Chapter 5

1. Patterns in AMERICAN DOMESTIC Affairs Chapter 5

2. The ROARING TWENTIES1919-1929 • Adjusting to Peace 1919-1920 • Gov. stopped war-time spending; returning soldiers looked for jobs > short recession • Attacks on civil liberties: thousands of strikes in 1919; many viewed strikes as being Communist- • inspired > “Red Scare” led to arrest of radicals like Sacco & Vanzetti • Rise of Nativism (dislike of foreigners) • Deportation of many radicals suspected of having subversive leanings • Ku Klux Klan violence increased toward blacks, foreigners, Jews & Roman Catholics • Immigration Acts of 1921, 1924 & 1929 restricted immigration from Asia, Southern & Eastern Europe • Factors Underlying Prosperity • Gov. followed laissez-faire policies & allowed Big Business to thrive • Rise of Automobile & other Industries > cars required steel, glass, rubber, created increase in all related manufacturing • More Efficient Production Techniques > Henry Ford: assembly line, standardized parts > U.S. industry more efficient, created surpluses of manufactured products • Age of Mass Production > Mass markets for goods; advertising increased demands; higher wages, more leisure time > greater purchasing power > people bought on credit/installments

3. The Roaring 20s cont. • Cultural Values of the 1920s • Women > • WWI many women went to work in mines & factories; gave up jobs to returning soldiers after war, felt they had earn right to vote (suffrage); 19thAmendment gave women the vote in 1920 • New appliance reduced housework; more women in higher education > became more assertive in the workplace & politics • Harlem Renaissance > • Great Migration - movement of African Americans from the South to northern cities in search of jobs; • Harlem became the center of African-American life in 1920s > Jazz music flourished, giving the 20’s the name, Jazz Age; awakening of African-American culture known as Harlem Renaissance

4. The GREAT DEPRESSION CAUSES of the GreatDepression (low economic pd. marked by business failures & high unemployment) • Overproduction • many new products (radio, cars, etc.) • many consumers bought only one yet… • manufacturers continued making consumer goods-didn’t sell • surpluses of unsold goods stockpiled • Speculation • 1920’s corporate stocks rose in value • people bought stocks, prices rose higher • people bought w/ money they did not have, promising to pay brokers when profits/dividends came in – on-margin buying • speculation in real estate was another get rich quick scheme • little gov. regulation of banking system & stock market

5. The GREAT DEPRESSION • Stock Market Crash • Oct. 29, 1929, stock market crashed (panic selling) • people tried to sell stocks, but share prices went lower • business corporations could no longer raise capital • consumers could not pay rent or make credit payments • banks could not grant loans • bank failures • demand for goods went down • prices fell • factories closed • workers unemployed

6. Human Impact of Great Depression • Out of work people stood in bread lines, ate in soup kitchens, lost homes & became migrant workers; went to private charities for help • Dust Bowl > plowing the soil in the Great Plains, cutting natural grasses, not rotating crops, overuse of underwater water supplies, droughts in early 1930s resulted in dried up crops and the topsoil turning to dust; Farmers unable to pay bills, abandoned farms & went West • Pres. Hoover fails to stop depression> Hoover believed that giving relief directly to people & businesses would destroy individual initiative to work hard; also believed charity organizations should provide relief & and gave gov. aid to them, feeling the economy would then recover on its own; his beliefs did not yield results, communities for the homeless arose in most major cities, called Hoovervilles

7. The NEW DEAL Election of 1932 • Franklin D. Roosevelt defeated Herbert Hoover • FDR promised Americans a “New Deal” – American gov. stepped away from former laissez-faire attitude toward the economy and stepped in to help resolve the major issues of the Great Depression with legislation toward economic recovery “The Three R’s” • Relief > short-term fixes that directly helped people in trouble: emergency public jobs like the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) • Recovery > aimed more at industry, to help businesses get back on their feet by increasing incentives to produce and consumers buying power > more people would be re-employed; NIRA • Reform > long term remedies, still in place today: Social Security Act, Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., Securities & Exchange Commission

