Liberal Republican Wendell Willkie once stated “when we talk of freedom and opportunity for all nations, the mocking paradoxes in our own society become so clear they can no longer be ignored.” Willkie’s 1943 best-seller book, One World, clearly depicts this paradox through the topics of internationalism, global peace and race relations as he discusses “imperialism at home.” The book is historically significant because it depicts the emergence of New Liberalism. Willkie’s book, One World, illustrates the contradiction in American society which combats Imperialism abroad but promotes racial inequality at home. In the 1940s, about two decades after World War I ended, a considerable amount of Americans embraced a new ideology of “internationalism.”
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The US had established a “strict quota system that openly discriminated against people from Southern and Eastern Europe,” (The New Era Notes). Additionally, many African Americans encountered problems, especially in the North where “they were discriminated against by employers and many white workers,” (The New Era Notes). According to Willkie, “the attitude of the white citizens of this country toward Negroes has undeniably had some of the unlovely characteristics of an alien imperialism- a smug racial superiority,” (190). Discrimination got so bad at certain times that blacks could not move into white neighborhoods and were “subjected to racially motivated violence,” (The New Era Notes). These historical developments became problematic because “if we want to talk about freedom, we must mean freedom for others as well as ourselves, and we must mean freedom for everyone inside our frontiers as well as outside,” (191). Additionally, Jim Crow Laws were issued which legalized the segregation of African Americans. The conditions in which African Americans lived their daily lives were far more inferior to the conditions of Whites. The education, social and economic situation for African Americans were tormented during Jim Crow Laws. These developments made relations in desperate need of improvement because many Americans began noticing that the acceptance of other ethnicities and races was extremely important in order for the US to form alliances with other nations. Many of these racial issues were the cause of Americans beginning the Civil Rights Movement. Historical developments that occurred overseas which made race relations appear problematic included the rise of fascism in countries such as Germany and Japan. Fascism was a concept which glorified the military and condemned
The US had established a “strict quota system that openly discriminated against people from Southern and Eastern Europe,” (The New Era Notes). Additionally, many African Americans encountered problems, especially in the North where “they were discriminated against by employers and many white workers,” (The New Era Notes). According to Willkie, “the attitude of the white citizens of this country toward Negroes has undeniably had some of the unlovely characteristics of an alien imperialism- a smug racial superiority,” (190). Discrimination got so bad at certain times that blacks could not move into white neighborhoods and were “subjected to racially motivated violence,” (The New Era Notes). These historical developments became problematic because “if we want to talk about freedom, we must mean freedom for others as well as ourselves, and we must mean freedom for everyone inside our frontiers as well as outside,” (191). Additionally, Jim Crow Laws were issued which legalized the segregation of African Americans. The conditions in which African Americans lived their daily lives were far more inferior to the conditions of Whites. The education, social and economic situation for African Americans were tormented during Jim Crow Laws. These developments made relations in desperate need of improvement because many Americans began noticing that the acceptance of other ethnicities and races was extremely important in order for the US to form alliances with other nations. Many of these racial issues were the cause of Americans beginning the Civil Rights Movement. Historical developments that occurred overseas which made race relations appear problematic included the rise of fascism in countries such as Germany and Japan. Fascism was a concept which glorified the military and condemned