The Early 20th Century (1890-1945)

The Progressive Era and World War I Era (1900-1920)

• the populists were dead but left a legacy

  • inspired others to seek action

• Progressives dominated the 1910s and 1920s

  • urban, middle-class reformers who wanted to increase the role of government in reform and have a capitalist economy

The Progressive Movement

• Progressives were urban and middle-class

• Economic and political clout in the movement, more so than Populists

• Could devote more time to the movement, did not intensify regional and class differences either

• Roots:

  • Growing associations and organizations (Womens Suffrage, Bar Assoc.)

  • People were already rallied

• Muckrakers boosted them when they exposed misconduct and greed of corporations

  • The Jungle by Upton Sinclair in particular

• New groups fought discrimination

  • W.E.B. Du Bois with the NAACP

  • Feminist movement with Margaret Sanger

    • 19th Amendment for women’s vote in 1920

• Robert La Follette led progressivism in state leaders

  • implemented direct election plans, progressive taxation, rail regulation

  • states extended power to voters with ballot initiative, referendum, and recall power

• Theodore Roosevelt was a Progressive and the best one!

  • succeeded assassinated McKinley

  • More liberal early on

  • Sherman Antitrust Act used to break up major railroad company and other monopolies multiple times

  • Negotiated labor conflict with coal miners

  • Meat Inspection Act

  • Pure Food and Drug Act

  • Conservationist

  • New Nationalism

• William Howard Taft

  • 1908 election

  • 16th amendment (national income tax)

  • 17th Amendment (direct election of senators)

  • Pursued monopolies aggressively

  • Dollar diplomacy foreign policy

    • tried to secure favorable latin american dan east asian relations by proivding loans

  • Conservative republican

• Woodrow Wilson

  • third progressive potus

  • Democrat

  • New Freedom

  • Federal government had to assume greater business control to protect freedoms

  • Monopolies violated freedom for workes and consumers

  • Federal Trade Commission

  • Clayton Antitrust Act of 1914

  • Federal Reserve System

• WWI ended Progressivism influence

• Red Scare split it even furhter

Foreign Policy and US Entry into WWI

• Roosevelt was an imperalist

• Platt Amendment cornered Cuba into American control

  • Cuba: no treaties with other ocuntires wihtout US approval, US had the right to interfere in Cuban affairs, increased military invovlement

• Interventionsit thorughout Latin America

• Panama Canal

  • Colombia asked US to spend more than it thought they should for it, offered Panamanian rebels a chance to revolt and supported said revolution until the deal betttered itself

• Roosevelt Corollary (Big Stick Diplomacy)

• American foreign policy contienud to adhere to the Monroe Doctrine

  • International police force and internvetion in WEstern hemisphere where natinal securiyt was threanted

  • No invovlment in European affairs

    • wwi woudl test this

• America and English ties were becoming healthier

  • England opposed no american forays into southern america

  • Britain was trying to gain an ally in the coming war

• America tried to stay out of the war at first

• Wilson won 1912 election against Roosevelt and Taft, entering with 40% of the vote

  • thought america shoudl stay out of the simmering war

• Neutrailty was the American policy starting august 1914 with wwi beginning

  • hoped that us would be the arbitor and settle confict

• England had a blockade that would stop shipments going to Germany, especially American sihpments

  • Germany countered this with Uboats

  • German submarines sank Lusitania, killing 128 Americans depsite thier claims to adhere international law

• Congress was in a state of preparedness in case fo war, though Americans adn everyoen wanted to stay out of it

  • there was support for entry growing, though

• 1917: Zimmermann telegram was intercepted and showed that if Mexico agreed to delcare War on America they’d get their land lost in the end of the Mexican-American war back

  • Suggested similar clausess for Jpaan

• America declared war

World War I and the Aftermath

• Government power exapnded greatly during teh WWI era

• Telephone, railraod, and telegraph lines were seized under a beauricacy

• Civil liberties were restricted

  • Espionage Act of 1917 prohibited anyone from using teh mail system to inerefere with teh war effort or the draft

