This book uses Portland, Oregon to bring to life the transformation of U.S. cities during the first truly national war mobilization effort. World War I had an enormous impact on urban life and the relationship between cities and the federal government that has been almost entirely unexplored until now.
"This relatively short, lively book should appeal to a good-sized readership. First, it will work well in advanced undergraduate and graduate classes. And general readers seeking information about our unaccountable surveillance state, police repression, and the excessive power of business will profit from learning about the deep roots of these problems and the ways ordinary people have fought back." (Chad Pearson, The Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era, Vol. 16 (4), October, 2017)
"This account by Hodges (history, Univ. of Houston-Clear Lake), tightly centered on Portland, OR (1917-19), is most welcome, particularly because, as he notes, the overwhelmingly 'national focus of the historical literature' has 'obscured the innovative ways' state and local governments instigated and implemented severe repression of (massive but entirely peaceful) WW I dissent. ... Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above." (R. J. Goldstein, Choice, Vol. 54 (2), October, 2016)
"This account by Hodges (history, Univ. of Houston-Clear Lake), tightly centered on Portland, OR (1917-19), is most welcome, particularly because, as he notes, the overwhelmingly 'national focus of the historical literature' has 'obscured the innovative ways' state and local governments instigated and implemented severe repression of (massive but entirely peaceful) WW I dissent. ... Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above." (R. J. Goldstein, Choice, Vol. 54 (2), October, 2016)