Chapter 20 APUSH Notes – Flashcards
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Why did economic output rise?
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New industries flourished and older ones adopted the moving assembly line.
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What was the backbone of economic growth?
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The automobile, production tripled. General Motors passed Ford with Model T.
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Explain American investments overseas.
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They far exceeded other countries. The dollar became the most important international trade currency. American companies produced 85% of the world's cars and 40% of its manufactured goods.
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What was Fordlandia?
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an effort by Henry Ford to create a town in Brazil's Amazon forest hoping to secure a steady supply of rubber for car tired. He tried to control native workers. The workers rebelled and the trees were destroyed.
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How was the film industry affected?
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Weekly movie attendance rose to 80 million. Hollywood became popular and in 1925 American release outnumbered French 8 to 1. The French companies Pathe and Gaumont began distributing American films in Europe.
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Explain the growth of radios.
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they rose to 5 million in homes. More than 100 million records were sold each year.
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Who were some of the first modern celebrities?
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Enrico Caruso, Charlie Chapman, Babe Ruth, Jack Dempsey, Charles Lindbergh
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What replaced the values of thrift and self denial?
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widespread acceptance of going into debt to purchase goods.
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Were the fruits of increased production equally distributed?
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no, 1 percent of the banks now controlled had of its financial resources. General Motors Ford and Chrysler now controlled 4/5 of the auto industry.
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Give some statistics about unequally distributed wealth in families.
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The share of the national income of the wealthiest 5 percent of families exceeded that of the bottom 60 percent. Most families had no saving, 40% remained in poverty. The number of manufacturing workers dropped 5%. Many of New England's textiles failed in the face of low wage competition from southern factories. 75% didn't have a washing machine, 60% had no radio.
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What was the farmers' plight?
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agricultural production continued to rise even when government subsidies ended and world demand stagnated. As a result, farm incomes declined steadily and banks foreclosed tens of thousands of farms whose owners were unable to meet mortgage payments.
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How many people left rural areas? Where did they go?
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3 million people migrated out of rural areas. Many migrated to southern CA, LA's population rose to 2 million.
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What did Hollywood films spread across the globe?
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"The American way of life"
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What was "The Man Nobody Knows"?
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by Charles Sheeler, it was a best seller that portrayed Jesus Christ as "the greatest advertiser of his day"
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Why did numerous firms establish public relations departments?
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they aimed to justify corporate practices to the public an counteract its long standing distrust of big businesses.
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How many Americans owned stock?
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1.5 million Americans`
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What did some companies provide employees?
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private pensions, medical insurance plans, job security, greater workplace safety, sports programs, spoke of "welfare capitalism"
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What was the American Plan?
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at its core stood the open shop-a workplace free of both government regulations and unions. Employers insisted prosperity depended on giving businesses complete freedom of action. A propaganda campaign linked unionism and socialism as examples of the sinister influence of foreigners on American life. Even the most forward looking companies continued to employ strike breakers.
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How many members did organized labor unions lose?
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2 million
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What did black feminists insist?
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that the movement must now demand enforcement of the 15th amendment in the South, but they won little support from white counterparts.
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What did Harriet Stanton Blatch and a few other women join and why?
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the shrinking socialist party, they were convinced that women should support an independent electoral force that promoted government protection of valuable workers.
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Explain the ERA.
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proposed by Alice Paul and the NWP, it wanted to eliminate all legal distinctions on account of sex. To supporters of mother's pensions and limiting women's working hours, the proposal represented a step backward. Every major female organization except the NWP opposed the ERA. It failed, only 6 states ratified the amendment giving Congress the power to prohibit child labor, and Congress repealed the Sheppard Towner Act.
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Explain female liberation and the flapper.
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It resurfaced as a lifestyle. the flapper epitomized the change in standard of sexual behavior. She frequented dance halls and music clubs where wild dance like the Charleston that had long been popular in black communities were preformed. She attended sexually charged Hollywood films staring Clara Bow.
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What did Edward Bernays say about cigarettes?
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that they were "torches of freedom" but women still had to follow the "family claim" once she was married.
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What happened to Progressivism?
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it disintegrated as a political movement; followers of Sigmund Freud emphasized the unconscious, instinctual movements of human behavior.
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What were Walter Lippman's books "Public Opinion" and "The Phantom Public" about?
