A summary of William Preston, Jr.'s
Aliens and Dissenters
John L. Clark <jlc6@po.cwru.edu>
2012-11-27T
Table of Contents
Reference ....................................................................................................................... 3
Focusing on the suppression of dissent during World War I and the Red Scare that
immediately followed gives the impression that these actions marked a sharp change in policy as
a result of the extreme events of the time. These intense circumstances, however, simply
provided additional energy and tools to a more consistent trend that can be marked back to the
early years of the 20th century. In his book Aliens and Dissenters, William Preston, Jr. tracks the
use of deportations as a political weapon and the way that this practice provided a precedent for
expanded prosecution of critics and outsiders when war was joined. The existing continuities
lend a strong measure of clarity to the intense suppression that surged during the war, although it
loses focus where it asserts that the fundamental problem was irrational nativist racism.
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A summary of William Preston,
Jr.'s Aliens and Dissenters
Preston sketches the history of repression leading to the turn of the 20th century. He
emphasizes that the national hysteria around anarchism had cooled in the aftermath of the
Haymarket Affair, but that it flared to life again after the assassination of President McKinley,
leading to the Immigration Act of 1903. Before the United States joined the European conflict in
1917, officials used this law to screen immigrants and deport alien residents in a way that served
the political ends of various officials, and which reflected a broader hostility to both foreigners
and radicals.
Involvement in the war provided the basis for broadening and expanding existing
programs of repression, based on claims of impeding the war effort and disloyalty. Preston
focuses on the attacks on the I.W.W. Early repression, such as in Butte, Montana, involved
active military involvement to prevent labor unrest. This transitioned to the use of arrests and
formal prosecutions as a more general tool to weaken radical movements. After the war,
however, officials returned to the use of deportation as the main tool of repression, as
exemplified by the Palmer raids. In this way, Preston highlights the continuities present in the
government approaches to undermining perceived threats.
Preston argues that without an irrational fear of foreign influence and foreigners,
Americans would not have turned to attack radical domestic elements. This argument, however,
is not convincing, as even his own sources, largely drawn from official records and the
correspondence of public officials, indicate that many American conservatives and other
nationalists were concerned with the economic and social threats posed by both immigrants as
well as radical groups. The risk, here, is of reading the suppression of radicals in general as a
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A summary of William Preston,
Jr.'s Aliens and Dissenters
consequence of policies developed to defend against an instinctive racism, instead of because
they threatened the established order in various, and occasionally overlapping ways.
Aside from these flaws, Preston's account provides a useful broadening of perspective
towards suppression of dissent in the World War I era. Preston's analysis largely rests on
describing the way in which officials used (and abused) existing statutes, providing as strong of a
defense against unwanted elements as the circumstances would tolerate. The very use of the
Immigration Act of 1903 is an example, as this law itself allowed public officials to circumvent
due process considerations when they exercised their nativist and nationalist sentiments. This
approach could benefit from additional exploration of the political process that developed these
laws, in order to connect the political discussion with the actual exercise of these statues. It could
be strengthened further by considering the prosecution of groups other than the I.W.W. under
these laws. Even with a moderately narrow emphasis, the book provides very useful context for
understanding the national climate that could support seemingly dramatic suppression laws once
the United States was swept up in World War I.
Reference
Preston, William, Jr. Aliens and Dissenters: Federal Suppression of Radicals, 1903–1933.
Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1994.
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