APUSH 1920's AND THE GREAT DEPRESSION

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1114. Red Scare, Palmer raids
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In 1919, the Communist Party was gaining strength in the U.S., and Americans feared Communism. In January, 1920, Palmer raids in 33 cities broke into meeting halls and homes without warrants. 4,000 "Communists" were jailed, some were deported

1115. Strikes: 1919, coal, steel, police
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In September, 1919, Boston police went on strike, then 350,000 steel workers went on strike. This badly damaged the unions

1118. Brief depression, 1920-1921
Two years after WW I, prices went up and consumers stopped buying. Unemployment rose from 2% to 12% and industry and export trade halted.

1120. Normalcy

Harding wanted a return to "normalcy" - the way life was before WW

1122. Harding scandals: Charles Forbes
Forbes served time for fraud and bribery in connection with government contracts. He took millions of dollars from the Veteran's Bureau

1125. Harding scandals: Teapot Dome
1929 - The Naval strategic oil reserve at Elk Hills, also known as "Teapot Dome" was taken out of the Navy's control and placed in the hands of the Department of the Interior, which leased the land to oil companies. Several Cabinet members received huge payments as bribes. Due to the investigation, Daugherty, Denky, and Fall were forced to resign.

1132. Robert M. LaFollette (1855-1925)
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A great debater and political leader who believed in libertarian reforms, he was a major leader of the Progressive movement from Wisconsin

1135. Federal Farm Board
Agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, it offered farmers insurance against loss of crops due to drought, flood, or freeze. It did not guarantee profit or cover losses due to bad farming.

1139. "The Lost Generation"
Writer Gertrude Stein named the new literary movement when she told Hemingway, "You are all a lost generation," referring to the many restless young writers who gathered in Paris after WW I. Hemingway used the quote in The Sun Also Rises. They thought that the U.S. was materialistic and the criticized conformity.

1140. F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby
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Most critics regard this as his finest work. Written in 1925, it tells of an idealist who is gradually destroyed by the influence of the wealthy, pleasure-seeking people around him

1141. Sinclair Lewis, Main Street, Babbit
He gained international fame for his novels attacking the weakness in American society. The first American to win the Nobel Prize for literature, Main Street (1920) was a satire on the dullness and lack of culture in a typical American town. Babbit (1922) focuses on a typical small business person's futile attempts to break loose from the confinements in the life of an American citizen.

1143. Ernest Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms
He received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1954 and the Pulitzer Prize in 1952. A Farewell to Arms was written in 1929 and told the story of a love affair between an American ambulance driver and a British nurse in Italy during WW

1147. Prohibition, Volstead Act, Al Capone
Prohibition - 1919: the 18th Amendment outlawed the manufacture or sale of intoxicating liquors. Volstead Act - 1919: Defined what drinks constituted "intoxicating liquors" under the 18th Amendment, and set penalties for violations of prohibition. Al Capone: In Chicago, he was one of the most famous leaders of organized crime of the era.

1148. Ku Klux Klan in the 1920's
Based on the post-Civil War terrorist organization, the Invisible Empire of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan was founded in Georgia in 1915 by William Simmons to fight the growing "influence" of blacks, Jews and Catholics in US society. It experienced phenomenal growth in the 1920's, especially in the Midwest and Ohio Valley states. It's peak membership came in 1924 at 3 million members, but its reputation for violence led to rapid decline by 1929.

1149. Fundamentalists
Broad movement in Protestantism in the U.S. which tried to preserve what it considered the basic ideas of Christianity against criticism by liberal theologies. It stressed the literal truths of the Bible and creation.

1150. Immigration Acts, 1921, 1924, Quota System
1921 - First legislation passed which restricted the number of immigrants. Quota was 357,800, which let in only 2% of the number of people of that nationality that were allowed in in 1890. 1924 - Limited the number of immigrants to 150,000 per year.

1151. Sacco and Vanzetti case
Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were Italian immigrants charged with murdering a guard and robbing a shoe factory in Braintree, Mass. The trial lasted from 1920-1927. Convicted on circumstantial evidence, many believed they had been framed for the crime because of their anarchist and pro-union activities.

1154. Scopes trial, Clarence Darrow, William Jennings Bryan
1925 - Prosecution of Dayton, Tennessee school teacher, John Scopes, for violation of the Butler Act, a Tennessee law forbidding public schools from teaching about evolution. Former Democratic presidential candidate, William Jennings Bryan, prosecuted the case, and the famous criminal attorney, Clarence Darrow, defended Scopes. Scopes was convicted and fined $100, but the trial started a shift of public opinion away from Fundamentalism.

1155. Henry Ford, the Model T, Alfred P. Sloan
1913 - Ford developed the mass-produced Model-T car, which sold at an affordable price. It pioneered the use of the assembly line. Also greatly increased his workers wages and instituted many modern concepts of regular work hours and job benefits. Sloan, an American industrialist, helped found project.

1157. The Jazz Singer
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1927 - The first movie with sound, this "talkie" was about the life of famous jazz singer, Al Jolson

1159. New Woman, Flappers
1920's - Women started wearing short skirts and bobbed hair, and had more sexual freedom. They began to abandon traditional female roles and take jobs usually reserved for men.

1160. Harlem Renaissance, Langston Hughes (1902-1967)
Hughes was a gifted writer who wrote humorous poems, stories, essays and poetry. Harlem was a center for black writers, musicians, and intellectuals.

