National Studies:

USA 1919-1941

Option G: USA 1919–1941

Content Focus

Students investigate key features of the history of the USA 1919–1941. The Historical concepts and skills content is to be integrated as appropriate.

Key features

● nature and impact of industrialisation

● nature and impact of consumerism

● the Great Depression

● racism in American society

● changes in society

● influence of conservatism

● American capitalism

● government intervention

● American foreign policy and extent of isolationism

Content

Students investigate:

Survey

1 The USA in the aftermath of World War I and politics in the 1920s:

a– consequences of World War I for the USA

b– Republican economic policies

c– long-term causes of the Great Depression

d– reactions to the Great Crash of 1929

Focus of study

2 The Great Depression and its impact, including:

a- effects of the Depression on different groups in society: workers, women, farmers,

African Americans (ACHMH116)

b- attempts to halt the Depression: the Hoover Presidency, the FDR years (ACHMH116)

c- assessment of the New Deal (ACHMH116)

3 US society 1919–1941, including:

a- implications of growing urbanisation and industrialisation

b- mobilisation of the military and war production 1939–1941

c- growth and influence of consumerism including entertainment (ACHMH115)

d- social tensions, including immigration restrictions, religious fundamentalism,

Prohibition, crime, racial conflict, anti-communism and anti-unionism (ACHMH114)

4 US foreign policy, including:

a- the nature, aims and strategies of US foreign policy 1919–1941 (ACHMH117, ACHMH118)

b- impact of domestic pressures on the USA 1919–1941

The United States of America 1917

Background

Activities: Using the word bank below, find the synonyms of the words in red in the following paragraphs

The United States had been a reluctant (_____________) entrant (______________) into the First World War, preferring to remain separate from what was perceived (______________) as a self-destructive (______________) European entanglement. Democratic (______________) President Woodrow Wilson attended the Paris Peace Conference in 1919 with high hopes of introducing a League of Nations that would make the world a safer place. Although he won the argument, and the League of Nations was founded (______________) in 1920, he was unable to convince (_________) his own country to join.

Wilson was too ill to stand for re-election, and in 1920 Warren Harding returned the White House to the Republican Party. Harding promised to take the country back to normal after its involvement in the First World War, and appointed (___________) friends to prominent (_____________) positions. Those friends became embroiled (____________) in a range of scandals (__________) that undermined (___________) his presidency until his death in 1923.

Harding’s successor, his former Vice President Calvin Coolidge, presided (___________) over a period of minimal government involvement and increasing prosperity (___________). Another Republican (_________________________), Herbert Hoover, was elected in 1928, and while continuing the minimalist government approach to the economy, found his presidency lost due to the impact of the 1929 Wall Street Crash and the ensuing (___________) Great Depression.

WORD BANK
unwilling	selected	involved	seen	important	humiliations
supporting the Republican Party		resulting	Political party to benefit the people		wealth
persuaded	governed	participant	damaged	created	damaging

1A- Consequences of the First World War for the United States

The immediate consequence of the war, as described by Historian George C. Herring, was a ‘politically supercharged environment’ characterised by strikes, racial violence and the ‘Great Red Scare’ of communism.

Image result for league of nations Image result for president wilson Part of the American national character was a belief in ‘American exceptionalism’; that is, that Americans saw their nation as a beacon (inspiration) to the world, guiding the way to democracy and prosperity, and their history as ongoing success. There had been American support for Woodrow Wilson’s (President) attempts in Paris (Paris Peace Confrence) to stand up for the world’s dispossessed (without a home) and support self-determination (freedom); however, this was followed by disappointment when Paris resulted in maintenance of the European status quo of imperialism (maintain current situation) .

Text Box: International organisation created after World War 1 solve disputes between countries before the erupt into open warfare Ratification of the League of Nations became Wilson’s battleground, and he set out on a national speaking tour of the United States in 1919 to build support for the League from the American people. Less than a month into the tour, however, Wilson suffered a stroke and was rushed back to Washington. The President would never fully recovered.

There is no doubt that participation in the First World War meant that the United States had become a major global player for the first time in history. With Europe apparently determined to continue on its path of self-destruction, American leadership in world affairs had the potential and the environment to develop.

The war also had significant economic consequences. It had seen the nation begin the transition from an agrarian to an industrial society, and the 1920s would see a boom in consumerism as the economy grew by an average of 5 per cent a year during the 1920s.

Image result for Wayne Wheeler Culturally, movies and jazz reflected a new way of communicating ideas. Curiously, this social change was accompanied by the introduction of Prohibition, a national ban on the making, transporting and selling of alcohol. The Anti-Saloon League, under the leadership of Wayne Wheeler, had rapidly developed into a powerful lobby group that fought successfully for Prohibition and even attempted to have a global prohibition on alcohol.

1A- Consequences of the First World War for the United States

1. Describe the significant economic consequences of WW1?

2. Explain how the US has changes culturally as a result of WW1?

3. Understanding and using sources

SOURCE 1- A common verse from the 1920s

Mother’s in the kitchen Washing out the jugs; Sister’s in the pantry Bottling the suds; Father’s in the cellar Mixing up the hops;

Johnny’s on the front porch Watching for the cops.

Eric Burns, 1920: The Year that Made

the Decade Roar, 2015, p. 50

Which 1920s American social issue does Source 1 provide a perspective on? What perspective does the source take?

Issue: ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Perspective:

1B- Republican economic policies

With Warren Harding’s election as President of the United States in 1920, the Republican Party was restored to the White House. The election of 1920, therefore, seemed to be a return to the normal and familiar patterns of American political life. The Republicans would continue to dominate presidential politics until the election of Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR) in 1932. Under Republicans Harding, Coolidge and Hoover, big business had champions (supporters) in the White House. They presided over an economic boom, and strongly believed in minimal government interference in business activity. They supported this approach by appointing Supreme Court judges who would consistently rule in favour of big business. Harding and Coolidge supported high tariffs, which protected American business, but as other countries responded with similar tariffs, international trade was restricted and helped contribute to the spread of the Great Depression across the world.

In 1928 another Republican, Herbert Hoover, was elected president. Hoover had grown up in rural America to become a self-made millionaire. This background no doubt helped shape his belief that the strength of the United States and its economy rested on the initiative and energy of the individual. He was, in this sense, a reflection and champion of the American Dream.

With the onset of the Great Depression, Hoover introduced a range of programs that would be the foundation for key aspects of FDR’s famous New Deal. It was Hoover who convinced Congress to vote for a $2.25 billion of funding for public works programs to stimulate the economy, and in 1932 he created the Reconstruction Finance Corporation. The RFC, as it was known, was a forerunner of the agencies that were to become a familiar feature of the New Deal. It provided indirect aid and funded banks, insurance companies and a range of other organisations.

2- True or False, If the answer is false please correct it to make it right.

a) Big businesses benefitted from the Republican Party	TRUE / FALSE
b) Republicans Harding, Coolidge and Hoover strongly believed in maximum government interference in business activity. They supported this approach by appointing Supreme Court judges who would rarely rule in favour of big business	TRUE / FALSE
c) Warren Harding established tariffs of up to 50% on imported goods to protect American businesses from foreign competition	TRUE / FALSE
d) Herbert Hoover lowered tariffs, increased taxes and put an end to Prohibition	TRUE / FALSE

Source 2

3) Using Source 2, describe how each President contributed to America’s economic policies

President	Policies
Warren Harding
Calvin Coolidge
Herbert Hoover

1 C- Long-term causes of the Great Depression

Text Box: 1- Wealth Was Not Evenly Distributed in Society
• Only a few Americans were wealthy
• 5% of Americans held 33% of all income
• Most families still lived on the economic edge and did not have the money to buy goods being produced
• There were too many goods and not enough consumers to buy them (underconsumption) Text Box: 6- Monetary Policy of the Federal Reserve
• The government raised interest rates instead of lowering them

5-       Weak International economy

·         Europe was still struggling to recover from WWI

·         There was a cycle of international debt as countries borrowed from one to pay off another

·         The U.S. passed the Smoot-Hawley Tariff to help American industries, but it reduced international trade and hurt the economy

4-       Lack of diversification in the economy

·         Some industries were barely breaking even: clothing, steel, and mining

·         Others were losing money: automobile manufacturing, construction, and consumer goods

·         The U.S. economy was not DIVERSIFIED—it depended on the automobile and steel industries to drive the economy.

Text Box: WARNING SIGNS OF THE GREAT DEPRESSION

Text Box: 2- Farmers were in trouble:
• During WWI farmers had increased production
• Overproduction after the war led to a drop in farm prices
• Many farmers could not pay their debts and lost their land to foreclosures
• 1 in 4 Americans were farmers

Text Box: 3- Americans were buying on credit
• Farmers were in debt
• Americans bought cars, radios, and appliances on credit and went deeper and deeper into debt
• Americans even bought stock on credit: buying on margin—they were gambling on the stock market
• Banks were in financial trouble because they had invested in the stock market

Text Box: SOURCE 5- The famous Ford production
line revolutionised the way products
were manufactured.

Activities:

1. Why was the Ford assembly line, shown in Source 5, such a significant feature of American industry?

1D- Reactions to the Wall Street Crash of 1929

Watch https://www.history.com/topics/great-depression/1929-stock-market-crash

Americans panicked and took money out of banks

Banking system collapsed

Money supply dropped

Salaries and prices were cut

Americans lost their jobs

Federal Reserve (government) was slow to act to solve the problem

Unemployment rose to 25% and higher

Farm income dropped by ½

Gross National Product –industrial output fell drastically

The entire economy collapsed and the Great Depression set in and lasted for a decade

The Wall Street Crash that launched what would become known as the Great Depression was the crash of the American stock market on Tuesday, 29 October 1929. Due to what followed, that day has become known as ‘Black Tuesday’.

The crisis had begun the previous week, as investors began to lose confidence, which is the key ingredient on a stock market. Investors started selling stocks regardless of their value.

On the Monday, the pace of selling increased. On Black Tuesday, the London Stock Exchange followed suit, and people who had invested their life savings in stocks that seemed to have limitless potential suddenly found them worthless. It took nearly three weeks for markets to reach any level of normality.

