Figure 1, Lusitania at end of record voyage, 1907, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C
In the mid-nineteenth century the concept of the United States being possessed of a "Manifest Destiny," to reach out and bring as much of the world as possible under its control was a driving justification for the expansion of the United States across the North American continent. This destiny seemed to have been
indicated by many fortuitous events which seemed to show that Providence was at
work, the Louisiana Purchase, the Texas and California rebellions, the
acquisition of Oregon, the territorial expansion following the War with Mexico
and even the purchase of Alaska all seemed to indicate that this territory
belonged to the United States as a reward for its superiority in general. This also confirmed the virtues of
American values and its particular democratic form of government. The United States was a beacon to the
world, which sent out a light that was followed to its source by millions of
immigrants who filled the vast land hoping to share in the bounty and
promise. This belief in American
superiority could be shared by many other wise contentious groups or
conflicting philosophies.
Figure 2, World War One military recruits ride a car in a
Denver, Colorado, parade. The men hold signs, United States flags, blow party
horns and wave to the crowd. Picket sign reads: "The Kaiser Has;" a
dead duck hangs from it. Western History/Genealogy Department, Denver Public
Library
When
Josiah Strong wrote Our Country he
championed the position of Social-Darwinists who believed that the United
States was the new center of civilization and was destined to eventually spread
out and dominate the world.
Pragmatism, as advocated by William James in Great men and Their
Environment extolled the idea that
society promoted its better members to position of leadership where they could
take the initiative and make things happen. This concept would explain his position as a professor at
Harvard and it embraced the traditional American view and importance of rugged
individualism, which meant real virtue is found in making things happen. And of course there were the various
reformers.
The
United States produced all sorts of reformers who sought to challenge society
from simple problem solving to complete reforms of the greater society. Examples ranged from the advocates of corporate regulation, social welfare, civil reform, to radical theories such as Henry George's "single tax" or Eugene Debs and his long-term commitment to socialism. Of these
the most influence must have been wielded by the Progressive who in all there
various guises were able to significantly regulate big business, expand
government, amend the Constitution four time and elect three progressive
Presidents. And it was one of these presidents, Woodrow Wilson, who would take the United States into World War I and in the progressive tradition approach the war from a position diametrically opposed to that of any of the European Combatants. The war would be fought "to make the world safe for democracy" or in other words the war could be used to introduce the world to progressive values of America. The war would result in a new family of
nations practicing democracy, freed trade and major conflicts could be
prevented by international arbitration.
If the policies of Woodrow Wilson, such as "moral" diplomacy are recognized as the application of progressivism his handling of the conflict in Mexico, American participation in World War I, the spirit of the Fourteen Points and the purpose of the Versailles Treaty are clearly understood. He did not enter into these simply to
improve the position of the United States to gain the most from a position of
strength, like a traditional political realist, he sought to do what was right.
Figure 3, Boy Scouts wearing U.S. Army uniforms selling
Liberty Bonds Chicago Historical Society
Of course what is right is sometimes
hard to determine, and war is not polite binding arbitration, it is a blood
bath and very unpredictable. Some progressive such as Theodore Roosevelt were supporters of the war but others such as Jane Addams, who organized the Women's Peace Party to oppose the war helped undermined Wilson's moral leadership. Also Wilson did not necessarily have the support of industry and the great capitalists, what has come to be called "the military industrial complex" was decades away and business and industry, rarely a friend to the usual progressive ideas were not generally in favor of the war. War was on the
one hand easy to condemn as morally wrong and it was also disruptive of
business conditions. Andrew Carnegie objected to the war and eventually endowed the Carnegie Endowment for Peace to permanently oppose war and Henry Ford, an international icon and billionaire, organized a "peace ship," which set sail for Europe filled with like-minded individuals in a quixotic attempt to use their influence to stop hostilities.
In
the end the United States would flex its new found muscles to end the war but
would not wish to fully use its strength to change the world and join the world
at the progressive style commission, that was the League of Nations. Too many Americans had died and instead
of spreading democracy all the colonial possessions of the defeated German
Empire were simply being grabbed by other empires. The abdication of the last Czar did not result in new democratic
freedom as the October Revolution put the Bolsheviks in charge. The war had not reformed the world and
many Americans believed that the best way to deal with the world was to stay
out and put up immigration barriers to keep out the overly exotic and dangerous
as they fled the ruins of Europe and beyond.
