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Unit 7: Period 7: 1890–1945

7.1 The Progressive Era and World War 1 (1900 - 1920)

The Populist and Progressive Movements

  • Populists:

    • Aggrieved farmers advocating radical reforms

    • Raised possibility of reform through government

    • Successes in local and national elections

    • Encouraged others to seek change through political action

  • Progressives:

    • Built on Populism's achievements and adopted some of its goals

    • Urban, middle-class reformers seeking government's role in reform

    • Greater success due to more economic and political power

    • Less intensification of regional and class differences compared to Populists

  • Roots of Progressivism:

    • Growing number of associations and organizations

    • Members were educated and middle class, offended by corruption and urban poverty

    • Boost from muckrakers' exposés of corporate greed and misconduct

  • Progressives' Successes:

    • Both local and national level changes

    • Campaigned for education and government regulation

    • New groups for fight against discrimination with mixed success

    • Women's suffrage movement gave birth to feminist movement

    • Wisconsin governor Robert La Follette led the way for Progressive state leaders

  • The Progressive Movement:

    • Prominent leader: President Theodore Roosevelt

    • Progressive income taxes to redistribute nation's wealth

    • Work-class Progressives' victories: work day limitations, minimum wage, child labor laws, housing codes

    • Adoption of ballot initiative, referendum, and recall election

  • President Theodore Roosevelt:

    • Prominent Progressive leader

    • Republican Party's choice for running mate in 1900 election

    • Succeeded McKinley after assassination in 1901.

Progressive Era

  • Progressive Era marked increasing involvement of federal government in daily life

  • Progressive presidents: Teddy Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and Woodrow Wilson

  • The Progressive Era resulted in many reforms, including conservation, regulation of monopolies and trusts, and the establishment of federal standards in food and drug industries.

Teddy Roosevelt

  • Early on, showed liberal tendencies and was the first to use Sherman Antitrust Act against monopolies

  • Nicknamed "Trustbuster" for his efforts to break up monopolies

  • Encouraged Congress to pass Meat Inspection Act and Pure Food and Drug Act to protect workers and consumers

  • Created National Park Service and National Forest Service to conserve natural resources

William Howard Taft

  • Pursued monopolies even more aggressively than Roosevelt

  • Known for "dollar diplomacy" - securing favorable relationships with Latin American and East Asian countries by providing monetary loans

  • Became the only former president to serve on Supreme Court of the US as the 10th Chief Justice (1921-1930)

  • Split from Roosevelt in the 1912 Republican primary due to opposing policies

Woodrow Wilson

  • Distinguished himself from Teddy Roosevelt with his policies referred to as New Freedom

  • Argued that federal government had to assume greater control over business to protect man's freedom

  • Committed to restoring competition through greater government regulation of the economy and lowering the tariff

  • Created Federal Trade Commission, enforced Clayton Antitrust Act of 1914, and helped create Federal Reserve System

  • Progressive movement ended after World War I, Spanish Flu outbreak of 1918, and a Red Scare

End of Progressive Era

  • Achieved many of its goals, which resulted in loss of support from interest groups whose ends were met

  • Some say the Progressive movement was brought to an end, in part, by its own success

7.2 Foreign Policy and U.S. Entry into World War I

  • Roosevelt's domestic policy differed from his predecessor, but he concurred with his foreign policy.

  • Roosevelt was an even more devout imperialist than McKinley, strongarming Cuba into accepting the Platt Amendment which committed Cuba to American control.

  • The US occupied Cuba for 10 years (1906-1922), causing anti-American sentiments.

  • Roosevelt's actions in Central America were equally interventionist, building a canal through the Central American isthmus and supporting the revolution in Panama for a better deal.

  • The Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine, also known as the Big Stick Policy, was used to justify repeated military intervention in Latin America due to the assertion of a threat to American security.

  • American foreign policy adhered to the Monroe Doctrine which asserted America's right to intervene in the Western Hemisphere to protect national security.

  • Woodrow Wilson won the election of 1912 with a policy of neutrality, but it posed immediate problems due to close relationships with England and relatively distant relationship with Germany and Austria-Hungary.

  • When war broke out in Europe, Wilson declared US policy of neutrality, but it was complicated due to the close relationship with England and their effective blockade.

  • Germany attempted to counter the blockade with submarines, but the sinking of the Lusitania led to condemnation from the government and public.

  • Wilson's efforts to stay out of the war and the events that ultimately drew the US into the conflict.

World War I and Its Aftermath

World War I and Government Expansion of Power

  • Government took control of telephone, telegraph, and rail industries

  • Created War Industry Board (WIB) to coordinate all aspects of industrial and agricultural production

  • WIB had mixed success due to being slow and inefficient

  • Curtailed individual civil liberties during the war

The Espionage Act and Sedition Act

  • Congress passed the Espionage Act in 1917 and the Sedition Act in 1918 in response to opposition to U.S. involvement in the war

  • Espionage Act prohibited interference with the war effort or draft through the U.S. mail system

  • Sedition Act made it illegal to try to prevent the sale of war bonds or speak disparagingly of the government, military, or Constitution

  • Laws violated the spirit of the First Amendment but were vague, giving the courts great leeway in interpretation

Schenck v. United States

  • Supreme Court upheld the Espionage Act in 1919 in three separate cases, the most notable being Schenck v. United States

  • Schenck was arrested and convicted for violating the Espionage Act by printing and mailing leaflets urging men to resist the draft

  • Supreme Court ruled that freedom of speech and civil liberties could be curtailed if actions posed a “clear and present danger” to others or the nation

