Unit 7 America Between the Wars part 1 The 1920s.

Unit 7 America Between the Wars

part 1

The 1920s

• Russian Revolution– During WW I– the violent overthrow of the czarist regime in

Russia in 1917– the eventual rise to power of the Communist

party in 1918 – the creation of the Soviet Union in 1922.

• Why it worked:– Russia• Weak military• Czarist tradition (300 years)• Weak economy with no industry

• Why it would not work in America:– Strong Military– Democratic Tradition– Strong Economy with much industry

• The violent nature of revolution and the existence of radicals made people paranoid in the U.S.

• red scare– the term for the general fear of communist/radical

revolution spreading to the U.S.

• 1919 (Year of the Strike)– A wave of strikes spread throughout the country– including a steel strike, a general strike in Seattle,

and a Police strike in Boston. – Radicals gat the blame and caused increased

paranoia.

• A. Mitchell Palmer– Attorney General (head of the justice department)

of the United States from 1919 to 1921.– He is best known for overseeing the "Palmer

Raids" during the Red Scare of 1919-20

• Palmer Raids– a series of raids in late 1919 and early 1920 by the

United States Department of Justice intended to capture, arrest and deport radical leftists, especially anarchists, from the United States.

• Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)– Originally started as the anti-radical division of the

Justice Department, it then grew to combat gangsters and other notorious criminals.

• J. Edgar Hoover– The first director of the FBI that was created by A.

Mitchell Palmer as an anti-radical division of the government.

Nativism

• Nativism– the belief that non-American ideas are bad. – This resurfaced after WW I. – Many denounced foreign "radical" ideas, condemned "un-

American" lifestyles, and shut the gates to immigration• Sacco and Vanzetti Trial

– Italian-born anarchists who were convicted of murdering a guard and a paymaster during the armed robbery of a shoe factory in Braintree, Massachusetts, in 1920.

– Many believe that they were wrongly convicted because of biases based on nativism.

Race Relations

• KKK (II)– The second coming of this group grew to

enormous popularity nation-wide, not just in the south because of the growing sense of nativism.

– At its peak, it reached 5 million members.– They focused on regional minorites, not just

African Americans

Race Relations Cont.

• Many African Americans Moved to Norhern Cities during WW I

• When White troops returned conflicts over jobs arose• race riots– A wave of riots fueled by racial tensions in cities like

Chicago, IL and Tulsa, OK.– The riots followed postwar social tensions related to the

demobilization of veterans of World War I, both black and white, and competition for jobs among ethnic whites and blacks

Race Relations cont.

• Josephine Baker – St. Louis born Jazz singer and dancer who fled the

U.S. because of rampant racism and settled in France.

• Marcus Garvey– Jamaican born leader of a Back to Africa movement.– Convinced many to buy passage back to colonize in

Africa– He was imprisoned for fraud for selling passage on

boats with no engines.

Harlem Renaissance

• Harlem Renaissance– the name given to the cultural, social, and artistic

explosion that took place in Harlem between the end of World War I and the middle of the 1930s.

– During this period Harlem was a cultural center, drawing black writers, artists, musicians, photographers, poets, and scholars.

• Cotton Club– Famous jazz club that exposed black musicians to wide

spread audiences and started the careers of many Jazz greats, including Duke Ellington.

• Duke Ellington– An American composer, pianist and bandleader of

jazz orchestras from the Harlem Renaissance.• Langston Hughes– African American Author, Poet, and Playwright

who was associated with the Harlem Renaissance.• Louis Armstrong– Prominent Jazz trumpeter during the birth of jazz

music in America.

Fundamentalism

• Fundamentalism was the strong belief in religious morals and fundamentals

• Scopes Trial– Commonly referred to as the Monkey Trial,– it's an American legal case in 1925 in which a substitute

high school teacher, John Scopes, was accused of violating Tennessee's Butler Act, which made it unlawful to teach human evolution in any state-funded school.

– It symbolizes the conflict between science and theology.

• Clarence Darrow– The lawyer for John T. Scopes in the Scopes Trial.– He ultimately represented the side of

science/evolution.• William Jennings Bryan– The prosecutor for Tennessee in the Scopes Trial.– He ultimately represented the side of

religion/fundamentalism.

Politics

• Warren Harding– Winner of the 1920 Presidential election– the 29th President of the United States, a Republican from Ohio

whose cabinet was filled with corruption. – His cabinet was nicknamed "the Ohio gang.”– He died before his first term was up

• Teapot Dome Scandal– a bribery incident that took place in the United States from 1921

to 1924, during the administration of President Warren G. Harding

– Secretary of the Interior Albert Fall was to blame.

Politics Cont.

• Calvin Coolidge– gained fame as Governor of Massachusettes after

handling the Boston Police strike.– He was elected as the 29th Vice President in 1920

and succeeded to the Presidency upon the sudden death of Warren G. Harding in 1923.

– Elected in his own right in 1924, he gained a reputation as a small-government conservative

– also as a man who said very little. “Silent Cal”

Politics cont.

• Kellogg-Briand Pact– (1928) A sentimental triumph of the 1920s peace

movement, this 1928 pact linked sixty-two nations in the supposed "outlawry of war".

• McNary-Haugen Bill– (1924-1928) A farm-relief bill that was championed

throughout the 1920s and aimed to keep agricultural prices high by authorizing the government to buy up surpluses and sell them abroad.

– Congress twice passed the bill, but President Calvin Coolidge vetoed it in 1927 and 1928.

Roaring Twenties

• roaring twenties– The nickname for the 1920s based on the fact that it was

economically prosperous, and the rise of jazz and dancing.• Prohibition

– Made possible by the 18th amendment and strengthened by the Volstead Act, this outlawed the production, sale, and distribution of alcoholic beverages.

• Speakeasies– Illegally operated bars during prohibition.– They were often secretive and sometimes required passwords

to enter.

Heroes

• Johnny Weissmuller - Swimming• Red Grange - Football• Babe Ruth - baseball• Charles Lindbergh– The biggest celebrity of the 1920s– He became the first man to fly non-stop across

the Atlantic Ocean from New York to Paris, France. – His plane was named the Spirit of St. Louis.