The Collapse of Superman by William Roscoe Thayer

If you are thinking Clark Kent and DC Comics, you are mistaken, this book was written in 1917, the same year that the United States declared war on Germany in World War I.  The Superman that Thayer is referring to is the German man, an ideology claiming the Germans are of a superior race.  Thayer dedicates this book “To My Comrades in the American Rights League of Boston.” [1] This league was “arousing and directing public opinion throughout the United States in favour of direct action in the war.”[2]  It was organized around the same time as the sinking of the Lusitania, “with the special purpose of making clear to American citizens that Great Britain, France, and their Allies were fighting not only in their own defence and for the fulfilment of their obligations, but for the maintenance of civilization against the assaults of an organized barbarism.”[3]  The book is actually a reprint, with additions, that originally appeared in the November 10, 1917 edition of The Saturday Evening Post.[4]  Thayer politically satirizes the German people because of their racist views but I believe he steps over the line and promotes a racist view by attacking the entire German race instead of the leaders and groups responsible.

William Roscoe Thayer (1859-1923) was born in Boston, Massachusetts and was an editor, historian, and biographer.[5]  He graduated from Harvard in 1881 and spent the next four years writing literary, theater, and music reviews for the Boston Sunday Budget.[6]  He returned to Harvard to earn a Masters in 1886 and taught English there from 1888-89.[7]  Thayer was the editor of The Harvard Graduates’ Magazine from 1892-1915.[8]  In 1893, he married Elizabeth Hastings Ware.[9]  His literary works consist of both scholarly and popular articles, including fiction and poetry.[10]  He is most renowned for his Italian histories, biography of Theodore Roosevelt, and being critical of Germany.[11]

Thayer discusses the myth of the Germans as Supermen.  He discusses the reputation of the Germans concerning scientific precision, industry, education, and war.  Thayer wrongly asserts, “Though they made few of the cardinal discoveries in science or in invention, they quickly caught up, and adapted or improved, the discoveries of others.”[12]  He continues to attack their education system, comparing it to the Jesuits, which shows the strong anti-catholic tendencies of the age.[13]  He compares the German people to empty rifles, just waiting for the Kaiser to insert a cartridge of an idea into them.[14]  The Germans have empty thought cavities that are just waiting for the Kaiser to “come round every morning with canned thoughts, which he pours into it.”[15]  Thayer gives this warning on nationalistic pride, “Let us not be too hard on the Germans for becoming infatuated with the gospel of Supermania!  Suppose that we Americans were told by our rulers, statesmen, prophets, philosophers, captains of industry, drummers, editors, parsons, professors, staticians, for thirty years together, that we are the Chosen People, could we resist the flattering imputation?”[16]  This bold statement gave me pause to think of our own situation today and over the years how easy it can be to fall into the snare of thinking that our way is the best and we are the best.

Thayer goes on to attack German military abilities.  He claims they have only succeeded because of surprise attacks, superior numbers, and advanced equipment.[17]  Whenever the German forces were faced with equal terms, they did not succeed; if they were truly supermen, would they need such an advantage?[18]  He then goes on to state that those Allied forces, which held out against German superior odds, deserve the name of Supermen.

Thayer attacks the entire German culture with questions such as, “If today we had to choose between preserving the art, literature, and history of Athens and the Kultur of Germany under William II, can there be any doubt as to which we should jettison?” [19] He states German inventors are “lavish borrowers of other men’s ideas, prolific adapters, untiring imitators.”[20]  The true men of intelligence in the world are the Americans, French, and English, because “the German soldier is trained not to think.”[21]

The German character takes a final bashing with the accusations of their brutality, insanity, and egoism.  Thayer accuses the Germans of a “campaign of rape, arson, and murder in Belgium and France.”[22]  He compares the German to a man in an insane asylum that thinks he is Julius Caesar or Charlemagne.[23]  The egoism of the German is physically represented in “the swelled head is a sign of a German Superman.”[24]

He finally attacks the German professors teaching in American colleges as being guilty of “cultivating their special fields of science with the same disregard of fact that they displayed in the easily verifiable theory of the Superman.” [25] Thayer finds nothing redeemable in the German man.  One statement I found startling was, “The cult of the Superman could flourish only in a time and among a people given over to materialism.” [26]

Thayer provides a true political satire that ridicules and provokes the German people.  He successfully debunks the myth of the Superman, and history tells us the American people rallied to support World War I.  Overall, a good view of the American view towards the Germans at this time.  However, I think it is safe to say that he went overboard in his downgrading the German people.  By attacking the whole culture and the German people in general, instead of their leaders, he fueled a feeling of racism and hatred.

Bibliography

Putnam, Geo. Haven. “The American Rights League.” The Spectator, November 17, 1917.  Accessed December 27, 2015.  http://archive.spectator.co.uk/article/10th-november-1917/11/the-american-rights-league

Thayer, William Roscoe. The Collapse of Superman. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1918

World Authors 1900-1950 (January 1, 1996): Biography Reference Bank (H.W. Wilson). “Thayer, William Roscoe.” EBSCOhost (accessed December 23, 2015).

Notes

[1] William Roscoe Thayer, The Collapse of Superman, (Boston, Houghton Mifflin Company, 1918), Dedication page

[2] Geo. Haven Putnam, “The American Rights League,” The Spectator, November 17, 1917, accessed December 27, 2015.  http://archive.spectator.co.uk/article/10th-november-1917/11/the-american-rights-league, p.11

[3] Ibid.

[4] Thayer, “The Collapse of Superman,” Front of book.

[5] “Thayer, William Roscoe,” World Authors 1900-1950 (January 1, 1996): Biography Reference Bank (H.W. Wilson), EBSCOhost (accessed December 23, 2015).

[6] Ibid.

[7] Ibid.

[8] Ibid.

[9] Ibid.

[10] Ibid.

[11] Ibid.

[12] Thayer, “The Collapse of Superman,” 2-3

[13] Ibid. 3

[14] Ibid. 4

[15] Ibid. 14

[16] Ibid.

[17] Ibid. 16-17

[18] Ibid. 17

[19] Ibid. 37-38

[20] Ibid. 43

[21] Ibid. 47

[22] Ibid. 52

[23] Ibid. 58

[24] Ibid. 53

[25] Ibid. 65

[26] Ibid. 67