Recommended: Professor Robert Nisbet on the Cost to America for Joining World War I

Robert Nisbet (1913–1996)

In 1988, conservative sociologist and philosopher Robert Nisbet made a presentation to America's National Endowment for the Humanities titled "The Present Age and the State of Community" during which he stated: 

The present age began with the First World War, the Great War as it is still called; and for excellent reason. Its consequences pursue us yet [including. . ]   the transformation of the American commonwealth. . . There were really two First World Wars: Europe's and America's. For Europe it was a civil war, poisoned by racial and ethnic hatreds. . . [For America]  the war had a virtually traumatic effect on American society and consciousness.

Commentator Jash Dholani has helped summarize the main points of Nisbet's argument:

• "Prior to 1914 American was probably the most decentralized, deployed and dispersed, and also regional and local government among all the Western nations. In truth, the average citizen's only contact with the national state prior to the Great War was through the postman."

• When the U.S. entered the war, a wave of centralization set in that was never reversed. Nisbet remarks: "Congress turned over economy, social organization, and individual consciousness to the President, Woodrow Wilson." Everything from the telephone to factories were nationalized.

• Wages in the U.S. were set by the "War Labor Policies Board," and the "War Industries Board" exercised supreme control over "all aspects of production." At every level, "state and local governments" were overridden.

• There were many more "neighborhood watchers"—another "innovation in thought management." People were told to look out for "conceivably disloyal remarks"—it became a "wonderful opportunity to bring patriotism to the aid of personal grudges."

• In the post war years, Congress and the executive branch rolled back some draconian measures while consolidating on others. Domains like "education, social welfare, even crime enforcement" came under the increasing top-down influence of Washington, DC.

• One consequence of the "military discipline of war" was an induced "indifference" toward "non-military authorities" such as "family, church, local community, and venerable codes of morality."

• Bottom line. After the war came a new slogan: "We Planned in War, Why not in Peace?" WWI permanently expanded the scope of the U.S. Federal government and corroded America's erstwhile decentralized nature. WWI created the America of today: a great nation of weak communities.

Professor Nisbet's full 18-page presentation can be download HERE. (Note: It is the first third of this document in which the influence of the World War is discussed in detail. The remainder covers Nisbet's thinking on the concept of "Community.")