  • SEidtion Act of 1918 prevented the sale of war bonds or speaking badly of the governemtn and America

  • Violated first Amendment but were worded so vaguely the courts had leeway

• Schenck v. US decided that freedom of speech can be violatedwith teh clear and present danger test

• Russian REvolution introduced Bolsehvik as leader

• Americans had the Red Scare of 1917

  • AMericans feared communism taking over the nation

  • Radical labor unions were branded enemies (IWW)

  • FBI was created

  • Palmer Raids of early 1920 raided all sorts of locations in search of communism

    • immigrants were deported

• Committee on Public Information created to sponsor wartime propaganda

• Wartime generated opportunity for women

  • means of employment changed, giong from domestic work to factories

• Great Migration of SOuthern African Americans to Chicago, New York, St. Louis and Detroit in search of work

• Fourteen Points were Wilson’s contirbution to the negoitatiosn at the nd of the war

  • Not passed

  • Called for free trade through lower tariffs and freedom of the seas, reduction in arms supplies on all sides, and promotion of self-determination (end of colonialism)

  • Also called for League of Nations, intedned to remedy peace settlemetn flaws

• Treaty of Versailles made Geramny cede German adn colonial territoires, disarm, pay reparations, and admit fault

  • Did create League of Nations

• America never joined the League of Nations because the Senate refused to rafiy it

• America returend to isolationsim and less european interaction generally

The Jazz Age and the Great Depression (1920-1933)

Pro-Business Republican Administrations

• Progressivism ended and introduced new ideas of large and successful businesses

• Probusinesses era of the govnerment

  • Regulatory agencies often assisted instead of just regulating

• Labor unions lost public favor

• Warren Harding, Calvin Coolidge, and Herbert Hoover were the business Republican POTUSes

• Harding

  • corrupt advisors

  • teapot dome scandal

    • oil companies bribed the secretary of the interior to drill on public lands

  • more liberal than wilson with civil liberties

  • antilynching laws and helped farmers

• Coolidge

  • Conservative economic policies

  • lower income tax rates

• Temproary declien in populairyt of labor uniosn, with memebrship dropping and businessmen offering mro ebenefits

Modern Culture

• Cars!!!

• Became more affordable with teh assembly line and mass production, lowering cotss

• Many moved to suburbs and made the car a necessity instead of luxury

• Radio changed culture

  • ten million families had one

• Advertising became more prosperious with hyping these products

• Women entered teh workforce more because of these new products and needing jobs

• Roaring Twenties

  • flapper dress

  • new attitudes

  • short hair

  • emanicpated women

  • modernization of women!!

• Movies were more popular, as were authors like Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald

• Harlem Renaissance in NYC with Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston and jazz

Backlash Against Modern Culture

• Many protested this new modern culture

• KKK grew strongly and widened targets from African Americans to Jews, ubranities, and anyone deviant

• Anti-immigration groups grew targetting those from south and Eastern Europe

• Emergency Quota Act set immigration quotas based on national origins and sicmriatned against immigrants from Southern adn Eastern Europe

• Chinese Exclusion Act overturned in 1943

• Scopes Monkey Trial when a teacher atught evolution and many protested

• Prohibition

  • banned manufacture, sale, and tarnpsort of alchool

  • Eighteenth Amendment

  • Response to reofrm campaigns by many (espeically chirsitan women)

  • Repealed with 21st amendment

  • Gangster era with lots of crime

Herbert Hoover and the Great Depression’s Beginning

• Republican Presidnet, able to use a strong economy to get the win

• October 1929 was the Stock Market Crash of 1929

• Hoover underestimated the damage

• WWI had put Europe in a depression too

• Farmers had been overproducing outsripping the piblcis abilty to buy the food

• Supply exceeded demand far too much, an underlying cuase of the Great Depression that led to deflation, unemployment, and buisnesses failures

