APUSH: 1920s-WWII

Red Scare

Teapot Dome Scandal (Harding’s admin)

• Fall, Sec of Interior + part of Harding’s Ohio gang, members of his cabinet, took control over naval oil reserves and ended up leasing them to private companies, getting $100,000

Red Sumer and Tulsa Massacre (1919)

• Race massacre that destroyed a thriving Black neighborhood in Tulsa, Okla.

Consumer society

• People now bought stuff they wanted, not just what they needed

Fordney-McCumber tariff (1922)

• Raised tariff

Organized labor decline

• Unions like the AFL refused to adapt to the modern times and were more conservative

Welfare capitalism

• Paternalistic techniques used by employers like Henry Ford to avoid disruptive labor unrest and curb the growth of independent trade unions

Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters

• Led by A. Philip Randolph, it represented a virtually all-black workforce

  • successfully made gains like increased wages, shorter working hours, etc

Radio (NBC)

• The most important communications vehicle

  • also the only one truly new to the 1920s

Parity

• A formula for setting the prices of farm goods and ensuring that farmers would earn back at least their production costs, no matter what

McNary-Haugen bill

• Vetoed twice by Coolidge, it required parity for grain, cotton, tobacco, rice

“American Plan”

• AKA “open shop”

  • harsh campaign of union busting

• Caused union membership to fall dramatically

Companionate marriages

• Women compensating for less active maternal roles by spending more time on their husbands

Flappers

• The modern woman whose liberated lifestyle found expression through dress, hairstyle, speech, and behavior

Margaret Sanger

• The birth control lady

“Pink collar”

• Jobs predominantly occupied by women

  • secretaries, salesclerks, telephone operators

Harlem Renaissance

• A flourishing African American culture of literature, poetry, and art

  • demonstrated richness of black heritage

Langston Hughes

• Influential African American poet circa Harlem Renaissance

  • “black is beautiful”

Marcus Garvey

• Radical black nationalist leader

Prohibition

• AKA the “noble experiment”

• Pretty much all of its initial supporters (barring rural, Protestant Americans) turned on it

Immigration Act of 1921

• Annual immigration could not exceed 3% of the population of that nationality in the US in 1910

National Origins/Immigration Act of 1924

• Annual immigration could not exceed 2% of the population of that nationality in the US in 1890

  • also banned immigration from East Asia (really targeting Japan) completely

Fundamentalism

Clarence Darrow

• Defense attorney in Scopes trial

Andrew Mellon

• Secretary of the Treasury who worked to lower taxes on corporations, inheritances, and incomes

• Also worked to lower the federal budget

Sheppard-Towner Act (1921)

• Provided federal funds to states to establish prenatal and child healthcare programs

  • opposed by Paul, Sanger, and the AMA

    • Repealed by Congress in ‘29

Rise of the KKK

• Defended traditional values

  • didn’t just terrorize blacks anymore; now Jews, Catholics, immigrants, even some Protestants

“Lost generation”

• American writers and artists disillusioned with modern America

  • ex: Hemingway, Mencken, Lewis, Fitzgerald

Volstead Act

• Defined what an alcoholic beverage was

  • anything containing > 0.5% alcohol

18th Amendment (1919)

• Prohibited manufacturing, distribution, and consumption of alcohol

19th Amendment (1920)

• Gave women the right to vote

The Jazz Singer (1927)

• First “talkie” or movie with sound

Scopes Monkey trial (1925)

• Biology teacher in TN charged with teaching evolution in school. Prosecution was William Jennings Bryan! This guy!

ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union)

• Offered free counsel to any TN educator who’d agree to disobey the law prohibiting the teaching of evolution

Economics of 1920s

• Laissez-faire all the way

  • think “who was roaring”

Organized crime

• Boomed, especially because of prohibition

Charles Lindbergh

• The first aviator to make a solo flight across the Atlantic

  • associated with America First party

Babe Ruth

Associationalism

• Championed by Hoover, it envisioned the creation of national organizations of businessmen in particular industries

  • private entrepreneurs could stabilize their own industries

Black Tuesday (1929)

• The day the Stock Market crashed

Okies

• Families moving from Dust Bowl states to CA, other places

Scottsboro case (1931)

• 9 black teens were (falsely) accused of raping a white woman in AL

  • 8 were sentenced to death and waited in jail for a long time before being released (but never acquitted)

John Steinbeck

• Famous author known for Grapes of Wrath

• Supported FDR’s New Deal

Schechter Poultry v. U.S. (1935)

• Alleged NRA code violations by brothers who ran a business confined to Brooklyn, NY

  • the Supreme Court ruled that, since they weren’t engaged in interstate commerce they weren’t subject to federal regulation and that the NRA codes weren’t drafted constitutionally anyway

Buying on margin

• Buying stocks with loans and putting the stock itself up as collateral for the loan

Hawley-Smoot tariff

• Hoover signed this higher tariff into law

Dust Bowl (began 1930)

• A large portion of America, from TX to the Dakotas, experienced a steady decline in rainfall and simultaneous increase in heat

CIO (1936)

• A federation of unions that supported FDR, allowed blacks, and later merged with the AFL

  • more receptive to women and blacks than the AFL had been, also more militant

Reconstruction Finance Corp.

