Analyzing WWI and WWII

Key Points

1. Although purportedly neutral, the U.S. provided both wartime supplies as well as desperately needed loans totaling 2 billion dollars to Allied forces. Furthermore, the U.S. demanded the preservation of the tradition of “freedom of the seas." When the Lusitania ship left New York for Liverpool and entered a declared war zone by Germany, Germans sunk it. As a result, the U.S. strengthened its army and navy in preparation for war.

2. Because public dissent dominated the public sphere, the government passed laws that restricted speech and opinion in 1917 and 1918. The government also banned anti-interventionist publications from the mail such as socialist newspapers and magazines. This burgeoning surveillance state led to the immediate prosecution of any dissenters. Avowed in his socialist beliefs, Eugene Debs was arrested for ridiculing Wilson’s claims to be fighting for democracy. He was convicted of violating the Espionage Act and subsequently sentenced to ten years in prison.

3. Nativists believed that native-born Americans, especially those with Anglo-Saxon ancestry, were superior to foreign-born individuals and immigrants. As a result, they sought to restrict immigration and pushed through extremely restrictive legislation. The Emergency Immigration Act of 1921 and the National Origins Act of 1924 imposed immigration quotas. The Sacco and Vanzetti court case conveys the presence of nativism, as they were Italian-born anarchists arrested for and convicted of robbery and murder because of their foreign accents and anarchist beliefs.

4. During the 1920s, America seemed to be changing, which posed a threat to older orthodoxies. New intellectual ideas ripped America away from their older traditions, which catalyzed repressive movements in reaction. The Scopes trial is emblematic of this conservative backlash. Prohibition of alcohol, codified in the eighteenth amendment 1919, is another example of the backlash against the liberalization of American culture. Finally, nativism emerged in reaction to ethnic diversity.

5. The 1920s marked an epoch defined by a cultural conflict that pit a more liberal, urban, cosmopolitan culture against a more traditional and conservative one. Furthermore, the war seemed to only help big business. Technological advances and overproduction resulted in prices falling, which led to the impoverishment of farmers. Furthermore, unskilled and low-wage earners who experienced bouts of unemployment as a result of the boom and bust cycle. Older industries such as coal also became replaced by oil and gas. Textile industries also suffered because the new fashions required less cloth.

6. Structural weaknesses in the American economy accounted for the causes of the Great Depression. A significant gap in wealth plagued the American economy. The rise of credit led to great debt. Businesses had maintained high prices and low wages. Furthermore, banks continued to operate without guarantees for their customers. Government policies of tax reductions, high tariffs that discouraged foreign trade, and the lack of enforcement of anti-trust laws also contributed. Farmers also suffered during this time period as a result of overproduction and technological innovations. These various factors led to a significant loss of jobs for Americans. European loans during World War I proved fatal to the American economy during the 1920s. The crash of the stock market served as the tipping point for the Great Depression. Hoover adopted a minimalist approach to government intervention. Hoover asked businessmen to let profits suffer before purchasing power, as he wanted to let businesses to reap profits rather than suffer purchasing power. His indirect approach to solving the financial crisis proved futile.

7. Southern Democrats drifted towards a coalition with conservative Republicans. Furthermore, the welfare state emerged and the power of the national government grew significantly. The New Deal also provided a sense of security. Finally, the New Deal ended the Great Depression.

8. Women joined the armed forces as nurses as well as the workforce in the munitions factories in support of the war. African Americans and Native Americans, despite blatant discrimination, also supported the war effort on the home front by laboring in war industries.

9. As a result of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Japanese Americans had their constitutional rights violated on the basis of their race. President Franklin Roosevelt issued order 9066, which provided the foundation for Japanese internment of both first-generation and second-generation Japanese despite no evidence of espionage. Mexican-Americans during the war also faced ethnic tensions during the war. The Bracero program was in full effect. Contrary to former U.S. policy which attempted to drive Mexicans back across the border during the 1920s and 1930s, the government wanted to recruit them to work in the agricultural sector in which they suffered in poor working conditions. More than 200,000 Mexicans entered the United States during the war both legally and illegally to perform necessary agricultural labor at a cheap rate. This influx of Mexicans created ethnic tensions, which subjected them to segregation and forced them to live in shanties. Moreover, they were barred from good jobs and paid menial wages. Finally, African-Americans viewed the war as an opportunity to prove themselves as good American citizens on the battlefield. African Americans participated in war industries despite facing discrimination. A second migration of African Americans to the cities occurred and spurred the promise of wartime jobs. This time many sense the possibility for political power emerged during the Second World War. The double V campaign gathered strength during the war, and organizations like the Congress of Racial Equality attempted to achieve racial equality. The experiences of these three groups demonstrate the underlying nativist sentiments that have undergirded cultural attitudes towards minority groups even during wartime.