Following the Wall Street Crash, despite the efforts of Hoover, who was perhaps the most able Republican of his time, the economic depression grew worse. Hoover tried to restore confidence. His private papers suggest that he deliberately used the word ‘depression’ because he thought it was less likely to worry people than words such as ‘panic’ or ‘crisis’. He adopted a mildly inflationary policy to encourage recovery, but it was based largely on self-help and voluntary cooperation from business.

Between 1929 and the presidential election of 1932, national income fell from $87.4 billion to $41.7 billion, and almost 70 000 businesses went bankrupt. Five thousand banks failed. Unemployment reached four million in 1930, and then doubled in 1931. By 1932 it had reached 12 million. Fortune magazine calculated that 28 million Americans had no income at all in 1932.

Further, hundreds of thousands of Americans lost their homes as banks foreclosed and over a million jobless people roamed the country. There were hunger riots in former factory towns, and shanty towns sprang up around the United States.

1. What impact did the Wall Street Crash have on the American economy?

2. The date of Source 4 is 29 October 1929. Why would so many people be gathering outside the New York Stock Exchange? What might they be saying to one another?

2a- THE GREAT DEPRESSION AND ITS IMPACT:

Effects Of The Depression On Different Groups In Society: Workers, Women, Farmers and African Americans

How Did the Great Depression Impact the American People?

Had to seek unemployment and relief benefits from the government

Bread lines and soup lines formed. There was hunger in America

One third of farmers lost their land

Unemployment reached 25%

Mass migrations: Americans moved from place to place (migrated)

Number of homeless increased: Shanty towns called Hoovervilles sprung up

Effects Of The Depression On Different Groups In Society: Workers, Women, Farmers and African Americans

During this time, record numbers of Americans were unemployed; housing, manufacturing and consumption levels fell and the shallow emptiness of American idealism and capitalism was revealed. The average American family annual income dropped by 40 per cent: from US$2300 to US$1500. The effect on society was significant. Marriage rates declined, children were placed in care, people lost their jobs and unemployment increased by 50 per cent from 1929 to 1931. Over a quarter of a million people migrated to the western states such as California for work; 90 000 businesses had closed. Wages in the early 1930s had decreased by 50 per cent. Over 13 000 000 workers lost their jobs. Families were challenged by the traditional gender interdependence, with boys and young girls performing small jobs and domestic chores

Text Box: SOURCE 6 Unemployment figures in Chicago in 1931 to assist the family. Homelessness and hunger deprivation were a constant source of social uneasiness and discord. Over 20 000 Americans committed suicide. Death from starvation, which was unheard of in a modern industrialised twentieth-century nation, occurred increasingly frequently. Sources describe how newspapers became the sustenance of a nation, acting as ‘Hoover blankets’ (named after the failed American President) sheltering the cold and needy.

As Source 6 suggests, the effects of the Great Depression on different groups were uneven. Professionals and managers fared better than the people they were managing. Only 6.8 per cent of clerks were unemployed in 1930, and although that rose to 18.1 per cent in the following year ,it was below national unemployment rates. Location also had an impact. The Great Depression hit industrial cities such as Detroit particularly hard. As the home of the automobile industry, its workers were vulnerable to any economic contraction. The Ford Motor Company, for example, reduced its payroll from 128 000 workers in March 1929 to 37 000 by the summer of 1931.

Workers

Text Box: Source 7- Men looking for work during the Great Depression, wearing signs ‘Decent Jobs Wanted’, 1931 For the United States in the 1930s, as was the case in all Western societies, the family traditionally relied upon a male breadwinner. Thus, if that breadwinner was thrown out of work, the family was placed under great stress, and for men the sense of failure became all- pervasive. This is led to a collapse of morale across the country. Researchers in Chicago noted that ‘middle aged men, those between thirty five and fifty five, just at the time when their family responsibilities are at their greatest’ were suffering significant despair. One subject, a middle- aged man himself, reported that ‘a man over forty may as well go out and shoot himself’. As people lost their homes, unemployed workers created shanty towns, ironically nicknamed ‘Hoovervilles’ (After President Herbert Hoover), across America.

Hoovervilles John Steinbeck’s 1939 novel The Grapes of Wrath is about a family that lives in a “Hooverville.” Read the quote and respond below:

“He drove his old car into a town. He scoured the farms for work. Where can we sleep tonight? Well, there's Hooverville on the edge of the river. There's a whole raft of Okies there. He drove his old car to Hooverville. He never asked again, for there was a Hooverville on the edge of every town. The rag town lay close to water; and the houses were tents, and weed-thatched enclosures, paper houses, a great junk pile. The man drove his family in and became a citizen of Hooverville, always they were called Hooverville. The man put up his own tent as near to water as he could get; or if he had no tent, he went to the city dump and brought back cartons and built a house of corrugated paper. And when the rains came the house melted and washed away. He settled in Hooverville and he scoured the countryside for work, and the little money he had went for gasoline to look for work.”

1. Why did people have to live in Hoovervilles? What was it like to live there? How would you feel if you had to live in a Hooverville? Respond here.

2. Why were Hoovervilles’ seen as an embarrassment to the government’?

Women

As men were laid off in droves during the Great Depression, women and children whose wages were significantly cheaper than men’s often had to accept the responsibility of trying to support the family. Women found it easier to gain employment as clerks than men, and unskilled service jobs that were traditionally filled by women, such as cleaning and waitressing, were not as impacted by the Great Depression as manufacturing and industry jobs. Alongside their paid work, women also had to continue to maintain households, often in squalid (dirty) conditions.

More Women Join the Workforce

Role changes became the norm for women coping with and adapting to the economic changes brought on by the Great Depression. Men were drastically removed from the position of breadwinner, and many women were thrust into the position of working outside of the home. For the first time, a significant number of women made up about 25% of the workforce.

Places of employment for women included restaurants, factories, laundries and beauty shops. Some women worked as teachers, secretaries, librarians and nurses. And so, the Great Depression, though an economic crisis, served as an opportunity for women to increase their presence in the workforce.

Pursuing Higher Education

Before the Great Depression, the chances of women furthering their education were slim. However, during the drastic economic change, some women (especially those who were unmarried) took the opportunity to attend college. In the past, females would generally rely on their husbands for financial support. But with the growing number of men without employment--and therefore unfit for marriage--women began to take their financial futures into their own hands, turning to college for training for future careers.

Improving Family Living

The Great Depression forced women to make changes in how their homes and families functioned. With many men suddenly unemployed and at home all day, husbands and wives found themselves quarrelling much more often. Some men, facing the shame associated with unemployment, turned to drinking or abandoned their families altogether. In any case, women played a large part in keeping the peace in the household, making creative efforts to help all members of the family adjust to the new situation.

The efforts to save and make money during the Great Depression also took its toll on family life. Many women, whether they were working or not, preserved old clothing and cultivated vegetable gardens, adding to the already laborious duties of a homemaker at the time. Girls were expected to help around the house while their mothers worked outside of the home. Boys took on the jobs of doing janitorial work, delivering newspapers and working as clerks in neighbourhood stores, among other low-paying jobs.

1. What advantages did females searching for work in the Great Depression have over males?

2. Why were new opportunities now available to women?

3. How were women improving family life during the Depression?

Farmers

Wholesale revenue (income) from agricultural production halved between 1929 and 1932 and researcher

Frederick Mills, who investigated the impact of the Great Depression on the agricultural sector, found that, by 1933, farmers’ ability to purchase basic items had deteriorated by about a third more than the rest of the economy. When farmers declared bankruptcy as the Great Depression increased, there was a flow- on effect on small rural banks, with many having to close down.

Paired with the impact of the ‘Dust Bowl’ – a period of severe dust storms and drought that hit mid- western agricultural states such as Oklahoma, Texas, Kansas, Colorado and New Mexico during the 1930s, these pressures became unbearable for many farmers. It drove thousands of families off their land, with many heading west to California, further exacerbating (worsening) the effects of the Great Depression.

Many farmers eventually packed all their belongings into wagons and travelled across the nation toward the Pacific coast in the hope of finding new opportunities. Unfortunately, the employment prospects in states such as California were as bleak as they were in the central U.S. and Midwest. In fact, many Americans in the Pacific coastal regions faced severe unemployment. They resided in unsanitary labour camps where they typically slept on the ground and had little in the way of personal belongings. Celebrated writer John Steinbeck referred to these individuals as 'Harvest Gypsies.

African Americans

In his 2017 book A Rabble of Dead Money: The Great Crash and the Global Depression 1929– 1939, Charles Morris narrates the story of Ned Cobb (referred to as Nate Shaw), the son of a slave and black sharecropper in Alabama, as an example of the trickledown effect of the 1920s boom. Sharecroppers were tenant farmers who gave part of their crop to their landlords as rent. In the American South, black sharecroppers were regularly exploited by white farmers. Cobb was a hard worker and was able to save enough from his cotton crop to become one of the few black people to own some land of his own, and to be one of first people of colour in the South to buy his own car, a Model T Ford. In 1931 he joined the Sharecropper’s Union to help fight for the rights of black sharecroppers, as they found themselves at the end of the exploitation chain when the Great Depression impacted on the largely rural and racist South.

After helping a black neighbour fight to hold land that a group of white deputies were trying to illegally repossess (take back), Cobb was involved in a gun fight and was jailed for 12 years. He managed to retain his land and was portrayed as a rare example of black success from the time of the Great Depression. His oral history became the basis of an award winning book in 1975 All God's Dangers: The Life of Nate Shaw, as told to Theodore Rosengarten. Cobb’s experience shows the opportunities that were available for black people in the 1920s, and also the ways in which the realities of racism and the Great Depression prevented black Americans from making any serious social or economic progress.

Civil rights had become virtually non-existent throughout parts of the United States. In the South, Jim Crow laws reigned supreme during the Depression. White unity leagues formed and campaigned for the employment of white workers over blacks. Voting rights were limited by poll taxes and violence against blacks grew during the period. The poll tax may have been the most harmful to African Americans. The poll tax became a prerequisite to serve on a jury in Southern courts. Since most blacks were unemployed due to the Depression, they were unable to pay the poll tax. This resulted in juries being predominately white and issuing severe penalties to African Americans found guilty of breaking the law.

The lone bright spot in the plight of African Americans came when Eleanor Roosevelt, wife of Franklin Roosevelt, began to campaign for civil rights. Eventually, President Roosevelt cautiously (as to not upset Southern politicians) began to offer federal services to African Americans. Yet, the Southern white violence and hatred toward African Americans continued.

