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Journal Article
The Lusitania Effect: America's Mobilization against Germany in World War I
Frank Trommler
German Studies Review
Vol. 32, No. 2 (May 2009), pp. 241-266
Published
by: The Johns Hopkins University Press on behalf of the German Studies Association
https://www.jstor.org/stable/40574799
Page Count: 26
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Abstract
The sinking of the Lusitania by a German submarine in 1915 became not only a crucial factor for the American entry into World War I, but unleashed an increasingly emotional drive of exclusion in the name of forging a new unity of the American nation. In the broader context the persecution of German Americans reinforced hysteria against socialists and other dissenters for the next half-century. A closer look at the battle for and against German culture reveals it as part of America's battle for its cultural independence, which became a fatal identity test for German Americans but also a challenge to American intellectual elites who maintained strong interest in German modernity and social policies.
German Studies Review
© 2009 German Studies Association