US History

1920s
Cultural
Harlem Renaissance
The Lost Generation
Flappers
Fundamental Changes- literally looking into the bible
Jazz Age

Politically
Prohibition- prohibit alcohol- underground bar/ crime
Harding- back to normalcy
Economy
Roaring Twenties

01 Depression
I. Crash
1. Bull Market – stock prices are expected to rise
bear market
- Sept. 1929 Market Average=all time high of 381 points
2. People bought stock
on margin- borrowed $ to buy stocks (w/10% down)
3. Black Tuesday (the Crash) Oct. 29 - 16.4 billion shares sold
4. Great Crash - cont. downward $30 billion lost total

II. Effects of Crash

A. the spiral downward
1. risky loans hurt banks- stocks fell; business couldn't repay loans
2. consumer borrowing- couldn't pay back loans
3. bank runs and failures- people withdrew all their money from banks, banks ran out of the
money and failed
4. savings wiped out- closed banks wiped out nine million dollars’ savings accounts
5. cuts in production- no customers= no production
6. unemployment rose- no production= lay off workers
7. more cuts in production- unemployment up, income down, production down

B. World Impact-
1. France & Britain repays war debts to U.S.
- U.S. import tariffs high - Europeans can’t sell products in U.S.
- So, Europe relies on Germ. reparations.
2. U.S. investment in Germ. ends w/crash
3. Germ. stops payments to Britain & France
-> in turn B & F stop payment to U.S.
4. Europe stops buying U.S. Goods.
Great Depression became a world-wide depression

III. underlying causes

1. Unstable Economy
- Uneven distribution of wealth
- Overproduction of Goods
- Overextended Credit

2. Over speculation
- market based on credit & optimism instead of value

3. Gov. Policies
- No regulation from Govt.

1. some economic analyst

2. this meant that many investors desired to sell their stock, but no one wanted to purchase
those stocks for the prices they were being sold at.
3. October. 29 1929
4. Wall Street
5. to see if they might be able to find a solution to the panic that had ensued that day.
6. no one wanted to purchase those stocks for the prices they were being sold at.

02 Great Depression 2 Impact

IV. Impact
- unemployment increases and stays up
- wheat prices decreases
- stock prices: great crash

1. Poverty Spreads
a. 1932- 25% unemployment
- 12 million unemployed
b. Hooverville - shanty towns
c. Farm Distress- foreclosed farms

Hoover: President

2. Dust Bowl - 1931-40 (happened in the plains)

- caused by drought & farming practices
- 60% dust bowl families lose their farms
- Hundreds of thousands leave Midwest

3. Strain on Society
a. Impact on Health
- Children suffered long-term effects from poor diet & lack of medical care

b. Stresses on families
- divorce rate dropped
- men ashamed - no longer support their families

c. Discrimination up
- AA, Hispanics & Asian Americans lost jobs & deported

03 Great Depression: Election of 32

V. Hoover’s Reaction
1. Hoover’s Strategy
a. Promote confidence
b. Voluntary Action
- business promised to keep wages up
- Failed: Business didn’t

c. Govt Acts
1. Agricultural Marketing Act - created to stabilize crop prices
- Failed: prices fell

2. Hawley-Smoot tariff
- to protect U.S. industry from imports
- Failed: Europe stopped buying U.S. goods

3. Gov. Spending on Public Works

- Hoover Dam

4. Reconstruction Finance Corp (RFC)

- gave credit to industries, RRs & banks
- People saw it as a corporate bailout, leaving citizens starving

d. Bonus Army Attack

- 20,000 WWI veterans protest for early bonus
- Hoover sends violent troops
- Hatred towards Hoover

VI. Election of 1932

1. The New Deal
- Experiment of Gov.
- Keynesian economics? - large government spending needed to stimulate a downward
economy
- FDR wins: Franklin D. Roosevelt
a land slide victory: FDR won too much over Hoover

01 New Deal 100 Days

20th amendment
I. New Deal
1. Restoring Hope
- inaugural address “fear”
- 2nd bonus march- positive
- fireside chats- radio address
- New Deal= relief, recovery & reform

2. First Hundred Days

a. Bank Holiday- closed banks
b. Emergency Banking Act
- inspection of banks’ health before reopening
- Effect: Success - deposits surpassed withdraws
- Glass-Steagall Banking Act:
separated investment and commercial banking activities in response to the commercial
bank involvement in stock market investment.
- Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC)
- Insured people’s $

c. Securities Exchange Commission (SEC)

- regulate stock market
- regulate on margin loans

02 The New Deal Relief- creating jobs

3. Relief & Creating Jobs

alphabet agency
a. Federal Emergency Relief Admin. (FERA)
- sent funds to relief agencies &
- public works programs

b. Civil Works Admin. (CWA)

