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Post-War America: Challenges and Return to Normalcy

Explore post-war issues in America: fear of communism, immigration questions, and labor unrest. Learn about the Red Scare, Harding presidency, and isolationism through tariff policies. Discover how the country coped with the aftermath of WWI.

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Post-War America: Challenges and Return to Normalcy

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  1. Unit 5 Section 9 Post-war Issues and Return to Normalcy

  2. Post-War Issues • Following the Progressive Era and The Great War – many Americans exhausted with change and disorder • Some crave return to simpler times • Wave of nativism and isolationism sweeps the country Events of the War lead to new issues that must be addressed: • Fear of Communism • Immigration Questions • Labor Unrest

  3. Fear of Communism • Communism is seen as a growing threat to America • Communism – Political / economic system in which the government controls all means of production. Private property is eliminated. • Red Scare – Panic over communism that swept America following the Russian Revolution • clip

  4. Fear of Communism • Communist Party forms in US • Joined by thousands of radical workers • Protested US involvement in WW1 • Palmer Raids-FBI raids on suspected communists, violated civil liberties • Sacco and Vanzetti – Two Italian anarchists immigrants, executed for murder on flimsy evidence (later evidence shows they were probably guilty)

  5. Immigration Questions • Along with fear of Communism, protests over immigration • US wants to remain isolated; suspicious of foreign influence • Re-emergence of KKK as anti-immigrant • Quota System limits immigrants from certain countries • History of Immigration to the US

  6. Labor Unrest • During war, government had ended labor strikes • 1919, 3,000 strikes nationwide as cost of living rises, but not wages • Communist fears and accusations: • Boston Police Strike • US Steel Strike • Coal Miners Strike • Unions lose some power as they are associated by public with Communism • Open shop system

  7. Gastonia, 1929 • Workers at Loray Mills facing shrinking wages, longer hours • Textile Union with communist backing steps in; calls for strike • Strike turns violent as National Guard is called in • Gastonia’s Chief of Police is shot in struggle, strikers murdered in the aftermath • Nationwide attention to trial • “Crack in armor” of historically anti-union South

  8. Click for a NY Times article on the mill’s renovation in 2013.

  9. Harding Presidency • Warren Harding, OH Republican elected in 1920 • Campaign slogan, “A return to normalcy” Plans for Peace: • Washington Naval Conference, 1921. Proposes disarmament, followed by • Kellogg Briand Pact, 1929. Renounces war as national policy…signed by 64 nations. Great in theory

  10. Isolationism Through Tariff • 1922, Harding Administration adopts Fordney-McCumber Tariff • Highest ever at 60% on imported goods • Makes repayment of WW1 to Britain and France difficult

  11. Scandals Plague Harding • Harding’s cabinet, “The Ohio Gang” proves corrupt • Harding did not understand many issues – friends in Cabinet took advantage • Teapot Dome Scandal–Sec. of Interior leases oil rich public lands to oil companies – pockets profits. • First cabinet member convicted of a felony in office • Harding dies in August, ’23, succeeded by Calvin Coolidge

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  13. From http://www.freedomschool.com • From http://www.superitch.com

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