USA in the First World War and the 1920s

Flashcards for reviewing key vocabulary and concepts from lecture notes on the USA in World War I and the 1920s.

Isolationists

Americans who believed that America should not join the war.

RMS Lusitania

British liner sunk by a German submarine in 1915, resulting in the deaths of 128 Americans and provoking outrage in the United States. This incident is one of the reasons America joined the war

AEF

American Expeditionary Force, the American army that fought in Europe during World War I, under the command of Commander-in-Chief John J Pershing.

CPI

Committee on Public Information, formed in April 1917, used propaganda techniques to shape public opinion and support for the war.

Espionage Act of 1917

U.S. federal law passed during World War I to prevent interference with military operations or recruitment, and to prevent insubordination in the military.

Sedition Act of 1918

An amendment to the Espionage Act that made it illegal to say or write anything disloyal, profane, scurrilous, or abusive about the U.S. government, the flag, or the military.

Boss's War

Phrase used by workers, socialists and anti-war groups during WW1 to express their anger and frustration about the way they felt the war was being used to benefit the wealthy at the expense of the working class.

Women's Christian Temperance Movement

Organization that campaigned for prohibition since the 19th century, believing it would protect women from domestic violence and poverty.

The Great Migration

The movement of many African Americans from the rural South to urban areas in the North, which led to increased racial friction. It was during the 1910’sand 1920’s as they sought better employment opportunities and escape from Jim Crow laws.

Self-determination

One of Woodrow Wilson's 14 points principles, which would see colonies borders readjusted, and people granted the right to determine their own sovereignty.

League of Nations

Organization that Woodrow Wilson wanted to create where countries could talk out their problems instead of fighting. The USA Senate rejected membership.

The Golden age/Jazz age/Roaring Twenties

Commonly used terms to describe the 1920’s, a time remembered as bright young things danced the Charleston, drank martinis and drove fast cars.

Welfare Capitalism

An approach in which employers provide benefits such as housing, education and recreational activities to their workers to encourage productivity and loyalty.

Laissez faire

A type of economic system in which transactions between private groups of people are free from any form of economic intervention. Means allow to do in French.

Rugged Individualism

Self-reliance. The idea that people are independent and don’t need help from others.

The American Dream

The dream to move to America, to get rich quick and the belief that anyone can have a better life through hard work.

The Lost Generation

Felt that they were abandoned by the government after they came back from the war and suffered survivor guilt, this led to much literature at the time including great Gatsby.

Red Scare

Refers to periods in U.S. history where there was intense fear about the rise of communism.

Palmer Raids

A series of government actions in 1919 and 1920, during the First Red Scare Government agents raided homes, offices, and meeting places of suspected radicals, sometimes without warrants.

Red Summer

Refers to the summer of 1919 in the United States, a period marked by widespread and intense racial violence. It was a time of many race riots and lynchings, primarily targeting African American communities.

Nativism

When people who are native-born feel like they're more important than people who have come from somewhere else (immigrants).

KKK (Ku Klux Klan)

A group that believed that white, Protestant people were superior to everyone else. They hated and targeted Black people, Jewish people, immigrants, and anyone who didn't fit their idea of what an "American" should be.

Pluralism

The idea that different groups of people, with their own cultures and backgrounds, can live together peacefully and respectfully. It means valuing and celebrating those differences, instead of trying to make everyone the same.

Bootleggers

People who illegally made, transported, and sold alcohol during the Prohibition era.

Scofflaws

People who know they shouldn’t be doing something but do it anyway (e.g., people who drank during Prohibition).

Gangsters

Organized crime groups that controlled the illegal alcohol trade during Prohibition and sometimes used violence to protect their business (e.g., Al Capone).

AAA (Agricultural Adjustment Administration)

Alphabet agency during the New Deal that paid farmers to make less food by taking land out of production or reducing livestock. Helped farmers but was not good for the people who worked for them.

CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps)

Alphabet agency during the New Deal gave jobs to single men between 1933 and 1942. They lived in government camps clearing land, planting trees to stop soil blowing away and strengthening riverbanks for flood control.

NRA (National Recovery Administration)

Alphabet agency during the New Deal that were set up to by the national industry recovery act with the aims to increase workers wages, the price of factory made goods, better conditions and shorter our working hours

TVA (Tennessee Valley Authority)

Alphabet agency during the New Deal that set up to develop the Tennessee valley and organised the building of 33 dams to control the Tennessee river and provide cheap electricity for farmers and domestic consumers.

WPA (Works Progress Administration)

Gave work to about 2 million people per year between 1935 and 1937. They built roads, public building, tunnels, sewers, and a windbreak of trees 1600km long to stop further loss of soil from the Dust Bowl