Suppression of Unpopular Ideas

  • Laws soon became useful tools for suppression of anyone who voiced unpopular ideas

  • Era of increased paranoia due to the Russian Revolution of 1917 and fear of communist takeover

  • Radical labor unions and leaders branded enemies of the state and incarcerated

  • New government agency, Federal Bureau of Investigation, created to prevent radical takeover

Business and Labor Union Changes

  • Business assumed greater power while unions lost power

  • Strikebreakers and forceful tactics against unions increased under pretext of stamping out radicalism

The Palmer Raids

  • In early 1920, government raided suspected radical groups around the country in the Palmer Raids

  • Government abandoned all pretext of respecting civil liberties as agents raided union halls, pool halls, social clubs, and residences

  • Over 10,000 arrested in over 30 cities, but few weapons or bombs were found

  • 500 immigrants were eventually deported

Committee on Public Information (CPI)

  • Government helped create frenzied atmosphere through its wartime propaganda arm, the Committee on Public Information (CPI)

  • CPI messages grew more sensational as the war progressed

  • Image of Germans as cold-blooded, baby-killing, power-hungry Huns created through lectures, movie theaters, newspapers, and magazines

  • Americans rejected all things German, changed name of sauerkraut to “liberty cabbage”

  • Acts of violence against German immigrants and Americans of German descent.

Wartime Opportunities for Women

  • Change in means of employment

    • Many women quit domestic work and started in factories

    • At one point, 20% of factory jobs held by women

    • End of workplace advances with return of veterans

The Great Migration

  • Black Southern people left for North for jobs in wartime manufacturing

  • Over 500,000 Black people left South for work

  • Many joined army, encouraged by W. E. B. Du Bois for inroad to social equality

    • Army segregated and assigned Black people mostly to menial labor

    • Fearful of integration, Black combat units assigned to French command

End of World War I

  • America's participation tipped balance in Allies' favor

  • Two years after America's entry, Germans ready to negotiate peace treaty

  • Wilson's Fourteen Points served as basis for initial negotiations

    • Called for free trade, reduction of arms, self-determination, end of colonialism, League of Nations

  • Treaty of Versailles punished Germany, left humiliated and in economic ruin

    • Created League of Nations, but much of Wilson's plan discarded

  • Wilson's return home greeted with opposition over League of Nations

    • Senate debate over Article X curtailed America's independence in foreign affairs

    • Senate split into Democrats (pro-League), Irreconcilables (opposed), Reservationists (compromise)

    • Democrats and Irreconcilables defeated treaty with Lodge Reservations

    • US not signatory of Treaty of Versailles, never joined League of Nations

    • America retreating into period of isolationism

  • Wilson attempted to muster popular support, suffered major stroke and treaty failed

Possible Success of League of Nations

  • Many wonder if League would have prevented World War II had US been a member

7.3 The Jazz Age and The Great Depression (1920-1933)

After World War I

  • Brief slump in American economy

  • Rapid growth from 1922

  • Electric motor drives prosperity

  • New industries arise to serve middle class

Pro-Business Republican Administrations

  • Increased comfort with large successful businesses

  • Department stores and automobile industry offer convenience and status

  • Government increasingly pro-business, regulatory agencies assist business instead of regulating

  • Decreased favor for labor unions, strikes suppressed by federal troops

  • Supreme Court nullified child labor restrictions and minimum wage law for women

Woodrow Wilson and Race

  • Outspoken white supremacist

  • Segregated federal government, wrote admiringly of KKK

  • Told racist jokes at Cabinet meetings

  • Presidents Harding, Coolidge, Hoover pursued pro-business policies

  • Teapot Dome Scandal with corrupt cabinet members

  • Harding liberal on civil liberty, Coolidge won election on "Coolidge prosperity" and continued conservative economic policies

Decline of Labor Unions

  • Pro-business atmosphere led to decline in popularity of labor unions

  • Drop in membership levels throughout decade

  • Efforts by businesses to woo workers with pension plans, profit sharing, and company events

  • Referred to as welfare capitalism.

Modern Culture

  • The automobile was a major consumer product in the 1920s and typified the new spirit of the nation

  • Henry Ford's assembly line and mass production made cars more affordable, leading to widespread ownership

  • Automobiles allowed people to move to the suburbs and transformed into a necessity

  • The impact of cars was tremendous, requiring the development of roadways and traffic enforcement

  • Radio also changed the nation's culture, with millions of families owning them and gathering to listen

  • Consumerism was fueled by the rise of household appliances and the advertising industry

  • Single-earner households pushed more women to enter the workforce, although most still remained in traditional roles

  • The flapper image emerged as a symbol of the Roaring Twenties and the new freedom for women

  • Entertainment saw growth in movies, sports, and literature with world-class authors like F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway

  • Literature reflected disillusionment with the opulence and excess of the 1920s

  • The Harlem Renaissance was a major cultural development in the largest Black neighborhood in New York City

  • The Harlem Renaissance was marked by the growth of theaters, cultural clubs, and newspapers

  • Jazz was popularized and became emblematic of the era, with Louis Armstrong as a major figure

Backlash Against Modern Culture

1920s America:

Backlash and Nativism:

  • Ku Klux Klan grew to over 5 million members

    • Targeted Blacks, Jews, urbanites, and anyone whose behavior deviated from their narrow code of acceptable Christian behavior

  • Anti-immigration groups grew in strength

    • Targeted southern and Eastern European immigrants

  • Accusations of dangerous subversives intensified with Sacco and Vanzetti trial

  • US started setting limits and quotas to restrict immigration

    • Emergency Quota Act of 1924 set immigration quotas based on national origins

    • Discriminated against southern and Eastern European "new immigrants"