1162. Marcus Garvey (1887-1940), Universal Negro Improvement Association
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Black leader who advocated "black nationalism," and financial independence for Blacks, he started the "Back to Africa" movement. He believed Blacks would not get justice in mostly white nations

1163. Charles Lindbergh (1902-1974), Spirit of St. Louis
Lindbergh flew his airplane, the Spirit of St. Louis, across the Atlantic in the first transatlantic solo flight.

1173. Dawes Plan, Young Plan
Post-WW I depression in Germany left it unable to pay reparation and Germany defaulted on its payments in 1923. In 1924, U.S. Vice President Charles Dawes formulated a plan to allow Germany to make its reparation payments in annual installments. This plan was renegotiated and modified in 1929 by U.S. financier Owen Young.

1174. Kellogg-Briand Pact, 1928
"
Pact of Paris" or "Treaty for the Renunciation of War," it made war illegal as a tool of national policy, allowing only defensive war. The Treaty was generally believed to be useless.

1175. Causes of the depression
Much debt, stock prices spiralling up, over-production and under-consuming - the stock market crashed. Germany's default on reparations caused European bank failures, which spread to the U.S.

1178. Hawley-Smoot Tariff, 1930
Congressional compromise serving special interest, it raised duties on agricultural and manufactured imports. It may have contributed to the spread of the international depression.

1181. "Hooverville"
Name given to the makeshift shanty towns built in vacant lots during the Depression.

1188. Good Neighbor Policy
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Franklin Roosevelt described his foreign policy as that of a "good neighbor." The phrase came to be used to describe the U.S. attitude toward the countries of Latin America. Under Roosevelt's "Good Neighbor Policy," the U.S. took the lead in promoting good will among these nations

1191. Twentieth Amendment
Written by George Norris and also called the "Lame Duck Amendment," it changed the inauguration date from March 4 to January 20 for president and vice president, and to January 3 for senators and representatives. It also said Congress must assemble at least once a year.

1193. Twenty-First Amendment
Passed February, 1933 to repeal the 18th Amendment (Prohibition). Congress legalized light beer. Took effect December, 1933. Based on recommendation of the Wickersham Commission that Prohibition had lead to a vast increase in crime.

1194. "Bank Holiday"
March 11, 1933 - Roosevelt closed all banks and forbade the export of gold or redemption of currency in gold.

1195. Hundred Days
March 9, 1933 - At Roosevelt's request, Congress began a special session to review recovery and reform laws submitted by the President for Congressional approval. It actually lasted only 99 days.

1201. Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC)
A federal agency which insures bank deposits, created by the Glass-Strengall Banking Reform Act of 1933.

1206. Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA), Second AAA
1933 - The AAA offered contracts to farmers to reduce their output of designated products. It paid farmers for processing taxes on these products, and made loans to farmers who stored crops on their farms. The Supreme Court declared it unconstitutional.

1208. Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC)
Created in April 1933. Within 4 months, 1300 CCC camps were in operation and 300,000 men between ages 18 and 25 worked for the reconstruction of cities. More than 2.5 million men lived and/or worked in CCC camps.

1212. Works Progress Administration (WPA),
Harold Hopkins, Federal Arts Project
The WPA started in May 1935 and was headed by Harold Hopkins. It employed people for 30 hours a week (so it could hire all the unemployed). The Federal Arts Project had unemployed artists painting murals in public buildings; actors, musicians, and dancers performing in poor neighborhood; and writers compiling guide books and local histories.

1214. Federal Housing Authorities (FHA)
1934 - Created by Congress to insure long-term, low-interest mortgages for home construction and repair.

1215. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)
1934 - Created to supervise stock exchanges and to punish fraud in sercurities trading.

1216. Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), Senator Norris
A public corporation headed by a 3-member board. The TVA built 20 dams, conducted demonstration projects for farmers, and engaged in reforestation to rehabilitate the area.

1219. Indian Reorganization Act
1934 - Restored tribal ownership of lands, recognized tribal constitutions and government, and provided loans for economic development.

1227. Dust Bowl, Okies, John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath
1939 - Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath was about "Okies" from Oklahoma migrating from the Dust Bowl to California in the midst of the Depression.

1229. Elanor Roosevelt
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A strong first lady who supported civil rights

1230. Keynesian Economics
The British economist John Maynard Keynes believed that the government could pull the economy out of a depression by increasing government spending, thus creating jobs and increasing consumer buying power.

1231. Deficit spending
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FDR's admnistration was based on this concept. It involved stimulating consumer buying power, business enterprise, and ultimately employment by pouring billions of dollars of federal money into the economy even if the government didn't have the funds, and had to borrow money

1232. Monetary policy, fiscal policy
In monetary policy, government manipulates the nation's money supply to control inflation and depression. In fiscal policy, the government uses taxing and spending programs (including deficit spending) to control inflation and depression.

1236. Huey Long, Share the Wealth, Gerald K. Smith
The Share the Wealth society was founded in 1934 by Senator Huey Long of Louisiana. He called for the confiscation of all fortunes over $5 million and a 100% tax on annual incomes over $1 million. He was assassinated in 1935 and his successor Gerald K. Smith lacked the ability to be a strong head of the society.

1241. Second New Deal
Some thought the first New Deal (legislation passed in 1933) did too much and created a big deficit, while others, mostly the elderly, thought it did not do enough. Most of the 1933 legislation was ineffective in stopping the Depression, which led F. D. R. to propose a second series of initiatives in 1935, referred to the Second New Deal.

1242. Social Security Act
One of the most important features of the Second New Deal established a retirement for persons over 65 funded by a tax on wages paid equally by employee and employer.