Many black Americans had migrated north in the first two decades of the twentieth century in search of opportunity. However, the jobs they had found in industry disappeared during the Great Depression, often more quickly than they did for whites. B black workers were often the first laid off as economic conditions tightened. Like their white counterparts, black people established shanty towns, or Hoovervilles. In Washington D.C., a black and white Hooverville managed to exist side by side until Hoover controversially ordered the US Army to destroy both of them, because their presence was seen as an embarrassment to the government.

1. How did the Great Depression make life for African American’s difficult?

What evidence is there that the Great Depression impacted differently on different groups

in American society?

Workers

Women

Farmers

African Americans

2b- THE GREAT DEPRESSION AND ITS IMPACT:

Attempts to halt the Depression: the Hoover Presidency, the FDR years

The responsibility for dealing with the Great Depression fell squarely on the shoulders of two American presidents: the Republican Herbert Hoover and the Democrat FDR. They took different approaches, and it will be important for you to consider the evidence and provide examples to support your conclusion when attempting to evaluate which approach was most successful.

The Hoover presidency

At first Hoover was hesitant to interfere with what many thought was a natural business cycle that would work itself out in time

Localism—Hoover’s policy during the Great Depression where he relied on local and state governments to help Americans in need. He believed problems could best be solved at the local level.

Volunteerism-Hoover asked business owners to stop layoffs and pay cuts. He also cut taxes and asked the wealthy to give more money to charities. Volunteerism failed to end the crisis.

As the situation grew worse, Hoover turned to volunteerism and localism

As the Depression grew worse, Hoover set up the RFC and provided over a billion dollars in loans to businesses, railroads, and banks to stimulate the economy

Hoover established the Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC) to stimulate the economy.

Hoover hoped this money would provide jobs and “trickle down” to workers

All of these efforts to end the Great Depression failed

Hoover’s reaction was to institute (organise) a series of meetings to try and head off a recession by:

· Meeting with business people and a range of local and state political representatives to encourage them to maintain wages

· He urged states and cities to accelerate construction to stabilise spending and employment. He cut taxes and tried to stimulate the economy with large-scale projects, including the commencement of construction of the Hoover Dam

· He was reluctant to involve the Federal Government in any largescale spending because of the traditional fear that government involvement could harm the free market that had enabled the United States to build such strong economic success in the past.

Being a prisoner of Republican thinking and economic orthodoxy condemned Hoover to failure as he dealt with the developing economic slowdown. His reliance on private enterprise and market forces to aid the increasing number of unemployed people simply failed. City based relief agencies were overwhelmed as unemployment rapidly grew throughout 1931, and wealthy business people declined to invest, preferring to wait out the unstable markets.

In June 1930 the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Bill was put forward to the President. The Bill proposed an increase on the tariffs placed on goods entering the country in an effort to support local producers. A month earlier, 1028 economists had signed a petition pleading with Hoover not to sign it, but despite his own misgivings (doubts), Hoover signed the Bill into law. Debate has raged since about the responsibility of the Smoot– Hawley Tariff Bill for the escalation of the Great Depression. Economists are now moving towards the standpoint that the impact was small, but there is no doubt that the Bill caused an international reaction, with other countries, starting with Canada and spreading across the globe imposing their own tariffs and strangling international trade.

1. How did the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act impact the American economy?

Hoover maintained his resistance (opposition) to providing relief for the poor, and was booed when he

attended a World Series baseball game in October 1931. His reputation was further stained by

his reaction to the ‘Bonus Army’, who had arrived in Washington D.C. over the spring and summer of 1932. This is ‘army’ was made up of First World War veterans who had been promised a bonus payment for their war service that was not due to be released to them until 1945. With many veterans now unemployed and living in poverty, they marched to demand it be paid early. Hoover refused to give in to the protesters and in 1932 he ordered the Secretary of War to break up the protests. The result was that two veterans were killed and more than a hundred were injured. Hoover then ordered the army to go in and clear the veterans’ camps and, under Chief of State Douglas MacArthur, the army burned most of the tents and squatters’ few belongings. It was a public relations disaster that confirmed for the public that Hoover did not care about the poor. FDR, who would run against Hoover in the November presidential election, is reported to have said about the raids: ‘Well this elects me.’

1. List the Cause and Effects of the Bonus Army

Text Box: Cause (hint: What did they want and why): Text Box: Effect: (hint: Did they try to get what they wanted? Why/why not? And what else happened as a result of the protests?)

The FDR Years

Text Box: Democratic candidate Franklin Roosevelt defeated Hoover and won the presidency

When FDR became president be promised decisive (fast) government action
to fight the depression

FDR believed the gov’t should use deficit spending (spending that causes debt) to stimulate the economy

In his first 100 days in office, FDR and Congress passed a broad platform of legislation to attack the depression called the “New Deal”

FDR’s first action was to address the bank crisis:

· FDR declared a four-day “bank holiday” where all banks were closed and inspected by federal regulators to determine which banks were healthy

· Only “healthy” banks could re-open after the holiday

FDR used the power of the radio to communicate to the American people:

· FRD did weekly radio addresses in simple, clear language to explain the”New Deal”.

· This gave people confidence that the government was actively fighting the Great Depression

First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt served as FDR’s “legs and eyes” as she toured the nation. Eleanor became the “conscious of the New Deal” as she expressed concern for the needs of the American people. She was the first First Lady to give lectures, radio broadcasts, write a daily newspaper column, and speak out on behalf of African Americans

Franklin Roosevelt (FDR) was elected President of the United States on 8 November 1932, but had to wait until March 1933 to be inaugurated as the 32nd president.

FDR first used the term ‘New Deal’ in his acceptance speech at the 1932 Democratic

Convention in Chicago, when he said: ‘I pledge you, I pledge myself, to a new deal for

the American people.’ It is unlikely that, at the time, FDR was doing anything more than

delivering a speech. The words were inspiring, but deliberately vague, as he neither wanted, nor needed, to commit himself to any specific plan of action at this time.

The 1932 election was the election that Hoover lost, rather than the election that FDR

won. FDR disclosed very little about his economic plans during the election campaign. He

had, however, criticised Hoover for being reckless and extravagant with government money and for trying to centre too much government power in Washington. FDR did pledge to cut government spending by 25 per cent. This bore no resemblance to what he actually did once he took office. He could be ruthless, practical and willing to deceive others to get what he wanted.

Despite the vagueness during the election campaign, there were some clues as to what FDR might do to address the Great Depression. As Governor of New York between 1929 and 1932, he had:

· supported low tariffs

· assistance to agriculture

· he had also been willing to spend government money

· he favoured public- funded hydroelectric projects and the provision of government money for the unemployed and the elderly.

The New Deal that emerged during 1933 evolved from trial and error. There was no bold, revolutionary grand design; that was not FDR’s style. He was pragmatic; in other words, he looked for practical solutions to specific

problems. During the months preceding his inauguration, FDR had a number of meetings with the outgoing President Hoover. They did not get along well, and represented a contrast in approaches. Hoover described FDR as an intellectual lightweight and felt that he had little understanding of the economic situation. While Hoover immersed himself in economic detail, FDR looked at the big picture; while Hoover read every economic report, FDR gained more from talking to people.

Following Inauguration Day, FDR used the full power of the president’s office to attack the Great Depression. He also utilised the new technology of radio to appeal directly to the public, in what became known as his ‘fireside chats’. Considering the country’s size and diversity, being able to harness the communicative power of radio to speak with all Americans in such an intimate manner was a masterstroke (very good idea).

The program for the New Deal became clear after FDR’s first hundred days in office. The initial stage of the New Deal was based on three foundations:

Fifteen major bills went through Congress between 9 March and 16 June 1933, creating the

following agencies:

1. the Civilian Conservation Corps

2. the Home

3. Owners Loan Corporation

4. the Farm Credit Administration

5. the Federal Emergency Relief Administration

6. the Tennessee

7. Valley Authority

8. the United States Employment Service

9. the Civil Works Administration

10. the Federal Communications Commission

11. the National Housing Administration

12. The Securities and Exchange Commission

FDR took the United States off the Gold Standard, closed the banks and then gradually reopened them, providing a government guarantee of all deposits under $5000. This was the type of action that began restoring much needed confidence into American life, while also subtly increasing the federal administration’s involvement in the day- to- day running of the government.

FDR then went on to extend government regulation of the economy through the:

· National Labor Relations Act

· The Social Security Act

· The Farm Tenancy Act

· The Public Utilities Holding Company Actt

· The Fair Labor Standards Act.

There was also an expanded public works program, with the Rural Electrisation Administration, the United States Housing Authority and the Works Progress Administration.

This aspect of the New Deal played a role in easing the burden of the Great Depression. The so- called ‘New Deal recovery’ caused unemployment to fall from nearly 12 million in 1932– 33 to less than eight million four years later. A recession in 1937– 38 saw the figures rise again for a time, until full recovery came with the Second World War.

Despite the traditional American suspicion against government intervention, the New Deal won major and enduring public approval. FDR’s party, the Democrats, added to their majority of seats in both Congress and the Senate in the 1934 elections. Two years later, FDR was re-elected president with a huge majority, defeating the Republican candidate, Alf Landon. FDR was re- elected again in 1940 and 1944, as he moved from guiding his country through the Great Depression to leading it through the Second World War.

The New Deal did, however, prompt a great deal of controversy, while many people saw it as revolutionary, others complained that it did not go far enough. The Supreme Court blocked many of the changes that FDR wanted; for example, the National Recovery Administration (NRA), an agency set up in 1933, which was designed to provide direction for future economic planning, was ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in 1935.

As mentioned above, the New Deal was not a grand plan; rather, it was a series of specific and often experimental solutions to particular social and economic problems. As a consequence, the New Deal comprised many changes and many phases. Some historians have found it useful to distinguish between the initial changes and later aspects of the program.

The early phase, sometimes called the ‘First New Deal’, referred to measures taken up to 1935. The ‘second New Deal’ went from 1935 to 1939. If the early period had been about relief and recovery, the second period was dominated far more by the hope of lasting reform.