In
this unit you will be reading Chapters twenty-four and twenty-five from The
American Nation, which cover America's participation in World War I and the effect this war had upon the society and culture of the United States. If the late nineteenth century was an era of experimentation with European style imperialism the early twentieth century was the rejection of this type of overseas projection of power and the United States' first experience as international policeman. Even though the United States chose not to ratify the Treaty of Versailles and endorse the spirit of Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points in the long run the general objectives of these document can be recognized in much of the United States' subsequent foreign involvement since World War II.
There will be five threaded discussions included in this module. All students must actively participate in all the threaded discussions; the due dates of the threaded discussions are listed in the syllabus.
All
issues discussed in the text are important for this class as well as the years
in which events took place. After reading the assigned chapters student needs
to be able to answer the following questions and discuss related topics:
Chapter 24 Questions:
1.
What was Woodrow Wilson's attitude toward "Dollar Diplomacy?"
2.
What was "Missionary Diplomacy?"
3.
What were the "Twenty-One Demands?"
4.
What was the
Bryan-Chamorro Treaty of1914?
5.
What was the Mexican
Revolution of1911?
6.
Who were Porfirio Díaz, Francisco Madero, and
Victoriano Huerta?
7.
What happened in Tampico
in April of1914?
8.
Who was Pancho Villa?
9.
What did Pancho Villa do
in Mexico City?
10.
Which government did
Woodrow Wilson recognize in 1915?
11.
Who was John Pershing?
12.
What happened in
Columbus, New Mexico?
13.
Why did Woodrow Wilson
send John Pershing to Mexico?
14.
What was the "Black Hand?"
15.
Who was Gavrilo Princip?
16.
What happened in
Sarajevo in 1914?
17.
What were the Central
Powers?
18.
What were the Allied
Powers?
19.
What was the American
position on the outbreak of World War I?
20.
Which of the following
American immigrant groups would not be described as supporters of the Allied
Powers?
21.
What did Germany declare
in 1915?
22.
What was the Lusitania?
23.
What happened to the Lusitania?
24.
Following the infamous
attack of the U-20, what did Woodrow Wilson and William Jennings Bryan disagree
about?
25.
Who was a founder of the
Women's Peace Party?
26.
Who organized a "Peace Ship" in an attempt to end World War I?
27.
What was Andrew Carnegie's view of war.
28.
What was the "The Sussex Pledge?"
29.
What slogan was used in Wilson's re-election campaign?
30.
In early 1917 what was
Wilson recommending to the belligerent nations?
31.
What did the Germans
declare in February of 1917?
32.
How did the United
States prepare for war in terms of military preparedness and cost?
33.
What was the result of
the attack on the Housatonic?
34.
What was the Zimmermann
telegram?
35.
What was the October
Revolution?
36.
How did the Russian
Revolution affect the Allied powers?
37.
Who controlled Russia at
the end of 1917?
38.
How did Woodrow Wilson
justify going to war with Germany?
39.
Immediately following
the American declaration of war against Germany how prepared for war was the
United States?
40.
What was W. E. B. Du
Bois view of the war?
41.
How were troops raised
and was this different from other American wars?
42.
What were General
Pershing's ideas about how Americans should fight?
43.
How were
African-Americans used during the war?
44.
What major battles did
American participate in during World War I?
45.
What was the Espionage
Act?
46.
What was the Sedition
Act?
47.
Why were there riots in
East St Louis?
48.
What was the War
Industries Board?
49.
How was the 16th
Amendment applied during World War I?
50.
How were bonds used
during World War I?
51.
What was the Committee
on Public Information?
52.
What was the Sedition
Act?
53.
What happened to Eugene
V. Debs during World War I?
54.
What was the Railroad
Administration?
55.
What did the National
War Labor Board do during World War I?
56.
What was the War Labor
Policies Board?
57.
What was the Battle of
Chateau-Thierry?
