Christopher Capozzola is Professor of History and MacVicar Faculty Fellow at MIT, where he works on the history of citizenship, war, and the military in modern American history. In this episode, Robinson and Chris discuss his first book, Uncle Sam Wants You: World War I and the Making of the Modern American Citizen (Oxford, 2008). More particularly, they talk about the background of the famous Uncle Sam “I Want You!” image and its status as a piece of propaganda, how it functioned in the United States during World War I, the domestic reception and consequences of the draft, and how patriotism resulted in violent vigilante justice. Chris’s latest book is Bound by War: How the United States and the Philippines Built America’s First Pacific Century.

Uncle Sam Wants You: https://a.co/d/gBodfCL

OUTLINE

00:00 In This Episode…

01:04 Introduction

03:50 History as Narrative

08:01 Teaching History at MIT

12:21 Chris’s Interest in American History

14:42 The Origin and Purpose of Uncle Sam

32:48 Political Obligation and the Draft in World War I

45:06 History and Unwritten Facts

50:07 Draft Dodgers, Conscientious Objectors, and Vigilantes in WWI

01:04:35 Historians, Philosophers, and Political Obligation

01:16:50 How World War I Was Caused by Bad Leaders

01:23:01 Free Speech During and After the War

Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.