1- Outline the three foundations of the NewDeal‑

Source 9

The country needs and, unless I mistake its temper, the country demands, bold, persistent experimentation. It is common sense to take a method and try it: If it fails, admit it frankly and try another. But above all, try something. The millions who are in want will not stand by silently forever while things to satisfy their needs are within easy reach.

FDR’s speech to commencing students at Oglethorpe University, spring,_1932, in

Charles R._Morris. A Rabble of Dead Money, 2017,_p._257

Source 9 was delivered before FDR had been elected president. To what extent did the New Deal reflect what FDR said in Source 9?

	Hoover	FDR
Policies to help prevent depression
Beliefs on Tariffs
Policies to ease/ try to stop depression
Effective as a President? Why/ why not?

2c- THE GREAT DEPRESSION AND ITS IMPACT:

Assessment of the New Deal

THE GOVERNMENT HELPED RELIEVE
UNEMPLOYMENT BY CREATING JOBS

During the New Deal, the gov’t provided relief checks to
15% of Americans

Text Box: The greatest success of the New Deal was its ability to offer relief to unemployed citizens with unemployment checks and job programs

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was a work program for young men aged 18-25 years old…

The CCC built roads, parks, soil erosion project, and employed 3 million men

The Public Works Admin (PWA) hired 2 million to build airports, dams, schools, hospitals, parks

The New Deal created long-term reforms
to address weaknesses in the American economy and address the causes of the Great Depression

Text Box: Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) was created to regulate the stock market and prevent another crash

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) was created to guarantee customer bank accounts and restore public confidence in banks

The government insures up to $250,000 in each bank account

The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) was created to bring electricity to the South and create jobs

New Deal programs tried to recover the
economy by stimulating industry and farming

Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA) was created
to help farmers and stimulate agriculture

The AAA helped farmers, but they never made enough money to stimulate the economy

Text Box: The National Recovery Administration (NRA) was created to stimulate industry

The NRA tried to set fair wages and hours for workers and minimum prices for products

The NRA failed to
create fair competition, stimulate industry, or end the depression

From 1933 to 1935, FDR’s New Deal programs helped lower unemployment and restored hope, but the Great Depression had not come to an end

FDR’s failure to end the depression led to criticism of the New Deal

The most vocal critic was Louisiana Senator Huey Long

Rectangular Callout: Huey Long threatened to run as a 3rd party candidate but was assassinated in 1935

Some historians argue that the First New Deal had focused on the needs of business and banks in order to support the economy. The second New Deal, they suggest, did more to address the needs of the poor, the unemployed, the farmers and other disadvantaged groups, such as through the Social Security Act, the Revenue Act and the Welfare Tax Act, all passed in 1935. Each of these Acts was designed to make the social system more equitable, providing pensions and social welfare payments to the unemployed and the elderly, and imposing a

heavier tax burden on the rich.

In 1944, Basil Rauch wrote a history of the New Deal in which the first New Deal was presented as being primarily conservative, aimed simply at recovery rather than reform. Rauch suggests that the Second New Deal, which appeared in 1935, was more radical and gave rise to progressive measures. The problem with this interpretation is that it is too simple: it ignores some progressive aspects of the early years of the FDR administration.

A contrasting view was developed by Rexford Tugwell, one of FDR’s advisers, and was made popular by historian Arthur M.Schlesinger. His view also recognises two New Deals, but describes them differently from the way Rauch does. Schlesinger saw the First New Deal as radical and the second New Deal as conservative. According to Schlesinger, the radical nature of the early period was evident in a commitment to national planning and, after 1935, the second New Deal was more traditional, more conservative and increasingly pro- business. As with Rauch’s view, these labels are too clear- cut. It is difficult to describe legislation such as the Wagner Act (which guaranteed basic work rights to private sector employers), or the creation of new government agencies (such as the Farm Security Administration or the National Planning Board) as representing a conservative shift in policy.

According to David Kennedy, if labels are to be used, they should distinguish between features of the New Deal in terms of its legacy. In other words, which pieces of legislation had lasting effects? Kennedy sees the measures adopted to address the immediate economic crisis of the Great Depression as part of what he calls the First New Deal. For Kennedy, the second New Deal includes all of the enduring changes that came out of the reforms from 1933 onward. He bases his distinction not on when policies were enacted, but on how significant and lasting they proved to be.

Historian Richard Kirkendall suggests that FDR and the New Deal made significant changes to American politics and even helped defend the two- party system. He also suggests that the New Deal, in providing moderate change, helped prevent more radical change, such as a revolution. This view is supported by the fact that by 1932, the Communist Party and the Socialist Party, which represented a more radical approach to dealing with the Great Depression, had expanded their membership and campaigns for radical change.

Kirkendall saw the New Deal as continuing an American tradition of pragmatism (practicality). In 1929 and 1930, the economic crisis of the Great Depression was so extreme that the view was not whether there would be change, but how significant the change would be.

Historian	How many deals did they recognise?	How they describe the first Deal?	How they describe the second Deal?	Overall View of the Deal as a whole (good and bad)
Basil Rauch
Arthur M. Schlesinger
David Kennedy
Richard Kirkendall

Here, it is important to note that the New Deal did little to deal with the racism that was prevalent (common) in the United States at this time. There was no effort to address the lynching, disenfranchisement (exclusion), segregation or job discrimination. Where the New Deal helped black Americans was as members of the lower class through welfare programs. The New Deal did, however, result in more non- whites being placed in important government positions than had been the case under any previous administration.

Women were also a key part of FDR’s support base and during his time in office women were employed in significant government positions. The high public profile of First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt was also an important factor in building support for FDR among female voters.

Complete the following sentences:

· The New Deal did little to deal with racism. It did not ________________________

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

· The New Deal helped African Americans by ________________________________

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

· The New Deal resulted in more non-whites ________________________________

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

· The New Deal effected women as, _______________________________________

Criticism of the New Deal

There were those such as journalist and labour activist Benjamin Stolberg and politician Warren Vinton, both writing in 1935 who claimed that the New Deal did not go far enough and that it failed to alter the basic injustices within American society. They attacked the limitations of the social security, the lack of concern for the black population and the inadequate unemployment relief programs.

This attack has since been continued by historians James MacGregor Burns and Paul Conkin, who argue that the New Deal benefited the wealthy and those with vested interests, especially the farmers and the middle class. They suggest that it did not lead to fundamental change for those most in need. On the other side of politics, FDR was criticised for being ‘revolutionary’.

Conservatives, such as former president Hoover and Senator Robert Taft, claimed that the New Deal tried to set up a welfare state, and that it was socialist; that is, that too much power flowed to government.

Using the Paragraph above, write who believed the following statements:

Criticism	Who believed this
The New Deal did not go far enough and that it failed to alter the basic injustices within American society. They attacked the limitations of the social security, the lack of concern for the black population and the inadequate unemployment relief programs	Benjamin Stolberg and politician Warren Vinton
The New Deal benefited the wealthy and those with vested interests, especially the farmers and the middle class. They suggest that it did not lead to fundamental change for those most in need
The New Deal tried to set up a welfare state, and that it was socialist; that is, that too much power flowed to government
FDR was criticised for being ‘revolutionary’

SOURCE 10

[T] here is a striking vein of research that suggests that the main factor in the recovery was Roosevelt himself – and it’s not nearly as far- fetched as it sounds. It has long been a puzzlement that the economy picked up sharply in the month that Roosevelt finally assumed the presidency. There was no obvious reason for it, no sudden increase in the money supply, no fall in real wages that might explain a turnaround.

Charles R. Morris, A Rabble of Dead Money, 2017,_p._263

Explain the point that Charles R. Morris is making in Source 10. Develop an argument either supporting or opposing this perspective.

3a- US society 1919–1941, including:

Implications Of Growing Urbanisation And Industrialisation

The growth of urban society was one of the most striking developments of the 1920s. This shift was partly driven by foreign immigrants flocking to the large cities for work and a better life. It was also the product of internal migration, as people from small towns moved to the big manufacturing centres in search of opportunity

The large- scale movement of black Americans from the South to the North the black population of northern cities such as Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland and New York grew by 35 per cent between 1910 and 1920 had both social and cultural implications. Many white residents in cities such as Detroit resented any attempts by black people to move into what they regarded as white areas, increasing racial tensions.

As a result of internal migration, black culture, especially music, spread and started to generate change in American society. Initially it was jazz and blues that built a significant following. This would explode in the

1940s and 50s, leading to the development of rock’n’roll in the 1950s. Through music, black culture was made accessible to white Americans, and by the 1960s Motown , Black music company would be the largest black corporation in the United States.

By the end of the 1920s, for the first time in the country’s history, the urban population was larger than the rural communities. In 1910, there were only three US cities with populations over one million: New York (4 766 883), Chicago (2 185 283) and Philadelphia (1 549 008). By the end of the 1920’s there were five, with all vastly increased populations; New York (6 930 446), Chicago (3 376 438), Philadelphia (1 950 961), Detroit (1 568 662), and Los Angeles (1 238 048). Detroit’s population grew by 600 per cent and Cleveland’s by 300 per cent between 1910 and 1920.

The 1920s have been called the decade of the second American Industrial Revolution; a claim that is supported by the fact that industrial production doubled between 1922 and 1927. This increased production was a result of technological advances in manufacturing. Electrical power replaced steam in most factories, and most of the products produced were consumer goods.

The automobile industry was the backbone of industrial production during this period. In 1922, 2.5 million new cars and trucks were sold in the United States. By 1929 that had more than doubled to 5.3 million. Steel plants were operating beyond capacity, producing the steel that supported the skyscrapers that were starting to dominate city skylines. Electricity sales were up 12 per cent, and the impact of electrisation was seen in a 30 per cent jump in electrical machinery sales. Radio was becoming an essential item in households across the nation, and the movie industry was on the verge of an even larger boom as it adapted to new technology with the introduction of sound in films.

Explain how Sources 20– 22 help you understand the development of urbanisation in the United States between the wars.

Hint: Use the underlined words in the passage to help you answer the question

3b- US society 1919–1941, including:

Mobilisation Of The Military And War Production 1939–1941

An examination of US war production in 1939 makes it clear that the country was not prepared for the Second World War. Incredibly, the United States was ranked 39th in the world in terms of military production at the time the war broke out in Europe. Further, the US armed forces still contained 50_000 cavalry and used horses to pull artillery.

