Mr. O’Donnell’s Class
Chapter 26
Name: _______________________________________ Block:_______ Date___________
Historical Context: In the 1930’s Americans were to worried about the Great Depression to
care about events overseas. As the probability of war increased in Asia and Europe, a strong
isolationist mood swept the United States.
Writing Task: Using the documents and your own knowledge of American history write a
D.B.Q. essay. Explain how Theoder Geisel’s (Dr. Seuss) opinion of the war in Europe was
differed from the most of the country before Pearl Harbor.
Document 1
This political cartoon first appeared in the October 5th 1941, issue of the left wing political
paper PM. This was two months before the attack on Pearl Harbor.
1) What does the bird in Document 1 represent?
2) What does the word appeasement mean?
3) What is Dr. Seuss saying about the United States?
4) What does he say we should do about it?
Document 2
The Horrors of the Great Depression in combination with the fear of another World War lead
Congress to pass the Neutrality Act of 1937. Isolationists did not want business ties to drag
the United States into war the way they did in 1917. (WWI)
Section 1. (a) Whenever the President shall find that there exists a state of war between, or
among, two or more foreign states, the President shall proclaim such fact, and it shall thereafter
be unlawful to export, or attempt to export, or cause to be exported, arms, ammunition, or
implements of war from any place in the United States to any belligerent state named for
transshipment to, or for the use of, any such belligerent state…….
1) What does the Neutrality Act of 1937 stop Americans from doing?
2) Why was it passed?
Document 3
America First was the most powerful isolationist organization in the United States during the
period before World War II. It formed in September of 1940 and spelled out it’s goals and
purpose.
America First Committee Original Four Principles:
1.) The United States must build an impregnable defense for America.
2.) No foreign power, nor group of powers, can successfully attack a prepared America.
3.) American democracy can be preserved only by keeping our of the European war.
4.) "Aid short of war" weakens national defense at home and threatens to involve America in
war abroad.
1) What was the goal of America First?
2) Did America First believe the United States should help other countries who are at war?
Document 4
This political cartoon first appeared in the October 1st 1941, issue of PM.
1) In Document 4 what does Dr. Seuss compare Hitler with?
2) What did the organization America First believe according to Dr. Seuss?
3) What did Dr. Seuss believe the United States should do?
Document 5
Charles Lindbergh was the principle spokesman for America First. In his speech given in
September of 1941 he claims that the three groups that want the United States to enter the
war are the British, Jews and the Roosevelt Administration.
…..The three most important groups who have been pressing this country toward war are the
British, the Jewish and the Roosevelt administration….
…...No person with a sense of the dignity of mankind can condone the persecution of the Jewish
race in Germany. But no person of honesty and vision can look on their pro-war policy here
today without seeing the dangers involved in such a policy both for us and for them. Instead of
agitating for war, the Jewish groups in this country should be opposing it in every possible way
for they will be among the first to feel its consequences....
.......Their greatest danger to this country lies in their large ownership and influence in our
motion pictures, our press, our radio and our government.
I am not attacking either the Jewish or the British people. Both races, I admire. But I am
saying that the leaders of both the British and the Jewish races, for reasons which are as
understandable from their viewpoint as they are inadvisable from ours, for reasons which are not
American, wish to involve us in the war....
1) Does Lindbergh actually think Jews are bad or stupid people?
2) Why does he believe Jews want war with Germany?
3) Why does Lindbergh believe the British want the United States to join the War?
Document 6
This political cartoon, drawn by Dr. Seuss, first appeared in the September 22nd 1941, issue
of PM.
1) Why is the bird in the cartoon in a stockade?
2) Who does Dr. Seuss claim locked up the Bird?
3) What is Dr. Seuss trying to say?