An Antiwar Movement That Was Not A Peace Movement: The Mothers' Crusade Against World War II

From 1939 through 1945 millions of women belonging to the self-styled“mothers' movement” crusaded against American involvement in World War II. The mothers were not pacifists who opposed all wars; rather, they believed the United States should fight the Soviet Union instead of Germany. Ironically, these reactionary women mixed appeals to the preservative love of mothers with anti-Semitism, red-baiting, and sympathy for Hitler. This rare movement of women of the far right, who created their organizations because men of the extreme right denied them leadership positions, demonstrates that womenoppose specific wars for varieties of reasons, noble and ignoble.