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they repudiated the Progressive hope of applying intelligence to social problems in mass democracy. He said the American voter was ill informed and prone to fits of enthusiasm. Modern problems were beyond the average person and independent citizen was a myth. "Manufacture of Consent": the government had perfected the art of creating and manipulating the public opinion.
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What was "Middletown"?
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sociologists Robert and Helen Lynd published it as a study from Indiana where they found that leisure activities and consumption had replaced politics as a focus of public concern. Voter turnout had dropped to less than 50% partly due to the shift from public to private concerns.
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Who dominated the Republican conventions? What did they want?
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Business lobbyists. They wanted lower taxes on personal incomes and business profits, maintain high tariffs, and support employers continuing campaign against unions. The administrations of Harding and Coolidge obliged.
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What did Harding and Coolidge do to basically repeal the regulatory system?
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they appointed pro business members
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What did Harding's administration do?
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they did support Hoover's effort to persuade the steel industry to reduce the workday to 8 hours, but resumed the practice of obtaining court injunctions to suppress strikes.
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What did the Conservative Supreme Court under Taft do?
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it struck down a law that barred goods produced from child labor and repudiated Muller v. Oregon which overturned the minimum wage law for women in DC.
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Explain the corruption of the Harding administration.
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Harding had little regard for governmental issues of the dignity of the presidency. He had an affair with Nan Britton and drank. (this relationship became known when Britton published "The President's Daughter" about their child Harding didn't know about)
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Who were the Secretary of State and Commerce?
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Charles Evans Hughes and Herbert Hoover
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Who did Harding surround himself with?
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cronies who used the office for private gain
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Explain the 3 big corruptions.
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Attorney General Harry Daugherty accepted payments not to prosecute criminals. Head of the Veterans' Bureau Charles Forbes received kickbacks from the sale of government supplies. Secretary of the Interior Albert Fall accepted $500,000 from private businessmen to whom he leased government oil reserves in Wyoming and was convicted of a felony.
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What did the French writer Andre Siegfried comment on?
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commented on the rise of an industrial economy and consumer culture and the changes they produced in American society
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What did the Supreme Court's decision in Meyer v Nebraska rebuke?
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the coercive Americanization impulse of WW1, overturning a Nebraska law that required all school instruction to take place in English
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Explain Calvin Coolidge.
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he won national fame for using the state troops against striking Boston policemen. The scandals but he continued the policies; he vetoed the McNary-Haugen bill-the top legislative priority of congressmen from farm states. Bill sought to have the government purchase agricultural products for sale overseas in order to raise far prices. He denounced it as unwarranted interference with the free market.
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Explain the election of 1924.
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Coolidge defeated Democrat Davis by a landslide. 1/6 of the electoral voted for Progressive Robert La Follette.
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Explain the Progressives in the 1924 election.
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they wanted greater taxation of wealth, conservation of natural resources, public ownership of railroads, farm relief, and end to child labor. Coolidge described the platform as "communistic and socialistic". Robert got endorsement from Jane Addams and John Dewey but could only raise $250,000 and only carried WI.
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What was isolationism?
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represented a reaction against the disappointing results of Wilson's military and diplomatic pursuit of freedom and democracy abroad.
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What was happening with Wilson's goal of internationalism?
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retreat from this goal in favor of unilateral American actions mainly designed to increase exports and investments abroad.
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Did America join the League of Nations?
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no
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What did American diplomats press for?
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access to markets overseas
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What was the Fordney McCumber Tariff?
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it raised taxes on imported goods to record highs
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Explain the foreign policy at this time.
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through private relationships. NY bankers extended loans to Europe and Latin American country governments. They gave billions to Germany. American industrial firms established plants overseas. American investors gained control or raw material like copper in Chile and oil in Venezuela.
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What was the Red Line Agreement?
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British, French, and American oil companies divided oil producing regions in the Middle East and Latin America.
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What happened in Nicaragua?
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American soldiers tried to suppress a nationalist revolt by General Sandino. They created a national guard headed by General Somoza and departed in 1933. Somoza assassinated Sandino and seized power. He and his family ruled for 45 years and were overthrown in 1978 by the Sandinistas.
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Explain the "Free Mob".
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Wartime repression continued. The Nation magazine detail recent examples of degradation of American freedom, books that were deemed obscene were banned, things were taken out of the mail by the Postal Service, "Banned in Boston", sexual themes were subject to censorship.
