In Search of the American Dream: USA, 1917-80
- Created by: RhiannonHarradine
- Created on: 11-05-17 19:49
POLITICS
POLITICS
The Impact of WW1 on the Presidency
WW1
- 1917: President Wilson takes the USA into WW1, despite promising not to
- Post-war depression caused by drop in production
The First Red Scare, 1919-20
- Triggered by the 1917 Russian Revolution
- Workers' strikes & media hype fuelled fears of a communist revolution in the USA
Isolationism
- Republican policy of keeping out of international affairs
- Tariffs on imported goods to encourage people to buy American
- Not joining the League of Nations
Hoover & The Wall Street Crash
Rugged Individualism
- Linked to laissez-faire
- President Hoover believed that individuals could succeed through hard work, and that inequality was inevitable
- This was why he refused to act when the Wall Street Crash hit in 1929
The Great Depression
- Began with the Wall Street Crash in October 1929
- Markets slowed and businesses panicked, selling off shares & recalling loans
The Bonus Army
- WW1 veterans had not had been paid their bonuses due to the Great Depression
- Gathered in Washington and were dispersed by police and army
Roosevelt & the New Deal
The New Deal
- Alphabet agencies e.g. AAA set up to help the poor and revitalise business
- Cogress gives Roosevelt special presidential powers to deal with the economy - war-like rhetoric
How Roosevelt Changed the Presidency
- Fireside Chats
- Positive relationship with the media - kept them updated and used them as a way fo explaining policy to the public
- Expanded White House staff
Presidential Styles, 1945-74 (Truman)
- Uncharismatic & made mistakes under pressure -"Too err is to Truman"
- Saw a positive relationship with the media as important & gave briefings
- Mishandles the media during the Korean War (police action)
- Less appealing than Roosevelt and didn't explain strategy (e.g. Korea)
- Generally used set speeches, and made serious mistakes when making ad-lib speeches
- Worked well with White House admin, but didn't always choose the right people for the job
- Worked well with Congress, but was often blocked by the Republican majority. Fewer contacts than Roosevelt so less able to network & charm
Presidential Styles, 1945-74 (Eisenhower)
- Deliberately optimistic, friendly manner
- Saw working with the media as important, but often obscured or minimalised important manners (e.g. USSR into space, Little Rock)
- Good public manner. Used clear imagery to explain things. War veteran - made him popular with the public
- Exceptional organisation with long-term planning & debate
- Worked well with Congress. Good at bargaining & persuasion
Presidential Styles, 1945-74 (Kennedy)
- Charming. Worked hard on speech-making style & self-presentation
- Had a good relationship with the media (learned names & had personal chats). Very good on television
- Good public manner. Accessible & attractive
- Poor organisation, with advisors competing for attention. Abandoned regular meetings. Didn't always consult the right people (e.g. Bay of Pigs) & lacked long-term planning
Presidential Styles, 1945-74 (Johnson)
- Experienced. Understood the importance of winning people over & could change his style & opinions to get what he wanted
- Not a natural with the media, but did keep them informed
- Could give good speeches (e.g. voting rights), but often gave stiff, awkward ones
- Organised, but kept much of Kennedy's organisation
- Worked very well with Congress. Good at networking & had contacts
Presidential Styles, 1945-80 (Nixon)
- Clever & capable, but suspicious
- Took criticism badly
- Made spur-of-the-moment decisions before backtracking
- Distrusted the media & was very poor at managing it (e.g. Watergate)
- Not good with people. Often seemed awkward & insincere
- Very organised, but not good at taking advice
- Awkward with Congress. Found it difficult to make connections & persuade
The Second Red Scare & McCarthyism
The Second Red Scare
- Triggered by USSR expansion into eastern Europe & China turning communist
- High levels of eastern European immigration caused suspicion
- High-profile accusation, admissions & trials of government employees suspected to be involved with Moscow spy rings
- 1938: House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) set up. Made permenant in 1945 to investigate communist activity
McCarthyism
- Senator Joseph McCarthy headed the Red Scare, using a muddle on ill-substantiated facts as evidence of communists operating within the government
- July 1950: The Tydings Committee Report saying the allegations were a muddle of half-truths & lies
- 1953: McCarthy begins to investigate the army, which lost him a lot of support. The Senate passed a vote ofcensure against him & the Red Scare died down
Counter-Culture & the Conservative Reaction