Societal Tensions:

  • Scopes Monkey Trial

    • Tennessee law forbade teaching evolution

    • John Thomas Scopes broke the law

    • Trial drew national attention with prominent attorneys Clarence Darrow and William Jennings Bryan

    • Encapsulated debate over sticking with tradition vs. progress

Prohibition:

  • Banned manufacture, sale, and transport of alcoholic beverages

  • Roots in reform campaigns of 1830s

  • Mainstay of women's political agendas

  • 18th Amendment outlawed American liquor industry

  • Resentment of government intrusion in private matter

  • Weakened by organized crime in producing and selling liquor

  • Gangster Era inspired many movies and television series

  • Prohibition repealed by 21st Amendment in 1933

Herbert Hoover and the Beginning of the Great Depression

  • Republicans nominate Herbert Hoover in 1928

  • Hoover predicts that poverty would soon be eradicated in America

  • October 1929 stock market crash triggers the Great Depression

  • Hoover and advisers underestimated the impact of the crash

  • Hoover believed the economy was sound, reassured public that only speculators would be hurt

  • Huge banks and corporations among the speculators, causing bankruptcy and unable to pay employees or guarantee bank deposits

  • Factors contributing to the Great Depression: Europe's economy due to WWI and reparations, overproduction leading to lay offs and low market value, production outstripping ability to buy, concentration of wealth and power in a few businessmen, government laxity in regulation

  • Depression had a calamitous effect on millions of Americans: job loss, savings loss, homeless and shantytowns, rural farmers struggled, drought and Dust Bowl, agrarian unrest, Farmers’ Holiday Association

  • Hoover initially opposed federal relief efforts, but later initiated a few programs and campaigned for works projects

  • Hawley-Smoot Tariff worsened the economy

  • Hoover had the Federal Emergency Relief Administration established to bail out large companies and banks

  • Hoover's most embarrassing moment: army attack on Bonus Expeditionary Force in 1932

  • Hoover's efforts not enough to secure re-election, defeated by FDR in 1932 election

  • FDR's interventionist government approach contrasted with Hoover's traditional conservative values.

7.4 The New Deal and World War II (1934 - 1945)

  • Franklin D. Roosevelt's inaugural address declared war on the Depression

  • He asked for the same broad powers that presidents exercise during wars against foreign nations

  • Most famous line of the speech: "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself—nameless, unreasoning, unjustified fear."

  • The New Deal was a result of a powerful presidency and public confidence in Roosevelt

  • The First New Deal took place during the first hundred days of Roosevelt's administration

  • The Emergency Banking Relief Bill put poorly managed banks under control of Treasury Department and granted government licenses to solvent banks

  • The Banking Act of 1933 created the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) to guarantee bank deposits

  • Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA) provided payments to farmers in return for cutting production, funded by increased taxes on food processors

  • Farm Credit Act provided loans to farmers in danger of foreclosure

  • National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA) consolidated businesses and coordinated activities to eliminate overproduction

  • Public Works Administration (PWA) set aside $3 billion to create jobs building roads, sewers, public housing units, etc.

  • Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) provided grants to states for their own PWA-like projects

  • The government took over the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) and expanded its operations for the economic recovery of the region

  • Roosevelt's response to Great Depression was guided by Keynesian economics

  • Keynesian economics argued that government should embark on a program of deliberate deficit spending to revive the economy

  • Keynesian economics was successful during Roosevelt's administration and led to 30 years of economic expansion from 1945 to 1973

The Second New Deal

New Deal Criticisms

  • Conservatives:

    • Higher tax rates

    • Increase in government power over business

    • Removal of incentive for the poor to lift themselves out of poverty

    • Borrowing to finance programs, anathema to conservatives

  • Leftists, like Huey Long:

    • AAA policy of paying farmers not to grow is immoral

    • Government policy toward businesses too favorable

    • Blamed corporate greed for Depression, calling for nationalization of businesses

Huey Long Threat to FDR

  • Senator and governor of Louisiana

  • Promoted a plan similar to Social Security, gaining supporters

  • Assassinated in 1935

Supreme Court Dismantles First New Deal

  • Invalidated sections of NIRA in the "sick chicken case"

    • Codes were unconstitutional, executive legislation beyond limits of executive power

  • FDR argued that crisis of Depression warranted expansion of executive branch

  • Supreme Court struck down AAA in United States v. Butler

Roosevelt's Court-Packing Scheme

  • Attempted to increase Supreme Court size from 9 justices to 15

  • Wanted to pick justices who supported his policies

  • Rejected by Congress

Second New Deal

  • Emergency Relief Appropriation Act created WPA (later renamed Works Project Administration)

    • Generated over 8 million jobs, funded by government

    • Employed writers, photographers, and artists for public works and local/personal history projects

  • Summer of 1935 is called Roosevelt's Second Hundred Days

    • Passed legislation broadening NLRB powers, democratizing unions, punishing anti-union businesses

    • Created Social Security Administration for retirement benefits for workers, disabled, and families

    • Increased taxes on wealthy individuals and business profits

New Deal Coalition

  • Made up of union members, urbanites, underclass, and Black people (previously voted Republican)

  • Swept FDR back into office in 1936 with landslide victory

  • Held together until election of Reagan in 1980.

