Libertyville HS
20s Isolationism: The US Turns Inward

Impact of WWI & the
disillusionment w/ the peace
 Treaty of Versailles
○ Unjust treatment of Germany
○ War Guilt Clause
○ Reparations
○ Disarmament
○ New Map of Europe
 League of Nations
○ Article X
○ Enforcement?
 Partisan fighting
○ Henry Cabot Lodge v.
President Wilson
20s Isolationism: The US Turns Inward

Election of 1920
 Reaction to Wilson’s failing
health, progressive reforms
 Revolutions abroad, strikes
and dissent at home
 TR died in 1919; no obvious
heir to progressive mvt



Warren Harding (GOP) –
compromise candidate
(“smoke filled room”)
James Cox (D) – OH gov.,
newspaper ed.
Harding’s “A return to
normalcy” resonated w/ US
Results
Harding
Cox
404 ECV / 16.1 million
127 ECV / 9.1 million
Economic Isolation

Tariff increased over the
1920s
 1913 = 29%
 1922 = 38.5%
 1929: Smoot-Hawley =
59.1% (record high)

Effects
 Int’l trade stagnated
 Europeans unable to pay
debts to US
 US, a creditor nation,
developed bad feelings
towards Europe
 Key component causing
Great Depression
A = Smoot Hawley enacted
Cultural Intolerance

Isolationism compatible with
intolerance
 Great Migration led to…
○ Ghettos
○ Rebirth of KKK

Scopes “Monkey “ Trial
 May evolution be taught in




schools?
Scopes (TN teacher) defended
by Clarence Darrow
Prosecuted by William J. Bryan
(anti-evolution)
Verdict: guilty, fined $1
Inherit the Wind: Hollywood
version
Prohibition

1919 Volstead Act
 Banned the manufacture,
sale transport of 0.5%
alcohol
 Exception: medicinal,
religious purposes
 Implemented 18th Am.

“The Noble Experiment”
 “Wet “= opponent
 “Dry” = supporter
Prohibition

Was prohibition
successful?
 NO!!!
 Rise of organized crime
○ Al Capone (Chicago)
○ “Speakeasies” (illicit bar)
○ “Hooch” (illicit alcohol)

1928 Wickersham
Commission
 Prohibition should be
continued, despite being a
failure

1933: 21st Am.
Repealed 18th Am (local
option)
Can morality be legislated?
Restrictions on Immigration

Causes
 Rejection of Europe
 Domestic labor abundance
 Americanization very slow
 Non-payment of war debt

Legal restrictions
 Chinese Exclusion Act of
1882
 1907 Gentleman’s
Agreement (US, Japan)
○ No more Japanese
immigration
○ No discrimination against
current Japanese residents
Restrictions on Immigration

Legal restrictions
 1921 Emergency Quota Act
○ Total of 350k immigrants
○ Each nation allowed 3% of the #
currently in the US, as of 1910
 1924 Immigration Act
○ No Asians allowed
○ Each nation allowed 2% of its 1890
base currently in the US
 1929 National Origins Act
○ Total of 150k immigrants
○ Each nation allowed 2% of its 1920
base currently living in the US

Impact of restrictions
 Huge waiting lists
 Immigration reduced to a trickle
Labor Strife

1919 – over 2000 major
strikes
 Reaction to restrictions of
war

Example
 UMW strike
 Boston Police strike
 “There is no right to strike
against public safety by
anybody, anywhere, any
time!” Gov. Coolidge
“Red Scare”

1920: Pres Wilson’s AG
Mitchell Palmer identified
a communist threat in US
 Led to “Palmer Raids”:
6000 immigrants detained,
566 deported
 Five socialists expelled from
NY Assembly
“Red Scare”

1921: Nicola Sacco &
Bartolomeo Vanzetti
case
 Murder case of a payroll
clerk
 Liabilities (against them)
○ Immigrants
○ Anarchists
○ Atheists
○ Italian
 Executed in 1927