America in World War I

By Darla Phillips

Post WWI America

The Red Scare was the movement of communist ideas in the United States which frightened many Right- winged Capitalist in America.

Old Values vs. New Values

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​Not all Americans embraced the new way of life. Many saw the United States as a civilization in decline. The original purpose of the Puritan city upon a hill seemed to be slipping away in the pursuit of materialism and self-gratification. The morals of the Victorian Age were forgotten in the age of Freud and the flapper. Immigrants brought new cultures, religions, and languages to the increasingly complex American mosaic. The success of the BOLSHEVIK REVOLUTION brought a widespread suspicion of socialists, radicals, and labor unions. There were those in America who clung tenaciously to the values of the past. They would not give up without a fight.

Open Ended

Why did many Americans see the "civilized" way of living in decline after World War I?

Open Ended

Why do you think the Bolshevik Revolution really affected the United States?

​Immigration Acts such as the Immigration Act of 1924 limited certain immigrants from certain European countries hoping to "out" the potential of a Communist Rising in America

New vs. Old Values

The first group to feel the heat were suspected Socialists. The wave of postwar strikes touched off an anti-labor sentiment across America. Fears fueled by the Russian Revolution touched off a witch hunt for potential threats to national security. Immigrants, whose numbers had been transmuting the American ethnic fabric, became targets for intolerance. Ethnic purists succeeded at slamming the open door for immigrants shut. Hate groups such as the Ku Klux Klan gained in popularity as working-class Americans took aim at African Americans, immigrants, Catholics, and Jews

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Open Ended

Explain the political cartoon from the previous slide.

Open Ended

Why would many Americans and the American government want to limit immigration after World War I?

​Scopes Trial became a talked about ideal of creation {Biblical theory} versus evolution {scientific theory}

Old Values vs. New Values

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​The churches of America were similarly torn by the struggle between old and new. Modernists reconciled the theories of Charles Darwin with scripture, while fundamentalists persisted with a strict interpretation of creation theory. When Darwin announced his theory that humans and apes had decended from a common ancestor, he sent shock waves through the Western world.

In the years that followed his 1859 declaration, America's churches hotly debated whether to accept the findings of modern science or continue to follow the teachings of ancient scripture. By the 1920s, most of the urban churches of America had been able to reconcile Darwin's theory with the Bible, but rural preachers preferred a stricter interpretation.

Amid the dizzying changes brought by the roaring decade, religious fundamentalists saw the Bible as the only salvation from a materialistic civilization in decline

Open Ended

Do you think that the Scopes Trial should have been as "big" as it became?

Throughout the struggle, America's political leadership remained remarkably aloof. The White House was occupied by the most conservative Presidents in a generation during the decade of change. Warren Harding, Calvin Coolidge, and Herbert Hoover seemed content with the status quo, and delegated much of the decision-making to Congress and key Cabinet members. Businesses took advantage of the laissez faire approach.

​By the end of the decade, America was on the brink of something special. An industrial revolution was now complete. The United States had proven itself as a global power in acquiring an empire and intervening in the First World War, yet lacked the physical destruction of the conflict that plagued the European continent. The standard of living was rising faster than anywhere in the world. Indeed, when Herbert Hoover took office, he predicted that America would soon see the end of poverty.

New vs. Old Values

Warren Harding began a platform of "Return to Normalcy" after World War I which meant a return to the great isolationist lassiez-faire style of government the United States had seen in the 1880s-1910s

Open Ended

Explain the "Return to Normalcy" idea that the American government adopted after World War I