Counter-Culture
- Sought to change society by rejecting the values of the previous generation
- Hippies: Wanted to loosen the family system & live in communes. Peace & a simple way of life
- August 1969: The Woodstock Festival
- Radical student groups: Sought to create a more equal society. Rejected racism & anti-communism. Protested against the Vietnam War. Mostly used peaceful tactics but some resorted to violence
Conservative Reaction
- The older generations felt that the counter-culture was creating social problems & that liberalism wasn't working
- Emergence of the New Right - neo-liberals, neo-conservatives & the Religious Right
The Impact of WW2
WW2 & Foreign Policy
- 1945: USA joins the UN
- Truman Doctrine & the Marshall Plan - policy of containment by sending aid to countries at risk of falling to communism
- 1949: USA joins NATO
WW2 & Domestic Policy
- 1956 Interstate Act aimed at creating a road network for evacuating cities
- Federal Defence Administration set up to organise evacuations & give advice
- MAD - arms race & stockpiling of nuclear weapons
- Increase of military activity cost money, but also created jobs & boosted business
The Impact of the Cold War
Impact on the Presidency
- Power of the president grew with America's involvement in NATO & the UN
- Armed forces grew - the President had the power to move forces around without permission from Congress
- 1947: The National Security Act put the armed foces under the control of the Defense Dept, based at the Pentagon & created the CIA & the NSC - both of which reported to the White House
- The president had to have the power to act instantly in the event of nuclear war
The Impact of the Korean War
The Impact on Domestic Policy
- Shifted presidential attention away from domestic policy
- Congress took back control over home affairs
- Republicans criticised Truman's handling of the war & the cost
The Impact on the Presidency
- Truman mishandled the media. Reporters strated to get information from alternative sources & speculated on Truman's intentions to use the draft & the atomic bomb
- Pressure to scale up the war
- Bickering between Congress & the White House & between members of Congress
The Impact of the Vietnam War
Impact on Domestic Policy
- Spending concerns
- Draft-dodging
- Mutual distrust between the authorites & certain groups in society e.g. police & protestors
- Intensive media coverage - 1968 Cronkite Report
Impact on the Presidency
- Cast a shadow over 4 presidencies
- Unpopular domestic policies
- Responsibility for the Vietnam War placed with the president
- 1975: Shambolic helicopter evacuation from Saigon caused embarrassment
Decline of Confidence, 1968-80
- The media: Explaining policy => criticism => uncovering government deception, Cronkite Report
- Scandal: Watergate, Vietnam - Agent Orange
- Mishandling of events: Korean War & Vietnam War
- The White House administration: Rising costs, bribery & corruption
- Social factors: Police violence; riots; MLK assasination (1968); Kent State University (1970)
- The presidents: Johnson & Vietnam; Nixon & Watergate; Ford & Nixon; Carter & image / crisis management
CIVIL RIGHTS
CIVIL RIGHTS
The Great Migration
Push factors:
- Jim Crow
- Lynching
- Poverty
Pull factors:
- Better wages
- More jobs (munitions factories)
- Less racism
Impacts:
- Decline in Southern agricultural economy
- More racism in the North
- Some Blacks moved into the professions & were elected to office
- Emergence of Black m/c
Impact of the New Deal
- 1930s: Black voters shifted from Rep. to Dem.
- Roosevelt limited number of Black workers of projects if donors wanted this. Black people moved off projects to make way for whites
- Executive Order banned discrimination in the defense industry
- Social security did not apply to farm workers or those who worked in other people's homes
- Black civil rights organisations attracted the support of communists, which was criticised by opponents
- Black church organisations set up support networks
Impact of WW2 & Truman
WW2
- 1941: A. Phillip Randolph threatened a 100,000-strong march on Washington, which was stopped by the Executive Order banning discrimination in the defense industry
- Did not ban segregation
- Northern migration increased
Truman
- Failed to push anti-lynching, anti-segregation & fair employment laws through Congress
- 1946: President's Committee on Civil Rights set up
- 1948: Executive Order desegregating the military
- Earlier collaboration between black civil rights groups & communists aroused suspicion
- More focus on the Cold War than on civil rights
Legal Challenges
Plessy vs. Ferguson, 1896
- "Separate but equal" was constitutional
Brown vs. Board of Education, 1954 & 55
- NAACP challenged the Plessy vs. Ferguson ruling at the SC, using examples of school desegragtion.
