Fremont, OH : from Armistice 1918 to elections 1920

Abstract

[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI AT REQUEST OF AUTHOR.] Fremont, Ohio, during the tumultuous period from the Armistice ending World War I to the 1920 elections, showed how one of the multitudes of small industrial towns in the Midwest coped with a drastically changing national and international landscape. Across these three Novembers, this town absorbed the reality that after the Great War, America was not only a major player in international affairs, but was looked to for leadership. Initially, this truth led to a surge of national pride that bordered on the excessive. However, without the war as a distraction, faced with the bleak reality of the state of the union and disappointed with the partisan deadlock in the Senate that made America seem to shirk her new role as leader, hopeful exuberance melted into bitter frustration. The catharsis came in the 1920 elections when Fremont voters soundly rejected the reigning Democrats, using them as the scapegoat for all the unfulfilled promise left after the Armistice and for all the social unrest and economic hardship of the previous two years.