Patterns in American Domestic Affairs
The Roaring Twenties – 1919-1929
US emerged from WWI virtually unscathed
Economy was booming
Optimism about the future
The Red Scare of the 1920s focused on political
radicals and immigrants.
In the 1920s, many African-Americans moved
from the South to the North in search of jobs.
21- 20th Century Domestic
Affairs
Patterns in American Domestic Affairs
In the 1920s, the Ku Klux Klan’s hatred focused
on African-Americans Catholics, Jews, radicals, and
immigrants.
Immigration Acts of 1921, 1924, 1929
During the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s,
talented African-American writers and artists lived
and worked in Harlem in New York City.
21- 20th Century Domestic
Affairs
Factors Underlying Prosperity
The automobile
Key industries
Efficient production methods
Mass Consumption
21- 20th Century Domestic
Affairs
Cultural Values of the 1920s
Traditional values challenged by greater economic
affluence and mobility
Women, the young and African-Americans
benefited
19th Amendment 1920
Harlem Renaissance & the Great Migration
21- 20th Century Domestic
Affairs
The Great Depression 1929-41
The Great Depression, the worst in the nation’s
history, gripped the United States from 1929 until
1941.
Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal focused on relief for
those in need, recovery for American business and
industry, and reform of the economic system.
21- 20th Century Domestic
Affairs
Causes of the Great Depression
Overproduction
Speculation
Buying stock on margin
Resulted in: Stock Market Crash Oct 29, 1929
21- 20th Century Domestic
Affairs
Human Impact of the Depression
Banks failed
Businesses failed
Unemployment skyrocketed
The Dust Bowl
Hoover fails to stop the Depression
21- 20th Century Domestic
Affairs
The New Deal
1932 Franklin Roosevelt elected President
Started the New Deal programs
Established the principle that the federal
government is responsible for the smooth
running of the economy
21- 20th Century Domestic
Affairs
(3 R’s –Relief, Recovery, Reform)
Relief – Short term actions to help tide people over (public
jobs)
Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), 1933: employed
young adults to perform unskilled work for the federal
government
Civil Works Administration (CWA), 1933: provided
temporary jobs to millions of unemployed
Public Works Administration (PWA), 1933: employed
middle-aged skilled workers to work on public projects,
cost $4 billion
Works Progress Administration (WPA), 1935: a
reiteration of the PWA, created useful work for skilled
workers
21- 20th Century Domestic
Affairs
(3 R’s –Relief, Recovery, Reform)
Recovery –programs to restore the economy by
increasing incentives to produce and by rebuilding people’s
purchasing power.
Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA),
1933: provided breadlines and other aid to the
unemployed
Social Security Act (SSA), 1935: provided financial
assistance to: elderly, handicapped, delinquent,
unemployed; paid for by employee and employer payroll
contributions
Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA), 1933: paid farmers
to not grow crops
Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), 1933: a
government program that ran a series of dams built on
the Tennessee River
21- 20th Century Domestic
Affairs
(3 R’s –Relief, Recovery, Reform)
Reform
National Recovery Act (NRA), 1933: created fair standards
in favor of labor unions
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) / GlassSteagall Act: insures deposits in banks in order to restore
public confidence in banks
Securities Act of 1933, created the SEC, 1933: codified
standards for sale and purchase of stock, required risk of
investments to be accurately disclosed
National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) / Wagner Act, 1935:
granted right of labor unions to exist
Judicial Reorganization Bill, 1937: FDR requested power to
appoint a new Supreme Court judge for every judge 70
years or older; failed to pass
21- 20th Century Domestic
Affairs
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), 1938: established a
maximum normal work week of 40 hours, and a minimum
pay of 40 cents/hour
21- 20th Century Domestic
Affairs
America in World War II 1941-1945
After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, U.S.
industry quickly mobilized to make war supplies.
Women played an important role in wartime
industries.
