"Scientist Emil O. Deere"
FOR
Dr. Thomas F. Jorsch:
Reluctant Nationalism: Lindsborg during the Great War
~ Including Professor Dean Emil O. Deere and his colleagues on Americanism and more
Dr. Thomas F. Jorsch:
Reluctant Nationalism: Lindsborg during the Great War
~ Including Professor Dean Emil O. Deere and his colleagues on Americanism and more
Dr. Jorsch begins his first paragraph with:
" Bethany College professors Gustavus A. Peterson, Walter Petersen, and Emil Deere quarreled over what ideals defined Americanism during a faculty-lounge fracas engendered by U.S. participation in World War I. G. A. Peterson, a socialist, defended freedom of speech and of the press against wartime attacks by the U.S. government. Deere, an officer in the Home Guard, called such talk “treason,” while Walter Petersen, who spoke openly in support of Germany prior to American intervention in 1917, came to the defense of his colleague G. A. Peterson by quoting the U.S. Constitution’s definition of treason. A scuffle ensued that made its way through the rumor mill to the local community, the statewide press, and eventually the U.S. attorney in Kansas City. At issue was the question of what was the proper course for an American during the war? Dispute over the war and its relationship with being American was not confined to the ivory tower; the predominantly first- and second-generation Swedes of Lindsborg, whose political loyalties rested solidly with the Republican Party despite a significant minority of socialists, wrestled with questions of loyalty and nationalism too. . ."
" Bethany College professors Gustavus A. Peterson, Walter Petersen, and Emil Deere quarreled over what ideals defined Americanism during a faculty-lounge fracas engendered by U.S. participation in World War I. G. A. Peterson, a socialist, defended freedom of speech and of the press against wartime attacks by the U.S. government. Deere, an officer in the Home Guard, called such talk “treason,” while Walter Petersen, who spoke openly in support of Germany prior to American intervention in 1917, came to the defense of his colleague G. A. Peterson by quoting the U.S. Constitution’s definition of treason. A scuffle ensued that made its way through the rumor mill to the local community, the statewide press, and eventually the U.S. attorney in Kansas City. At issue was the question of what was the proper course for an American during the war? Dispute over the war and its relationship with being American was not confined to the ivory tower; the predominantly first- and second-generation Swedes of Lindsborg, whose political loyalties rested solidly with the Republican Party despite a significant minority of socialists, wrestled with questions of loyalty and nationalism too. . ."
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Thomas F. Jorsch is instructor of American studies at Oklahoma State University. Previously, he was assistant professor of history at Bethany College (Kansas), where he taught an honors digital humanities course on Lindsborg during World War I that served as the preliminary research findings for this article. That digital humanities project and more about Lindsborg during the Great War can be found at tomjorsch.com/LindsborgWW1.
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