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What was the Hayes Code?
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adopted by the film industry, they were guidelines that prohibited sexual themes and sympathizing of criminals hoping to prevent government censorship
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What did the American Civil Liberties Unions do?
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its efforts helped give meaning to traditional civil liberties and invented new ones.
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What did Unitarian minister Holmes say?
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"there suddenly came to the fore in our nation's like the new issue of civil liberties"
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What are some things the court upheld?
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Eugene v Debs and the conviction of Charles Schenk.
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Explain Holmes and Brandeis.
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The court upheld the conviction of Jacob Abrams and 5 other men for distributing pamphlets critical of American intervention in Russia after the Bolshevik Revolution. The two men dissented marking the emergence of a court minority committed to a broader defense of free speech. The two again dissented against the conviction of Gitlow; a communist whose calling for revolution led to his conviction. The Court majority observed that the 14th amendment obligated the states to refrain from unreasonable restraints in freedom of speech and the press.
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What are some things the Court voided in defense of freedom of speech?
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a Kansas law that made it a crime to advocate unlawful acts to change the system, one from MN authorizing censorship of the press, threw out the conviction of Mary Ware Dennett for sending a sex ed pamphlet, overturned the custom service's ban on James Joyce's novel Ulysses.
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What happened with Anita Whitney?
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the Court upheld a conviction against the CA socialist and women's rights activist for attending a Communist Labor Party convention. Brandeis voted with the majority, but defended freedom of speech. A month later the governor pardoned Whitney, but she was soon back in court for displaying a red flag. The Supreme Court overturned this law.
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What did the American Civil Liberties Unions emerge from?
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wartime repression
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Return to normalcy meant what?
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a call for the regular order of things, without recessive reform
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Why did Protestants feel threatened?
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the decline of traditional values and increased visibility of Catholicism and Judaism. They also resented modernists who wanted to mix science and religion.
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Who was Billy Sunday?
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a revivalist preacher who preached to huge crowds theatrically and denounced sin like Darwinism and alcohol. Preached to 100 million in his life.
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How did the press portray fundamentalism?
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as a movement of back wood bigots
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What happened to Fosdick?
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Fosdick, a pastor and modernist minister in NY, was removed from him ministry but Rockefeller Jr. built the interdenominational church for him.
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Did fundamentalists support prohibition?
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yes, strongly
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What happened with John Scopes?
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a teacher in a TN public school, he was arrested for teaching about evolution
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What did Fundamentalist Christians in the South and West cling to?
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moral liberty
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What was freedom to the American Civil Liberties Union?
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the right to self expression
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Who defended Scopes? What did he do?
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Clarence Darrow, he asked Bryan to stand as expert witness to the Bible. Bryan was ignorant of modern science and was unable t respond effectively to questioning.
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Was Scopes found guilty?
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yes, but it was later overturned due to technicality.
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What happened after the Scopes case?
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Bryan died and the anti evolution laws disappeared.
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What continued?
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the wartime obsession with 100% Americanism
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What did Oregon do?
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it required people to attend public schools
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Where and when was the Klan reborn?
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in Atlanta after the lynching of Leo Frank. it claimed more than 3 million members. it sank its roots into the north and west and was the largest private organization in Indiana, controlling the Republican party. It attacked a far larger array of targets.
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When did the Klan's influence fade?
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when the leader was convicted of assaulting a young girl
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What did new laws redraw? What laws?
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the boundaries of citizenship to include groups previously outside it. the cable act overturned the law that said a woman marrying an immigrant (except for marrying Asians). Another law declared all Indians born in the US American citizens. Large employers dropped traditional opposition.
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Explain the laws limiting immigrants.
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A 1921 temporary measure restricted immigrants from Europe to 357,000 per year. Then Congress permanently restricted European immigration to 150,00 per year. (no limits on immigration from the Western hemisphere)
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Explain laws against Asia.
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The 1924 law barred the entry of all those ineligible for naturalized citizenship (Asians). Only Filipinos could enter. Congress established a timetable for the island's independence. 1934 law established an immigration quota of 50 per year to mainland US but allowed them to go to Hawaii to be plantation laborers.
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What things came out of the xenophobia of this time?
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illegal alien and border patrol. illegal aliens at first referred mainly to southern and eastern Europeans who tried to sneak in through Canada and Mexico
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What was emphasized as a determinant to public policy?
