Abstract
Although Robinson Jeffers and Ezra Pound both condemned American foreign policy during World War II, they did so for radically different reasons. Pound’s reading of American history led him to a pro-fascist position on the war, whereas Jeffers adhered to a standard isolationist argument, a mainstream political position during the interwar period. Comparing the ways in which the two poets thought about American history and American historians will help us to understand the cultural politics of both these literary masters and where they stood in the political context of their time. The article analyzes Pound’s notorious but illuminating Fascist radio scripts for evidence of how the historical writing of Claude Bowers, Henry Adams, Brooks Adams, and William Woodward influenced his thinking. He specifically identified them as reliable guides for understanding the major themes of American history. For the much less forthcoming Jeffers, it is necessary to resort to an examination of his poetry for clues about the evolution of his political views along the lines of historian Charles Austin Beard’s revisionist interpretation of American history generally and his isolationist philosophy about foreign policy.
Recommended Citation
Drake, Richard
(2018)
"The Uses of History in the Anti-War Writing of Robinson Jeffers and Ezra Pound,"
Jeffers Studies: Vol. 20, Article 3.
Available at:
https://ir.library.illinoisstate.edu/js/vol20/iss1/3