Roosevelt’s Troubled Second Term

Franklin Roosevelt's Second Term:

I. Judicial Reorganization Bill:

  • Proposed allowing Roosevelt to appoint new federal judges

  • Effort to pack courts with judges sympathetic to New Deal policies

  • Defeated in Democratic Congress

  • Intense criticism for trying to seize too much power

  • Situation worked itself out with retirements and appointment of liberal judges

II. Economic Problems:

  • 1937 recession caused by cuts in government programs and tightened credit supply

  • Recession lasted for almost three years with increased unemployment rate

  • Forced Roosevelt to withdraw money from New Deal programs to fund military buildup

III. New Deal:

  • Debate among historians on whether New Deal worked or not

  • Arguments for New Deal:

    • Provided relief and escaped poverty for many people

    • Reforms in banking, finance, management/union relations

    • Took bold chances in conservative political climate

  • Arguments against New Deal:

    • Unemployment rate remained in double digits

    • Failed to solve unemployment problem

    • Too small and short-lived to have significant impact

    • Didn't benefit all equally, minorities particularly hurt by AAA and public works projects

IV. Accomplishments:

  • Passed Second Agricultural Adjustment Act and Fair Labor Standards Act

  • Remade America in banking, finance, management/union relations

  • Social welfare system stems from New Deal

  • Took bold chances in conservative political climate

7.5 Foreign Policy Leading up to World War II

  • After World War I, American foreign policy focused on promoting peace and independent internationalism.

  • The Washington Conference was held in 1921-1922 and resulted in a treaty that limited armaments and reaffirmed the Open Door Policy toward China.

  • In 1928, 62 nations signed the Kellogg-Briand Pact, which condemned war as a means of foreign policy.

  • The US tried to adopt a Good Neighbor Policy in Latin America in 1934, but continued to promote American interests through economic coercion and support of pro-American leaders.

  • The Platt Amendment was repealed during this time.

  • In Asia, the US had limited influence and was unable to stop Japan's invasion of Manchuria in 1931.

  • The US sold arms to China and called for an arms embargo on Japan when Japan went to war against China in 1937.

  • The US maintained a high-tariff protectionist policy throughout the 1920s.

  • The Reciprocal Trade Agreements Act allowed the president to reduce tariffs for foreign policy goals.

  • Most favored nation (MFN) trade status was granted to eligible countries for the lowest tariff rate set by the US.

  • Isolationist sentiment grew due to the results of World War I and the findings of the Nye Commission.

  • The Nye Commission revealed unethical activities by American arms manufacturers, leading to the passage of neutrality acts.

  • Roosevelt poured money into the military and worked to assist the Allies within the limits of the neutrality acts.

  • By the 1940s, US foreign policy became increasingly less isolationist with the Lend-Lease Act and Roosevelt's efforts to supply the Allies.

World War II

  • Complicated military strategy and outcome of key battles played a significant role in WW2

  • No need to know much about battles, but important to know about wartime conferences between Allies

  • Grand Alliance between Soviet Union and West was tenuous

  • Manhattan Project of 1942 was research and development effort for atomic bombs

  • Soviet spies infiltrated the project

  • First meeting of "big three" (Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin) took place in Tehran in 1943

  • They planned Normandy invasion (D-Day) and division of defeated Germany into occupation zones

  • Stalin agreed to enter war against Japan after Hitler's defeat

  • Allies fought Germans primarily in Soviet Union and Mediterranean until D-Day invasion in France

  • Soviet Union incurred huge losses and sought to recoup by occupying Eastern Europe

  • Allies won war of attrition against Germans and accelerated victory in East by dropping atomic bombs on Japan

  • D-Day on June 6, 1944 was largest amphibious landing

  • Government acquired more power during WW2 through War Production Board and control over industry and labor

  • Labor Disputes Act of 1943 allowed government takeover of businesses deemed necessary to national security

  • Hollywood was enlisted to create propaganda films

  • Government size more than tripled during war

  • FDR signed Selective Training and Service Act of 1940, creating first peacetime draft in US history

  • WW2 affected almost every aspect of daily life and created new opportunities and tensions in American society

  • More than a million African Americans served in US military during WW2, but lived in segregated units

  • US army was not desegregated until after the war in 1948

  • Rosie the Riveter symbolized the millions of women who worked in war-related industrial jobs

  • Most women were expected to go back to traditional roles after soldiers returned home

  • Government restricted civil liberties, including internment of Japanese Americans from 1942 to end of war

  • Over 110,000 Asian Americans were imprisoned without charge based solely on ethnic background

  • Supreme Court upheld evacuation and internment of Japanese Americans as constitutional

The End of the War

Yalta and Potsdam Conferences

  • Yalta conference held in February 1945 between Allies (US, UK, USSR) to discuss the fate of postwar Europe

  • Soviet army occupied parts of Eastern Europe, and Stalin wanted to create a "buffer zone" with "friendly" nations

  • Allies agreed on a number of issues concerning borders and settlements and to help create the United Nations

Potsdam Conference

  • Held after the end of the war in Europe to decide on implementing the agreements of Yalta

  • Harry S. Truman represented the US after Roosevelt's death

  • Differences between US and USSR growing more pronounced

  • Allies created the Potsdam Declaration to establish the terms for Japan's surrender (removal of emperor from power)

Outcome of Conferences

  • USSR given a free hand in Eastern Europe with promise to hold "free and unfettered elections" after the war

  • Descent of Iron Curtain (division of Eastern and Western Europe) and beginning of Cold War

  • American-Soviet animosity led to US using atomic bombs against Japan

  • Fear of Soviet entry into Asian war and display of power, combined with tenacious Japanese resistance, influenced Truman's decision.