58.
What was the
Armistice? When was it signed?
59.
Who headed the American
peace delegation sent to Paris?
60.
What were the major
points of the Fourteen Points?
61.
What parts of the
Fourteen Points actually happened?
62.
What did Wilson hope
would be the results of the Paris Peace conference?
63.
What were some of actual
results of the Paris Peace Conference?
64.
What were economic
conditions like in the United States following World War I?
65.
What was the Seattle
general strike? Why was it
important?
66.
Why was the Steel Strike
important?
67.
Why was the Boston
Police strike important?
68.
What was the Red Scare?
69.
What was the Treat of
Versailles?
70.
What was Wilson's position on the Treaty of Versailles?
71.
What was the importance
of Schenck v. U.S.?
72.
Who wrote the majority
decision in Schenck v. U.S.?
73.
What were the Palmer
raids?
74.
Who was A. Mitchell
Palmer?
75.
Who carried out the
Palmer raids?
76.
What were the results of
the Palmer raids?
77.
What was the Union of
Russian Workers?
Chapter 25 Questions:
1.
What was the aftermath of the "Red Scare?"
2.
How did immigration change after 1920?
3.
After World War I finally ended and peace returned to
Europe:
4.
What is "Give me you tired, your poor, your
huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming
shore?"
5.
How were quotas used?
6.
What was the National Origins Act of 1924?
7.
What significant change in American society occurred
in 1920 regarding urban living?
8.
In the1920s why did couples marry?
9.
How had child-rearing changed by the 1920s?
10.
What was new regarding child-care experts?
11.
What new ideas were advocated in The Compassionate
Marriage?
12.
Who was Benjamin B. Lindsey?
13.
What happened to sexual taboos during the 1920s?
14.
How did the growth of large cities affect society?
15.
Who were the Bohemias?
16.
What was meant by "calling?"
17.
How did "dating" change personal relationships?
18.
How did the work of Sigmund Freud influence American
society?
19.
What was the significant of cigarettes in the 1920s?
20.
How did fashion change in the 1920s?
21.
How did American youth change in the 1920s?
22.
Which of the following was false during the 1920s?
23.
Who was Margaret Sanger?
24.
What was the Comstock Act?
25.
What was
the American Birth Control League?
26.
was
established by:
27.
What was Adkins v. Children's Hospital?
28.
What was the importance of the19th Amendment in regard to the women's movement?
29.
What was the Women's Party?
30.
What was the main intention of the "equal rights amendment?"
31.
What was the League of Women Voters?
32.
What was the importance of the movies?
33.
Why was popular culture so important in the 1920s?
34.
What was The Great Train Robbery?
35.
What were Nickelodeons?
36.
What was Birth of a Nation?
37.
What was The Jazz Singe?
38.
Who was Helen Wills?
39.
Who was Charles Lindbergh?
40.
What would some elements of urban-rural conflict in
the 1920s.
41.
Who was Aimee Semple MacPherson, William Ashley "Billy" Sunday, and Major J. "Father" Divine
42.
What was the "Monkey Trial?"
43.
What was the ACLU?
44.
What happened in Dayton, Tennessee?
45.
Who was John T. Scopes?
46.
Who wasWilliam Jenning Bryan?
47.
Who was Clarence Darrow?
48.
Who was H.L. Mencken?
49.
What was Prohibition? Who were its supporters?
50.
What was the18th Amendment?
51.
How did the automobile effect an ordinary person's experience with law enforcement?
52.
How did the Prohibition effect an ordinary person's experience with law enforcement?
53.
Who was Alphonse "Scareface" Capone?
54.
What was the Valentine's Day Massacre?
55.
What was a Speakeasy?
56.
What was a Bootlegger?
57.
What was "near beer?"
58.
What was "prescription" alcohol?
59.
Who was Will Rogers?
60.
Who was Alfred Smith?
61.
What was the Ku Klux Klan?
62.
Who was William J. Simmons?
63.
Who were Edward Y. Clarke and Elizabeth Tyler?
64.
Who was David C. Stephenson?
65.
Who were Sacco and Vanzetti?
66.
