fear of foreign “isms,” most notably communism, served as the new fulcrum for nativist currents in the United States. This thesis explores three distinct Depression-era right-wing extremist phenomena: The Black Legion, Charles Coughlin, and the German-American Bund. All three were disparate, dissimilar in composition, tactics, and appearance. The Black Legion was an outgrowth of the 1920s Ku Klux Klan and remained virulently racist and anti-Catholic. Coughlin was a Catholic priest who had found himself targeted by the same Klan the Black Legion grew out of. Tasked with starting a parish in a pre-dominantly Protestant community (in which the KKK still exerted a great deal of influence), Coughlin took to the airwaves. Soon, his “radio sermons” took on a more political flavor. Coughlin excoriated business leaders and bankers for their greed, laying the blame for the Great Depression at their feet. Finally, the German- American Bund developed from German-American solidarity movements initiated in the aftermath of World War I. Initially a response to oppressive treatment at the hands of American citizens during the war, some of these organizations, including the Bund, soon took up the cause for national socialism. Yet despite their differences, all three movements were underpinned by a powerful current of anti-communism. It is this common thread that gave shape to interwar era nativism.
Rebecca Mancuso, Dr. (Advisor)
Michael Brooks, Dr. (Committee Member)
135 p.
American History
nativism; fascism; extremism; communism; Charles Coughlin; Black Legion; German-American Bund; Red Scare; bolshevism; Great Depression; interwar; Ku Klux Klan

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Lause, LAUSE, C. (2018). Nativism in the Interwar Era [Master's thesis, Bowling Green State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1530571623203858

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Lause, LAUSE, Chris. Nativism in the Interwar Era. 2018. Bowling Green State University, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1530571623203858.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Lause, LAUSE, Chris. "Nativism in the Interwar Era." Master's thesis, Bowling Green State University, 2018. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1530571623203858

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

bgsu1530571623203858
1,704
© 2018, some rights reserved.Creative Commons License Nativism in the Interwar Era by Chris Lause LAUSE is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. Based on a work at etd.ohiolink.edu.
This open access ETD is published by Bowling Green State University and OhioLINK.