04/04/2022
By Natasha Ledoux

The College of Fine Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, Department of History, invites you to attend a Master’s thesis defense by Natasha S. Ledoux on “The Propaganda of Prejudice: Anti-Semitic Themes in Henry Ford’s Dearborn Independent.”

Defense Date: Tuesday, April 12, 2022
Time: 12:30 to 1:30 p.m.
Location: Allen House 106
Thesis Title: “The Propaganda of Prejudice: Anti-Semitic Themes in Henry Ford’s Dearborn Independent”

Thesis Advisor: W. Scott Hoerle, Department of History, UMass Lowell

Thesis Committee:

  • Christopher Carlsmith, Department of History, UMass Lowell
  • Robert Forrant, Department of History, UMass Lowell

Brief Abstract:

The purpose of this thesis is to fill a seeming gap in the study of Henry Ford and his impact on American anti-Semitism. Utilizing the anti-Semitic articles published from 1920 to 1921 from Henry Ford’s Dearborn Independent newspaper, and later reprinted in the International Jew: The World’s Foremost Problem, the anti-Semitic themes, use of language, stereotypes, and conspiracies are studied. The thesis analyzes five anti-Semitic themes—finance, the arts, Communism, politics, and the press—and ties them to early twentieth century American society. Together with this analysis, connections between the Protocols of the Elders of Zion and the Dearborn Independent, as well as connections to Nazi ideology are incorporated into the analysis. Examining anti-Semitic language and themes in the Dearborn Independent, given that the newspaper was owned by one of the most influential men in America, aids in providing a better understanding of growing anti-Semitism and Nativism as the United States emerged from World War I. The tone and sentiment of the anti-Semitic language found highlights the fears and anxieties that accompanied the interwar period, the 1919-1920 Red Scare, increasing immigration, and the perceived threat of losing Anglo-Saxon society. World War I brought economic, social issues, and a lack of jobs that made new immigrants the target of Nativist propaganda. Understanding the history of anti-Semitism helps to contextualize the the use of anti-Semitic language and tropes to target and demonize Jews as racial nationalism spread during the interwar period in the early twentieth-century.