"The elementary school system of Germany is the great instrument used by Germany's ruthless rulers to enslave the people and make them completely pliable to their plundering schemes." -Gustavus Myers, The German Myth (1918) Written while the US and much of Europe were at war with Germany, The German Myth (1918), by Gustavus Myers, sought to debunk the propaganda Germany was circulating among the allies with regard to conditions in Germany. Rather than the paradise many Germans described, he painted Germany as rife with selfish, predatory schemes that the autocracy hatched-schemes that were destined to bring about the slaughter and maiming of millions of the very people for whom the German Government professed concern.