• Government laxity with large business regulation led to concentrations of wealth in big businessmen

• Millions lost jobs, went bankrupt, lost savings

• Hoovervilles were built for the homeless

• Dust Bowl of the Midwest hurt famers even more whiel they suffered foreclosuresand evictions

• Hoover opposed federal relief efforst because they violated his idea of rugged invidualism but he initiated a few farm assitance programs and federal works projects when he saw how it worsened

• Hawley-Smoot Tariff was passed in an effort to help but it worsened everything

  • highest protective tariff in history

• COngress consdiered early beenfit papyments for WWI vets when they came to Washington to ask for them

  • HOover ordered hte army to expel them and ruined his chances of reelection

• Franklin D. Roosevelt was next, aruging for an interventionsit govnemrnet and relief payments

The New Deal and World War II (1934-1945)

The First New Deal

• Roosevelt’s sweeping reforms in response to the Great Depression

• Early in 1933 they began

• First Hundred Days of presidency were extremly productive

• Emergency Banking Relief Bill put poorly managed banks under Treasury Department and gave them govenrmetn liscences

• Fireside chats to comfort the nation

• ONce bansk healed, hte Banking Act of 1933 was passed to create the Federal Deposti INsurance Corporation (FDIC) to guarantee depostis to prevent losing money again

• INflationary measures were inlcuded to raise prices and flow money

• National Industrial Recovery Act consolidated businesses and coordinated activites to eliminate overproduction adn stabilize prices

• Public Works Administration

  • created jobs for many

• Civilian Conservation Corps proivded grants for PWA projects in states

• Tenessee Valley Authority managed energy distirubtion

• Securities and Exchange COmmission reuglated the stock market

• Immediate success politically and eoncomically with unemployment falling and wages rising

• Democrats won!

The Second New Deal

• COnservatives disliked the New Deal because of the governmenet’s power and involvement

• They opposed the higher taxes of the New Deal and the increase of business control the government had; saw relief programs as incentive for the poor to stay that way

• Deficit spending increased, and they had heart attacks

• Huey Long and other Leftists saw many policies as immoral and wrongly favoring certain organizations

• Socialists were gaining popularity calling for government takeovers of businesses

• New Deal programs became dismantled by SCOTUS in 1935

  • NIRA was invalidated because it was unconstitutional to make laws that created it

  • Roosevelt argued that the depression created a national crisis that warranted the New Deal and its policies

  • Court packing scheme began for Roosevelt to pack the court with democrats to support him, never happened

• Second New Deal began with the Emergency Relief Appropriation Act

  • created Works Progress Administration that created jobs paid by the government

• Second Hundred Days

Rural Poor Relief

• Agricultural Adjustment Act

  • provided payments to farmers in return for their agreement to cut production

• Farm Credit Act

  • loans for farmers in case of foreclosure

• Second 100 Days

• NLRB were democratized unions that punished businesses with anti-union policies

• Social Security Administration provided retirement benefits

• Taxes on wealthy were increased

• New Deal coalition were union members, urbanites, underclass, and more who supported it and Democrats

Keynesian Economics

• Roosevelt’s respnose to the Great depression was guided by these economics

• Delibertae deficit spending woudl ensure that every dollar spent woudl reviev the economy

• People who needed money the most received a little extra to spend and that woudl start teh ccle anew

Roosevelt’s Troubled Second Term

• First major failure came as term began

• Judicial Reogrnaiaztion bill drafteed during anger with SCOTUS for overutnring most fo the first new deal’s policies

  • proposed that Roosevelt be allowed to anme a new federal judge for every sitting judge 70+ and unretired

  • would add six new SOCTUS justices and 40 more federal judges

  • packing teh court effort

  • bill was defeated and he was critized for trying to seize too muhc power

• Recession of 1937

  • period oc ocinitually decreasing output

  • Roosevelt was satfiseifed that the New Deal was owrking adn cut back programs to balance the budget

