US History: Period 7 (1890-1945)

Period 7 Overview (1890-1945)

• The United States shifted from an agricultural to an industrial economy.
• Urban areas grew, and job opportunities increased in the 1920s.
• The U.S. faced the Great Depression.
• Progressives sought government action on women's suffrage, prohibition, corruption, and inequality.
• Mass media led to the birth of modern culture during the "Roaring Twenties," also known as the "Jazz Age."
• Debates arose about science, religion, gender roles, race, and immigration.
• Migration patterns changed, with increased movement to urban areas from Asia and Europe.
• Nativist campaigns led to immigration quotas and restrictions.
• The "Great Migration" involved African Americans moving from the South to the North for better opportunities.
• President Franklin Roosevelt's "New Deal" aimed to aid the poor, provide jobs, and revitalize the economy during the Great Depression.
• Roosevelt defined modern American liberalism.
• The U.S. engaged in the Spanish-American War, World War I (entering in 1917), and then a period of isolationism before World War II.

The "Forgettable" Administrations

• Rutherford B. Hayes served as the Nineteenth President from 1877–1881.
• As a Civil War veteran and Republican, Hayes ended Reconstruction through the Compromise of 1877.
• Hayes enacted civil service reform and broke up the Great Railroad Strike of 1877.
• James Garfield served as the Twentieth President from March 4, 1981, until his death on September 19, 1881.
• Garfield was shot on July 2, 1881, and died from an infection caused by medical treatment.
• Chester A. Arthur was the Twenty-first President, serving from 1881–1885, succeeding Garfield.
• Arthur is known for the Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act, which established a merit-based system for civil service.
• The spoils system is a political corruption where parties reward supporters, often with public office.
• The Gilded Age, from the 1870s to 1900, was marked by industrial economic growth and inequality.
• Progressive Era reforms were a backlash to the Gilded Age.
• Political machines are authoritarian organizations that influence elections and are prone to corruption.
• Stalwarts were a Republican faction supporting party patronage during the Gilded Age.
• Halfbreeds were a Republican faction opposing party patronage during the Gilded Age.
• Mugwumps were a Republican faction neutral on party patronage but favored reform.

Grover Cleveland and Agrarian Discontent

• Grover Cleveland served as the Twenty-second and Twenty-fourth President, with non-consecutive terms in 1885–1889 and 1893–1897.
• Cleveland was the first Democratic president since the Civil War, supported the gold standard, and dealt with the Panic of 1893.
• The Pendleton Civil Service Act of 1881 reformed the civil service system to be merit-based.
• Benjamin Harrison served as the Twenty-third President from 1889–1893.
• Harrison supported the Sherman Antitrust Act but did not enforce it.
• The Farmers' Alliance was an alliance of farmers that gained membership and evolved into the Populist Party.
• The Populist Party's 1892 platform promoted a silver standard, income tax, direct election of senators, and government ownership of railroads.
• The Panic of 1893 was an economic depression caused by railroad failure and stock over-speculation.
• Jacob Coxey led "Coxey's Army" in 1894 and 1914 to demand jobs for the unemployed, contributing to Social Security.
• Gold Bugs were pro-gold standard Democrats.
• William Jennings Bryan was a Democratic nominee for President known as "The Great Commoner".

William McKinley and Origins of Progressivism

• William Jennings Bryan co-opted progressive policies leading to his nomination for President on three occasions.
• His "Cross of Gold" speech at the 1896 Democratic National Convention protested the gold standard.
• William McKinley served as the Twenty-fifth President from 1897–1901.
• McKinley was a proponent of the gold standard and was assassinated six months into his second term.
• He oversaw the Spanish-American War and expanded U.S. control over Cuba and the Philippines.
• Theodore Roosevelt served as the Twenty-sixth President from 1901–1909.
• Roosevelt, as a reformist New York governor, became president after McKinley's assassination at age 42.
• His domestic agenda was called the Square Deal.
• He brokered the end to the Russo-Japanese War, and won the 1906 Nobel Peace Prize.
• The Progressive Era started in 1901 with Roosevelt and lasted until 1917.
• Antitrust laws and labor reforms were key, along with women's suffrage and prohibition.
• Social Gospel was a Protestant movement in the late 19th/early 20th centuries advocating social justice and aiding the poor.

