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POST-WAR AMERICAUnrest in the aftermath of WWI
Recall…
Failure to ratify Treaty of Versailles kept the US out of the League of Nations
Americans & isolationists begin to turn inward
Postwar recession (common) and lingering social problems revive after WWI
LABOR & ECONOMIC UNREST
Why do people strike?
▪ Imagine this scenario: Workers for Shell oil company do not feel they are
being paid a fair wage. They decide to go on strike to demand higher pay. Without workers, all the Shell gas stations shut down. Then workers at other gas stations decide they want better wages also, so they go on strike. Now almost all major gas stations have shut down.
Why might this be a problem?
What will need to happen to fix this problem?
In 1919…▪ 450,000 coal miners went on strike
▪ They wanted: 60% pay increase 30-hour work week
▪ Would you support this strike?
▪ The government quickly responded & made them go back to work. Why?
▪ Eventually coal miners won a large pay increase to about $7.50 a day
Why were strikes like this common after WWI? ▪ After WWI: Inflation
a general increase in prices and fall in the purchasing value of money.
▪ Increased cost of living Cost of food, clothing, shelter, & other necessities
▪ Workers needed more $ to pay to live
▪ Companies couldn’t pay as much because they were also in financial trouble
What did workers do?
▪ Needed to fight for better wages
▪ Unions were better organized than before
▪ Companies wanted to break power of unions
▪ Result: More strikes!
GENERAL STRIKESDefinition & Examples
General Strikes
▪ Strikes that involve all workers living in a certain location
▪ Feared by government because radicals & communists in Europe used strikes
General Strike Examples
Seattle General Strike
▪ Shipyard workers -> wanted post-war pay hike
▪ 60,000 people—5 days
▪ Returned to work without any gains
▪ Why was the strike still a concern?
Stopped Here – 2nd and 3rd Hour
General Strike Examples
Boston Police Strike
▪ 75% police force walked off the job
▪ Governor Calvin Coolidge sent National Guard
▪ Police commissioner fired police and hired new ones
General Strike Examples
The Steel Strike (Sept. 1918 – Jan. 1919)
▪ 350,000 steelworkers
▪ Company used anti-immigrant feelings to justify firing workers
▪ Hired African American & Mexican workers instead
▪ Resulted in riots-18 dead
RACIAL UNREST
Racial Unrest
▪ Race riots also broke out all across the North
▪ Why did this happen after WWI? White soldiers returned from war
African Americans now in cities competing for same jobs
▪ Chicago race riot 38 dead, over 500 injured
“If We Must Die”Claude McKay
If we must die, let it not be like hogs
Hunted and penned in an inglorious spot,
While round us bark the mad and hungry dogs,
Making their mock at our accursed lot.
If we must die, O let us nobly die
So that our precious blood may not be shed
In vain; then even the monsters we defy
Shall be constrained to honor us though dead!
O kinsmen! We must meet the common foe!
Though far outnumbered let us show us brave,
And for their thousand blows deal one death blow!
What though before us lies the open grave?
Like men we’ll face the murderous, cowardly pack,
Pressed to the wall, dying, but fighting back!
Marcus Garvey & Black Nationalism
▪ Reject assimilation
▪ United Negro Improvement Association (UNIA)
▪ “Back to Africa” movement
THE RED SCAREFear of Communism & Anarchy
The Red Scare: 1918-1920
▪ Response to the creation of Soviet Union
▪ Fear of Communism and anarchy spreading in US
▪ Communism associated with disloyalty
▪ Fueled by strikes & series of terrorists bombs sent throughout the country
Bomb scare
▪ Post office intercepted 30 bombs addressed to prominent businessmen
▪ 8 bombs in 8 cities indicated national conspiracy
▪ Most believed this was work of communists
The Fears: Communism
▪ political ideology
▪ promotes violent revolution
▪ redistributes property
▪ creates collective ownership of property
▪ elimination of social class system
▪ benefits the working classes
▪ no room for civil liberties
The Fears: Anarchy
▪ political ideology
▪ society without government
▪ no submission to law or to any authority
▪ people would enter into free agreements between the various groups in order to achieve true economic and political freedom
Anarchist in the United States
▪ Emma Goldman, Lithuanian born immigrant, 1869-1940
▪ Agitated for union membership in US steel mills
▪ Worked against World War I conscription
▪ Promoted women’s birth control
▪ Initially supported Soviet Union, but eventually saw it as another dictatorship
Communists in the United States
▪ John Reed, 1887-1920
▪ Popular writer & activist
▪ Opposed US entry into World War I, writer for The New Communist
▪ Leader of the Communist Labor Party in the US
▪ Eyewitness to Russian Revolution, becomes leader in Soviet government
Fear of immigrants: 1920 & today
Does the nation still fear immigration today?
Palmer Raids
▪ Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer created FBI
▪ Hired J. Edgar Hoover as the first director.
▪ Investigated bombs and other “red” threats
▪ Target & deported immigrant suspects often without evidence and by 1920 5.000 arrests are made with out warrants.
End of Progressivism
▪ Post-WWI problems made people want to go back to the way things were before the war
▪ A return to “normalcy” was championed by 1920 Republican Party nominee Warren G. Harding
▪ 1920’s characterized by good times, but underlying social & economic problems were still there
The Sacco & Vanzetti Case & Project Reminders
Sacco & Vanzetti Overview
• Murder & robberyThe crime:
• Italian immigrants with known ties to radical/anarchist groupsThe accused:
• Proceeded with little to no evidence; signs of prejudice, intimidation & dishonesty
The trial:
• Did Sacco & Vanzetti receive a fair trial or were they victims of the fear & paranoia of the Red Scare?
The key question:
Scrapbook Project
• Choice to work in groups of 1, 2 or 3 (no more)
• This is a 50 point GROUP grade—choose groups carefully
• Work time: 3/8-3/12 (Thurs-Mon) in lab
• SEVEN sources in MLA; images just links
• Scrapbooks due Monday 3/19
Today’s Expectations
1. Decide groups
2. Choose a TOPIC (Aspect of 1920s culture) 1. Social
2. Economic
3. Political
3. Draft a THESIS
4. Outline your 6 or 8 scrapbook pages
**I NEED TO APPROVE YOUR GROUPS, YOUR TOPIC AND YOUR THESIS BEFORE YOU LEAVE TODAY!!**
Scrapbook Format
Front Cover
Front 1: Thesis
Front2:
Front 3:
Front 4:
Front 5:
Front 6:
Front 7:
Front 8:
Front 9:
Back Cover
Back 1: Works Cited
Back 2:
Back3:
Back 4:
Back 5:
Back 6:
Back 7:
Back 8:
Back 9:
FRONT SIDE OF PAGES: ALL SIX/EIGHT FRONT SIDES MUST RELATE TO THE THESIS/DEMOGRAPHIC YOU HAVE CHOSEN
BACK SIDES OF PAGES: ALL SIX/EIGHT BACK SIDES CAN BE USED TO SUPPORT YOUR WRITTEN WORK FOR EACH TOPIC IF NEEDED.
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