Domestic and Global Challenges 7 1890–1945 PART CHAPTER 21 In a famous speech he made in 1918, amid the horrors of World War I, An Emerging World President Woodrow Wilson outlined his Fourteen Points for interna- Power, 1890–1918 tional peace. Americans, he argued, must help make the world “fit and CHAPTER 22 safe to live in.” “We cannot be separated in interest or divided in purpose,” Cultural Conflict, Wilson declared. Fifteen years later, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt Bubble, and Bust, made a similar call for solidarity during the Great Depression. “We face 1919–1932 the arduous days that lie before us,” he said, “in the warm courage of CHAPTER 23 national unity.” Soon, even more grit and determination were needed, as Managing the Great Americans faced another looming world war. Depression, Forging the New Deal, In these years, America’s political leaders met major challenges 1929–1939 at home and abroad with bold responses. The exception to this pattern was the 1920s, a decade of limited government under Republican presi- CHAPTER 24 The World at War, dents who deferred to business interests and to Americans’ isolationist, 1937–1945 consumer-oriented mood. During the crises of World War I, the Great Depression, and World War II, however, American voters called for — and got — what Roosevelt called “action and action now.” Wilson’s proposals met with failure at the end of World War I, but Roosevelt won immense popularity for his measures to combat the depression, which helped millions of Americans survive unemployment and hardship. FDR, however, had limited success in ending the depres- sion until World War II reignited the American economy. The United States emerged from the war with unprecedented global power, and the federal government with a broad mandate for sustaining the new welfare state. Part 7 addresses these transformations. 668 America’s Rise to World Power Modernity and Its Discontents The United States became a major international power World War I had a powerful domestic impact in the after the 1890s, first in the Western Hemisphere and United States. The Great Migration brought African by the 1940s across the world, renewing debates at Americans northward, and Mexicans across the U.S. home about America’s global role. After defeating border, to take up wartime jobs. A full-blown modern Spain in the War of 1898, the United States claimed consumer culture also emerged by the 1920s as radio, overseas colonies and asserted control over the Carib- cars, and Hollywood movies transformed leisure pas- bean basin. Though President Wilson attempted to times. While many Americans embraced consumer maintain neutrality at the start of World War I, trade culture, others expressed deep fear and antagonism ties and old alliances drew America into the conflict toward a new modern sensibility, especially secularism on the Allied side. Wilson sought to influence the and sexual freedoms. Repressive impulses also came peace, but Allied leaders ignored his proposals and from above; during World War I, the federal govern- the Senate rejected the Treaty of Versailles. By war’s ment introduced new laws to police dissent, and the end, the United States’s position on the world stage country took a sharp right turn. A Red Scare, rollback remained uncertain. of labor and immigrant rights, and rising nativism The 1920s was an era of dollar diplomacy and U.S. marked the political scene. A resurgent nationwide business expansion abroad. In the 1930s, faced with Klan arose to target Catholics and Jews as well as isolationist sentiment at home and the rise of fascist African Americans. Many cultural conflicts emerged: powers in Europe and Japan, the Roosevelt adminis- the teaching of evolution in the schools angered tration steered a middle course. In the late 1930s, it religious fundamentalists, while “wets” and “drys” began to send aid to its traditional ally Great Britain debated the prohibition of liquor. without committing U.S. forces, keeping the nation Later events showed that racism took many forms: out of the brewing wars in Europe and the Pacific. the U.S. government deported hundreds of thousands When the United States entered World War II in 1941, of people of Mexican descent during the Great Depres- it did so as part of an alliance with both England and sion, including American citizens, and temporarily the Soviet Union against Germany and Japan (and their imprisoned Japanese Americans in a mass relocation ally Italy). The United States emerged from the war as policy during World War II. These, too, represented the dominant global power. These events are covered battles over what a diverse, modern nation would in Chapters 21, 22, and 24. look like. We explore these conflicts in Chapters 21, 22, and 24. PART 7 DOMESTIC