"Patriotism is oftentimes the last resort of scoundrels."

A book signing on October 10, 2018, was held to celebrate the release of Patriotic Murder, but also to benefit the Prager Memorial Committee. The committee is raising funds to pay for commemorative and historical markers in Collinsville to make note of the Prager incident 100 years ago.  See photographs from the book signing . . .  

Robert Prager, a lonely German immigrant, was probably the most shameful U.S. casualty of World War I.  Read more . .  

 Robert Prager, a lonely German immigrant, was probably the most shameful U.S. casualty of World War I. From coast to coast, America had been whipped into an intolerant patriotic frenzy by a steady diet of government propaganda and hate mongering. In Collinsville, Illinois the enraged, drunken mob that hung Prager from a tree just after midnight on April 5, 1918, would make him the only German immigrant lynched in the U.S. during the Great War.

See photos and illustrations used in the book and others from the World War I era. Many posters served to help incite the patriotic hysteria rampant in the  U.S. in 1917 and 1918.  See the gallery . . .

The vast majority of editors around the nation criticized the lynching of Robert Prager and subsequent acquittals of the 11 defendants in 1918. Read more . . .