1. The postwar period proved a difficult readjustment period for the United States, in part because of economic turmoil and the fear of communism.
THE WAR’s IMPACT
19.4
MAIN IDEA: As American society moved from war to peace, turmoil in the economy and fear of communism caused a series of domestic upheavals.

2. AN ECONOMY IN TURMOIL
End of WWI  inflation  cost of living increased  the cost of food, clothing shelter, & other essentials that people need to survive more expensive  STRIKE
EX: The Seattle General Strike, The Boston Police Strike, The Steel Strike
general strike = strike that involves all workers living in a certain location, not just workers in a particular industry
End of war -> no more rations -> releases pent up demand -> people race to buy goods that had been rationed so businesses rapidly increase prices they’d been forced to keep low during the war -> rapid inflation (1919 prices rising more than 15%)

3. RACIAL UNREST
African Americans who had moved North during the war now competing for jobs and housing with returning American soldiers
Racism & frustration  summer 1919 over 20 race riots broke out across the nation
-“If We Must Die” poem written in 1919 in response to race riots after WWI
-2 mins chicago race riots via puppet show
-5:14 mins description of chicago riots (man talking) ->

4. THE RED SCARE
Red Scare = nationwide panic in the U.S. over fear that Communists/“reds” might seize power – strikes & bombing -Influenced people’s attitudes during 1920s: linked radicalism with immigrants (nativism resurgence)
Anger at Germany extends to anger at Communists
Association of communism with being unpatriotic & disloyal
Fear Communists would incite revolutions elsewhere - Communist International
5:42 mins: student podcast on first red scare (many political cartoons)
2:13 mins -1st red scare – bombs found -> xenophobia -> immigrants/union organizers targeted- -

5. RED SCARE: THE PALMER RAIDS
The Palmer Raids = U.S. Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer established what became the F.B.I. headed by J. Edgar Hoover & conducted raids on radical organization headquarters – focused on immigrants – detained 1000s of bombing suspects & deported 600 (expelled from country) – disregarded civil liberties
The General Intelligence Division -> Federal Bureau of Investigation
Investigate bombings, no evidence pointing to immigrants or any single group as bombers
*postal service intercepted over 30 parcels addressed to leading business people that would explode when opened
*8 bombs in 8 cities exploded within minutes of one another suggesting nationwide conspiracy
**disregard civil liberties -> enter homes without warrants, mistreated/jailed for indefinite periods of time and not allowed to talk to lawyers
*Palmer national hero until raids never turned up any hard evidence of revolutionary conspiracy & said May Day 1920 would show extreme violence (celebrated workers) but was wrong -> loses credibility

6. END TO PROGRESSIVISM
Economic problems, labor unrest, racial tensions, memories of WWI  general sense of disillusionment in U.S.
Republican candidate Warren Harding runs in presidential election calling for a return to “normalcy”  return to simpler days before Progressive Era reforms
“[Our] present need is not heroics, but healing; not nostrums, but normalcy; not revolution, but restoration; not agitation, but adjustment; not surgery, but serenity; not the dramatic, but the dispassionate;…not submergence in internationality, but sustainment in triumphant nationality.”
Wins by a landslide against Ohio governor James M Cox and his running mate FDR