Political Obligation and the Draft in World War I | Christopher Capozzola

Robinson’s Podcast #134 - Christopher Capozzola: Uncle Sam, the Draft, and Vigilantes in World War I

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.

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.