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

2. Post WWI Trends Fear of Communism
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?

3. 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

4. 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

5. 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

7. 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