- Judge Earl Warren ruled that separate but equal had no place in education
- Schools should desegregate with "all deliberate speed"
Black Separatism
- Argued that Blacks would never be fully equal with whites, so should therefore embrace separatism
The Montgomery Bus Boycott, 1955
- Began after NAACP worker Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her seat for a white man
- The Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA) was set up, with MLK as its leader, to organise a one-day boycott
- The boycott was a success & was continued for a year, until the SC ruled bus segregation unconstitutional
- 75% of bus users in Montgomery were Black, and most of them participated in the boycott. This put economic pressure on the bus companies & downtown businesses
- Clear turning point in the CRM as a legal challenge operated in conjunction with a direct action protest
MLK & Non-violent Protest
- 1955: Appointed leader of the MIA
- Very media-conscious
- 1957: Set up the Southern Christian Leadership Council
- Refined the non-violent protest rules in order to create the best media impression
The rules of non-violent protest
- It must always be clear who is the oppressor, and who the oppressed
- Getting arrested publicly & going peaceably is good publicity. Campaigners were taught to go limp if the police tried to remove them from a sit-in
- Acceot as many white people as you can on your protests
The Little Rock Crisis, 1957
- 9 Black children were selected to attend the previously all-white Central High School
- The National Guard were sent to stop the children entering the school
- Photographs of Elizabeth Eckford being harrassed by an angry white mob shocked the world
- King put pressure on President Eisenhower, pointing out the damage it was doing to his administration
- Eisenhower reluctantly sent in federal troops to guard the children
- Eventually, the school was integrated for good
The Greensboro Sit-In
- 1960: 4 Black students sat at a segregated lunch counter at a department store. They waited to be served until the store shut
- The next day, the students returned & were joined by another 30 students
- The following day, almost all the seats were filled by student protestors. White mobs came to heckle them & the protest attracted the attention of the media
- The media was filled with images of calm, well-dressed black students waiting to be served whilst being attacked by racist white mobs
- The shop shut due to a bomb scare, but by then the message had gotten out and sit-ins sprang up across the South
SNCC
- April 1960: Formed as an integrated student organisation, which advocated non-violent direct action
- Provided training sessions on how to cope with violence & abuse during demonstrations
- Sent field secretaries to live & work in dangerous parts of the South, where they were tasked with encouraging voter registration
- Took King's ideas a step further by actively protesting in areas where they knew there would be violence
Freedom Rides
- 1961: CORE & SNCC carried out freedom rides in the South
- Designed to test whether bus restfoom facilities had been desegregated
- Intended to provoke a crisis & media outcry
- Wanted to force the govt. to enforce civil rights legislation
- Buses were attacked, chased & firebombed. Riders were imprisoned & beaten up, and three people were killed
Birmingham, 1963
- 1963: MLK & SCLC led a push to desegragate the town of Birmingham, Alabama
- One tactic was to get arrested & fill the jails. Within a month all the jails were full
- Children were trained in protest techniques & Police Chief Bull Connor ordered high-pressure hoses & dogs be used on them
- Again, shocking pictures went worldwide
- President Kennedy sent in federal troops to restore calm & the town was desegregated
- The March on Washington (August 1963) showed the scale of civil rights activism
Freedom Summer, 1964
- 1954: Election year. SNCC sent white volunteers to Mississippi to encourage voter registration
- They were joined by local Black volunteers
- 21st June: Three volunteers disappeared, & were found dead six weeks later. By the end of the summer, there had been a total of six murders, 35 shooting incidentd & countless beatings
- Of the 17,000 who tried to register to vote that year, only 1,600 were successful
Black Power
- 1965: Stokely Carmichael founded the Lowndes County Freedom Organisation
- 1966: James Meredith is shot on the second day of a "March Against Fear". King takes over & urges non-violent direct action, but Carmichael argues that non-violence is not working.