A second migration of African-Americans from the
South to the North occurred during and after World
War II.
21- 20th Century Domestic
Affairs
The Home Front
US faced with task preparing for a war that had
started in 1939 in Europe and 1931 in Asia
To meet wartime needs
Industrial Mobilization
American industries converted to war
production
Women, African-Americans and other minorities
played a crucial role in war production
“Rosie the Riveter”
21- 20th Century Domestic
Affairs
The Home Front
The Draft (Conscription)
All men 18-45 were liable for military service;
women could volunteer
1:10 Americans served in uniform
21- 20th Century Domestic
Affairs
The Home Front
Forced Interment of Japanese-Americans
Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066
Upheld by the US Supreme Court in
Korematsu v. US (1944)
21- 20th Century Domestic
Affairs
The Cold War Era 1945-1960
The United States economy boomed in the 1950s.
McCarthyism played on fears of communism and
domestic subversion during the Cold War.
The space race was a product of the Cold War.
Korea & Vietnam were Cold War conflicts that
turned hot.
Cuban Missile Crisis 1962
21- 20th Century Domestic
Affairs
The Cold War Era 1945-1960
The civil rights movement of the 1950s and
1960s resulted in several victories for African
Americans.
The Brown v. Board of Education decision found
racially segregated public schools unconstitutional.
21- 20th Century Domestic
Affairs
The economy boomed as a result of rebuilding
Europe after the war
Suburbanization
Conformity and fear of outsiders
The (Joseph) McCarthy Hearings
Outgrowth of fear of communism spreading
Began a witch hunt for un-American activates
Reputations of thousands were ruined
21- 20th Century Domestic
Affairs
The Space Race
1957 Russia launched Sputnik
1958 US launched Explorer I
Results:
Contributed to a arms race for ICBMs
Both nations competed to put a man on the
moon. US won.
21- 20th Century Domestic
Affairs
Cuban-Missile Crisis 1962
Nearly started WWIII
Soviets put ICBMs in Cuba aimed at the US
21- 20th Century Domestic
Affairs
The civil rights movement of the 1950s and
1960s resulted in several victories for African
Americans.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Brown v. Board of Education 1954
Reversed Plessy v. Ferguson
Montgomery Bus Boycott 1955-56
Rosa Parks
Sit-Ins and Freedom Rides 1960-61
21- 20th Century Domestic
Affairs
March on Washington 1963
New Civil Rights Laws 1964
Civil Rights Act 1964
24th Amendment
Affirmative Action
African-American Militancy
21- 20th Century Domestic
Affairs
Social Protest & Change: 1960s and Early
1970s
The Women’s Liberation Movement
Goal: Social and economic equality
Counter-Culture of the 1960s
Challenged American society
Materialism and indifference to poverty
and other social problems
Vietnam War
21- 20th Century Domestic
Affairs
1. Construct a table similar to the one below. Complete the
table by characterizing each decade with descriptive words
or phrases.
1920s
The Roaring
20’s
1930s
1950s
World War II or The
Greatest Generation
“Economic Bust” or
The Great Depression
21- 20th Century Domestic
Affairs
1940s
“America’s Great
Decade” or Cold
War Tensions
1960s
Domestic
Turmoil or
Challenges
to America’s
Power
2. In a paragraph or in a graphic organizer of your
design, explain what the Red Scare of the 1920s,
the Ku Klux Klan, internment of Japanese
Americans during World War II, and
McCarthyism all have in common. Support your
explanations with examples.
21- 20th Century Domestic
Affairs
KKK
McCarthyism
Individual Rights
&
Civil Liberties
Red Scare
21- 20th Century Domestic
Affairs
Japanese Internment
3. What did the migration of African-Americans
in the 1920s from the South to Northern cities
have in common with the African-American
migration from the South to the North in the
1940s and 1950s?
•Jobs
•Discrimination
21- 20th Century Domestic
Affairs