- jobs for building roads, parks, airports. . .
- boosted morale

c. Civilian Conservation Corporations (CCC)

- maintained forests, beaches & parks
- 2.5 million unmarried men
- $30/m = $5 + $25 to family

4. Regulating the Economy

a. Est. PWA
- huge Gov. public-works programs - dams, bridges

b. Agricultural Adjustment Agency (AAA)

- paid farmers NOT to grow crops.

c. TN Valley Authority (TVA)

- built dams - provided power

03 Second New Deal

II. Second new Deal
5. Second New Deal - focus on Reform
a. National Labor Relations Act (Wagner Act)
- legalized collective bargaining

b. Works Progress Admin. (WPA)

- 8 mil working on construction projects, & artistic works

c. Social Security - 3 parts

1. Old age pensions- 65yrs
2. unemployment insurance
3. aid for dependent children, blind & disabled

The selling social security

04 The New Deal’s criticism

III. The New Deal’s Critics
1. Does Too Much
Republicans opposed
- New Deal goes too far.
- Many wealthy people regard FDR as their enemy

- American Liberty League

- New Deal limits individual freedom, is unconstitutional & socialistic

2. Doesn’t Do Enough
Progressives & Socialists
- Upton Sinclair - economic system must be reformed
- ran for gov. of CA
- Demagogues
- Father Coughlin - attacked FDR & Jews
- Dr. Frances Townshend - called for monthly pensions for the elderly
- Huey Long - LO gov. Called for a redistribution of wealth

3. Court Packing
- Most judges were Republican appointees
- FDR tried to add 6 extra judges to Supreme Ct.
- unpopular w/Dems & Repub.
- lost popularity.

IV. End of the New Deal

1. Recession of 1937- Why?
- SS tax shrank people’s paychecks, thus spent less.
- large national debt forced FDR to cut govt. spending
- cuts caused recession

- national debt reached a new high during Roosevelt’s first term as president.
01B Rise of Dictators
World War II
I. Aggression, Appeasement, War
Treaty of Versailles
- signed in June 28, 1919, to formally end WWI
- negotiated by the leaders of the Allies with little German
- The treaty held severe consequences for Germany
- Many Germans were so unhappy with the Treaty of Versailles, including Hitler

Why were so many Germans upset with the Treaty?

- Germany had to accept full blame for starting WWI
- Germany had to pay reparations to countries devastated by the war
- Germany lost land and all of its worldwide colonies
- Germany had to reduce the size of its military and weapons

Many people agree that this treaty was a contributing factor of Hitler gaining power in
Germany and World War II beginning.

Deep Economic Depression

- After WWI, Germany fell into a deep depression
- Germany had to pay reparations to other countries but did not have enough money to do
so.
- Germany also did not have enough money to rebuild itself from the damage of WWI.

Hitler was very angry with the situation in Germany. - So he entered politics

- Hitler gave many powerful speeches that Germans believed.

- Hitler became the leader of the National Socialist German Worker’s Party, also known as
the Nazi Party.
- Hitler gathered enough support to lead a coup against Germany’s government, the
Weimar Republic, in 1923.

Mein Kampf- 《》
Hitler’s coup failed, and he was sentenced to 9 months in prison.
While in prison, Hitler wrote Mein Kampf.
- autobiography
- detailed his plan of how to solve Germany’s problem

Hitler’s Solution
- expand German Lands
- elimination of “impure” races
- creating a German dictatorship
When Hitler was released from prison, he continued to give fiery speeches that ignited the
German people.

I. Aggression, Appeasement, War

1. Invasions
a. Sept 1931- Japan invades Manchuria- 1937 takes Beijing
b. Oct. 1935- Italy invades Abyssinia (Ethiopia)
c. 1936- Hitler sent troops into the Rhineland- demilitarized zone

World War II
1. Appeasement
a. appeasement- giving in to demands of an aggressor to keep the peace
why?
1. France too weak to fight without Britain
2. Hitler seen less evil than Stalin & Communism
3. Pacifism- opposition to all war- & disgust with WWI destruction

2. German Aggression
a. 3/1938 Ger. Invades Austria
b. 1939- Hitler annexes the Sudetenland, Czech.
c. Munich Conference
- Britain and France appeasement- Hitler gets rest of Czech.
d. Hitler signs non-aggression pact with Stalin
e. Sept. 1, 1939 Hitler invades Poland
f. Britain and France declare on Ger.