Progressivism

• The Social Gospel called for laws banning child labor and making school compulsory.
• Joseph Pulitzer, a yellow journalism pioneer in the 1880s, established the Pulitzer Prize.
• William Randolph Hearst, another yellow journalism pioneer, is known for his role in the Spanish-American War and the film Citizen Kane.
• Muckrakers were investigative journalists who exposed corruption during the Progressive Era.
• Robert "Fighting Bob" La Follette, a progressive Republican governor and senator from Wisconsin, advocated for direct primaries and labor laws.
• Direct primaries allow state voters to nominate candidates, first adopted by Wisconsin in 1906.
• The Seventeenth Amendment, ratified in 1913, required direct election of U.S. senators.
• The Square Deal was Theodore Roosevelt's policy platform involving trust-busting, business regulation, and pro-labor laws.

Roosevelt, Taft, and Wilson

• Northern Securities Company was an example of progressivism in which the Supreme Court upheld Roosevelt's position against a railroad monopoly.
• The Elkins Act (1903) allowed the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) to prohibit rail companies from giving rebates and kickbacks.
• The Hepburn Act (1906) allowed the ICC to regulate railroad rates, ending price gouging for farmers.
• The Pure Food and Drug Act (1906) ensured the safety and accurate labeling of food and drugs.
• The Meat Inspection Act (1907) aimed to ensure meat sold in the U.S. was properly preserved and unadulterated.
• The National Conservation Commission was established by President Theodore Roosevelt in 1908.
• William Howard Taft served as the Twenty-seventh President from 1909–1913.
• Taft split the vote with Roosevelt's Bull Moose Party in 1912, allowing Woodrow Wilson to win and later served on the Supreme Court.
• The Mann-Elkins Act (1910) placed regulation of communications under the ICC.
• The Sixteenth Amendment, ratified in 1913, authorized the federal government to collect income tax.
• The Bull Moose Party was a third party formed by Theodore Roosevelt in 1912.

Wilson and Business

• Woodrow Wilson served as the Twenty-eighth President from 1913–1921.
• Wilson supported progressive reforms like the Federal Reserve Act and the Clayton Antitrust Act.
• Wilson supported the segregation throughout the executive branch offices.
• He proposed the Fourteen Points and the League of Nations.
• New Nationalism was Theodore Roosevelt's 1912 policy proposal for a smaller federal government with less business influence.
• New Freedom, Woodrow Wilson's policy, proposed a larger government role in regulating business and supporting women's voting rights.
• The Underwood Tariff Bill (1913) reduced tariff rates and protected consumers, using income tax to offset revenue loss.
• The Panic of 1907 was a financial crisis triggered by stock manipulation.
• J.P. Morgan intervened to avert a depression, leading to the Federal Reserve System's creation.
• The Federal Reserve System, created in 1913, consists of 12 regional banks that are publicly controlled but privately owned.
• The Clayton Antitrust Act (1914) strengthened antitrust provisions and protected labor unions, hailed as labor's "Magna Carta".
• The Federal Trade Commission, created in 1914, is a regulatory agency that monitors interstate business activities.

Business, Consumerism, and Warren Harding

• Frederick W. Taylor authored "The Principles of Scientific Management" (1911), influencing scientific management.
• Henry Ford applied Taylor's principles to automobile factory assembly lines.
• Warren G. Harding served as the Twenty-ninth President from 1921-1923.
• The Teapot Dome scandal destroyed Harding's reputation after his death.
• His cabinet was nicknamed the Ohio Gang/Poker Cabinet due to the corruption.
• Calvin Coolidge served as the Thirtieth Prsident from 1923-1929.
• Coolidge assumed the presidency following Harding's death, supported laissez-faire economics, and was nicknamed "Silent Cal."
• The Washington Naval Conference (1921–1922) attempted to limit battleships but unintentionally contributed to aircraft carriers.
• The Dawes Plan crafted by Charles Dawes in aimed to enable Germany to pay its war reparations and was successful until the 1929 stock market crash.
• Herbert Hoover served as the Thirty-first President from 1929–1933.
• Hoover oversaw famine relief in Europe, but his response to the Great Depression destroyed his popularity.
• Homeless encampments were called Hoovervilles.
• He signed the Smoot-Hawley Act and supported Prohibition.

