Bonds of War: How Civil War Financial Agents Sold the World on the Union (Civil War America)

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McAdoo, William G. “American Rights” [transcription of a sound recording], American Leaders Speak: Recordings from World War I and the 1920 Election, American Memory Project, Library of Congress, no publication date.

A liberty bond (or liberty loan) was a war bond that was sold in the United States to support the Allied cause in World War I. Subscribing to the bonds became a symbol of patriotic duty in the United States and introduced the idea of financial securities to many citizens for the first time.Although war bonds do not typically pay interest, they are sold at a discount and mature to face value, typically after a period of 10 to 30 years. This book is deeply researched, nuanced in its arguments, and original in its conception. It is destined to become an essential source on both Civil War finance and the development of American financial markets more broadly."—Sharon Ann Murphy, Providence College This elaborate effort was conducted by a home-grown propaganda ministry called the “Committee on Public Information.” The propaganda campaign was essential, not just to sell bonds, but to sell the war. Public sentiment before 1917 was not only against American involvement in the war, but it was not even united on which European military to root for. Running for reelection in 1916, Wilson had adopted the campaign slogan “He kept us out of war,” and he pushed his argument for noninvolvement relentlessly. Wilson’s Republican opponent, Charles Evans Hughes, was also for peace. So, not surprisingly, his administration needed a major campaign to persuade the public of the necessity and the legitimacy of military action against Germany. This was a challenge because American involvement was not predicated on a desire for territory or revenge but on an intangible ideal. When asking for war on April 2, 1917, Wilson framed the war’s objective: “The world must be made safe for democracy.”

But the question remained: how would the shift in output be arranged? How should the war be paid for? There were three possibilities: taxation, borrowing, and printing money. McAdoo, William G. Crowded Years: The Reminiscences of William G. McAdoo [with W. E. Woodward]. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1931. Jessica Ziparo, author of This Grand Experiment, talked about the experiences of women who worked for the federal… Ukraine to sell 'war bonds' to fund armed forces". BBC News. 1 March 2022 . Retrieved 1 March 2022. For Filipinos, like Americans, labor in the warfare state brought access to the welfare state. The terms of that access depended on the conflict, but the potential for Filipinos to receive basic rights through military service — opportunities for migration, citizenship, employment, and personal stability in either the United States or the Philippines — encouraged colonialism, and a colonial mindset, even after Filipino independence in 1946.Ahead of the election, one challenge is political as there is a long tail of individual holders of the War Loan that would be affected by any decision to redeem it. It may also be administratively complex and expensive,” he said. This] book makes a number of major contributions to our understanding of immigration and the Civil War. Despite the relatively large number of immigrants who served in the U.S. Army during the Civil War, there has still been relatively little scholarship about immigrant soldiers and their experiences. There has been very little about British immigrants in particular, making this study especially valuable. The book also furthers our understanding of the daily lived experience of immigrants in the military. Delving so deeply into the experiences of just a few people allows Dretske to bring them to life, returning a human face to a field that can often become dominated by statistics and demonstrating how a study with a local-history focus can illuminate national-level issues."— Kristen Anderson, The Annals of Iowa

To save this article to your Dropbox account, please select one or more formats and confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you used this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your Dropbox account. Kimble, James J. (2006). Mobilizing the home front: war bonds and domestic propaganda. Dallas: Texas A&M University Press. ISBN 1-58544-485-5. The Nazi regime never attempted to convince the general populace to buy long-term war bonds as had been done during the First World War. [35] The Reich government did not want to present any perceived form of public referendum on the war, which would be the indirect result if a bond drive did poorly. [36] Rather, the regime financed its war efforts by borrowing directly from financial institutions, using short-term war bonds as collateral. [35] German bankers, with no demonstration of resistance, agreed to taking state bonds into their portfolios. [35] Financial institutions transferred their money to the Finance Department in exchange for promissory notes. Through this strategy, 40 million bank and investment accounts were quietly converted into war bonds, providing the Reich government with a continuous supply of money. [37] Likewise, German bank commissioners compelled occupied Czechoslovakia to buy up German war bonds. By the end of the war, German war bonds accounted for 70% of investments held by Czechoslovakian banks. [37] United Kingdom [ edit ] Nangle said the government’s decision to repay the consolidated loan was a “great example of pragmatic and attentive debt management on the part of the UK government”. He added: “I hope that this move is the first of many to cut the interest bill and save taxpayers money.”Barclays bond strategist Moyeen Islam said: “For those of us who love the gilt market, it’s a sad day – there’s a few old-timers crying in the corner. But it’s symbolic more than anything.” Witowski, Terrence H. (2003). World War II Poster Campaigns: Preaching Frugality to American Consumers. Journal of Advertising: Volume 32, number 1/spring 2003. pp.69–82. Bogart, Ernest Ludlow (1919). David Kinley (ed.). Direct and Indirect Costs of the Great World War (2nded.). Vancouver: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-7748-0923-X. The war also meant better jobs for Filipinos. War production gave them access to unions like the Congress of Industrial Organizations, higher wages, and better living conditions. The United States now depended on Filipino workers and soldiers, and the “decades of exclusion, uncertainty, and denial faded, at least for a moment.” The Philippines received its independence in 1946. The burgeoning Cold War allowed the United States retain its former colony without occupying it. Filipinos’ participation in America’s way of war created these contorted bonds, Capozzola argues, but America’s desire for cheap, local (Filipino) labor maintained them. In its dependence on colonized laborers to run the colony, America’s empire was no different than the British and French empires of the twentieth century — each relied on local, cheap labor to maintain regional control and global influence. Unlike the British and French empires, though, labor on behalf of the military regularly became a means of obtaining social provisions in the United States after World War I.

This book, the most intensive examination of the 96th Illinois Volunteer Infantry since the regiment’s history was published in 1887 centers on immigrants from the British Isles who wished to be citizens of a country at war with itself. Far removed from their native homelands, they found new promise in rural Illinois. These men, neighbors along the quiet Stateline Road in Lake County, decide to join the fighting at its most dangerous hour. The bonds of war become then the bonds of their new national identity. Keshen, Jeff (2004). Saints, sinners, and soldiers: Canada's Second World War. Vancouver: UBC Press. ISBN 0-7748-0923-X.By using this service, you agree that you will only keep content for personal use, and will not openly distribute them via Dropbox, Google Drive or other file sharing services This landmark series interprets broadly the history and culture of the Civil War era through the long nineteenth century and beyond. Drawing on diverse approaches and methods, the series publishes historical works that explore all aspects of the war, biographies of leading commanders, and tactical and campaign studies, along with select editions of primary sources. Together, these books shed new light on an era that remains central to our understanding of American and world history. Series Editors Sutch, Richard, “Financing the Great War: A Class Tax for the Wealthy, Liberty Bonds for All,” Berkeley Economic History Laboratory Working Paper WP2015-09, September 2015. http://behl.berkeley.edu/files/2015/09/WP2015-09_Sutch.pdf. A fascinating foray into the world of Civil War finance and the beginnings of modern America's financial markets."— HistoryNet