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race
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What did Harding affirm?
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that the problem of race was a global one
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What was dead?
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the Republican party of the Civil War era
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What must immigration policy now rest on?
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the biological definition of the ideal population
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What did the 1924 immigration law reflect?
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the Progressive desire to improve the quality of democratic citizenship and to employ scientific methods to set public policy.
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Who were excluded when calculation quotas?
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non whites (1/5)
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What did the concept of race as a basis for public policy lack?
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rational foundation, the Sup Court admitted as much in 1923 when they rejected the claim of Thind, an Indian born WW1 veteran who asserted that as a pure Aryan he was actually white and could therefore be a citizen.
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Who was Horace Kallen?
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German Jewish immigrant, "cultural pluralism" to describe society that grilled in ethnic diversity rather than suppressing it, toleration of difference was part of the "american idea"
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Anthropologists like Franz Boas, Alfred Kroeber, and Ruth Benedict insisted what?
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that no scientific basis for the theories of racial superiority or the notion that societies and races could be ranked on a fixed scale from primitive to civilized
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Did writings have an immediate affect on public policy?
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no
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Where did the most potent defense of a pluralist vision of American society come from?
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immigrants, their sense of separate identity had been heightened, most immigrant women thought assimilation seemed a loosening of patriarchal bonds and expansion of freedom but most immigrants resented the coercive aspects of it
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What did immigrant groups assert?
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the validity of cultural diversity and tolerance of difference as the essence of American freedom. They made themselves ethnic americans.
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What did the Roman Catholic Church urge?
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immigrants to learn English and embrace american principles but also maintained separate schools
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What did the Catholic Holy Name Society do?
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brought 10000 marchers to Washington to challenge the Klan and to affirm Catholics' loyalty to the nation
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What did the Anti Defamation League of B'nai B'rith (combatted anti semitism) and National Catholic Welfare League urge for?
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laws prohibiting discrimination
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What did the Supreme Court do?
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struck down Oregon's public school and Nebraska's english in schools laws and the decision applied to all immigrant groups
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What did federal courts do in Hawaii?
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overturned laws imposing taxes on Japanese Language Schools. They interpreted the 14th amendment, making the way for the court's later elaboration of the right to privacy.
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Explain Harlem.
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the Great Migration continued. 1 million blacks left the south and 150,000 came from the West Indies. Harlem became the capitol of black American. Many West Indians were educated and professional white collar workers. American racism appalled them.
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What was slumming?
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whites went to harlem for an exotic experience. They saw harlem as a place of primitive passions, when in reality it had widespread poverty. most harlem businesses were owned by whites.
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Explain the Harlem Renaissance.
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it had a vibrant black cultural community. Poets and novelists (Countee Cullen, Langston Hughes, Claude McKay) were sponsored and published by whites. Broadway presented blacks (Florence Mills, Ethel Waters, Bill Robinson) in shows like "Dixie to Broadway" and "Blackbirds". Theater also flourished in Harlem, freeing black writers and actors from white producers.
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What was the "New Negro" in art?
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meant rejecting stereotypes and searching for other back values.
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what did black writers look to?
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their African roots, like in Claude McKay's "Home to Harlem" which contained sex and violence, worrying DuBois.
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Writings also did what?
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protested, like in McKay's "If We Must Die" poem in repose to race riots.
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Who was Ossian Sweet?
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a black physician living in an all white Detroit neighborhood, mob attacked his house and he shot into the crowd killing a man, he and 2 brothers were indicted for murder and defended by Darrow, ended in not guilty.
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Who was Hoover?
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he accumulated a fortune as a mining engineer. he gained international fame by coordinating overseas food relief. John Maynard Keyes called him "the only man to emerge from the peace conference with an enhanced reputation". he seemed to exemplify the new era of American capitalism.
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What was "American Individualism" by Hoover about?
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he condemned government regulation and interference with the economic opportunities of Americans, but also said that self interest should be subordinate to public service.
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What did Hoover consider himself?
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a Progressive, though he preferred "associatal action" in which private agencies directed regulatory and welfare policies to government intervention in the economy.
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What did Hoover run as?
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a Republican, and promised that poverty would "soon be banished from the earth" while celebrating the era's prosperity.
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Who was Hoover's democratic opponent?