Hoover, The Great Depression, and FDR

• Rugged individualism is defined as belief that anyone could become successful in life through hard work.
• The Kellogg-Briand Pact of 1928 sought to foster world peace by outlawing offensive wars.
• The Good Neighbor Policy initiated by FDR centered on Latin America, withdrawing American forces and normalizing relations.
• Black Tuesday is the name for the stock market crash on October 29, 1929, marking the start of the Great Depression.
• The Hawley-Smoot Tariff of 1930 was an ill-considered response to the Great Depression and it raised tariffs on imported goods worsened the crisis.
• The Reconstruction Finance Corporation (1932) was created during the Hoover administration and was authorized to issue loans to assist railroads, banks, and municipalities.
• The Bonus Army was a group of World War I veterans who demanded early release of bonuses in 1932.
• Franklin Delano Roosevelt served as the Thirty-second President from 1933–1945.
• Roosevelt oversaw the New Deal, led the U.S. through World War II, approved the Manhattan Project, and laid the groundwork for the postwar international system.

FDR's New Deal

• The Eighteenth Amendment: Known as Prohibition banned alcohol in the United States and was eventually repealed by the Twenty-first Amendment in 1933.
• Eleanor Roosevelt: The First Lady, U.S. Delegate to the United Nations, and chair of the U.N. Commission.
• The Brain Trust: It was a group of economists, professors, and politicians that advised FDR.
• The New Deal: Roosevelt's domestic policy and social welfare programs to alleviate the Great Depression.
• The Emergency Banking Relief Act on March 3, 1933, reopened banks after the Bank Holiday, as announced in FDR's fireside chats.
• Public Works Administration: A New Deal program to rebuild the country's infrastructure.
• Tennessee Valley Authority: A First New Deal program to electrify the Tennessee Valley with hydroelectric power.
• Second New Deal: A program to electrify the Tennessee Valley with hydroelectric power.
• Works Progress Administration: This was a Second New Deal program that encouraged public works projects and the employment of workers to build bridges, refurbish parks, and create art.

Social Security and Labor

• Social Security Act of 1935: It guaranteed income for retirees, the disabled, but excluded agricultural and service workers.
• Keynesian theory: An economic policy that states that the government should spend that which it does not have to increase demand.
• National Industrial Recovery Act: It was a First New Deal to protect workers and organized labor by setting work hours, wages, and prices, but was later ruled unconstitutional.
• National Labor Relations Act: This strengthened the language of the NIRA and created the National Labor Relations Board.
• American Federation of Labor: They wished to extend union membership broke away to form the Congress of Industrial Organizations.
• Congress of Industrial Organizations: This was an organization for laborers in America's heavy industrial sector.
• Fair Labor Standards Act: It was a law passed during the Second New Deal, and established federal minimum wage and maximum hours.
• United Auto Workers: This union organized a sit-down strike demanding worker contracts.

Opposition to the New Deal

• The American Liberty League was an anti-FDR group opposing the New Deal and unsuccessfully attempting to unseat FDR in the 1936 election.
• Huey P. “Kingfish” Long advocated for a plan to take from the rich and give to the poor, called Share Our Wealth.
• Long argued the New Deal was not enough to aid the needy.
• The Great Depression lasted from 1929 until World War II and caused social and political disruption, leading to the rise of the Nazi Party in Germany.
• The Dust Bowl was a severe drought in the Great Plains in the 1930s, killing crops and leading to migration to California.
• The Indian Reorganization Act, passed in 1934, replaced the Dawes Act, returning lands to tribes and supporting self-governance.
• The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in 1911 led to reforms in factory conditions after 146 workers died.