The Great Depression had taken its toll, and many Americans were determined to keep their country out of another European entanglement, believing they had no need to be involved in the conflict. Then came Pearl Harbor. Less than a month after the Japanese attack on 7 December 1941, FDR told Congress and the American people: ‘Powerful enemies must be out- fought and out- produced. It is not enough to turn out just a few more planes, a few more tanks, a few more guns, a few more ships than can be turned out by our enemies.

We must out- produce them overwhelmingly, so that there can be no question of our ability to provide a crushing superiority of equipment in any theatre of the world war.’ FDR set mighty targets for war production, including 60 000 aircraft in 1942 and 125 000 in 19 43.

These ambitious aims and rapid mobilisation of troops transformed American industry. Companies fell into line and applied their manufacturing skills to supporting the war. In 1941, more than three million cars had been manufactured in the United States. Only 139 more were made during the entire war. Instead, Chrysler made aeroplane fuselages and General Motors made aeroplane engines, as well as guns, trucks and tanks. Packard made Rolls- Royce engines for the British Air Force, and, in Michigan, the Ford Motor Company turned to manufacturing B- 24 Liberator long- range bombers 24 hours a day. One came off the production line every 63 minutes.

War mobilisation also helped transform American society. Sixteen million men and women served in the armed forces, and another 24 million worked in industries supporting the war effort. Eight million women entered the work force, and minorities such as black people and

Latinos found a much wider range of employment opportunities than were available to them before the war. To pay for this massive transformation, personal income tax exemption was lowered and war bonds were issued. Necessary commodities were rationed to ensure their availability. The production potential in the United States was always there, but the urgency generated by Pearl Harbor ensured that it burst into efficient action.

3c- US society 1919–1941, including:

Growth And Influence Of Consumerism Including Entertainment

As mentioned, the United States has been described as the world’s first consumer society, and it was in the 1920s that this transformation really began. Industrial expansion made more and more consumer goods available at lower prices. Electrification and the increasing application of credit meant that even working families had access to new products. For example, the price of one of Henry Ford’s Model T’s had dropped from $950 to $290 in 1926. Industry also provided a growing range of now familiar labour- saving household appliances, including

stoves, refrigerators and washing machines, all of which started appearing in working- class homes. Technology also allowed the production of synthetic products, such as cellophane and rayon.

Why was the United States described as the world’s first consumer society? (hint: write about the following: industrial expansion, electrification, the increased application of credit, house hold appliances and technology)

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

In the 1920s, the focus of advertising shifted in the United States. While advertising began as a way to inform customers about produce, the 1920s saw advertisements becoming more persuasive. Advertising agencies more than doubled their income from 1919 to 1926, a shift that was closely connected with the fundamental and near- fatal weakness of the market capitalism of the 1920s – the continual need for consumption and growth. At this time, credit boomed and many families used the credit system to purchase cheaper goods, such as cars and even clothing. In 1920 there was virtually no money tied up in consumer instalment credit; by 1925 the total was $11.5 billion.

Through the development of the film industry, entertainment and consumerism began to blur together. Visiting the movie theatres that sprung up across the country became a favourite pastime for Americans during the 1920s. As Source 24 indicates, movies started to feature more controversial content during the 1920s, including nudity and the use of curse words. This trend was to be temporarily reversed by the introduction of the Motion Picture Production Code, commonly known as the Hays Code, in 1930. The code was designed to ensure that a film did not ‘lower the moral standards of those who saw it’, and included the ban of features such as suggestive nudity, profanities and miscegenation (sexual relations between a black person and a white person). Always

controversial, the code maintained a largely conservative approach to Filmmaking before finally coming under sustained attack in the 1960s, when it faded into history.

As for music, the jazz genre was booming and spread beyond churches and black communities of the South to metropolitan areas such as Chicago and New York. Black musicians like Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong become major forces in the Jazz Age, eventually blazing a path that would lead to mainstream acceptance of the genre that crossed any racial divide.

How did the Jazz genre change during this period of time?

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

3d- US society 1919–1941, including:

Social Tensions, Including Immigration Restrictions, Religious Fundamentalism, Prohibition, Crime, Racial Conflict, Anti-Communism And Anti-Unionism

Social Tensions

The surface appearance of the United States in the 1920s portrayed a progressive consumerist society moving ever onwards to greater prosperity and success. That picture obscured the tensions that existed in American society at the time. There were deep divisions along racial lines, with the Civil War still in living memory. Moves were made to restrict migration, and religious fundamentalists pushed back against modernism and scientific rationality.

Communism became an ongoing fear and, by being linked to workers’ rights, it condemned unions to an increasingly minor role. The prohibition on alcohol sales continued throughout the 1920s, which offered great opportunities for criminal gangs to make a thriving business in the illegal alcohol trade. When the Great Depression hit, many of these tensions came to the fore, and the apparently unstoppable surge towards a golden future hit a shuddering halt.

Progressive		o The conformity of one's beliefs with one's reasons to believe, and of one's actions with one's reasons for action.
obscured		o indicate strong disapproval of
fundamentalists		o The prevention by law of the manufacture and sale of alcohol, especially in the US between 1920 and 1933.
modernism		o happening or developing gradually or in stages
scientific rationality		o a person who believes in the strict, literal interpretation of scripture in a religion
Communism		o Outpouring or rush
Condemned		o to depart significantly from classical and traditional forms
Prohibition		o Trembling or shaking
Surge		o Hidden
shuddering		o theory or system of social organization in which all property is owned by the community and each person contributes and receives according to their ability and needs

Immigration Restrictions

Watch: https://study.com/academy/lesson/immigration-quota-system-of-1921-definition-overview.html#/lesson

Land of the Free?

America is a land of immigrants. Does your heritage involve someone coming here from another country? If so, many people can relate to you. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, the United States witnessed a boom in the number of people coming from other countries, also called_____________________. The quantity of those who came was as numerous as their reasons for coming.

Despite our nation tempting immigrants with the American Dream, the U.S. government began restricting the quantity of those who could come into the country. This was done through the ____________________________, also known as the Emergency Immigration Act and Immigration Restriction Act. This act restricted the number of new immigrants per year to 3 percent of the number of residents from that country already in the U.S. Let's examine the basis of the act, why it was passed, and the impact it left.

Background on Immigration

To understand the Emergency Quota Act, one has to know why there were so many immigrants in the first place. Beginning with the Pilgrims (the first settlers) in 1620, religious freedom has always been a reason to come to America. Some also came for better economic opportunities, such as during the Gold Rush, while others simply wanted a better quality of life. Europe in the 1880s through 1920s was not a great place to be, given World War I and other conflicts. Leadership was poor and brutal, and dreams were to be realized by going to the United States. Millions would come, especially during the height of immigration from approximately 1880 to 1920.

The Emergency Quota Act

So, what spurred the Emergency Quota Act? This question is among the most difficult and diverse to answer regarding the Emergency Quota Act, and there are many reasons why the system was put into place. In the early 1900s, there was a social anti-immigration movement in the United States. People began to push the federal government to restrict the number of foreigners who could enter the country. This is ironic given that there were already many people here that were in fact foreign-born. There was an inherent prejudice and fear against those who were born elsewhere. Known as ________________, this fear contributed to the _________________, which believed in rejection of anyone foreign-born.

There were also economic reasons. In 1919, a recession hit the United States. Mainly caused by a decline in the economy after World War I, there was also an increase of the inflation rate. ______________________was also very high, and many people who were out of work blamed recent immigrants for taking the few jobs that were out there.

Politically, there were reasons as well. In the late 1910s, the U.S. went through the Red Scare, which was inspired by World War I and a revolution in Russia. Many Americans feared a communist rising could occur in this country. Further, it was believed that allowing immigrants from countries that aligned with communist and socialist beliefs would open the floodgates for these ideologies. Once these immigrants arrived, there was no telling how they might convince workers to rise up and revolt. In fact, anarchists (those who want to overthrow the government) were a real problem - to the extent that they were tied to a bombing on Wall Street in 1920. These reasons were enough to push the government to control immigration.

This is not to say that immigrants were bad. At the time, it was accepted that older immigrants were not a problem. But Americans largely believed new immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe were a tough breed - that they were the ones bringing socialist, communist, and anarchist ideas that would cause nothing but problems. The _________________(KKK) even became involved in opposition to these new immigrants.

With that, in 1921, the Emergency Quota Act was signed into law. This legislation restricted new immigration to 3 percent of the number of residents per year from their country of origin already living in the United States. The 1910 ___________would be used to determine who was already here. This means that if there were 10,000 Italians in the census, only 300 per year could enter. Not all were part of this new quota system.

Impact of the Quota System

There were many impacts of the quota system. The number of immigrants dropped by nearly 500,000 in its first year. It discriminated indirectly against certain parts of the world, especially Southern and Eastern Europe. The act allowed more people from specific areas, such as Northern Europe, to enter. This was because in 1910, there were more people from that region already here.

Though designed as a short-term fix, the act was renewed and made a fixture in foreign policy until the 1960s. The exact number of immigrants prevented from coming to the U.S. is probably impossible to figure out. American officials who were in Europe after World War I reported that millions wanted to leave and come to the U.S. But given that the law lasted for more than 40 years, the amount is likely more.

Lesson Summary

The United States was built on the backs of ____________________. Many people can trace their roots to ancestors who came here for a variety of reasons. Though our nation is appealing to the masses, there are times when the government restricts who is allowed to enter. The Emergency Quota Act of 1921 changed national policy on immigration, placing a cap on the number of new immigrants from a certain country at 3 percent of the current population of residents from that particular nation in the U.S. There is no telling how many immigrants were robbed of the American Dream. Nevertheless, this act set a precedent for American immigration policy for years to come.

WORD BANK
xenophobia	Unemployment	immigrants	Emergency Quota Act of 1921	Nativist movement	immigrants	census	Ku Klux Klan

Religious Fundamentalism

https://prezi.com/ztbbapwue0qa/religious-fundamentalism-in-the-1920s/

The savagery of the First World War encouraged many people to reflect on the nature of humanity. One result of this was a rise in fundamental Christianity that is, belief in the literal truth of everything in the Bible in the United States. Fundamental Christians wanted a return to older values and behaviours. They supported a very traditional approach to religion, and were opposed to what they perceived as the sinful behaviour of the ‘modern world’, which appeared to be celebrating the end of the war in an immoral manner. They took a literal approach to the Bible and campaigned to oppose developments that reflected modernity. They formed what became

referred to as a ‘Bible belt’ across the Southern states, which influenced social developments in that region well into the 1960s.