8. America in WWII, 1941-1945 The HOME FRONT War Effort at Home • The Draft > men from 18-45 could be called up for military service; women also enlisted • IndustrialMobilization> many industries converted to producing war products like tanks, weaponry, airplanes, ships; consumer goods were rationed in order to send food, clothing & supplies to servicemen & women • Labor Force > Women & African Americans filled in for men who were serving overseas Forced Japanese-American Internment • Attack on Pearl Harbor led to west coast American’s fear that Japanese-Americans would commit acts of sabotage • No evidence of disloyalty among Japanese-Americans • Pres. Roosevelt issued executive order forcing Japanese-Americans into internment camps; Korematsu v. U.S. (1944) declared this was a legal action

9. 1950's, McCarthy, and Space Race Prosperous 1950s • Growth of Suburbs> low-cost loans to WWII veterans allowed for many to buy homes, chose to build mass-produced homes in areas surrounding cities • Economic Prosperity > U.S. became world’s greatest producer of goods • Conformity > Anything out of the ordinary were often viewed as suspicious; “normal” was often determined by TV, music & magazines McCarthy Hearings • W/ the intensity of the Cold War, Americans feared subversion -infiltration of enemies into our gov’t • “Un-American Acts” were investigated by the U.S. govt & also by Congress, led by Senator Joseph McCarthy in early 1950’s, resulting in writers, Hollywood actors & directors, artists being blacklisted Space Race • 1957, Soviets launched Sputnik – the first artificial satellite in space • 1961, Pres. Kennedy announced the beginning of the “space race”; 1962, American astronaut, John Glenn (an Ohioan) orbited the Earth; 1969, another Ohioan, Neil Armstrong was the first man on the moon

10. Civil Rights Civil Rights Movement Brown v. Board of Education, 1954 > • Overturned 1896 Supreme Court Case, Plessy v. Ferguson that had allowed for separate but equal facilities for the races • Supreme Ct. ruled in the Brown case that separate but equal did not apply to public education; all public schools were desegrated Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. > • Led the Civil Rights Movement • Believed in nonviolence • Carried out passive resistance through civil disobedience (boycotts, sit-ins, picketing, marches) Montgomery Bus Boycott, 1955-1956 > • Began when Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama • Lasted over a year; blacks used economics to cripple the Montgomery transportation system

11. Civil Rights Sit-Ins & Freedom Rides in the South, 1960-1961 > • Sit-Ins by college students at “whites only” lunch counters beginning in N.C., spread across the South • Groups of white & blacks from the north organized bus rides to integrate bus stations in the South March on Washington, 1963 > Organized by Civil Rights Leaders to get a Civil Rights bill passed by Congress; Dr. King’s “I have a dream” speech New Civil Rights Laws > • 1964, Civil Rights Act > no longer allowed racial discrimination in hotels, restaurants, hospitals, etc • 24th Amendment > eliminated poll taxes in federal elections • 1965, affirmative action > Pres. Johnson’s plan to require employers w/ federal contracts to hire minority & female employees • African American Militancy > followers of Malcolm X in groups like the Black Panthers & Black Muslims disagreed w/ King’s nonviolent policies; used violence & believed in black separatism to try to achieve racial equality

12. Social Protest & Change; America in 1960s & Early 1970s Women’s Liberation Movement > • Goal – achieve economic & social equality for women • Results – colleges became coeducational, more women professors hired, military academies opened their doors to women students, more women admitted to medical & law schools; textbooks acknowledged women’s contributions Counter-Culture of the 1960s > • Spirit of rebellion by American youth against the “establishment’s” disregard toward poverty and social problems • Experimented w/ drugs, new fashions & challenged American involvement in Vietnam = antiwar movement spread across college campuses (Kent State, 1970) • Result U.S. withdrawal from Southeast Asia in 1973 & 1974