EDGAR DOCTOROW, novelist: The idea of nationalism appalled her. She thought nationalism was a big scam. Her point of view was that these wars were a matter of property interests of the upper classes that were sending the working classes out to fight for them, and that it didn't make sense for a butcher's assistant in Hamburg to fight a butcher's assistant in London.

NARRATOR: Goldman was far from alone in her opposition to the war. Dozens of organizations throughout the country had argued the war was morally wrong.

OZ FRANKEL, historian: The first World War was marked by the insecurity of the administration. I mean, this is an administration that promised not to enter the war. Once it decided otherwise, it became very, very defensive, insecure, and therefore insisted on consensus: consensus by any means.

NARRATOR: In June, the Espionage Act went into effect. It decreed stiff fines and prison terms for anyone who obstructed the draft. A year later, the Sedition Law threatened those who defied the government with expulsion.

J. Edgar Hoover, a 23-year-old law clerk enjoying a meteoric rise in the Justice Department, collected information on foreign-born radicals. Hoover was anxious to bring what he called "intellectual perverts," like war resistors and anarchists, to justice. He reserved a special loathing for Goldman.

Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman joined forces to organize resistance. Their lectures drew large, contentious crowds. In May 1917, they launched the No Conscription League. It opposed "all wars waged by capitalist governments."

GOLDMAN (dramatization): We believe that the militarization of America is an evil that far outweighs any good that may come from America's participation in the war. We will resist conscription by every means in our power.

NARRATOR: In its short life, the League organized three protest rallies. 8,000 people attended the first meeting in Harlem.