The most noticeable political victory for the fundamental Christians was Prohibition, but other successes included bans on short swimming costumes and on Sunday gambling. The fundamentalists rejected the concept of evolution, and their opposition to Darwinian scientific theory being taught in schools came to prominence in 1925 in the Scopes Trial, also termed the ‘Scopes Monkey Trial’. The United States led the world in the development of science and technology throughout much of the twentieth century, yet in 1925 an American science teacher, John T. Scopes, was put on trial in the State of Tennessee for teaching part of his subject. Tennessee, along with 15 other states, had passed laws declaring it illegal to teach Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution in schools and universities, instead forcing teachers to teach the biblical version of creation. One of the great campaigners in defence of the creationist, or biblical, view was William Jennings Bryan. Bryan was the unsuccessful Democratic Party candidate for the presidency in 1896, 1900 and again in 1904, and had played a key role in gaining the passage of two important amendments to the US Constitution one giving votes to women and the other introducing Prohibition. At the time of the Scopes Trial, Bryan, who appeared for the prosecution, was working towards another constitutional amendment to ban the teaching of Darwin in every school or university across the whole country.

To us, this might seem to oppose everything that education stands for; however, in some parts of the United States in the 1920s, fundamentalist religion was highly influential. In the end, Scopes was found guilty. The contradiction was evident in that the United States based much of its greatness on science and technology, yet at the same time, in some states, attacked science and education through its own laws.

Explain the impact of Christian fundamentalism on American society during this period

Prohibition

Prohibition was a ban placed on the sale, manufacture and transportation of alcohol in the United States, introduced by the 18th Amendment to the US Constitution in 1920 and ended by the 21st Amendment in 1933. Prohibition was marketed as an attempt to protect families and weak individuals from the harmful effects of too much drink and many people, including President Hoover, described it as a ‘noble experiment’. Many of those who supported Prohibition did so because they blamed alcohol for changes in the traditional ways of life. They did not realise there were other larger forces at work that were as influential if not more than alcohol in altering American society, including urbanisation, improvements in transport, the mass media and more.

The introduction of Prohibition in 1920 was not a sudden development. The United States had a long history of groups that were opposed to alcohol. In the 1800s they were called ‘Temperance’ groups. Members of these groups felt that alcohol was ‘un- American’ and evil; they spoke of the ‘demon drink’ and blamed it for divorce, poverty, unemployment and crime. Many of them looked back to what they thought were ‘real’ American values: the simple country life centred on the family, the local community and the church.

As the country changed during the latter part of the nineteenth century and the early part of the twentieth, some Americans from white, Protestant, Anglo- Saxon backgrounds became convinced that the change was for the worse. At the same time, many immigrant groups, including Germans and Italians, had a culturally much more relaxed relationship to alcohol, which created tensions between these groups and the temperance supporters.

Prohibition had made some progress by 1910 when a number of individual states had passed laws banning alcohol. However, the ‘Drys’ – those in favour of Prohibition wanted more, and in 1913 they began to campaign for a change to the US Constitution that would ban alcohol all over the country. One of the most colourful fighters for Prohibition was Mrs Carrie Nation. She travelled around the country invading bars and saloons with a small axe, smashing bottles, glasses, beer kegs and anything else she could reach. She represented the thoughts of many woman who resented the violence that alcohol introduced into households.

The First World War helped the Prohibition cause. The Prohibitionists proposed arguments that since many of the brewers of beer were German or of German origin, it was somehow unpatriotic to drink beer; that the grain used to make alcohol was needed to feed the hungry during the war; and that since American soldiers at the front were not allowed to drink, civilians at home should make the same sacrifice.

But despite successful legal wins for the Drys in some states, Prohibition proved almost impossible to enforce, especially since it was not against the law to buy alcohol, which made it acceptable to many people

to continue drinking. Saloons were closed, but were quickly replaced by ‘speakeasies’ secret undercover bars or saloons. Ironically, rather than diminishing the evils of alcohol, Prohibition appeared to make them worse. After the introduction of Prohibition in New York, there were more ‘speakeasies’ than there had been legal saloons. Ultimately, those politicians opposed to Prohibition, called the ‘Wets’, gained control of the Democratic Party; hence Prohibition came to an end soon after the Democratic candidate for the presidency, FDR, was elected in 1932.

Prohibition had failed to take the United States back to what its supporters thought were the traditional values of American life. Instead, it had encouraged an increase in organised crime and violence between rival groups of gangsters. The growing wealth of the crime bosses added to the corruption of local government officials and police through bribes. The government also discovered another major drawback to the introduction of Prohibition: the Federal Government had collected about $500 million a year from alcohol a 10th of the national revenue and it disappeared overnight into the pockets of gangsters.

PROHIBITION

Activity: Create a mind map that outlines the achievements and failures of Prohibition as a government policy.

Analysing sources 6.8

SOURCE 6.24 Per capita consumption of alcoholic beverages (gallons of pure alcohol) 1910–29

1 Explain what happened to alcohol consumption in 1921 when Prohibition was introduced.

2 Describe the trend of alcohol consumption over the Prohibition period from 1920 to 1933.

3 Using this evidence, analyse if Prohibition was successful.

Answer the question above on the lines below

1. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

2. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

3. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

4. ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Crime

Crime is a part of any society, and the 1920s in the United States were no different. Gangs had controlled areas of society well before the 1920s, but their influence and ambitions were usually limited. It was the introduction of Prohibition that enabled organised crime to become a major American business.

Prohibition proved to be the greatest boost to crime and gangsters in American history. People still wanted to drink and although, as mentioned, it was not against the law for them to buy alcohol, respectable, honest brewers and distillers of beer and spirits had been put out of business. Gangsters jumped on the opportunity to make money from average American citizens. Gangs like the Chicago Outfit, headed by mob boss Al Capone, set up illegal breweries and smuggled alcohol across the Canadian border.

By 1925, Capone’s liquor empire had made him one of the most powerful and well-known criminals in the United States. In 1927 alone it was estimated that he earned over US$100 million from his illegal empire. His wealth gave him and his associates political influence, as they were able to bribe police and other officials on a regular basis. Capone was known to be ruthless towards anyone who sought to rival his status as the head of American

illegal liquor trade and regularly ordered rival gang members to be killed. The most violent single act carried out by his people was the St Valentine’s Day Massacre in 1929, when Capone’s men used machine- guns to shoot seven members of a rival gang in a garage in Chicago’s Lincoln Park neighbourhood. Failing to tie Capone to any murders, the federal authorities finally prosecuted him for tax evasion, and in 1931 he was sentenced to 11 years in prison.

Capone was, however, only one of many ‘crime bosses’ who grew rich, made war on one another, and contributed to the corruption of local government and the police during Prohibition era.

Al Capone

No discussion of organized crime in the 1920s would be complete without addressing 'Scarface' Al Capone. Alphonse Capone is undoubtedly the most recognizable gangster of the era. Born to Italian immigrants in New York City, Capone was drawn to a life of crime at a young age. On the streets of Brooklyn, gang boss Johnny Torrio introduced young Capone to the underground world of organized crime. In a bar brawl, Capone's left face was slashed, leaving scars that would cause him to be nicknamed 'Scarface.'

At Torrio's urging, Capone relocated to Chicago were he learned the art of racketeering, running a brothel and bootlegging. The sharp-minded Capone rose quickly through the ranks of the Chicago Outfit, a name used to refer to Torrio's criminal network. In 1925, Torrio decided to retire after being seriously injured in an assassination attempt. Leadership of the Chicago Outfit was passed to Capone.

Unlike other gangland bosses, Capone was a highly visible figure. He courted the press, attended public events, such as the opera, and even opened up a soup kitchen for the unemployed. Careful to always appear respectable, Capone tried to present himself as a modern-day Robin Hood. Capone could certainly be charming, despite his capacity for ruthlessness.

Through bribes, rigging elections and other means, Capone wielded tremendous political power in the city of Chicago. Incidentally, Capone always tried, as much as possible, to ensure that he was photographed from the right side, so as to hide the left, scarred side of his face.

On February 14, 1929, members of the Chicago Outfit massacred seven members of Bugs Moran's rival North Side gang in an event that is commonly called the Saint Valentine's Day Massacre. Capone arranged for bootleggers to lure North Side gang members into picking up a shipment of whiskey at a warehouse. Capone's men, dressed as police officers and agents, then staged a 'raid.' Believing that this was nothing but a standard police raid, the North Side gang members lined up against a wall, only to be gunned down. The massacre caused national outrage as Americans began to realize just how much of a problem organized crime had become.

Determined to crack down on organized crime, the Bureau of Prohibition charged agent Eliot Ness and his band of men, nicknamed 'The Untouchables,' with convicting and imprisoning Capone. Because there was not much evidence to indict Capone for other crimes, it was decided that the best way to go after Capone was on charges of income tax evasion. Capone was indicted for evading taxes in March 1931. He was found guilty and sentenced to 11 years in prison, the longest sentence legally allowed for income tax evasion. Capone was sent to a federal prison in Atlanta and then transferred to Alcatraz. He was eventually paroled, and he died in 1947.

Give examples of at least three criminal activities in which Capone was involved

To which US city did Capone move after leaving New York?

_____________________________________________________________________________

What was the name of the gangster (Capone’s mentor) who got him to move there?

_____________________________________________________________________________

The Torrio-Capone gang competed with which other gang?

_____________________________________________________________________________

Who was “Big Bill” Thompson, and why did Capone bribe him?

What was the exact date of the St Valentine’s Day Massacre?

____________________________________________________________________________

Who was Capone trying to strike back at in the Massacre?

What did Capone’s gunmen disguise themselves as during the raid?

What was the impact of the massacre on Capone’s reputation?

In the end what was Capone imprisoned for and which prisons did he spend time in?

Use a dictionary and find the meaning of the following words:

Prohibition_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Bootlegging- ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Bribery-________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________________

Assassination- ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

1. _______________________________________________________________________________

5. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

6. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

7. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

8. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

9. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

10. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

11. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Racial Conflict

Racial division has a long history in the United States and the Civil War (1861– 65) had been fought largely around questions of race. Although the Civil War resulted in the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, which ended slavery, racial equality was still a long way off. The background of the Civil War provides a necessary context for events that were to follow in the 1920s.