- Carmichael calls for the SNCC to radicalise & exclude white campaigners
- From 1965, the movement splt. The Black Power movement was not a united force, as part of it broke off to form the Black Panthers.
- The Black Panthers wore uniforms & carried guns, and organised community projects in northern ghettos. They formed radical trade unions & demanded that black history courses be taught in universities
The Northern Crusade, 1966
- After 1964, MLK turned his attention to the North
- Focus on living conditions in the black ghettos
- The campaign petered out - in many ways it was harder to combat social issues than it was to bring about legislative change
- MLK's relationship with the media turned sour
- 1967: Began the Poor People's Campaign
- 1968: Assassinated whilst supporting a strike of Memphis sanitation workers
The Impact of Civil Rights Legislation
Achievements
- Development of a black American upper & middle class
- Home ownership & graduates up
- Black culture more significant & valued
- Voter registration & turnout up
Limitations
- Progress slowed after the CRA & VRA
- Affirmative action not popular with everyone
- Death of MLK meant the movement lost its figurehead
- Black Power movement unpopular with lawmakers
Native American Civil Rights
Issues
- Tribal homelands
- Self-determination
- Cultural destruction & appropriation
Methods
- AIM - "Red Power"
- Sit-ins, demonstrations & occupations
Gains & Limitatioms
- Nixon sympathised - legislated for greater Native American autonomy
- Returned some land to tribes
- Some states continued to evict tribes if the land was needed for development
Hispanic Americans
Issues
- Land
- Workers' rights
- Discrimination
- Deportation - Operation *******
Methods
- Cesar Chavez - hunger strikes
- non-violent protest
- Brown Berets - militance
Success
- 1954: Hispanics ruled equal citizens
- 1974: Equal Opportunities Act - bilingual teaching
- 1975: VRA extention provided language assistance at polling stations
- Land issues still not settled
Gay Rights
- 1969: Began after the Stonewall Inn riot
- Harvey Milk - elected to office in San Francisco in 1977
- Gay Liberation Front set up after Stonewall
- 1974: Kathy Kozachenko became the first openly gay person elected to office
- Proposition 6 (Florida, 1977): Proposed state legislation to ban gay people from teaching
- 1978: Save Our Children (SOC) set up to campaign against gay rights legislation
SOCIETY & CULTURE
SOCIETY & CULTURE
Women - WW1 & the GD
WW1
- Women recruited to work in munitions factories. Often sacked to make way for men returning from the war
- 1920: Women get the right to vote - mainly educated, m/c white women
- 1920s: Changing industries created new women's jobs e.e. typing. Campaigns for fairer employment launched.
- Flappers
The Great Depression
- Women who were divorces, deserted or widowed suffered the most
- Some looked for work to supplement their husbands' incomes
- The Women's Bureau of Labor - sometimes viewed as hindering progress - supported restricting women's hours. Pushed for minimum wage (no minimum wage for men)
- A lot of legislation did not apply to agricultural work or domestic service
- Men given priority on work programmes
- Some benefits given to the poorest families
- Housewives Leagues set up by Black women to organise local help for those in need
Impact of WW2 & Suburbia
WW2
- Rosie the Riveter
- 1940 Selective Training & Work Act
- 1941 Lanham Act provided additional childcare
- Lots of women in agricultural work
- Black women allowed into professions e.g. nursing
- Female employment rose again after the war ended. Restrictions barring married women from ceertain jobs were lifted
- Some women moved from clerical work into specialist industries e.g. advertising or insurance
Suburbia
- Social networks & friendship groups - working women / non-conformists often excluded.