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Alfred Smith, the first Catholic to be nominated, the immigrant spokesman, advocate of Progressive social legislation. The Democratic platform didn't differ much from the Republicans except on prohibition.
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Explain the outcome of the election of 1928.
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Hoover won with 58% of the votes. Republicans carried several southern states, reflecting the strength of anti catholicism. Smith carried the nation's 12 largest cities and economically struggling farm areas.
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How much vanished in 5 hours when the stock market crashed on black Tuesday?
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more than $10 billion in market value
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What economic problems had been occurring previously?
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Southern CA and FL experienced real estate speculation and spectacular busts. Highly unequal distribution of income, prolonged depression in farm regions reduced American purchasing power. Auto and household goods stagnated. European demand declined.
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What did the crash destroy?
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many of the investment companies that had been created to buy and sell stock. 26,000 businesses failed. the global financial system which was based on the gold standard was ill equipped to deal with the downturn.
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What did Germany do?
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it defaulted on reparation so Britain and France stopped repaying American debts
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Give some stats about the Depression.
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Steel share fell from $262 to $22, GM from $73 to $8. 4/5 of the Rockefeller fortune was gone. Durant, the founder of GM, lost all his money. The economy hit rock bottom in 1932. GNP had fallen by 1/3, prices by 40%, 11 million Americans (25%) couldn't find work. US Steel had no workers and was operating at 12% capacity.
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What suffered during the Depression?
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every industrial economy.
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What were Hoovervilles?
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ramshackle shantytowns
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What did cities spend their money on?
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poor relief
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What happened in Chicago?
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half the working population was unemployed and Mayor Cermak called people to tell them to pay their taxes.
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What did the Soviet Union need?
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skilled workers and got 100,000 applications from the US
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Where did many Americans move?
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to rural areas.
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What rose and fell?
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birth rates fell and suicide rates rose
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Who was convicted of stealing funds and jailed?
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NYY Stock Exchange President Richard Whitney
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What were some of the protests that occurred?
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WW1 veterans went to Washington demanding early pay of bonus but were driven away by soldiers led by Douglas MacArthur, National Farmers' Holiday Association protested low prices by blocking roads led by Milo Reno to prevent farm goods getting to market.
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What did the Communist Party give?
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political focus and formed unemployed councils, sponsored marches and demonstrations for public assistance, and protested the eviction of unemployed families.
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What did firm Lloyd's of London report?
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an upsurge in American riot insurance requests
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What did the Hoover administration oppose?
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efforts to save money by reducing the army
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What did Secretary of Treasury Andrew Mellon tell Hoover?
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that downturns were normal
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What did businessmen think?
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they opposed federal aid to the unemployed and called for belt tightening as the road to recovery.
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What was the silver lining?
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low wages
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What view did most political leaders have?
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the conventional view that government intervention to aid those who lost their jobs wouldn't spur recovery and would encourage government reliance.
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What actions did Hoover take?
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he was opposed to federal economic intervention and relied on associational action. He put his faith in voluntary steps and called conferences and established commission to encourage firms to cooperate in maintaining low prices and wages. He made unsuccessful attempts to restore public confidence.
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What made the situation worse?
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the Hawley Smoot Tariff raised taxes on imported goods and inspired increases abroad, reducing trade. A tax increase in an attempt to balance the federal budget reduced people's purchasing power. Hoover approved funds for food for livestock, inspiring ridicule.
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What did Hoover do after admitting defeat?
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he signed laws creating the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, loaded money to banks and businesses and railroads. Federal Home Loan Bank System offered aid to homeowners. He approved a measure of $2 billion for public work projects and local relief efforts. He still opposed direct relief to the unemployed.
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What did the New School for Social Research in NY do?
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with professors like Dewey and Charles Beard, it gave lectures waiting a depressing portrait of American freedom on the eve of the depression
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What definition of freedom reigned supreme?
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one that celebrated the unimpeded reign of economic enterprise yet tolerates the surveillance of private life and individual conscience. the prosperity of the 1920s had reinforced this freedom, but it would be discredited.
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What was the new freedom?
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combined Progressive belief in a socially conscious state marking what Dewey called "positive and constructive changes" in economic arrangements and one centered on respect for civil liberties and cultural pluralism and declared that realms of private life lay out of state concern. this would become the hallmarks of modern liberalism.
