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Title: Who Were the Isolationists?
Citation Type: Miscellaneous
Publication Year: 2023
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Abstract: The interwar isolationist movement constrained US governments from intervening to deter Fascist aggression. But what motivated this movement? We digitize archival records relating to 24,000 donors to the America First Committee, the largest isolationist group, which we merge into the 1940 US Census. German immigrants, especially those with stronger German identities as measured by naming and intermarriage, made up the rank and file of America First. We find little evidence that sectoral economic interests drove isolationism. These results indicate the importance of immigrant diasporas for foreign policy. Underscoring the link between German identity and isolationism, we find that German immigrants resident in counties with higher First World War casualties, which stimulated anti-German discrimination, had weaker German identities by 1940 and were less likely to donate. Isolationism was not born of isolation.
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Authors: Serlin, Theo; Swonder, Dustin
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Data Collections: IPUMS USA, IPUMS USA - Ancestry Full Count Data, IPUMS NHGIS
Topics: Labor Force and Occupational Structure, Migration and Immigration
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