JF Ptak Science Books   Quick Post

This pamphlet is a reminder that it wasn’t simply right-wing groups (like the Lindbergh-sponsored “America First”) that sought to keep the United States out of the war in Europe in 1940.  It was a “European War” to these groups at this point–it was of course a World War, World War II, but it just didn’t involve the United States, yet.  The lefty “Keep America Out of War Committee” produced this vicious pamphlet, equating the war with the sole pursuits of “big business”, connecting the “filthy mess” of fighting to connected interest of Parliament and the Reichstag in producing a money-making scenario for the controllers of industry. 

[The original is available from our blog bookstore.]

Now there are plenty of ugly wartime relationships during WWII–and not just those that existed through December 1941, but were in place for the duration of the war.  But the arguments made in this pamphlet seemingly in support of the average working man protecting them from the multinational corporations who were conducting the war for the sake of profits takes the argument into an entirely different and bad place.  (“The best way we can help the people of Europe is to keep Wall Street out of it” claims the pseudonymous author, Mike Quinn.  Besides, as he continues in the section called “We’re Too Busy”: “We’ve got a first class job on our hands straightening out this civilization we have right here”.  Too busy for war.