- Labour-saving devices
- Betty Friedan - The Feminine Mystique (1963)
- Women in rural communities remained cut off until out-of-town shopping centres, radio & electrcity came to rural areas
The Women's Liberation Movement, 1961-80
- 1961: Kennedy set up a Commission of Enquiry on the Status of Women. Found that the Equal Pay Act needed enforcing
- Socialisation of girls - not encouraged to think about careers
- 1963: Betty Friedan - The Feminine Mystique
- 1966: National Organisation for Women (NOW)
- Young radicals emerged - used by the media to do down the movement
- 1970: General strike
Opposition
- STOP ERA - campaign against the Equal Rights Act
Successes & Limitations
- ERA never passed - bill expired
- 1973: Contraception made available to married & unmarried women
- Movement fragmented
Immigration Patterns
- Open-door policy until WW1 - immigration largely from Northern & Western Europe
- Immigration increased rapidly & many failed to integrate
- 1911: The Dillingham Report - concluded that immigration was posing a threat to American society & culture
- Spike in unemployment & the First Red Scare - hostilities against immigrants
- 1920s: Immigration Acts
- Immigration from Europe & Asia reduced. Immigration from S.America increased to fill the need for cheap labour
- Deportations of Mexican workers during the Depression to make way for unemployed Americans
- Americans of Italian, German & Japanese origin considered "enemy aliens"
- 120,000 Japanese put in internment camps
- Many fought in the US army
- Cold War: Refugees fleeing communism e.g. Cuba, Vietnam & Eastern Europe
Immigration Policy
- Quotas used from the 1920s - 1965
- From 1953, Refugee Acts were passed to allow the US to take in refugees fleeing communism
- 1965: Johnson removed quotas, making it easier to admit refugees
- 1960s: Refugees from Vietnam
- 1954: Operation ******* began deporting illegal immigrants in the Southern states
Social Impact of Cinema
- 1927: The Jazz Singer became the first movie with sound
- Movie theatres boomed during the 1920s
- Newsreel before the main movie - WW1 & WW2
- Actors & Actresses became very influential - expected to behave in a way that fitted their on-screen image
- Studios held a lot of power
- 1930: The Hays Code brought in to regulate movies
Social Impact of Music & Radio
- Jazz became popular in the cities after WW1 & during the Great Depression - many bands / singers were black
- Radios sold better than records during the Depression
- Radio broadcast news faster than the newspapers. Used sponsorship & advertising to gain funding
- Radio Act 1927 - brought the airwaves under federal control
- Mass culture
Social Impact of Television
- 1939: FDR - 1st President on television
- Development of TV programmes began at local level
- Advertising directed at children & teenagers
- Politicians began to use television to gain support
- Recording techniques, sets & special effects improved
- More channels & shows
- Less shown live - news & sport
- 1969: PBS set up - education the main aim
- Drama series e.g. M*A*S*H drew on real-life issues e.g. the Vietnam War
- Sitcoms reflected black family life e.g. Fresh Prince of Bel Air
- Political satire
- News programmes became more opinionated & analytical
Influence of Broadcast News
- Pre-1930 - Reporting on govt. activity & issues
- Great Depression - Communicating with & explaining issues to the public. Good relationship with the presdient e.g. Fireside Chats
- 1945-1960's - criticising the govt. e.g. Korean War
- 1960s-80 - uncovering govt. wrongdoing e.g. Watergate & Vietnam
- Ed Murrow - Criticised McCarthy during the Second Red Scare
- Walter Cronkite - The Cronlite Report, 1968
- Jimmy Carter - poor media image. Media used incidents as a way of illustrating his weaknesses
ECONOMY
THE CHANGING QUALITY OF LIFE
Boom, Bust & Recovery
- Post-war depression caused by slowing of production. Crop prices fell due to over-production. Strikes & the decline of older industries led to increased unemployment
- 1920s Boom caused by growth in mass production. Goods bought on credit. Mass production (e.g. Ford Model T). Investment in the bull market. Consumer confidence high
- 1929 Wall St. Crash. Demand for cunsumer goods had began to fall, so shareholders began to sell off shares. Businesses cut wages & sacked employees This triggered panic selling & led to the crash. Fuelled by media hysteria. People lost homes. farms & businesses as they couldn't keep up with loan repayments
- Recovery under the New Deal. FDR's Alphabet Agencies set up to help with employment & loans. All the banks were closed & only the healthy ones were allowed to re-open. WW2 pulled the USA out of economic depression
