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Espionage Act of 1917
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America Was at Its Trumpiest 100 Years Ago. Here’s How to Prevent the Worst.
During World War I, America lurched toward autocracy. Resistance was minimal.
by
Adam Hochschild
via
Washington Post
on
April 3, 2025
The Troubled History of the Espionage Act
The law, passed in a frenzy after the First World War, is a disaster. Why is it still on the books?
by
Amy Davidson Sorkin
via
The New Yorker
on
December 11, 2023
The Espionage Act is Bad for America—Even When it’s Used on Trump
A relic of WWI that helped destroy the anti-war left, it remains a threat to news outlets, political organizers, and challengers of the surveillance state.
by
Alex Skopic
via
Current Affairs
on
July 13, 2023
War Fever
The crusade against civil liberties during World War I.
by
Eric Foner
via
The Nation
on
February 7, 2023
America’s Top Censor—So Far
Woodrow Wilson’s postmaster put papers out of business and jailed journalists. The tools he used still exist.
by
Adam Hochschild
via
Mother Jones
on
October 13, 2022
partner
The Espionage Act Has Become Dangerous Because We Forgot Its Intention
The Julian Assange case exposes how changing concepts unintentionally broadened a law.
by
Daniel Larsen
via
Made By History
on
June 18, 2022
How The Espionage Act Became a Tool of Repression
This isn’t all history, of course. The Espionage Act is still on the books: Chelsea Manning was charged under it in 2011.
by
Geoffrey R. Stone
,
Matthew Wills
via
JSTOR Daily
on
June 23, 2017
Repressing Radicalism
The Espionage Act turns 100 today. It helped destroy the Socialist Party of America and quashes free speech to this day.
by
Chip Gibbons
via
Jacobin
on
June 15, 2017
Ten Years Ago, Edward Snowden Blew the Whistle on the US’s Most Secretive Spy Agency
The government responded with ruthless persecution — just one egregious example in the NSA’s long, sordid history of fiercely guarding its secrecy.
by
Chip Gibbons
via
Jacobin
on
June 9, 2023
New Hampshire Removes Historical Marker For Feminist With Communist Past
The state removed the educational marker after Concord Republicans complained about Elizabeth Gurley Flynn's communist ties.
by
Andrew Jeong
via
Retropolis
on
May 17, 2023
The Wobblies and the Dream of One Big Union
A new history examines the lost promise and fierce persecution of the IWW.
by
Michael Kazin
via
The Nation
on
May 15, 2023
How World War I Crushed the American Left
A new book documents a period of thriving radical groups and their devastating suppression.
by
Joanna Scutts
via
The New Republic
on
October 18, 2022
The American Socialism That Might Have Been
Despite their minority status, the Socialists had been a significant force in American politics before patriotic war hysteria brought on an era of repression.
by
Adam Hochschild
via
The Nation
on
October 12, 2022
partner
Presidents v. Press: How the Pentagon Papers Leak Set Up First Amendment Showdowns
Efforts to clamp down on White House leaks to the press follow a pattern that was set during the Nixon era after the publication of the Pentagon Papers.
via
Retro Report
on
February 2, 2022
Free Speech Wasn't So Free 103 Years Ago
When 'seditious' and 'unpatriotic' speech was criminalized in the U.S.
by
Eric Robinson
via
The Conversation
on
May 13, 2021
When America's Most Prominent Socialist Was Jailed for Speaking Out Against World War I
After winning 6 percent of the vote in the 1912 presidential election, Eugene Debs ran afoul of the nation's new anti-sedition laws.
by
Erick Trickey
via
Smithsonian
on
June 15, 2018
Don’t Despair About the Supreme Court
In 2005, Howard Zinn explained why it was naive to depend on the Court to defend the rights of marginalized Americans.
by
Howard Zinn
via
The Progressive
on
October 21, 2005
What Is the Alien Enemies Act?
Trump is relying on a 1798 law with a bad history.
by
William Hogeland
via
Hogeland's Bad History
on
April 14, 2025
The Spy Who Exposed the Secrets of the Black Chamber
In 1931, Herbert O. Yardley published a tell-all book about his experiences leading a covert government agency called the Cipher Bureau.
by
Peter Zablocki
via
Smithsonian
on
February 4, 2025
The Left’s Reversal on Free Speech
Historically, liberals defended the First Amendment and our free speech rights. Now, too many on the left seek to undermine constitutional protections.
by
Patrick M. Garry
via
Law & Liberty
on
November 18, 2024
Learned Hand’s Spirit of Liberty
Eighty years ago, Americans embraced a new definition of their faith: “The spirit of liberty is the spirit which is not too sure that it is right.”
by
Lincoln Caplan
via
The New Yorker
on
July 4, 2024
Courage is Contagious
Daniel Ellsberg's decision to release the Pentagon Papers didn't happen in a vacuum.
by
Christian G. Appy
via
The Conversation
on
May 11, 2023
partner
What If Environmental Damage Is A Form of Capitalist Sabotage?
Worker sabotage is a weapon of the weak, but capitalist sabotage causes much greater damage.
by
R. H. Lossin
via
Made By History
on
November 22, 2022
The “Wobblies” Documentary Reminds Us Why Bosses Are Still Scared of the IWW
The recently rereleased 1979 film can teach today’s workers how to throw their weight around.
by
R. H. Lossin
via
The Nation
on
June 16, 2022
American Vigilantism
In the early 20th century, labor unrest and strike breaking were done not by the government, but by private agencies and self-appointed vigilantes.
by
Michael Mark Cohen
,
Matthew Wills
via
JSTOR Daily
on
December 26, 2021
Ben Fletcher's One Big Union
The hugely influential but largely forgotten labor leader Ben Fletcher couldn’t be more relevant to the most urgent political projects of today.
by
Robin D. G. Kelley
via
Dissent
on
October 29, 2020
Eugene Debs Believed in Socialism Because He Believed in Democracy
Eugene Debs’s unswerving commitment to democracy and internationalism was born out of his revulsion at the tyranny of industrial capitalism.
by
Shawn Gude
via
Jacobin
on
September 2, 2020
A History of Ideological Exclusion and Deportation in the United States
On the passage and enforcement of laws to exclude or deport immigrants for their beliefs, and the people who challenged those laws.
by
Julia Rose Kraut
via
Law & History Review
on
August 31, 2020
Eugene Debs Was an American Hero
He forced the country to engage in a three-year conversation about the meaning of free speech that shaped policy and law after World War I.
by
Shawn Gude
,
Ernest Freeberg
via
Jacobin
on
June 16, 2020
World War Waste
Memorials of World War I should focus on the truth—that it was bloody and pointless.
by
Rebecca Onion
via
Slate
on
November 14, 2018
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