• Federal loans to banks, RR, others; budget of $1.5 billion

  • some money for local public works but only if profitable

    • HOOVER PROGRAM

Bonus Army

• WWI veterans in need of their promised $1000 bonuses marching on DC, camping out, until Hoover drove them out

Election of 1932

• FDR won in a landslide

Brain trust

“Nothing to fear but fear itself” (1933)

• FDR’s inaugural address

The New Deal

1st Hundred Days

• FDR was busy as a bee!

Fireside chats

• FDR’s way of talking “directly” to the American people

Relief, recovery, reform

Emergency Banking Act (1933)

• A generally conservative bill passed early in FDR’s administration designed to protect larger banks from being dragged down by small ones

  • treasury dept would inspect all banks before they could reopen

  • federal assistance would be granted to some troubled institutions

  • very troubled institutions would be thoroughly reorganized

Glass-Steagall Act (1933)

• Gave the government authority to curb irresponsible speculation by banks

• Created FDIC

Federal Emergency Relief Administration (1933)

• Provided cash grants to states to prop up bankrupt relief agencies

  • soup kitchens/breadlines

Public Works Administration

Social Security Act

Agricultural Adjustment Act (1933)

• Paid farmers not to farm

  • later struck down as unconstitutional by the Supreme Court

Securities and Exchange Commission

• Oversees the buying and selling of stock; Brinkley claims its creation indicated the lack of public trust

Tennessee Valley Authority (1933)

• Project taken over by the government to expand electricity in the South

National Industrial Recovery Act (1933)

• Umbrella group

  • led by Hugh Johnson; called for blanket code; oversaw NRA and PWA

Civilian Conservation Corp (1933)

• Roosevelt’s favorite relief project :)

• Paid young urban men $1/day to protect environment in segregated camps; a works program

  • a few were available to men of color

Home Owners Loan Corporation

• Part of a series of proposals to keep people from defaulting on their homes

  • provided stability

Works Progress Administration (1935)

• Employed groups such as writers, painters, artists, actors

20th Amendment

• Changed inauguration date

21st Amendment (1933)

• Repealed 18th amendment, ending prohibition

Second New Deal (1935)

• Focused more on relief and reform

• More radical

  • overtly attacked big business

National Labor Relations Act/Wagner Fair Labor Standards Act (1935)

• Established - permanent - minimum wage, maximum hours and banned child labor

Court packing scheme

• FDR wanted to require SC justices to retire at age 70 or add 1 justice (with a limit of 6) to potentially have 15 justices at once

  • literally everyone hated this plan, so it didn’t actually go through

Indian Reorganization Act

• Reversed Dawes Severalty Act

2nd AAA/Soil Conservation and Allotment Act

• Not OFFICIALLY paying farmers not to farm

  • think of the SOIL QUALITY!

John M. Keynes

• British economist who advocated for increased gov intervention in times of trouble

Deficit spending

• Purposely driving the government into debt

Electoral realignment

• Huge shift towards Democrats

John L. Lewis/UMW

Father Coughlin

• Conservative

• Didn’t like FDR

• Super famous on the radio

Huey Long

• AKA Kingfish

• “Share the Wealth”

Dr. Francis Townsend

• Old timey guy

  • $200 pension/month for old people

Frances J. Perkins

• First female cabinet member

Black cabinet

• FDR’s appointment of a number of blacks to significant second-level positions in his administration

  • Weaver, Hastie, McLeod Bethune

Jesse Owens

Marian Anderson

• Singer who was refused permission to give a concert in DAR’s auditorium

  • the Roosevelts helped her sing on the steps of the Lincoln memorial

Joe Louis

Frank Capra

• Director of war propaganda films

Kellogg-Briand Pact (1928)

• A bunch of countries agreed to not use war as a political tool

  • LOL

Washington (Naval) Conference (1921)

• 5 power pact: reduced naval tonnage

• 9 power pact: continued Open Door policy in China

• 4 power pact: respecting territories in Pacific

Relations with USSR

Dawes Plan

• AKA circular loans

  • we give money to Germany, Germany uses it to pay reparations to Allies, Allies pay us what they owe

Good Neighbor Policy

• Shift from militaristic to economic intervention in Latin America

Stimson Doctrine

• The US would not recognize Japan’s claims/new territories in Manchuria

Reciprocal Trade Agreements

• Decreased tariffs by 50%

  • new new new! Remember, Republicans like high tariffs

Nye Committee

• Looking for evidence that internationalists’ need for US involvement in the war was monetary based

Japanese aggression

The Atlantic Charter

Axis Powers