AK

Unit 7: Period 7: 1890–1945

7.1 The Progressive Era and World War 1 (1900 - 1920)

The Populist and Progressive Movements

  • Populists:

    • Aggrieved farmers advocating radical reforms

    • Raised possibility of reform through government

    • Successes in local and national elections

    • Encouraged others to seek change through political action

  • Progressives:

    • Built on Populism's achievements and adopted some of its goals

    • Urban, middle-class reformers seeking government's role in reform

    • Greater success due to more economic and political power

    • Less intensification of regional and class differences compared to Populists

  • Roots of Progressivism:

    • Growing number of associations and organizations

    • Members were educated and middle class, offended by corruption and urban poverty

    • Boost from muckrakers' exposés of corporate greed and misconduct

  • Progressives' Successes:

    • Both local and national level changes

    • Campaigned for education and government regulation

    • New groups for fight against discrimination with mixed success

    • Women's suffrage movement gave birth to feminist movement

    • Wisconsin governor Robert La Follette led the way for Progressive state leaders

  • The Progressive Movement:

    • Prominent leader: President Theodore Roosevelt

    • Progressive income taxes to redistribute nation's wealth

    • Work-class Progressives' victories: work day limitations, minimum wage, child labor laws, housing codes

    • Adoption of ballot initiative, referendum, and recall election

  • President Theodore Roosevelt:

    • Prominent Progressive leader

    • Republican Party's choice for running mate in 1900 election

    • Succeeded McKinley after assassination in 1901.

Progressive Era

  • Progressive Era marked increasing involvement of federal government in daily life

  • Progressive presidents: Teddy Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and Woodrow Wilson

  • The Progressive Era resulted in many reforms, including conservation, regulation of monopolies and trusts, and the establishment of federal standards in food and drug industries.

Teddy Roosevelt

  • Early on, showed liberal tendencies and was the first to use Sherman Antitrust Act against monopolies

  • Nicknamed "Trustbuster" for his efforts to break up monopolies

  • Encouraged Congress to pass Meat Inspection Act and Pure Food and Drug Act to protect workers and consumers

  • Created National Park Service and National Forest Service to conserve natural resources

William Howard Taft

  • Pursued monopolies even more aggressively than Roosevelt

  • Known for "dollar diplomacy" - securing favorable relationships with Latin American and East Asian countries by providing monetary loans

  • Became the only former president to serve on Supreme Court of the US as the 10th Chief Justice (1921-1930)

  • Split from Roosevelt in the 1912 Republican primary due to opposing policies

Woodrow Wilson

  • Distinguished himself from Teddy Roosevelt with his policies referred to as New Freedom

  • Argued that federal government had to assume greater control over business to protect man's freedom

  • Committed to restoring competition through greater government regulation of the economy and lowering the tariff

  • Created Federal Trade Commission, enforced Clayton Antitrust Act of 1914, and helped create Federal Reserve System

  • Progressive movement ended after World War I, Spanish Flu outbreak of 1918, and a Red Scare

End of Progressive Era

  • Achieved many of its goals, which resulted in loss of support from interest groups whose ends were met

  • Some say the Progressive movement was brought to an end, in part, by its own success

7.2 Foreign Policy and U.S. Entry into World War I

  • Roosevelt's domestic policy differed from his predecessor, but he concurred with his foreign policy.

  • Roosevelt was an even more devout imperialist than McKinley, strongarming Cuba into accepting the Platt Amendment which committed Cuba to American control.

  • The US occupied Cuba for 10 years (1906-1922), causing anti-American sentiments.

  • Roosevelt's actions in Central America were equally interventionist, building a canal through the Central American isthmus and supporting the revolution in Panama for a better deal.

  • The Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine, also known as the Big Stick Policy, was used to justify repeated military intervention in Latin America due to the assertion of a threat to American security.

  • American foreign policy adhered to the Monroe Doctrine which asserted America's right to intervene in the Western Hemisphere to protect national security.

  • Woodrow Wilson won the election of 1912 with a policy of neutrality, but it posed immediate problems due to close relationships with England and relatively distant relationship with Germany and Austria-Hungary.

  • When war broke out in Europe, Wilson declared US policy of neutrality, but it was complicated due to the close relationship with England and their effective blockade.

  • Germany attempted to counter the blockade with submarines, but the sinking of the Lusitania led to condemnation from the government and public.

  • Wilson's efforts to stay out of the war and the events that ultimately drew the US into the conflict.

World War I and Its Aftermath

World War I and Government Expansion of Power

  • Government took control of telephone, telegraph, and rail industries

  • Created War Industry Board (WIB) to coordinate all aspects of industrial and agricultural production

  • WIB had mixed success due to being slow and inefficient

  • Curtailed individual civil liberties during the war

The Espionage Act and Sedition Act

  • Congress passed the Espionage Act in 1917 and the Sedition Act in 1918 in response to opposition to U.S. involvement in the war

  • Espionage Act prohibited interference with the war effort or draft through the U.S. mail system

  • Sedition Act made it illegal to try to prevent the sale of war bonds or speak disparagingly of the government, military, or Constitution

  • Laws violated the spirit of the First Amendment but were vague, giving the courts great leeway in interpretation

Schenck v. United States

  • Supreme Court upheld the Espionage Act in 1919 in three separate cases, the most notable being Schenck v. United States

  • Schenck was arrested and convicted for violating the Espionage Act by printing and mailing leaflets urging men to resist the draft

  • Supreme Court ruled that freedom of speech and civil liberties could be curtailed if actions posed a “clear and present danger” to others or the nation

