"Disloyal Mothers and Scurrilous Citizens focuses on the arrests, trials, and defenses of women charged under the Wartime Emergency Laws passed soon after the United States entered World War I. These women, often members of the political left, whose anti-war or pro-labor activity brought them to the attention of federal officials, made up ten percent of the approximately two thousand Federal Espionage cases."--BOOK JACKET.

"Anti-radical politics raised questions about the state's role in defining motherhood and social reproduction. Kennedy shows that state authorities often defined women's subversion as a violation of their maternal roles. Yet, with the exception of Kate Richards O'Hare, the women charged with sedition did not define their political behavior within the terms set by maternalism.

Instead, they used liberal arguments of equality, justice, and democratic citizenship to argue for their right to speak frankly about American policy. Such claims, while often in opposition to strategies outlined by their defense teams, helped form the framework for modern arguments made in defense of civil liberties."--BOOK JACKET.