Americans Struggle Post WWI 12 1 Notes Roaring

Americans Struggle Post WWI 12. 1 Notes Roaring 20’s Politics

Post WWI Trends • Why did U. S. involvement in WWI lead to a rise in nativism? ( What is nativism anyway? ) • What is isolationism? Fear of Communism • What was the Red Scare?

Postwar Issues • Public is exhausted • League of Nations issue divided U. S. • Economy adjusting back • Men returning from war – need jobs back • Minorities and women fired • Cost of living rising • Response = nativism and isolationsim

Fear of Communism • Economic/political system based on single-party government and ruled by a dictator – Equalized wealth by • No private property • Government owned factories, • railroads, etc. • Red Scare – 1919 – Lenin and Bolsheviks overthrow government and establish a Communist state – Advocated worldwide revolution • U. S. Communist Party established – Radicals, IWW members – Bombs mailed to government offices

Palmer Raids • Attorney General – A. Mitchell Palmer • J. Edgar Hoover assisted in hunt for anarchists • Civil rights violated – Invaded homes, offices – Jailed suspects with no lawyer – Deported immigrant radicals w/ no trial • No real evidence of revolutionaries found

Sacco and Venzetti • “Red Scare” targeted immigrants – Suspicion, nativist attitudes – Ruined reputations and lives • Niccola Sacco and Bartolomeo Venzetti – Italian immigrants, anarchists, draft dodgers – Shoemaker, fish peddler • Arrested/charged w/ robbery, murder of a factory paymaster in MA