What was The Education of Henry Adams?
67.
Who was Edith Wharton?
68.
Who wrote Main Stree?
69.
What was Babbit?
70.
What was Elmer Gantry?
71.
What was the "Lost Generation?"
72.
Who was F. Scott Fitzgerald?
73.
What was This Side of Paradise?
74.
What was The Great Gatsby?
75.
Who was Ernest Hemingway?
76.
What was A Farewell to Arms?
77.
Who was Nathaniel West?
78.
What was the "New Negro?"
79.
What was the Harlem Renaissance?
80.
What was The New Negro: An Interpretation?
81.
What was The Crisis?
82.
Who was Zora Neale Hurston?
83.
Who was Langston Hughes?
84.
Who was Edward Kennedy Ellington?
85.
Who was Lena Horne?
86.
Who was Cab Calloway?
87.
Who was Marcus Garvey?
88.
What was the Universal Negro Improvement Association?
89.
What was the Negro World?
90.
What was the Black Star Line?
91.
What was the condition of the economy during the
1920s?
92.
What is a Bull Market?
93.
What was Henry Ford's success based on?
Figure 4, Woman in a flapper-style dress with a sleeveless
bodice and pleated bottom. Her hair is in a short bob style. Western
History/Genealogy Department, Denver Public Library
After
World War I and the refusal of the United States to join the League of Nations
the country seemed to be turning to a path of political isolationism and social
hedonism. It would take another
twenty-five years for the United States to actively enter the world stage. Progressivism had been another casualty
of the war. Following the last of
the Progressive amendments to be passed the whole of Progressivism seemed to
have lost steam. Many pillars of
the progressive edifice had collapsed.
The two most important progressives, Woodrow Wilson and Theodore
Roosevelt were both dead by the end of 1921 and many women progressives after
having achieved the right to vote became much less interested in continuing
political struggles because they believed that the vote would soon remove most
obstacles in their way to true political and economic equality. Others would become non-complacent and
turn to more radical, and less effective means of reform. W. E. B. Dubois, who had supported the
American war effort in hopes that African-Americans might win a place at the
table, was bitterly disappointed and would never again attempt
appeasement. He would no longer
work with the system, but directly challenge it. Despite the great successes of progressivism, it had never
been a cohesive movement and now it simply disintegrated.
Figure 5, Members of the Ku Klux Klan probably in Colorado
wearing waterproof robes and hoods. Western History/Genealogy Department,
Denver Public Library
The
1920s would of course retain certain radical qualities, Artistically and
intellectually the decade produced tremendous literature, music, and the
elements of a nascent civil rights movement in the future. All of these areas were the arena of
important African-American. W. E.
B. Du Boise would help organize the National Association for the Advancement of
Colored People, Alan Locke would write The New Negro and West Indian immigrant
organized the Universal Negro Improvement Association which advocated a back to
Africa philosophy. However, even if you include the results of the Harlem Renaissance, and the works of the "Lost Generation" and other serious achievements these are all overshadowed by the flash and superficial nature of the "Roaring Twenties."
Figure 6, Baseball players, Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig, New
York Yankees, standing with Marian Davies at a Chicago train station in 1927.
Chicago Historical Society
This
was the decade of the gangsters, bootleggers, flappers, jalopies, sport stars,
movie stars, radio personalities, the stock market, advertising, and easy
payments. Politically there were
maudlin presidents and the revival of the Ku Klux Klan with more members than
ever before having been sold their white robes by traveling salesmen as easily
as a set of encyclopedias. And it was these images, the Saint Valentines Day Massacre, 20,000 Klansmen marching down Pennsylvania Ave. waving American flags and Bade Ruth hitting another record homerun, which would be indelibly etched in America's memory of the decade.
Figure 7, Image of crowds standing outside a garage at 2122 North Clark Street in the Lake View community area of Chicago, Illinois, as men wearing uniforms move a stretcher carrying the body of a murder victim after the St. Valentine's Day Massacre, also known as the Moran Gang Massacre, in which reputed members of Al Capone's gang disguised themselves as policemen and murdered members of George "Bugs" Moran's gang.1927, Chicago Historical Society