 WWI ended in 1918
 The US now back to Isolationism- policy of
pulling away form involvement in world affairs
 Economy changed
 Unemployment for returning soldiers (or took jobs
away from women and minorities)
 Farmers and factory workers suffered as wartime
orders diminished
 Nativism- prejudice against foreign-born
people
 Fear of Communism- Red Scare
• Communism—economic, political system, single-party
government
• Ruled by dictator
• No private property
• 1919 Vladimir I. Lenin, Bolsheviks, set up Communist state in
Russia
• U.S. Communist Party forms; some Industrial Workers of the
World (IWW) join
• Bombs mailed to government, businesses; people fear Red
conspiracy
 Palmer Raids- US Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer, hunted
down communists, socialist, and anarchists
-Failed, could not find evidence of a
revolutionary conspiracy
 Red Scare fed people’s suspicion of
foreigners and immigrants
 “Keep America for Americans”
 Anti immigrant attitudes had been growing in
the US ever since the 1880s when
immigrants were arriving from southern and
eastern Europe.
 Nativists believed that because the US now had fewer
unskilled jobs available (coal mining, steel production,
textiles) then fewer immigrants should be let into the
country. The need for unskilled labor decreased after
the war
 Immigration after the war: 600% increase
 1919-141,000
 1921- 805,000
 Emergency Quota Act of 1921- set up Quota System
 Limited immigration
 Set the max number of people allowed from specific
countries
 2% of the population that was in the US in 1890. Targeted
southern and eastern Europe (Roman Catholics and Jews)
 Prohibited Japanese Immigration (broke the Gentleman’s
Agreement)
 Groups of people used anti communism as an
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


excuse to harass groups of people unlike
themselves
The KKK- devoted to 100% Americanism
1924 membership reached 4.5 million
“white male persons, native-born gentile citizens”
KKK opposes blacks, Catholics, Jews, immigrants,
unions, saloons
Klan controls many states’ politics
“Power of the Purse”
Only shop at KKK approved stores
 During war- strikes forbidden (could not
interfere with war effort)
 After war- 3,000 strikes
 Employers did not give raises, forbade unions, saw
strikers as communist
 4 million workers walked off the job
 Union membership declines
 Much of the workforce consisted of immigrants
willing to work in poor conditions
 Since immigrants spoke in different languages, it
was hard to organize immigrants into a union
 Farmers who had migrated to cities to find
factory jobs were used to relying on themselves
 Most unions excluded African Americans
 Republican President 1921-1923
 “normalcy” or the simpler days before
the Progressive Era
 1921 Washington Naval College
 Invited several major powers
 Sec of State Charles Hughes
 “no more warships be built for 10 years”
 Urged 5 major powers: US, France, GB, Japan, Italy scrap many
of the battleships, cruisers, and aircraft carriers
 *** First time in history powerful nations agree to disarm
 *** foreshadow ***
 1928- 15 world power nations sign the Kellogg-Briand Pact
which renounced war as a national policy
VS
Frank Kellogg- diplomat
Will Kellogg- cereal guy
 High tariffs- help American businesses
 Britain and France repay war debts ($10 billion)
 Pay in one of two ways: selling good to the US
(imports) or collecting reparations from Germany
 In 1922, Forney- McCumber Tariff
 60% tax on import
 Ex: A foreign good cost the US $300. US citizens will
have to pay_______ with the 60% tax?
 What does this tariff encourage Americans to do?
 Limited role for government in businesses (Laissez
Faire)
 Cabinet members- people who advise the president
 Hoover-sec of commerce
 Andrew Mellon- sec of the treasury (wealthiest man
in US)
 Ohio Gang- the president’s poker playing cronies
 Used their office position to become wealthy
through graft
 Teapot Dome Scandal- sec of interior Albert Fall
 Oil rich public land in Teapot Dome Wyoming
and Elk Hills, CA reserved for Navy- Fall leased
land to 2 private oil companies. This means $$$
for Fall.
 Republican president 1923-1929
 Favored government policies that would keep taxes
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down and business profits up, and businesses more
available credit in order to expand.
Goal- keep government interference in business to a
minimum and to allow private enterprise to flourish
Continued to place high tariffs
Reduced income taxes- people had more $$ in their
pockets
Wages and productivity rose because of new
technology
 1920-1929 prosperous
 Annual income rose 30% from $522 to $705
Goods and Prices, 1900 and 1928
1900
wringer and washboard
$5
brushes and brooms
$5
Sewing machine (mechanical) $5
1928
washing machine
vacuum cleaner
sewing machine (electric)
 Installment Plan- buying goods on credit
 Pushed by advertisers
 Some economist and business owners not for
installment plan. Saw it as getting out of hand
 Banks loaned money with low interest rates
$150
$50
$60
 Most Americans focused on present, not
worried about future
 Idea: what could go wrong with
economy?
 Technological and economic changes
 Laissez Faire
 Life seemed easier and more enjoyable
for many
 Little warning for what is about to come
 18th amendment- prohibition 1919
 19th amendment – women’s suffrage 1920
 Bootleggers, speakeasies, organized crime
 Modernism vs Traditionalism
 fundamentalism-living based off of biblical text
 Scopes trial- fight over evolution and the role of science
and religion in public schools and society
 Urban Sprawl
 Flapper
 Double standard
 Teens turn rebellious- spinning more time with friends
and less time with family
 Harlem Renaissance
 1910-1920 Great Migration
 5.2 million moved to cities
 New goals
 Migration was an expression of their changing
attitude toward themselves “black is beautiful”
 Push- racial violence, economic discrimination,
natural disasters in south (1927 flood)
 Pull- job opportunities, better pay in the north (still
encountered discrimination
 Marcus Garvey- Jamaica, AA live in a separate society
 Radical messages of black pride
 Created the UNIA and 1918 move to NY
Black nationalist fraternal organization founded by Garvey
 Mass meetings, heartfelt speeches, parades, message of
pride
 Encourage followers to go back to Africa to help natives
throw off white oppressors
 Convicted of mail fraud and jailed
 Legacy: black pride, economic independence, reverence for
Africa