The 1890s marked the beginning of the age of ‘Jim Crow’ and reflected growing racial tension in both the North and the South. The term ‘Jim Crow’ dated back to the 1830s, where it appeared in a song- and- dance caricature of black people called ‘Jump Jim Crow’. After this, ‘Jim Crow’ simply became a derogatory term for a black person. ‘Jim Crow laws’, as they were known, were designed to segregate people based on their race. While the 1875 Civil Rights Act had declared that black people were to have full and equal access to public facilities, it was not until 1896 that this was tested in the Supreme Court case of Plessy v Ferguson. In that case, Homer Plessy, a man of African descent, was on trial for having travelled in a ‘whites only’ car of a New Orleans train. Plessy’s lawyer argued that his client was protected by the 13th and 14th Amendments to the US Constitution, both of which protected equality under law. In the end, the court rejected Plessy’s argument and, in a seven- to- one decision, ruled that segregation was indeed legal. The court based its argument on the concept of ‘separate but equal’, which suggested that facilities whether railroad cars, restaurants or public bathrooms could be the same, but just kept separate. The reality of this concept proved to be very different. ‘Separate’ soon came to equal inferior. Despite this, the doctrine of ‘separate but equal’ dominated race relations for 58 years until it was overturned in 1954.Plessy v Ferguson paved the way for states across the South to pass all kinds of segregationist ‘Jim Crow’ laws. Schools, restaurants, toilets, waiting rooms and even lifts were segregated.

In 1905, the State of Georgia even legislated for separate parks. Alabama passed a law in 1909 declaring that black people had to be of the streets by 10p.m. The American Red Cross kept the blood from black people separate from that of white people until the 1940s.

The growth and influence of the Ku Klux Klan

This was the climate in which the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) had its second, and most influential, reiteration in the 1920s. At this time, the immediate post First World War recession served to increase race tensions, as many black people moved north in search of work in the expanding factories.

While the migrants were offered employment, they received less pay and had fewer opportunities and a poorer quality of life than their white co- workers. Even in 1930, the infant mortality rate among black Americans was almost double that of the white population, and life expectancy was 15 years less than that it was in the white

community. In many states, citizens were only allowed to vote if they paid a poll tax.

This use of income as a limitation on the right to vote prevented the majority of black citizens from voting. As late as 1940, only 5 per cent of eligible black people voted in 11 Southern states. There was also the constant threat of racial violence lynching was not uncommon, and between 1900 and 1914 over 1000 black Americans were murdered by mobs.

The group behind many of the lynching attacks was the KKK. The KKK first appeared after the American Civil War, in a reaction by white people in the South against the policies of the

victorious North, and against some of the equal privileges that the black population was starting to gain. At this time, the KKK was a secret society that used violence and terror to ensure that black people were prevented from voting or holding any real power in the United

States. Members of the KKK were known as the ‘Knights of the Invisible Empire’, and dressed in white hoods and robes.

In 1915, the famous filmmaker D.W. Grifith first showed his epic silent picture about the period of the American Civil War. Even though the film was originally entitled The Clansman, it is better known by its second name, The Birth of a Nation. The film tells the story of a community in a Southern state where the KKK comes to save the population from violent black people, and hence sustain the white way of life. _e idea for the _lm came from a racist novel by Thomas Dixon, which made no secret of the fact that the author thought of black people as less than human.

Some people at the time felt the film was racist, and there were arguments about whether parts of it should be changed or censored. Nevertheless, the _lm reached a wide audience and triggered a revival of the KKK, reflecting the emerging power of Hollywood to mould public opinion and as the creator of myth.

The KKK made a name for itself from its hatred of anyone who was not white, Protestant and born in the United States. But more than simply tapping in to mainstream American racism, the success of the KKK was largely built on the fact that Americans had a tradition of joining local social groups or clubs called ‘lodges’. The KKK was a lodge in the way that it provided a space where people could come together and feel part of a group. The 1920s were a time of change in the United States; more and more people were moving away from the small

towns into the big cities. Many of these people missed the feeling of community that they had known in the past, and lodges and the KKK filled that need.

In 1922, a Texan by the name of Hiram Evans became the leader (known as the ‘Imperial Wizard’) of the KKK and successfully started turning the attention of the KKK towards politics. A review of newspapers and magazines of the time shows that the KKK was taken seriously as a factor in many elections between 1923 and 1925. The high point of the KKK’s political power came in 1924 when it blocked the nomination of a Catholic, Al Smith, as the Democratic candidate for the presidency. In 1924, the KKK claimed to have a total of four million members, which it used to influence members of Congress to pass the 1924 Immigration Restriction Act.

Using the Creed of the Klanswomen, describe the core beliefs of the KKK. Use evidence from the Creed to support your answers.

Anti- communism and anti- unionism

When Russia became a Communist state following the 1917 Russian______________, this created a division with the United States. American politicians and business people saw communism as the epitome of evil. It espoused (adopted) values of equality and workers’ rights that were anathema to the free market capitalism upon which the country had been built. Despite the reluctant alliance between the two nations during the _______________World War, this division between Russia (or the__________________, as the communist state was later known) and the United States would shape much of the twentieth century.

In the period immediately after the First World War, Americans grew increasingly fearful of the presence of Russian immigrants in the country. Russians were seen as dangerous radicals preparing to force _________________on to an unsuspecting public. Small- scale bombings by anarchists in various American cities raised public fears, and the activities of Attorney-General A. Mitchell Palmer certainly ensured that public fears and distrust of anarchists and communists were maintained. In November 1919, on the second anniversary of the Russian Revolution, Palmer led the first of a series of raids, known as the ‘___________________________’, with the deportation of possible communists from the country. In the hope of becoming the Republican presidential candidate in the 1920 election, Palmer coined the phrase that he was waging a war on the ‘Great Red Scare’. It was a phrase that would resonate throughout the century.

The first wave of Palmer raids coincided with industrial action by workers, and helped generate the enthusiasm for a second series of raids in January 1920. However, Palmer’s arrests and ________________in many cases were not strictly legal. Around two- thirds of his warrants were found to be unlawful, and Palmer’s reputation never recovered. His chief investigator, J._Edgar Hoover, would, however, go on to have much greater success as Chief of the Bureau of Investigation (later to become the Federal Bureau of Investigation, or FBI), where his rabid anti- communist ideals would dominate his lengthy period in control of the bureau from 1924 until his ________________ in 1972.

Although the fear of communism in America would peak during the McCarthyism era of the 1950s, the first wave of anti- communism culminated with the Wall Street __________ in New York on 16 September 1920. A bomb containing 45 kilograms of dynamite and laced with 230 kilograms of iron weights exploded in the centre

of the American financial district, killing 38 people and injuring hundreds more. Although the perpetrators

were never found, Italian __________were the most likely culprits, and the bombing confirmed for many Americans the danger of foreign forces and the need to be vigilant against communism.

American business people saw unions as another dangerous oppositional force that needed to be____________. American labour was viewed as an obstacle to economic success and protests in the eyes of many American businesses. The United Automobile Workers (________), for example, attempted to unionise automobile factories to improve wages and conditions for factory workers, including at Ford plants, but met consistent opposition. Ford’s tactics included hiring __________ to beat union officials, and lawyers to resist the National Labour Board’s authority to enforce wage fairness. The UAW finally won their struggle against Ford in 1941, but the long, drawn- out process and the nature of the resistance reflected an industrial landscape where, particularly in the Republican era of the 1920s, businesses felt they had wide support in their attempts to quash union campaigns.

Word Bank
deportations	Revolution	Palmer raids
Second	communism	Soviet Union
UAW	controlled	thugs
anarchists	bombing	death

Find the definitions of the words in bold:

Anathema- _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Anarchists- _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

McCarthyism- _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Explain why many Americans feared communism and trade unions during this period.

Discuss the impact of the event shown in Source 31 would have had on the American people in 1920.

4. US foreign policy, including: the nature, aims and strategies of US foreign policy 1919–1941

There is no doubt that involvement in the First World War had an impact on the foreign policy of the United States, as well as on the way Americans viewed themselves as a nation, during this period. They entered the war reluctantly in 1917, and found in their involvement in European politics and warfare a reason to value their own national identity. The US Secretary of State Robert Lansing, in Paris for the Peace Conference in 1919, wrote that ‘the more I breathe the foulness of European intrigue, the sweeter and purer becomes the air of my native land’. This illustrates the conundrum facing American foreign policy between the wars: how to balance the American distaste for involvement in European affairs with increasing global economic ties and the entanglements they created.

The nature, aims and strategies of US foreign policy 1919– 41

The election of Warren Harding as a Republican president in 1920 guaranteed a break with Woodrow Wilson’s attempt to negotiate the United States into a leading role in building a secure postwar world. Historian George C. Herring summarised the nature and aim of American foreign policy in the 1920s instead as ‘a maximum of security with a minimum of commitment’.

It is important to recognise that there was no clear consensus on the direction that American foreign policy should take in this period. Harding was predominantly interested in supporting big business, but his Secretary of State, Charles Evans Hughes, while maintaining a low- key approach, managed to get 71 international treaties through the US Senate. A radical group of Republicans known as the ‘Peace Progressives’ was influential in Congress at this time.

Often condemned as isolationists (the idea that a country needs to isolate itself from world affairs and focus on its own self- interest) , the Peace Progressives wanted to promote a vision of the United States as a significant influencer in building a more peaceful world. They challenged mainstream Republican views by opposing the dominance of big business in domestic policy, by being anti- imperialist and anti- militarist, and –in a major break with mainstream American values – by arguing for recognition of the Soviet Union and for working closely with communism in order to reform the Soviet Union. Among the foreign policy achievements of the Peace Progressives in this period was helping to end the US occupation of Nicaragua in 1933, and helping to avert war with Mexico in the 1920s and 30s.