Post-War Affluence
Causes of the Post-War Boom
- Demand for consumer goods
- Expansion of business
- Govt. clampdown on strikes
- Post-war baby boom meant demand for child-related consumer goods
- Demand for crops at home & abroad meant farmers did well
- Govt. spending rose steadily - welfare & social security
- Farmers & businesses exploited demand for goods & deregualtion of prices - inflation rose
- Growth in consumer confidence - consumerism = patriotic vs. communism
- Levttowns - cheap, pre-fabricated homes
- USA lost its place as technological innovator to Japan (transistor radio)
- Industry moved South & West
- Paper money & gold reserves became increasingly out of balance as the govt. increased the money supply
The Challenges of the 1970s
Stagflation
- Businesses stopped expanding (wages fell), but prices continued to rise
- Fixed income earners suffered
- Govt. spending still high
Fuel Crises
- OPEC supported Palestine during the 1973 Arab-Israeli War. It put up oil prices & embargoed oil exportes to countries that supported Israel (e.g. the USA). Major shortage, 55 mph speed limit introduced & oil rationed
- 1979 Fuel Shortage was less severe, but there were concerns regarding winter heating
- People blamed the govt. for failing to deal with the crises
Confidence Crisis
- Depression, unemployment, rise in prices
- Rising homelessness
- Fall in living standards
The Standard of Living, 1917-41
- Home ownership - 1920: 6,700,000 ; 1940: 19,600,000
- Appliances included in 1940 census: running water (69.9%); electric lighting (78.7%); gas cooker (48.8%); central heating (42%); electric fridge (44.1%); radio (82.8%)
- 1920s: Growth of chain stores
- 1930s: More spent on food, but less spent on eating out (due to the Depression)
- 1920s & 30s: Boom in household appliances. Widespread electrification boosted sales of goods in rural areas
- Death rate declined - some increase in the 1930s
- Education - 1917: 27.1% aged 14-17 in school ; 1940: 73%
WW2 & Consumerism, 1941-60
- WW2: consumerism was unpatriotic
- Post-war: Consumer society boomed - increase in advertising, colours, models, in-built obsolescence
- Growth of TV - advertising & sponsorship - "pester power" & targetted advertising
- Food - Fast food, sugary drinks & ready meals
- Teenage consumption - transport, food, clothing & sports, entertainment
- 1960 census: home ownership (62%); running water (93%); electric cooker (30.8%); freezers (18.5%); radio (92%); washing machines (40.3%); telephones (78.5%); TV (85%)
Anti-Poverty Policies & Economic Divisions, 1961-8
- Non-white Americans & employment - lower wages. Affirmative action unpopular & unhelpful
- Poverty - 1966: 12% white Americans ; 41& non-white Americans
- Inner cities - planned shrinkage
- JFK - New Frontier
- LBJ - Great Society - not enough funding
- Nixon - shift of focus towards the working poor, the elderly, children & the disabled - "workfare, not welfare"
- Carter - wanted to help working & non-working poor, without raising costs
Leisure, 1917-80
1917-45
- Speakeasies during prohibition
- Variation between areas - e.g. number & quality of cinemas in NYC varied between white areas & black areas
- Growth in car ownership meant people could get to the National Parks, Kiddie Parks, amusement parks
- Radios & books (cheap paperbacks v. popular
- Impact of radio on spectator sports - forced to offer packages etc to boost attendence
- Impact of WW2
1945-80
- Better wages & working conditions = more leisure time
- Fast food chains
- Baby boom - family leisure activities e.g. Disneyland, 1955
- Shopping malls
- Home computers
Impact of Car Culture, 1917-80
- Industry - Expansion of the car industry = more jobs. Wages for industry workers went up, price of cars went down, demand increased
- Associated supplies - filling stations, mechanics' workshops, dealerships
- Roads improved & expanded
- Diners & motels, travelling salesmen, commuters, deliveries, freight
- Out-of-town shopping malls
- Drive-in fast food chains, cinemas
- Tourism - cities, attractions
- New car every year - competition & consumerism
- Poor people still relied on public transport
- Rise in pollution
Impact of Air Travel, 1917-80
- 1915: Small seaplanes & mail carriers
- 1925: Kelly Act laid down national routes for mail delivery
- Air travel became safer, so more people flew
- Post-WW2: Jet engines & radar
- By the 1970s, air travel had become much cheaper, so m/c Americans could afford to fly regularly. Some commuted by plane
- Tourism to the USA increased
- 1978: Airline Deregulation Act - deregulated ticket prices, routes buyouts & mergers
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