Women's Roles, Suffrage, and African Americans

• Mother Jones was a female labor activist and co-founded the Industrial Workers of the World.
• The National American Woman Suffrage Association, founded in 1890, was a women's suffrage organization.
• Carrie Chapman Catt, believed that women could protect themselves and their children through voting.
• Alice Paul founded the National Woman's Party in 1920.
• The National Woman's Party focused on ratifying a constitutional amendment for women's suffrage nationwide.
• The Nineteenth Amendment, ratified in 1920, granted women the right to vote.
• League of Women Voters, founded by Carrie Chapman Catt, assists female voters.
• Booker T. Washington: An African American activist who argued that blacks needed to make themselves economically successful before they could become equal to whites.
• W. E. B. Du Bois: An African American intellectual who believed that his people should demand social and political equality with whites.

NAACP and Cultural Movements

• The Niagara Movement was a plan of action to advance the cause of African American equality via protest.
• The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People was founded in 1908 which sought to end all racial discrimination/segregation.
• The Great Migration began around 1910 which saw millions of African Americans move from the South to northern cities.
• The Jazz Age/Roaring Twenties was a cultural explosion experiencing radio, movies, and the "Lost Generation".
• The Harlem Renaissance was a cultural flowering in Harlem during the 1920s where it became the center of African American culture.
• American Civil Liberties Union was founded in 1920, it is an organization for the protection of Constitutional liberties.
• John Scopes was a biology teacher arrested for teaching evolution in 1925, defended by Clarence Darrow.
• Speakeasies were secret clubs that served alcohol during Prohibition and normalized women drinking in public.

Laws, Politics, and Imperialism

• The Emergency Quota Act (Immigration Act) of 1921 restricted immigration based on national origin which favored northern and western Europeans.
• Flappers: Middle and upper-class women in the 1920s that had short bobs, short skirts, drank alcohol, and danced the Charleston.
• Seward's Folly refers to the 1867 purchase of Alaska from Russia for $7.2 million orchestrated by Secretary of State William H. Seward.
• Yellow journalism: The exaggeration and sensationalizing to produce stories for newspapers which increased readership.
• Teller Amendment: It was added to the war declaration on Spain that assured Cuba would be granted it's independence after.
• The Spanish-American War: It was a war between the United States and Spain (April 21, 1898-August 13, 1898) that involved the United States aiding independence efforts in Cuba.
• Rough Riders: A group led by Theodore Roosevelt that famously battled for control of San Juan Hill in Cuba with the help of the Fourteenth Regiment Colored.

Treaties, Policies, and WWI

• The Treaty of Paris of 1898: It ended the Spanish-American War where Cuba, Guam, the Philippines, and Puerto Rico was given to the United States; it lead to the end of Spain as a world power.
• Insular Cases: A court decision in 1901 which ruled that a citizen in a conquered territory did not have the protection of the Constitution.
• The Platt Amendment: A policy set in 1903 in which Cuba had to have all treaties approved by the United States and have them interfere in Cuban affairs.
• Open Door Policy: A policy articulated in which declared that China would be open and free to trade equally with any nation.
• Big stick diplomacy: Teddy Roosevelt's policy that referenced to use military force for negations.
• Roosevelt Corollary: The United States would come to the aid of any Latin American nation experiencing financial trouble.
• U-boat: German submarines that violated the gentlemanly rules of warfare and led to the deaths of citizens and entry of the U.S. into World War I.