Suppression of Unpopular Ideas

  • Laws soon became useful tools for suppression of anyone who voiced unpopular ideas

  • Era of increased paranoia due to the Russian Revolution of 1917 and fear of communist takeover

  • Radical labor unions and leaders branded enemies of the state and incarcerated

  • New government agency, Federal Bureau of Investigation, created to prevent radical takeover

Business and Labor Union Changes

  • Business assumed greater power while unions lost power

  • Strikebreakers and forceful tactics against unions increased under pretext of stamping out radicalism

The Palmer Raids

  • In early 1920, government raided suspected radical groups around the country in the Palmer Raids

  • Government abandoned all pretext of respecting civil liberties as agents raided union halls, pool halls, social clubs, and residences

  • Over 10,000 arrested in over 30 cities, but few weapons or bombs were found

  • 500 immigrants were eventually deported

Committee on Public Information (CPI)

  • Government helped create frenzied atmosphere through its wartime propaganda arm, the Committee on Public Information (CPI)

  • CPI messages grew more sensational as the war progressed

  • Image of Germans as cold-blooded, baby-killing, power-hungry Huns created through lectures, movie theaters, newspapers, and magazines

  • Americans rejected all things German, changed name of sauerkraut to “liberty cabbage”

  • Acts of violence against German immigrants and Americans of German descent.

Wartime Opportunities for Women

  • Change in means of employment

    • Many women quit domestic work and started in factories

    • At one point, 20% of factory jobs held by women

    • End of workplace advances with return of veterans

The Great Migration

  • Black Southern people left for North for jobs in wartime manufacturing

  • Over 500,000 Black people left South for work

  • Many joined army, encouraged by W. E. B. Du Bois for inroad to social equality

    • Army segregated and assigned Black people mostly to menial labor

    • Fearful of integration, Black combat units assigned to French command

End of World War I

  • America's participation tipped balance in Allies' favor

  • Two years after America's entry, Germans ready to negotiate peace treaty

  • Wilson's Fourteen Points served as basis for initial negotiations

    • Called for free trade, reduction of arms, self-determination, end of colonialism, League of Nations

  • Treaty of Versailles punished Germany, left humiliated and in economic ruin

    • Created League of Nations, but much of Wilson's plan discarded

  • Wilson's return home greeted with opposition over League of Nations

    • Senate debate over Article X curtailed America's independence in foreign affairs

    • Senate split into Democrats (pro-League), Irreconcilables (opposed), Reservationists (compromise)

    • Democrats and Irreconcilables defeated treaty with Lodge Reservations

    • US not signatory of Treaty of Versailles, never joined League of Nations

    • America retreating into period of isolationism

  • Wilson attempted to muster popular support, suffered major stroke and treaty failed

Possible Success of League of Nations

  • Many wonder if League would have prevented World War II had US been a member

7.3 The Jazz Age and The Great Depression (1920-1933)

After World War I

  • Brief slump in American economy

  • Rapid growth from 1922

  • Electric motor drives prosperity

  • New industries arise to serve middle class

Pro-Business Republican Administrations

  • Increased comfort with large successful businesses

  • Department stores and automobile industry offer convenience and status

  • Government increasingly pro-business, regulatory agencies assist business instead of regulating

  • Decreased favor for labor unions, strikes suppressed by federal troops

  • Supreme Court nullified child labor restrictions and minimum wage law for women

Woodrow Wilson and Race

  • Outspoken white supremacist

  • Segregated federal government, wrote admiringly of KKK

  • Told racist jokes at Cabinet meetings

  • Presidents Harding, Coolidge, Hoover pursued pro-business policies

  • Teapot Dome Scandal with corrupt cabinet members

  • Harding liberal on civil liberty, Coolidge won election on "Coolidge prosperity" and continued conservative economic policies

Decline of Labor Unions

  • Pro-business atmosphere led to decline in popularity of labor unions

  • Drop in membership levels throughout decade

  • Efforts by businesses to woo workers with pension plans, profit sharing, and company events

  • Referred to as welfare capitalism.

Modern Culture

  • The automobile was a major consumer product in the 1920s and typified the new spirit of the nation

  • Henry Ford's assembly line and mass production made cars more affordable, leading to widespread ownership

  • Automobiles allowed people to move to the suburbs and transformed into a necessity

  • The impact of cars was tremendous, requiring the development of roadways and traffic enforcement

  • Radio also changed the nation's culture, with millions of families owning them and gathering to listen

  • Consumerism was fueled by the rise of household appliances and the advertising industry

  • Single-earner households pushed more women to enter the workforce, although most still remained in traditional roles

  • The flapper image emerged as a symbol of the Roaring Twenties and the new freedom for women

  • Entertainment saw growth in movies, sports, and literature with world-class authors like F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway

  • Literature reflected disillusionment with the opulence and excess of the 1920s

  • The Harlem Renaissance was a major cultural development in the largest Black neighborhood in New York City

  • The Harlem Renaissance was marked by the growth of theaters, cultural clubs, and newspapers

  • Jazz was popularized and became emblematic of the era, with Louis Armstrong as a major figure

Backlash Against Modern Culture

1920s America:

Backlash and Nativism:

  • Ku Klux Klan grew to over 5 million members

    • Targeted Blacks, Jews, urbanites, and anyone whose behavior deviated from their narrow code of acceptable Christian behavior

  • Anti-immigration groups grew in strength

    • Targeted southern and Eastern European immigrants

  • Accusations of dangerous subversives intensified with Sacco and Vanzetti trial

  • US started setting limits and quotas to restrict immigration

    • Emergency Quota Act of 1924 set immigration quotas based on national origins

    • Discriminated against southern and Eastern European "new immigrants"

