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Internal Affairs: Untold Case Studies Of World War I German Internment, Jacob L. Wasserman

Kaplan Senior Essay Prize for Use of Library Special Collections

Internment of German-Americans and Germans in the United States as the country entered World War I marked a turn in the relationship between America’s governing institutions, its citizens, and its non-citizen aliens. The power and reach of the American state inflected upwards during World War I. Internment was the most drastic facet of a new state involvement in the makeup and dynamics of communities and the liberties and perceptions of minorities. Aside from whether such an effort was justified, internment lies at a crucial point in a sustained American history of powerful state (and state-like) actors interacting with newcomers and …