WWI Acts, People, and Treaties

• The Zimmerman Telegram was a diplomatic letter from German Foreign Secretary Zimmermann to the Mexican president that wanted Mexico to assist Germany; contributed to U.S. entry into World War I.
• Fourteen Points Speech: A speech given by President Wilson in 1918 that outlined his vision for the war aims and peace of the United States.
• War Industries Board: An agency to control production, wages, and prices of goods during World War I.
• Selective Service Act: The first time a peacetime military draft had been initiated.
• Espionage Act: A 1917 law aimed at German-Americans and antiwar activists.
• Sedition Act (1918): This law limited the right to free speech.
• League of Nations: This was a precursor to the United Nations, proposed by Woodrow Wilson which later the charter's chances of ratification in the U.S..
• Reservationists: They agreed to ratify the League of Nations treaty with reservations, such as the ability to leave the League and international acceptance of the Monroe Doctrine, were added to the League's covenant.
• Irreconcilables: refused to ratify the League of Nations treaty under any circumstances.

The Red Scare, WWII, and Allies

• The Red Scare ran from 1917-1920s that led to a series of mass arrests and deportations (Palmer Raids).
• Adolf Hitler: The leader of the Nazi Party and decorated World War I veteran who became dictator of Germany and started both European fronts World War II.
• The Treaty of Versailles: It secured a separate peace in 1921 in which contributed to Germany's postwar economic turmoil while allowing for the rise of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party
• Benito Mussolini:, Also known as “Il Duce.” Following October 1922's March on Rome, he became Prime Minister of Italy.
• Joseph Stalin: The longtime dictator of the Soviet Union.
• Winston Churchill: It was for his early opposition to Adolf Hitler and the policy of appeasement, as well as for his leadership of the British Empire during World War II.
• Atlantic Charter: It declared that free trade and the self-determination of peoples would be the cornerstones of the post-WWII international system.
• Pearl Harbor: This event killed 2,403 Americans and several U.S. Navy ships were destroyed.
• Big Three: Winston Churchill, Franklin Roosevelt, and Joseph Stalin.

WWII Conferences

• The Yalta Conference: Their plans for postwar Europe, with the division of Germany and Stalin agreeing to allow free elections in Eastern Europe.
• United Nations: Its headquarters is located in New York City with all recognized nations are granted seats in the General Assembly.
• Dwight D. Eisenhower: He oversaw the invasion of North Africa and the Normandy landings where he took steps to see Nazi death camps recorded on film.
• D-Day: The Normandy landings led to the invasion along five beachheads leading to gaining a foothold in Nazi-occupied France.
• Battle of the Bulge: The last major German offensive on the Western Front that aimed to encircle the Allied armies, hold them hostage to force a peace treaty, and allow Germany to focus it's full attention on the Soviets.
• Final Solution: The Nazi plan for the extermination of the Jewish people, which resulted in the Holocaust.
• V-E Day: Shorthand for “Victory in Europe Day" which tool place on Tuesday, May 8, 1945.
• Harry S. Truman: World War I veteran, ascended to the presidency upon FDR's death, and oversaw the final phases of both the Western and Pacific Fronts.
• Hiroshima and Nagasaki: The Japaneses cities in which the atomic bombs were droped.

WWII Impact in Society and Acts

• The Office of War Information (OWI) was organized to produce radio shows and news reels to keep Americans apprised of events.
• Rosie the Riveter was a piece of American propaganda during World War II that exalted women's war work
• Zoot Suit Riots: A series of California race riots in summer 1943 where sailors roamed the streets of Los Angeles and Long Beach attacking young Mexican-American teens.
• Navajo code talkers were American Indian volunteers during World War II that translated U.S. documents so that enemy forces could not decipher information.
• Internment camps: A series of government-run camps where 100,000 Japanese-Americans were imprisoned during World War II.
• Executive Order 9066: An order that stated the Supreme Court upheld the decision to intern these citizens in the case Korematsu v. United States (1944).
• GI Bill: this provided funding for a college education, as well as low-interest home and small business loans.
• Taft-Hartley Act: Which outlawed “closed-shop” workplaces, limited boycotts, and allowed the president to obtain an 80-day injunction against any strike deemed a danger to national health or safety.
• Rust Belt: A region of the United States that the term references the post-World War II economic decline of the country's former industrial heartland.