Societal Tensions:

  • Scopes Monkey Trial

    • Tennessee law forbade teaching evolution

    • John Thomas Scopes broke the law

    • Trial drew national attention with prominent attorneys Clarence Darrow and William Jennings Bryan

    • Encapsulated debate over sticking with tradition vs. progress

Prohibition:

  • Banned manufacture, sale, and transport of alcoholic beverages

  • Roots in reform campaigns of 1830s

  • Mainstay of women's political agendas

  • 18th Amendment outlawed American liquor industry

  • Resentment of government intrusion in private matter

  • Weakened by organized crime in producing and selling liquor

  • Gangster Era inspired many movies and television series

  • Prohibition repealed by 21st Amendment in 1933

Herbert Hoover and the Beginning of the Great Depression

  • Republicans nominate Herbert Hoover in 1928

  • Hoover predicts that poverty would soon be eradicated in America

  • October 1929 stock market crash triggers the Great Depression

  • Hoover and advisers underestimated the impact of the crash

  • Hoover believed the economy was sound, reassured public that only speculators would be hurt

  • Huge banks and corporations among the speculators, causing bankruptcy and unable to pay employees or guarantee bank deposits

  • Factors contributing to the Great Depression: Europe's economy due to WWI and reparations, overproduction leading to lay offs and low market value, production outstripping ability to buy, concentration of wealth and power in a few businessmen, government laxity in regulation

  • Depression had a calamitous effect on millions of Americans: job loss, savings loss, homeless and shantytowns, rural farmers struggled, drought and Dust Bowl, agrarian unrest, Farmers’ Holiday Association

  • Hoover initially opposed federal relief efforts, but later initiated a few programs and campaigned for works projects

  • Hawley-Smoot Tariff worsened the economy

  • Hoover had the Federal Emergency Relief Administration established to bail out large companies and banks

  • Hoover's most embarrassing moment: army attack on Bonus Expeditionary Force in 1932

  • Hoover's efforts not enough to secure re-election, defeated by FDR in 1932 election

  • FDR's interventionist government approach contrasted with Hoover's traditional conservative values.

7.4 The New Deal and World War II (1934 - 1945)

  • Franklin D. Roosevelt's inaugural address declared war on the Depression

  • He asked for the same broad powers that presidents exercise during wars against foreign nations

  • Most famous line of the speech: "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself—nameless, unreasoning, unjustified fear."

  • The New Deal was a result of a powerful presidency and public confidence in Roosevelt

  • The First New Deal took place during the first hundred days of Roosevelt's administration

  • The Emergency Banking Relief Bill put poorly managed banks under control of Treasury Department and granted government licenses to solvent banks

  • The Banking Act of 1933 created the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) to guarantee bank deposits

  • Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA) provided payments to farmers in return for cutting production, funded by increased taxes on food processors

  • Farm Credit Act provided loans to farmers in danger of foreclosure

  • National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA) consolidated businesses and coordinated activities to eliminate overproduction

  • Public Works Administration (PWA) set aside $3 billion to create jobs building roads, sewers, public housing units, etc.

  • Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) provided grants to states for their own PWA-like projects

  • The government took over the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) and expanded its operations for the economic recovery of the region

  • Roosevelt's response to Great Depression was guided by Keynesian economics

  • Keynesian economics argued that government should embark on a program of deliberate deficit spending to revive the economy

  • Keynesian economics was successful during Roosevelt's administration and led to 30 years of economic expansion from 1945 to 1973

The Second New Deal

New Deal Criticisms

  • Conservatives:

    • Higher tax rates

    • Increase in government power over business

    • Removal of incentive for the poor to lift themselves out of poverty

    • Borrowing to finance programs, anathema to conservatives

  • Leftists, like Huey Long:

    • AAA policy of paying farmers not to grow is immoral

    • Government policy toward businesses too favorable

    • Blamed corporate greed for Depression, calling for nationalization of businesses

Huey Long Threat to FDR

  • Senator and governor of Louisiana

  • Promoted a plan similar to Social Security, gaining supporters

  • Assassinated in 1935

Supreme Court Dismantles First New Deal

  • Invalidated sections of NIRA in the "sick chicken case"

    • Codes were unconstitutional, executive legislation beyond limits of executive power

  • FDR argued that crisis of Depression warranted expansion of executive branch

  • Supreme Court struck down AAA in United States v. Butler

Roosevelt's Court-Packing Scheme

  • Attempted to increase Supreme Court size from 9 justices to 15

  • Wanted to pick justices who supported his policies

  • Rejected by Congress

Second New Deal

  • Emergency Relief Appropriation Act created WPA (later renamed Works Project Administration)

    • Generated over 8 million jobs, funded by government

    • Employed writers, photographers, and artists for public works and local/personal history projects

  • Summer of 1935 is called Roosevelt's Second Hundred Days

    • Passed legislation broadening NLRB powers, democratizing unions, punishing anti-union businesses

    • Created Social Security Administration for retirement benefits for workers, disabled, and families

    • Increased taxes on wealthy individuals and business profits

New Deal Coalition

  • Made up of union members, urbanites, underclass, and Black people (previously voted Republican)

  • Swept FDR back into office in 1936 with landslide victory

  • Held together until election of Reagan in 1980.