  • Federal Reserve BOard tightened the credit supply to slow inflation

  • These two things caused it

  • Lasted three yeras

• Europe woudl fight again, denting his term once more

  • He withdrew money form programs to justify military buildup

• Fair Labor Standards Act was passed to set minimum wage act

• END OF NEW DEAL ERA

Foreign Policy Leading up to the Second World War

• Policy objectives: maintaining peace and isolationism

• Treaty from Washington Conference agreed to set limits on stockplicng armaments and reaffirmed Open Door Policy with China

• Kellogg-Briand Pact condmemed war as a means of roeign policy

  • no enforemcent but was still good first step

• Latin America

  • Stepped away from interventionist policies

  • Good Neighbor Policy instead starting 1934

  • Still promoted interests in Latin America

  • Platt Amendment was repealed

  • Economic coercion and support of pro-American leaders was maintainted

  • Maintianted storng but nonthreatneting military presence

• Asia

  • LEss influence

  • Japan went to war against China and Manchuria

  • Govnerment didn’t embargo shipping to Japan for fear of provoking a war iwth them too

• Republican adminstraiotns allowed protectionism with tariffs, keeping them high

• Reciprocal Trade Agreements Act allowed the POTSU to reduce tariffs if he felt doing so would ahcieve foreing policy goals

• Nye Commission reported enough to makme Congress pass neutrality acts to stay out of the war

  • prohibited sale of arms to belligerents in war and loans to them too

• Roosevelt poured money into the military just in case of WWII

  • lobbies for erepeal of arms embargo

  • COngress relented with neutrality act that allowed arms sales

    • required Allies to pay cash for weapons and come to America to pick them up with own ships

• Roosevelt readied America for participation once Poland fell

• Roosevelt ran for a third term and won

• Roosevelt worked to assist ithe allies against neutrality acts restircting him

  • he got creative

  • supplied allies with extra weapons and ships with Lend-Lease Act

• Japan etnered an alliance with Germany and Italy in 1940, France had fallen, British were fighitng HItler

• America repsonded to Japanese aggression by cutting off trade to them that htey needed

• Pearl Harbor in Hawaii and its attacks began American participation in the war

World War II

• Complicated military strategy was seen in WWII

• Allies met to discuss stratgegy adn postwar sitaution many times

• SOviet Union and West allied against Germany too with Stalin

• Roosevelt, Stalin, and CHurchill met in Tehran to plan D-Day, the Normandy invsaion and to agree to divide Germany into occupation zones after they won

• Stalin entered the war against Japan once Hitler had been defeated

• Allies fought until 1944 with D-Day

• Axis powers were defeated by two atomic bombs on Japan

War at Home

• Rationing was done for nearly all consumer goods

• Radar, sonar, and tomic bomb had developed

• Labor Dipsute Act passed inreaction to stirkes

• Hollywood created propaganda films

• SElective Training adn SErvice Act of 1940 signed by FDR to create a peacetime draft

• New opporutnies and tensiosn created

• African Americnas served in segregated unions

  • desegregated by Truman in 1948

• Rosie the Riveter motiaved women to work in indsutrial jobs

• Japanese-American internment began in 1942

  • govnerment restriction of ciivl iiberites

  • americans feared that they were spies and enemy agets

  • SCOTUS upheld this with the USC, ruling that civil liberties could be curtialed and vilated in time of war

    • Korematsu v. US decided this

The End of the War

• Allies met to discuss Europe’s fate in ‘45 in Yalta

• Soviets wanted a buffer zone between them and Western Europe to surround himeslf with friendly nations to them

  • romania and iron curtain

• Allies agreed to:

  • USSR would declare war on Japan

  • United Nations would be created to mediate future disputes like this

• Truman repped America in Potsdam, but it went badly because SU and USA no longer had common enemy

  • Potsdam declaration was created to estbalish terms for Japanese surrender

• Atomic bomb was used in Japan in Hiroshima and Nagasaki that caused Japan to surrender in 1945