1920-1945

1. 1920-1945 Fromconflict to global power

2. The 1920s • TheRoaringTwentiesenjoyed • mythic status in the U.S. • Exuberant, hedonisticdecade. • Americansabandonedtraditionaltaboos. • Jazz clubs and speakeasiesavoidingtheProhibition Era.

3. Prohibition was a nationwide constitutional ban on the production, importation, transportation and sale of alcoholic beverages that remained in place from 1920 to 1933. During the 19th century, alcoholism, family violence, and saloon-based political corruption led activists, led by pietistic Protestants, to end the liquor (and beer) trade to cure the ill society and weaken the political opposition. • Among other things, this led many communities in the late 19th and early 20th century to introduce alcohol prohibition, with the subsequent enforcement in law becoming a hotly debated issue. Prohibition supporters, called drys, presented it as a victory for public morals and health.

6. Advances • Automobileownershipboomedthanks to Henry Ford’smass-production. • The spread of the radio. • Hollywood movies. • Recordedmusic. • Nationaladvertising. • Sportsheroeslike Babe Ruth (baseball)

7. problems • American societyexhibitedsevere stress as citizenshad to dealwithtechnologicalchange. • Social strainsarisingfromurbanizationand immigration. • AfricanAmerican’snorthwardmigration. • Thisdecadesawtheresurgence of theKuKluxKlan(KKK).A whitesupremacistmovement. • White-robedProtestant KKK membersmarched, rallied and burned croses in thenight to intimidateblacks, Catholics and thosesuspected of loosemorals.

9. The 20s alsobrought a burst of cultural creativity. • Young writers and playwrightsproduced original, freshworks. • Example: A Farewell to ArmsbyErnest Hemingway. • A novel portrayingthereality of massslaughter. • The Great Gatsbyby F. Scott Fitzgeraldthatshowed • thearrogance of America’s elite. • Theseyearsalsosawtherise in popularity of blackartistssuch as: Louis Armstrong, DukeEllington and other jazz writersfromthe Harlem Renaissance.

10. Depression and reform • As the decade progressed, the construction industry faltered, factory inventories crept up and stock prices soared as speculators and novices buying on credit drove prices even higher. • The crash came in 1929 as the stock market collapsed and paper fortunes evaporated. • By 1933: 25% of American workers were jobless and millions underemployed. • The Great Depression saw voters choosing Franklin Delano Roosevelt (a Democrat) as president in 1932. • Roosevelt promised a ‘new deal’ for which he recruited young administrators and advisors (including Jews and Catholics) who shared his innovative ideas.

11. FDR backed legislation insuring deposits and tightened • bank regulations. • He set up the Public Works Administration (PWA) to hire workers on his infrastructure projects. • He created the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) that put jobless youth to work on reforestation, trail maintenance and other projects in parks and wilderness areas. • The New Deal’s most innovative project: The TVA (Tennessee Valley Authority) built dams and hydroelectric power plants in the Tennessee River basin. • FDR was a reformer, not a revolutionary. He sought to save capitalism by moderating its abuses. The New Deal remains a basic point of reference as it reshaped US political culture.

14. WW iI • In Germany, Adolf Hitler’s National Socialist (Nazi) Party gained power in 1933. Its main agenda was to rid Germany of Jews, socialists and communists. • 1939: Hitler and the Russian dictator Joseph Stalin concluded a non-aggression treaty including secret clauses splitting Poland between them. • When Germany invaded Poland on September 1, 1939, England and France declared war. In spring 1940, Germany occupied Norway, Denmark, The Netherlands and Belgium, and invaded France. In June, as British troops withdrew from Dunkirk across the English Channel, France surrendered. As Nazi warplanes bombed English cities, England’s Prime Minister Winston Churchill pled for U.S. support. • FDR proceeded with caution, although he was convinced America must ultimately fight.

15. WW II • When Europe went to war in 1939, FDR reaffirmed U.S. neutrality, but added that he could not ask Americans to remain neutral in their thoughts. • Under the Lend-Lease Act of March 1941, Congress approved $7 billion in credits to help cash-strapped Britain buy U.S. armaments. Convoys protected the ships transporting the armaments across the Atlantic. • By June 1941 German armies had invaded Russia and by November reached the outskirts of Moscow. For the United States all ambiguity ended on December 7, 1941 when Japanese warplanes attacked the U.S. fleet at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii sinking or disabling 19 U.S. warships and 150 planes and killing 2,335 U.S. servicemen. The next day Congress declared war on the Axis Powers – Japan, Germany and Italy.

16. WW II • The American people supported this decision as volunteers poured into training camps and factories converted to military production. • FDR and Churchill cemented a “Grand Alliance” to coordinate overall strategy and war aims. • Back in Europe, allied troops in 1943 invaded Sicily and then Italy fighting their way northward. Italy left the war in July and, by summer 1944 Germany’s remaining troops in Italy had withdrawn. • June 6, 1944 – D-Day – 160,000 Allied troops under U.S. general Dwight Eisenhower waded ashore on France’s Normandy coast, in the largest amphibious operation in history. • They pushed across France, liberated Paris in August, and by early 1945 advanced into Germany. • A devastating February 1945 raid destroyed the ancient beautiful city of Dresden on the Danube, killing +25000

19. WW II • On the Eastern Front, Russian troops broke the terrible German sieges (sitios) of Stalingrad and Leningrad and drove back the invaders. • By April 1945, the Russians reached Germany. • As the Russians reached Berlin, Hitler and his mistress committed suicide in his underground bunker. • May 27, 1945 Germany surrendered. President Roosevelt did not live to see the day. He died of a cerebral haemorrhage on April 12, succeeded by his VP Harry Truman. FDR was the only U.S. President to win four presidential elections, his term being from March 4th 1933 to his death, April 12 th 1945.

20. WW II • In the Pacific, Japan made significant gains after Pearl Harbor, attacking various strongholds of Western colonial power. The Philippines, still held by The USA fell early in 1942. • Reports of Japanese atrocities (including the Bataan Death March of U.S. prisoners captured in the Philippines), intensified hatred of the Asian foe. • Advancing towards Japan, the U.S. campaign retook The Philippines by February 1945. • U.S. bombers pounded Japanese cities. A March 1945 raid on Tokyo by 375 B-29 bombers unleashed a firestorm that killed an estimate 100,000 men, children and women. • On August 6 and 9th , two U.S. atomic bombs destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki killing many thousands in the initial blast and fire, and thousands more from radiation exposure. • The atomic bomb (based on the works of European physicists who had emigrated after the threat of Nazism) was the product of a secret wartime undertaking, code named The Manhattan Project and funded by FDR in 1942.

22. WW II • Five days after the Nagasaki bomb, the Japanese surrendered. • Were the atomic bombings justified? • Many historians believe the Japanese would certainly have surrendered before the planned invasion late in 1945, even without the atomic bomb, particularly had the Allies agreed (as they eventually did) to let Emperor Hirohito remain. • Others see the timing of the Hiroshima bombing, hours before Russia’s promised war declaration, as linked to Washington’s postwar strategic calculations involving U.S. – Soviet relations.