AND GLOBAL CHALLENGES, 1890–1945 669 Domestic and Global Challenges 1890–1945 Creation of the Welfare State Thematic Understanding In comparison with their progressive predecessors (Chapters 19 and 20), Republican policymakers of This timeline arranges some of the important the 1920s believed in hands-off government. Their policies likely helped trigger the Great Depression and events of this period into themes. Consider deepened its impact after it arrived. Starting in 1932, the entries under “America in the World,” Americans voted for change: President Franklin Roo- “Politics and Power,” “Identity,” and “Ideas, sevelt’s New Deal programs, 1933–1937, expanded federal responsibility for the welfare of ordinary citi- Beliefs, and Culture.” What connections do zens, sweeping away the laissez faire individualism you see between events on the world stage and of the previous decade. Though the New Deal faced developments within the United States? What considerable challenges on the political right — espe- cially from business and corporate leaders and a hostile impact did World War I, the Great Depression, Supreme Court — the popularity of its programs, such and World War II appear to have on American as Social Security, established a broad consensus that politics, society, and culture? > the United States needed a modern welfare state to regulate the economy and provide a basic safety net for the nation’s citizens. For an exploration of the New Deal, see Chapter 23. Wartime measures went even further, as the govern- ment mobilized the entire economy and tens of millions of citizens to fight the Axis powers. The welfare state became a “warfare state,” and Congress gave the president broad powers to fight the war abroad and reorganize the economy at home. Under the govern- ment-directed wartime economy, business boomed and productivity grew, but other policies, such as the internment of Japanese immigrants and Japanese Americans, violated fragile civil liberties, leaving a mixed legacy. On America’s roles in World War II, see Chapter 24. 670 AMERICA IN POLITICS AND IDENTITY IDEAS, BELIEFS, WORK, THE WORLD POWER AND CULTURE EXCHANGE, AND TECHNOLOGY 1890 t Congress funds t Republicans sweep t “American t “Remember the Maine” t Depression of 1890s construction of modern congressional elections exceptionalism” and campaign fuels surge in increases pressure for battleships as Americans respond rise of imperialism nationalism U.S. to secure foreign to severe depression markets t U.S.-backed planters (1894) t Alfred Mahan, The overthrow Hawaii’s Influence of Sea Power queen (1892) t Republican William upon History (1890) McKinley elected t U.S. wins War of 1898 president (1896) against Spain; claims Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Guam, and Philippines 1900 t U.S. war against t William McKinley t Insular Cases establish t Rise of modernism t Root-Takahira Philippine reelected on pro- noncitizenship status Agreement affirms revolutionaries imperialist platform for new territories free oceanic commerce (1900) (1901) (1908) t Roosevelt Corollary to Monroe Doctrine (1904) t William McKinley t California, Washington, assassinated; Theodore and Hawaii limit rights Roosevelt becomes for Asian immigrants president (1901) 1910 t Wilson intervenes in t Woodrow Wilson t New Ku Klux Klan t Moviemaking industry t Great Migration brings Mexico (1914) elected president (1912) founded (1915) moves to southern African Americans California to northern cities, t Panama Canal opened t Red Scare (1919) t Post-WWI race riots Mexicans north to (1914) t Birth of a Nation United States t Woodrow Wilson issues t Wartime pressure for glorifies the United States enters Fourteen Points (1919) “100% loyalty”; dissent t Reconstruction-era Klan t Assembly-line WWI (1917) suppressed t U.S. Senate rejects (1915) production begins War ends; Wilson seeks Treaty of Versailles t t Radio Corporation of to influence peace treaty (1919, 1920) America created (1919) negotiations (1918) 1920 t Heyday of “dollar t Nineteenth Amendment t National Origins Act t Rise of Hollywood t Economic prosperity diplomacy” grants women’s limits immigration (1922–1929) suffrage (1920) (1924) t Harlem Renaissance t U.S. occupation of Haiti t Labor gains rolled back Popularity of jazz music and other Caribbean t Prohibition (1920–1933) t t Era of welfare and Central American t Scopes “monkey trial” nations t Teapot Dome scandal capitalism (1923) (1925) t Rise of automobile t Republican “associated loans and consumer state,” probusiness credit policies (1920–1932) 1930 t Rise of European fascist t Franklin Roosevelt t Bonus Army (1932) t Documentary impulse t Great Depression powers elected president (1932) in arts (1929–1941) t Indian Reorganization t Japan invades China t First New Deal (1933)