ABSTRACT
To understand how volunteering for a foreign war can emerge from ideals homegrown in America, one must look closely at the 1930's, an age of ferment and upheaval for the United States and the Western world. Most Americans remained passive, but for many the image of what had been called the American Dream had become terribly "flawed and cracked." The pattern for turmoil was set by labor, by workers who had long been at the bottom of America's economic totem pole. Naturally enough, the unrest in American life spilled over into the realm of politics, and though the Democrats won overwhelming victories at the polls, radical movements began to blossom like hothouse flowers. While the American Communist Party remained militant through the early thirties, it remained fairly well estranged from even the most liberal segments of society. Most important for its integration into American life, the CP could now align itself with the New Deal and its reforms.