- Germany and Russia conquered and divided Poland

- Stalin’s armies pushed into Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania
- Soviet forces seized Finland
- Hitler conquered Norway and Denmark
- Hitler took the Netherlands and Belgium
- France surrendered to Hitler
- Axis armies defeated Greece and Yugoslavia
- Bulgaria and Hungary joined the Axis Alliance

3. Battle of Britain
a. 1940- Hitler wants Britain
1. Bombs military targets
2. change: bombs cities
3. London bombing- British never surrender
4. Hitler quits

4. Operation Barbarossa
a. Hitler invades U.S.S.R.
- wants it all
b. fail before taking Leningrad & Moscow
-thousands Germany soldiers die

5. US Neutral
a. Lend-Lease – 1941
- authorized President to give aid to any country whose defense was vital to US security
- to Britain, then USSR
US isolation to war
a. Neutrality- Neutrality Acts
- Neutrality Acts 1935- banned sell of weapons to warring nations
- Neutrality Acts 1936- banned loans to warring nations
- Neutrality Acts 1937- “Cash and Carry”

6. US declares War
a. to stop Japanese aggression, US ends trade with Japan
b. Dec. 7 1941, Japan attack on Pearl harbor
c. Dec. 8, Congress Declares war
d. Dec. 11 Germ. & Italy declare war on US

II. Mobilizing for War

1. Military
a. selective training and service act (draft)- randomly chose men from 21-36

b. G.I. diversity
- 300,000 Mexican Americans
- 25,000 Native Americans
- Navajo “code talkers”
- 1 mil. African Americans
- 350,000 Women

2. Economy -
a. War Production Board(WPB)
- told industry what & how much to produce
- Henry Kaiser - introduced mass prod. techniques to ship building - called Liberty ships

b. Workforce -
- more jobs
- higher wages
- union membership rose

c. Financing the War

- Higher taxes, borrow banks, investors & public.
- War Bonds totaled $186 billion
- National Debt - from $43 bill in 1940 to $259 bill. in 1945

3. The Home Front

a. Shortages & Controls
-The Office of Price Administration (OPA)
- kept prices regulated to avoid inflation.

- Office of War Information (OWI)

- created to run a propaganda effort for the war
- Victory Gardens produce 1/3 of nation's fresh vegetables
- “Rosie the Riveter”- women workers

IV. Retaking Europe

1. American’s join the war
a. the Atlantic- Sonar, convoys & long range sub-hitting aircraft weaken German U-boats
b. Northern Africa
- British & allied troops squeeze Italian/ Germ troops north out of Africa
- US troops led by General Eisenhower
c. US Under General. Patton takes Italy

2. War in U.S.S.R. 苏维埃社会主义共和国联盟（Union of Soviet Socialist Republics）

a. Germany invades June’41
b. 2 yrs. battle of Stalingrad ends- most important battle
- Germany lost 330000 troops

3. operation Overlord-D-Day 诺曼底登陆日

- June 6, 1944- allied invasion of western Europe- Normandy, France
- France Liberated- Aug. ‘44

4. battle of the Bulge

- largest battle in Western Europe
- Nazis realize end is near

5. European War Ends

- Allies carpet bomb cities & war targets.
- U.S. troops from the West & Soviets from the East race towards Berlin.
- Battle of Berlin – Soviets take Berlin May 2, 1945
- Germany Surrenders- May 8, 1945

6. Yalta Conference Feb ‘45

1. Split Ger. into 4 zones - headed by Britain, U.S., USSR, & France.
2. Split Berlin the same way
3. Stalin to allow elections in nations of Eastern Europe
4. Stalin to declare war on Japan within 3 months of Ger. surrender.

IV. the Pacific

1. Philippines Fall
- Douglas MacArthur withdraws - “I shall Return”
2. Island hopping - U.S. slowly took each Island, suffering huge casualties
3. Battles of Iwo Jima & Okinawa
- 75,000 U.S. casualties
- Japanese fought to the death

V. Social Impact
A. African Americans (AA)
- AAs helped by FDR’s executive order 8802- banned discrimination in defense industries &
government

B. Mexican Americans
- bracero program- Mexican farm laborers imported to work
- Zoot Suit Riots- Summer of ’43 LA riots against Mexican American Youths

C. Japanese Americans
- Executive Order 9066- Jap. Civil Rights ended
- Sent to internment Campus
- Korematsu vs. US ruled that internment was legal

01 Cold War Origins

Cold War- a global confrontation between the Soviet Union & the US
- avoidance of direct war, but battles fought through smaller countries
I. Origins of the Cold War
A. differences at Yalta
1. Split Germany into 4 zones- headed by Britain, U.S., USSR, & France
2. Split Berlin same way
3. Stalin to allow elections in nations of Europe
4. United Nations
a. Member nations try to
1) settle problems peacefully
2) promote justice
3) solve international problems
b. general assembly- all nations
c. security council- US, GB, USSR & China could veto any policies

B. Truman President & Potsdam

1. FDR dies in 1945
- Harry S. Truman succeeds
- Truman meets Stalin in Potsdam- July 1945
- Stalin wants reparations, Truman wants Polish elections= Fiction
- Truman gets word of the Bomb

