The Thunders of Silence by Irvin S. Cobb

Dodo Collections brings you another classic from Irvin S. Cobb, ‘The Thunders of Silence.’   A disturbing, and luckily impossible to implement, story of a demagogue driven to destruction by the press. He has to be destroyed because he is treasonous--he preaches peace when the country want war. The disturbing part is that he is conspired against because of his message--peace--rather than because he is dishonest and manipulative. His vices are not the issue, his patriotism is. This solution works best where the press is state-controlled. It reminds me of how out of favor Soviet politicians disappeared from history books and even from photographs.   Cobb joined the staff of the magazine Saturday Evening Post during 1911, and covered the Great War for the magazine. At the same time, he wrote a book about his experiences, published during 1915, titled Paths Of Glory. After a second visit to France to cover the Great War, Cobb publicized the achievements of the unit known as theHarlem Hellfighters, most notably, Croix de Guerre recipients Henry Lincoln Johnson and Needham Roberts. His article Young Black Joe, published on August 24, 1918 in theSaturday Evening Post and later republished in Cobbs book, The Glory of the Coming, highlighted the discipline and courage displayed by black American soldiers fighting in Europe during World War I. The three-page article and half-page photograph reached a national audience of more than two million readers, and was widely reprinted in the black press.