Post-War America: The Dawn of a New Era

Flashcards covering the key themes and events of Post-War America and the dawn of a New Era

What was the human toll of World War I, including combat deaths, soldiers missing in action, and wounded?

Over 37 million casualties.

Where did the deadly "Spanish flu" ironically originate?

The United States.

What did 1919 see crash across the United States on the home front?

A wave of labor unrest.

Where did Woodrow Wilson arrive on December 16, 1918, to great fanfare?

Paris.

What was Wilson's campaign slogan in 1916 when he won re-election?

"He Kept Us Out of War."

What ship's sinking by Germany led to the death of more than a hundred Americans in 1915?

The British merchant ship Lusitania.

When did Wilson lead his nation to war, declaring, "The world must be made safe for democracy?"

The spring of 1917.

What role did U.S. troops play in turning the tide for the Allied Powers?

A decisive role, especially in the Meuse-Argonne offensive.

What did Wilson earn a reputation for being as president?

An effective and forward-looking reformer.

What did Wilson publicly announce in January of 1918?

His famous Fourteen Points.

What was Wilson's top priority entering the Paris peace negotiations?

The establishment of the League of Nations.

Who rounded out the Big Three of the Allied Powers alongside Wilson?

French Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau and British Prime Minister David Lloyd George.

What did Wilson grudgingly accede to regarding Germany's role in the war?

That the treaty formally assign Germany sole blame for the outbreak of the war.

What officially ended World War I on June 28, 1919?

The Versailles Peace Treaty was signed by the Allied powers and Germany.

Who lined up thirty-nine senators who vowed to vote against the League without significant reservations?

Massachusetts Senator Henry Cabot Lodge.

What article of the League's Charter did Lodge focus his fiercest criticism on?

Article X.

Who declared total, unqualified opposition to the Treaty and the League?

Senator William E. Borah of Idaho.

What did the president resolutely believe he had cleverly boxed in his opponents by binding together?

The League and the treaty.

When did Wilson embark on a 9,981-mile cross-country speaking tour to plead his case directly to the American people?

September 3, 1919.

What did Wilson suffer on October 2, after the remaining stops of the tour were canceled?

A massive stroke that left him partially paralyzed.

When did the Senate once again reject the revised treaty?

March 19, 1920.

What erupted across the United States while Wilson was in France?

Labor strife.

What did unions feel that workers’ wartime sacrifices had earned them?

A share of the dividends of peace.

What did police officers in Boston go on strike to protest?

The refusal of the mayor to recognize their union.

Who boldly declared: “There is no right to strike against the public safety, by anybody, anywhere, anytime.

Massachusetts Governor Calvin Coolidge.

What did Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer turn to?

Exposing and extinguishing all forms of subversive radicalism.

What added fuel to the fire of the Red Scare?

The aftershocks of the Russian Revolution.

What did Congress pass to protect the nation from foreign and domestic enemies?

The Espionage Act in 1917, subsequently amended in 1918 as the Sedition Act.

What special division did Palmer create within the Justice Department's Bureau of Investigation (BOI)?

General Intelligence Division (GID).

Who did Palmer tap to lead the General Intelligence Division?

J. Edgar Hoover.

In what months did Palmer intensify the Justice Department’s anti-radical campaign?

From November 1919 into January 1920.

What speech was Charles Schenck convicted for violating?

The Sedition Act.

What did Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. deliver in Schenck v. United States?

The majority decision for a unanimous court.

What doctrine did Holmes champion in his dissent?

The “free trade of ideas.”

Why did the 1920 arrest and subsequent trials of Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti become a rallying cry for a generation of leftist intellectuals?

Little concrete evidence tied them to the crime.

From 1915 to 1920, where did over a million African Americans leave to find a better life?

The American South.

What did this mass movement become known as?

The Great Migration.

What shone brightest of all, earning the moniker “Black Mecca?”

Harlem.

What was born in New Orleans in the nightclubs, bars, cafes, and dance halls of the Crescent City’s red- light district?

Jazz music.

What did African-American author and civil rights activist James Weldon Johnson coin to describe the bloody surge in racial violence that peaked from April to November 1919?

“Red Summer”.

What did Marcus Garvey call on African Americans to abandon?

The country that had once enslaved them, and turn instead to the land of their ancestors: Africa.

When did The Eighteenth Amendment, which enforced a constitutional ban on alcoholic beverages, take effect?

At the stroke of midnight on January 17, 1920.

What did Congress pass temporary in 1918?

A wartime prohibition law.

When was the Nineteenth Amendment ratified?

August 18, 1920.

What did the Nineteenth Amendment officially bar?

Sex-based restrictions on voting in all forty-eight states.

What did Harding tell a Boston audience that the country needed?

“Not heroism but healing, not nostrums but normalcy…sustainment in the triumphant nationality.”

What did Harding's campaign wisely condense this verbiage to?

The snappy slogan "Return to Normalcy."

What did Harding back, sidestepping the Treaty of Versailles?

“ a joint resolution passed by Congress on July 21, 1921, that officially declared an end to hostilities with Germany"

What conference did Harding host in Washington, D.C. in November?

A nine-nation naval disarmament conference.

In early 1920, who presented investors with an attractive offer to invest their funds with a guarantee of a handsome return?

Charles Ponzi.

What scheme was Ponzi operating?

A classic pyramid scheme.

What scandal was the Harding Administration soon embroiled in?

A number of financial scandals.

Who did Harding name Attorney General?

Harry Daugherty.

Why did Jess Smith share a rented house with Daugherty

Jess Smith offered a variety of special services for the Ohio Gang.

what was the Teapot Dome Scandal a sordid affair involving?

Public lands, private oil companies, and fraud

Where was Calvin Coolidge visiting when Harding died?

His childhood home in rural Vermont.

Small government and what served as the twin lodestars of Coolidge’s political philosophy?

Individualism.

When Coolidge took office in 1923, what had begun to lift?

The harsh effects of the economic recession that had followed World War I.

What plan went into effect in September 1, 1924?

The Dawes Plan went