1920's politics
A Republican president was elected. He promised to reduce the government's involvement in people's lives and return to normalcy.
New deal
Public works administration: employed people to work on infrastructure projects
Tennessee Valley Authority: Hired people to control power plants and control flooding
Increased nativism
Unrestricted submarine warfare
Germany resumed sinking passenger ships two years later
Assembly line
A new and more efficient way to manufacture products like cars
Lend-Lease Act
Allowed Britain to 'borrow' the weapons they needed
An aggressive foreign policy that got the U.S. involved in many foreign conflicts
Niagra movement
Led by W.E.B. Dubois who organized a group of black intellectuals who met and organized to secure rights for African americans
Ida Tarbell
Published a devastating investigation of standard oil in 1902
When coal miners began to strike, Roosevelt stepped in to negotiate what he called a 'square deal' for both the workers and the corperation
Spanish-American War
Progressive's concerns
Rising power of big businesses
Uncertainties in the economy
Violence between labor groups and employers
Influence of political machines
Jim Crow segregation
Rights of women
Woodrow Wilson's Triple wall of privilege
On his first day in office, WW addressed Congress on the need to provide relief to Americans by lowering tariffs
Gave citizens the right to vote for their senators. Progressives argued this helped take senators out of the pockets of millionaires and big business
Germany solicited Mexico to become an ally of theirs, and in return they would help Mexico regain the land that they had lost in the Mexican-American war.
Sedition act of 1918
Upton Sinclair
Anyone who tried to incite rebellion or obstruct the draft would go to prison
President McKinley was assassinated and Teddy Roosevelt became president
Helped make voting more fair by giving voters privacy and preventing party bosses from pressuring people into voting for them
Banned the sale of alcohol. They thought it would right the moral wrongs of society, but it had the opposite effect
Women who rejected stereotypical gender roles by drinking and smoking and having short hair
The growing popularity of technologies like movies and the radio meant that everyone was listening to the same things, which helped create a more unified culture and distinct identity
Pure food and drug act
Ensured Americans were eating safe and uncontaminated food
Enforcing the Sherman Anti-trust Act
Roosevelt began enforcing the act more strictly and dismantled over 40 large companies (only bad trusts)
Scopes Monkey trial
The great migration
Over 1.5 million African Americans moved north in search of economic opportunities created by the war effort and an escape from southern discrimination
Muckrakers
Investigative journalists who exposed the underbelly of corruption rampant in American.
W.E.B. Dubois
Argued that for african americans to have any shot at economic equality, they needed to be recognized as politically equal first.
The standard of living for most Americans increased during the 1920s.
