World War I and the Anglo-American Imagined Community: Civilization vs. Barbarism in British Propaganda and American Newspapers

Abstract

The mythology of the Anglo-American “special relationship,” often emphasizes the experience of World War II, particularly the close wartime relationship between Churchill and Roosevelt. At a cultural level, however, much groundwork was built during World War I as the American press defined Allied war aims as a natural product of Anglo-American shared values. At the war’s outset in 1914, American opinion was divided. Strong commercial interests were threatened by British competition, and German-American and Irish-American communities were generally suspicious of the British cause. Against such opinion, however, were advocates of an American melting pot defined in primarily “Anglo” terms, and those who championed a pro-British foreign policy as the best guarantee of American national security.² The eventual entry of the United States into the war on the Allied side represented a victory for the latter groups in the United States. As these groups emerged victorious, Anglo-American ideals and identification similar to those projected in British propaganda also triumphed in the American press.