Challenging the simplification that American foreign policy between the wars was only isolationist was the Republican administrations’ support for the Open Door Policy, which pushed for equal access for American exporters, investors and exploiters of foreign raw materials in foreign markets. Particularly under Republican president Calvin Coolidge from 1923, American business was encouraged to search for foreign markets. The success of this element of foreign policy can be seen in the American economic boom of the 1920s. In 1922, US exports were worth $3.8 billion; by 1929, that had risen to $5.1 billion. Automobile exports amounted to 10 per cent of total exports by the end of the decade, confirming the car industry’s increasingly critical role in the American economy. Other exports reflecting the manufacturing

boom included typewriters, sewing machines and petroleum products. By 1929, the United States had become the world’s leading exporter. Despite tariffs, imports especially oil and rubber – increased from $3.1 billion to $4.4 billion across the same period.

The 1920s also saw the start of what would become multinational American- based companies that established factories abroad. It was the beginning of global economic dominance by American companies, led by Ford and General Motors in the car industry, and by General Electric and International Telephone and Telegraph in utilities and communications. With economic power came political influence, particularly manifested by the United Fruit Company in Latin America.

SOURCE 34

Economic expansion was inextricably linked with the achievement of major US foreign policy

goals during the 1920s. Republican policymakers were NOT ignorant or indierent to the outside

world. On the contrary, the Great War highlighted for them in the most gruesome way the

importance of events abroad to their nation’s prosperity and security. Peace and order were vital

for American commercial expansion, which in turn was important for prosperity.

George S. Herring, e American Century and Beyond:US Foreign Relations 1893– 2014, 2017, p. 151

The defeat of Wilson’s aim to have the United States as a key player in the League of Nations did not stop the development of the organisation. As the League of Nations became established, the United States was forced to deal with it. Diplomats began to correspond with League representatives, and by 1925 the United States had official representation at the League headquarters in Geneva. It was a small step in breaking down the strong American tradition of avoiding involvement in Europe.

By the time FDR came to power in 1933 and broke the Republican hold on the presidency, the focus was clearly on domestic economic issues. It would take until Germany invaded France in 1940 for foreign policy to clearly emerge as a significant issue in the United States. The development of air power in international conflicts made the United States more vulnerable to international conflict than ever before, and made the government realise that defence of other nations could be important for the country’s own security.

The Second World War created a battleground for testing foreign policy approaches in the United States. Isolationists such as the America First group were afraid that offering any aid to Britain could lead to the United States becoming part of the war in Europe, as happened in the First World War. However, FDR argued that aid to Britain was the best way to defend the United States, because a victorious Germany might ultimately become strong enough to pose a threat to the country. FDR used all his political skill and power of persuasion to move the United States out of its staunch isolationism. In September 1940, under pressure from the President, Congress passed a law introducing conscription. In the same month, FDR agreed to transfer 50 ageing destroyers (warships vital to Britain’s fight against German submarines) to the Royal Navy. In return, the United States gained the lease on eight key British naval bases along the Atlantic coast of the Americas.

Policies towards Central America, South America and Asia

As a historian it is dangerous to generalise, and it is fair to say that the United States had more than one foreign policy during this period. For example, Americans’ attitudes to Europe were very different from their attitudes to Central and South America, or their approach in Asia, where Japan was seen as a growing menace. The United States had always shown itself ready to use military force to intervene in the affairs of its southern neighbours. In terms of the Caribbean and Latin America, America’s aims were a mix of security and trade. It was against the background of this tradition that the United States occupied Haiti from 1914 to 1934 and Nicaragua from 1926 to 1933.

The Great Depression changed some American attitudes, and businesses were less eager to risk investment or exploitation capital overseas. President Hoover used this change in the political and economic climate as a foundation for improving relations with South America through what he called his ‘Good Neighbour’ policy. This shift, however, did not mean that the United States had given up on its desire to ensure that it was dominating trade in the region. It simply meant that, for the time being, it had adopted more tactful and diplomatic strategies. The policy appeared to be working. During FDR’s time in office, trade with Central and South America increased massively.

During the 1930s, FDR saw major dangers to American interests in Europe and Asia and therefore wanted stability close to home, which led him to establish a policy of regional security for the Americas. Cooperation and diplomacy had replaced force as the prime instrument of American foreign policy with its closest neighbours.

The main element influencing American policy towards the Asia– Pacific Region was the expansionist policies of Japan. By the 1920s, Japan had decided to resolve many of its economic problems and lack of raw materials by expanding its territory at the expense of its Asian neighbours. In 1921, at the Washington Conference, the United States and Japan met with seven other nations to try to ease tensions in the Asia– Pacific. Aside from Japan’s territorial expansion, a major source of concern to the United States was the growth of Japan’s navy. One result of the conference and the treaty that followed was that Japan agreed to have a smaller navy than the United States, on the condition that Americans did not fortify their Pacific bases in the Philippines and on

Guam. As later events showed, the Washington Conference did little to resolve the real conflicts between Japanese and American interests. In 1931, Japan moved into Manchuria, a region rich in coal and iron ore deposits, which the Chinese regarded as their Manchu homeland. In 1934, the Japanese resumed naval expansion, breaking the limits imposed by the Washington Conference and, in 1937, Japan attacked China.

FDR demanded an end to the Japanese war against China, and in 1940 the United States placed a trade embargo on Japan and later froze all Japanese assets held in the United States, as well as stopping shipments of oil to Japan. This created a major crisis in the Japanese economy. The Japanese needed oil, and the American embargo meant that they could either back down or strike out in a war of conquest to get the oil they needed. They chose a war of conquest. Final negotiations between the Japanese Government and the United States took place in late November and early December 1941, where the Americans continued to insist that the Japanese end the war with China and return to normal trade relations. By this time, the United States had already received top- secret information that Japan was going to enter the Second World War. However, the Americans were sure that the first strike would be against either British colonies (such as Hong Kong, Malaya and Singapore) or the Philippines. Few suspected that the first Japanese attack would be aimed at Hawaii and the American naval base at Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941, and that the United States would enter the war only days later.

Outline the differences between America’s approach to Europe, Latin America and Asia in the period 1919– 41
Europe
Latin America
Asia

Impact of domestic pressures on the United States

As seen in the Core Study, the deterioration in global economic conditions from late 1929 created domestic pressures in many countries. In Germany, Italy and Spain, fascist regimes started their rise to power, and in Japan the militarists strengthened their control of policy. In the United States, fear of modernisation mixed with increasing prosperity had created a conservative political body in the 1920s. The Republicans dominated the presidency, and in the first half of the 1920s, the Ku Klux Klan’s demand for a return to conservative values had seen it develop a significant following. The advent of the Great Depression changed the political dynamic, and FDR and his New Deal strengthened his influence over domestic and foreign policy.

Under the pressure generated by the Great Depression, Americans began to read literature promoting the view that their country had been forced to enter the First World War in order to protect bankers and weapon makers. A book called the Merchants of Death and an article in Fortune magazine called ‘Arms and Men’ became popular in 1934. A Republican isolationist, Gerald Nye, led a congressional committee that reported in 1936 that the United States had been dragged into the war by corporate greed. This culminated in Congress passing the Neutrality Act in 1935, which was extended the following year, and was supported by a ban on arms sales to either side in the Spanish Civil War.

In October 1937, FDR delivered his ‘Quarantine the aggressor’ speech in Chicago, which started the challenge to isolationism as the situation in Europe deteriorated. When the speech failed to resonate with the American public, FDR retreated from any approach that would appear to be encouraging engagement with European political issues. Japan’s decision to launch a raid on American forces stationed at Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941 quelled domestic pressure for isolationism in the United States. Any debate over foreign policy disappeared and Congress’ declaration of war was passed with only a single dissenting vote in the House of Representatives. The United States was again at war, and the country that emerged in 1945 would be prepared to take on a much more significant role in global affairs.

Revision

Key terms and names

Write a definition for each of the following historical terms, individuals and groups:

1) Progressives

2) New Deal

3) FDR

4) Great Depression

5) Prohibition

Historical concepts

1 Causation

• Create a timeline of the main social and political events impacting America in the period 1919–41.

• Explain which of these events had the most impact on American society.

2 Continuity and change

• Summarise how America was affected by urbanisation, migration and consumerism in the period 1919–36.

3 Perspectives

• Discuss this statement from FDR. In what ways was America a ‘fascist state’ in 1933?

4 Significance

• Evaluate the historical significance of the Great Depression in changing the national character of American society.

• Assess how historically significant the Klan was in shaping American society in the 1920s and 1930s.

5 Contestability

• To what extent was the failure of US foreign policy a result of isolationism or narcissistic domestic fanaticism?

Historical skills

1 Explanation and communication

• Explain the changes to US foreign policy in the period 1919–41.

• Explain the influence of FDR and the New Deal on alleviating the effects of the Great Depression

• To what extent was America influenced by socialist policies and ideas during the 1930s?

• Assess the impact of World War I on different groups in American society.

• Justify how mass manufacturing shaped American society and class structures in the 1920s.

• Demonstrate historical evidence of American economic growth in the period 1917 to 1925.

• Describe social and economic changes in the 1920s in America.

• Identify the historical causes of Prohibition.

• Explain how the Drys gained such influence in the Prohibition era.

• Account for the influence of American Christian beliefs and Puritan ideology on attitudes towards Prohibition and the Volstead Act.

• Assess the impact of Prohibition on American social stability, economic production and politics.

• Outline the main social, political, economic and cultural changes of United States. Select one of these changes and consider its impact on the development of the American national character and domestic policy.

• Describe the conservative influence on American domestic policy in the years 1918 to 1930.

• To what extent is American capitalism significant in the early twentieth century?

• Analyse how equitable and democratic American capitalism is in this period.

• Investigate how capitalism influenced American domestic and foreign policy in this period.

2 Historical interpretation

• Assess the different historical interpretations of American isolationism and consider how this concept defined and shaped the nation.

3 Analysis and use of sources

• Referring to Source A and your own knowledge, explain the irony of this image.

4 Historical investigation and research

• Investigate the influence of conservatism on America in the period 1919–41.

• Explain how American conservatism undermined the American ideologies of Manifest Destiny and democracy.

5 Further essay questions

• Analyse the role of urbanisation and industrialisation in shaping American society in this period.

• Evaluate the success of government intervention programs in the 1930s in American society.

• To what extent was American isolationism a failure of US foreign policy in the period 1919–41?

• Account for the rise, tactics and impact of the Ku Klux Klan in the period from 1919 to the 1930s.

• Consider and discuss the impact of the Progressives on American society in the period from 1920 to 1936.

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