Adjusting to Peace After
WWI
1919-1921
What do you know about the 1920’s?

No talking, just think in your head and create a list…

Ready?

Write down anything you kinda sorta think maybe might
have happened in the 20’s
Immediate Post-War Issues

The Great War is over, what now?

Americans are disillusioned with foreign affairs…

What do they do?

Why, they return to isolationism, of course!!!!
Immediate Post-War Issues

Economically…

soldiers come back and need jobs,

no more need for war supplies,

factories close

farmers don’t have armies in Europe to feed

What happens when there are no jobs and no one to sell
things to?

Recession (economic downturn) 1919-1921
Immediate Post-War Issues

Politically…

Time for a new President

Republican Warren Harding is elected in 1920

Read the bottom of p. 174

List the ways that President Harding justifies returning to
isolationism.
Red Scare

In 1917 the Russian Czar was overthrown

Who’s seen “Anastasia”?

Later that year, Communists seized power

What does a good Communist do?

Seek more power!

They threatened to spread their revolution

It started in the US in 1919

And what did our fine citizens do?

People freaked… “Red Scare” created a panic
Sorry to ruin the
story, but she
actually died with
the rest of the
family
Red Scare

In January 1919 Italian anarchist sets off bomb

Where you ask?

Outside US Attorney General Mitchell Palmer’s house

This was one of several in 8 American cities

All attacks on judges, politicians, law enforcement

Whatever should be done?

Hmm… Lets think, what happened after 9/11?

We changed laws and started gathering up “terrorists”
Red Scare
Palmer Raids

Palmer was convinced there was a plot to overthrow the US
gov’t

In 1920 he ordered round-up of 4,000 suspects
 In
several cities
 WITHOUT
 Directed

warrants
by J.Edgar Hoover, his assistant
Most released later, but 600 deported
Red Scare
Sacco and Vanzetti Case

Nicola Sacco & Bartolomeo Vanzetti – Italian immigrants

Convicted of murder during a robbery

Robbery supposedly to get funds for anarchist revolution

World demanded their release

Did we release them?

Of course not! We can’t look weak!

With insufficient evidence, they were convicted and executed

Modern science says Sacco was probably guilty, but not
Vanzetti
Red Scare
Sacco and Vanzetti Case

Your turn to think… It shouldn’t hurt too bad…Oh, but you do
have to write…

Given the situation of fear and panic, do you think Sacco
and Vanzetti got a fair trial?

Why or why not?
Rise of Nativism and Racism
Oh My.mp4

Red Scare, bombings, and trials, Oh My…

Red Scare, bombings, and trials, Oh My…

Red Scare, bombings, and trials, Oh My…


I am afraid, who should I blame?

Foreigners!
Nativists (think they’re native and don’t like foreigners)

Believed White Protestant Americans were superior

Eventually leads to immigration restrictions
Rise of Nativism and Racism
Ku Klux Klan (KKK)



Had been dead for decades
Comes back in 1915
Why? What changed?
Where were most African Americans before the war?
 After?
 Racial tensions in cities grew after the war


Major race riots in cities
Lynching continued and segregation in the South
 Did the KKK only target non-whites?



Nope, they pretty much didn’t like anybody unless you were
white, protestant, & “native”
They harassed: immigrants, Catholics, and Jews too