Roosevelt’s Troubled Second Term

Franklin Roosevelt's Second Term:

I. Judicial Reorganization Bill:

  • Proposed allowing Roosevelt to appoint new federal judges

  • Effort to pack courts with judges sympathetic to New Deal policies

  • Defeated in Democratic Congress

  • Intense criticism for trying to seize too much power

  • Situation worked itself out with retirements and appointment of liberal judges

II. Economic Problems:

  • 1937 recession caused by cuts in government programs and tightened credit supply

  • Recession lasted for almost three years with increased unemployment rate

  • Forced Roosevelt to withdraw money from New Deal programs to fund military buildup

III. New Deal:

  • Debate among historians on whether New Deal worked or not

  • Arguments for New Deal:

    • Provided relief and escaped poverty for many people

    • Reforms in banking, finance, management/union relations

    • Took bold chances in conservative political climate

  • Arguments against New Deal:

    • Unemployment rate remained in double digits

    • Failed to solve unemployment problem

    • Too small and short-lived to have significant impact

    • Didn't benefit all equally, minorities particularly hurt by AAA and public works projects

IV. Accomplishments:

  • Passed Second Agricultural Adjustment Act and Fair Labor Standards Act

  • Remade America in banking, finance, management/union relations

  • Social welfare system stems from New Deal

  • Took bold chances in conservative political climate

7.5 Foreign Policy Leading up to World War II

  • After World War I, American foreign policy focused on promoting peace and independent internationalism.

  • The Washington Conference was held in 1921-1922 and resulted in a treaty that limited armaments and reaffirmed the Open Door Policy toward China.

  • In 1928, 62 nations signed the Kellogg-Briand Pact, which condemned war as a means of foreign policy.

  • The US tried to adopt a Good Neighbor Policy in Latin America in 1934, but continued to promote American interests through economic coercion and support of pro-American leaders.

  • The Platt Amendment was repealed during this time.

  • In Asia, the US had limited influence and was unable to stop Japan's invasion of Manchuria in 1931.

  • The US sold arms to China and called for an arms embargo on Japan when Japan went to war against China in 1937.

  • The US maintained a high-tariff protectionist policy throughout the 1920s.

  • The Reciprocal Trade Agreements Act allowed the president to reduce tariffs for foreign policy goals.

  • Most favored nation (MFN) trade status was granted to eligible countries for the lowest tariff rate set by the US.

  • Isolationist sentiment grew due to the results of World War I and the findings of the Nye Commission.

  • The Nye Commission revealed unethical activities by American arms manufacturers, leading to the passage of neutrality acts.

  • Roosevelt poured money into the military and worked to assist the Allies within the limits of the neutrality acts.

  • By the 1940s, US foreign policy became increasingly less isolationist with the Lend-Lease Act and Roosevelt's efforts to supply the Allies.

World War II

  • Complicated military strategy and outcome of key battles played a significant role in WW2

  • No need to know much about battles, but important to know about wartime conferences between Allies

  • Grand Alliance between Soviet Union and West was tenuous

  • Manhattan Project of 1942 was research and development effort for atomic bombs

  • Soviet spies infiltrated the project

  • First meeting of "big three" (Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin) took place in Tehran in 1943

  • They planned Normandy invasion (D-Day) and division of defeated Germany into occupation zones

  • Stalin agreed to enter war against Japan after Hitler's defeat

  • Allies fought Germans primarily in Soviet Union and Mediterranean until D-Day invasion in France

  • Soviet Union incurred huge losses and sought to recoup by occupying Eastern Europe

  • Allies won war of attrition against Germans and accelerated victory in East by dropping atomic bombs on Japan

  • D-Day on June 6, 1944 was largest amphibious landing

  • Government acquired more power during WW2 through War Production Board and control over industry and labor

  • Labor Disputes Act of 1943 allowed government takeover of businesses deemed necessary to national security

  • Hollywood was enlisted to create propaganda films

  • Government size more than tripled during war

  • FDR signed Selective Training and Service Act of 1940, creating first peacetime draft in US history

  • WW2 affected almost every aspect of daily life and created new opportunities and tensions in American society

  • More than a million African Americans served in US military during WW2, but lived in segregated units

  • US army was not desegregated until after the war in 1948

  • Rosie the Riveter symbolized the millions of women who worked in war-related industrial jobs

  • Most women were expected to go back to traditional roles after soldiers returned home

  • Government restricted civil liberties, including internment of Japanese Americans from 1942 to end of war

  • Over 110,000 Asian Americans were imprisoned without charge based solely on ethnic background

  • Supreme Court upheld evacuation and internment of Japanese Americans as constitutional

The End of the War

Yalta and Potsdam Conferences

  • Yalta conference held in February 1945 between Allies (US, UK, USSR) to discuss the fate of postwar Europe

  • Soviet army occupied parts of Eastern Europe, and Stalin wanted to create a "buffer zone" with "friendly" nations

  • Allies agreed on a number of issues concerning borders and settlements and to help create the United Nations

Potsdam Conference

  • Held after the end of the war in Europe to decide on implementing the agreements of Yalta

  • Harry S. Truman represented the US after Roosevelt's death

  • Differences between US and USSR growing more pronounced

  • Allies created the Potsdam Declaration to establish the terms for Japan's surrender (removal of emperor from power)

Outcome of Conferences

  • USSR given a free hand in Eastern Europe with promise to hold "free and unfettered elections" after the war

  • Descent of Iron Curtain (division of Eastern and Western Europe) and beginning of Cold War

  • American-Soviet animosity led to US using atomic bombs against Japan

  • Fear of Soviet entry into Asian war and display of power, combined with tenacious Japanese resistance, influenced Truman's decision.