C. Soviets Take Control

1. Satellite nations- border nations between U.S.S.R & the west
- buffer zone against attacks

D. The Iron Curtain

1. Stalin’s speech predicted communist takeover of world
- urged Communists to spread
- Est. Cominform- agency to spread communism around the world
2. Churchill’s speech urged US to stop spread of communism
- termed Iron Curtain- symbolic of communist oppression

E. Containment
- prevent the spread of communism
- George Kennan’s idea

F. Truman Doctrine- U.S. support nations threatened by communism

Both policies drag U.S. into military conflicts for the next 40 years
George Kennan- American Diplomat

02 Cold War Containment

II. Policy of Containment
1. The Marshall Plan
a. Europe in economic chaos
- millions in refugee camps
b. George Marshall’s plan- U.S. provide aid to Europe
c. Rebuild by sending food, lending & giving money for infrastructure, farming & industry
- Europe to lower tariffs to U.S.
d. Goals:
1) open new markets for US goods
2) create strong democracies
e. Huge success politically & economically

2. The Berlin Airlift

- 1984- the allies merged their zones & created West Germany
- Stalin closed all access to W. Berlin in 1948
- The US & the British led “Operation Vittles” flying food & supplies into W. Berlin.
- After a year, Stalin gave up the blockade

3. NATO
a. 1949- allies from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)
b. Member nations agreed that “an armed attack on one--- shall be considered an attack on
all”
- resist with armed force if necessary
c. Soviets respond with the Warsaw Pact- a military alliance with its satellite nations

4. Communist Advances
a. Soviets tested an atomic bomb (1946)
- US no longer had advantage
- US built hydrogen or thermonuclear bomb (1950)
b. China “falls” to the communist under Mao Zedong
- Communism spread to largest country in Asia
c. Truman responds with the Federal Civil Defense Administration – distributed posters,
programs & information about communism & threat of communist attacks

Domino Effect

5. Second Red Scare

a. Second Red Scare- fear that communist had infiltrated the government & U.S. would be
overtaken

b. Loyalty Program
- FBI investigated millions of federal government employees
- guilty until proven innocent
- 100s fired

c. House un-American activities Committee HUAC

- congressional investigation of disloyalty in government & Hollywood

d. Hollywood Ten- 100s filmmakers accused of being communist

- many denied constitutional right to defend themselves
- ten were charged with contempt for protesting & jailed
- many more blacklisted

e. Hollywood would end making movies questioning the government

f. McCarran- Walter Act- limited immigration from E. & SE Europe, & tightened deportation
laws

9. Spy Cases
- Alger Hiss charged with perjury related to accusations of being a communist
- Julius & Ethel Rosenberg (Communist members) convicted for selling secrets to Soviets
- were executed

III. The Korean War 1950-1953

1. Korean War
a. Korea was split between a communist government in the N. (Led by Kim II Sung) & Pro-US
government in the S.
b. June 5, 1950, N. Korea invaded S. Korea
c. Truman requested UN troops- Soviets’ boycott allowed for UN to send troops
d. Under Gen MacAuthur, US advanced to China border
e. China enters Pushes back US & end without stalemate
f. MacAuthur wants to use nukes & invade China
g. Truman says no, MacArthur goes behind his back & Truman fires him
h. War end without Truce. N & S Korea still divided on 28th parallel

2. Effects of the War

a. limited war- limited victory
b. integration of the Military- 1st war in which white & A. Americans served in same units
c. increased military power- military industrial complex
- military linked with corporate & scientific groups

IV. Continuing the War

a. Senator Joseph McCarthy: McCarthyism-

false accusations of being a communist & being “un-American” towards political adversaries
- result & part of the red scare

b. The rise to power

- 1950 Joseph McCarthy claimed to have a list of commies in government (non actually
found)
- just accusations caused people to lose jobs
- no one stood up to him for fear of being accused- McCarthy supporters claimed “Better
dead than red”
- his targets were often too weak to fight back

c. McCarthy’s fall
- finally exposed as a fraud during the Army-McCarthy hearings when he attacked the head
of the army & appeared deranged

V. Arms race
A. Nuclear Arms
1. Deterrence- policy of making US military so strong, that no enemy would dare attack
2. Brinkmanship- going to the verge of war in order to get what you want

B. Cold War in Skies

1. ICBMs could launch nuclear bombs across continents
2. Soviet Sputnik (1957) 1st satellite in orbit
- fear of nuclear bombs launched from space
3. US U2 Spy plane shot down over Soviet skies
- pushes US to “catch up” with Soviet missile tech.

C. Cold War Legacy

1. Military Industrial Complex
- elsehower warned that the military industrial complex, employing millions of Americans &
having a financial stake in war-making. Could become a threat to peace