Start of Main Content
Upcoming Events Calendar

“The Gauntlet Has Been Thrown”: Newspapers, Op-eds, and American Responses to Antisemitism

Campus Lecture
A crowd looks at Washington, DC, newspapers on September 1, 1939. Library of Congress

A crowd looks at Washington, DC, newspapers on September 1, 1939. Library of Congress

There were nearly 1,900 daily newspapers in the United States read and shared by millions of Americans in 1940. These periodicals give us a glimpse into the intense struggles in the American heartland surrounding racism, discrimination, antisemitism, and isolationism during the 1930s and 1940s.

Eric Schmalz, community manager for the Museum’s History Unfolded project, will discuss the media landscape of the United States from the end of World War I to 1941, examining the historical and social context in which Americans lived. He will focus on three prominent and problematic individuals—Henry Ford, Charles Coughlin, and Charles Lindbergh—and their antisemitic rhetoric. 

Speaker
Eric Schmalz, Community Manager, Digital Learning Tools, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Provided in partnership with Ames Public Library, Ames Historical Society, and the Iowa State University Department of History. This program is made possible by the Campus Outreach Lecture Program of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum's Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies, supported by the Leonard and Sophie Davis Fund. Supported by the Ames Public Library Friends Foundation.

Related

  • The Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies

    The Mandel Center supports scholarship and publications in the field, promotes the growth of Holocaust studies at American universities, fosters strong relationships between American and international scholars, and initiates programs to ensure the ongoing training of future generations of scholars.

    Learn More
  • History Unfolded: US Newspapers and the Holocaust

    Together, we can uncover what ordinary people around the country could have known about the Holocaust from reading their local newspapers in the years 1933–1945. We need you to join our team of citizen historians uncovering new knowledge that will be shared with scholars, curators, and the public.

    Learn More
  • Americans and the Holocaust

    What did the US government and the American people know about the threats posed by Nazi Germany? What responses were possible? And when? This exhibition examines the motives, pressures, and fears that shaped Americans’ responses to Nazism, war, and genocide.

    Learn More