Chapter 29: Progressivism and the Republican Roosevelt, 1901-1912
The Gilded Age was a pretty awesome time... if your name was Rockefeller, Morgan, or Vanderbilt. Otherwise, it was miserable. Just as today, the middle class was getting squeezed, the rich were getting richer, and the political system was pretty much gridlocked. If we didn't have the Frozen soundtrack, we'd all be screwed.
However, Americans in 1901 didn't have Idina Menzel to save them: they had Teddy Roosevelt. Roosevelt saddled up again, this time fighting corruption and corporations rather than Spaniards at San Juan Hill. The result was that Teddy Roosevelt, who had been been Vice President to a very pro-business McKinley, became the most reform-minded President to that p0int. |
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Chapter 30: Wilsonian Progressivism at Home and Abroad, 1912-1916
Woodrow Wilson (pictured at left) was probably an unlikely choice for President. Unlike most of the men who came before or after him, he was not a lawyer, and he had never served in the military. He was the first Democrat not named Grover Cleveland to be elected since the end of the Civil War, and it would take the crisis of the Great Depression for another one to get to the Oval Office.
Wilson, unlikely though he was to be President, was well-served by his background. The son of a Georgia Presbyterian minister, he had prayed with dying men on the floor of his father's church during the Civil War, and the visceral experience with the horrors of war never left him. He then studied and taught history, rising eventually to be the president of Princeton College, where he fought, with limited success, to bring that fine institution into the modern era. After a stint as governor of New Jersey, he became the President of the United States in 1912, helped immensely by the inability of William Howard Taft and Teddy Roosevelt to play nice.
Wilson, unlikely though he was to be President, was well-served by his background. The son of a Georgia Presbyterian minister, he had prayed with dying men on the floor of his father's church during the Civil War, and the visceral experience with the horrors of war never left him. He then studied and taught history, rising eventually to be the president of Princeton College, where he fought, with limited success, to bring that fine institution into the modern era. After a stint as governor of New Jersey, he became the President of the United States in 1912, helped immensely by the inability of William Howard Taft and Teddy Roosevelt to play nice.
As a result, Wilson was now uniquely poised to lead the United States into a continued era of Progessivism. However, his first term was marred by events far beyond his control. In summer 1914, war erupted in Europe, an outgrowth of the nationalism and imperialism that had been building there since the end of the Napoleonic period. Wilson would win re-election in 1916 on the slogan "He Kept Us Out of War," but he would be unable to replicate that success during his second term. Before the end of Wilson's time in office, over 100,000 American soldiers would die during World War I.
Wilson himself is perhaps best known for the Fourteen Points, by which he attempted to regulate a post-war world. But nobody listened to him. You should always listen to a history teacher.
Wilson himself is perhaps best known for the Fourteen Points, by which he attempted to regulate a post-war world. But nobody listened to him. You should always listen to a history teacher.
Chapter 31: The War to End War, 1917-1918
World War I was awful. There's no other way to put it. After fifty or so years of industrialization, a whole bunch of European countries decided to turn their talents and massive military buildup on each other. The result was 30 million casualties in a span of about four-and-a-half years: roughly one person every nine seconds.
The awfulness of the war cannot be understated. This was the first war in which widespread use of photography and a limited use of primitive motion-picture technology helped to bring the war home to people not mucking it out in the trenches of France. Even so, many of the war's participants were unable to express themselves, and returned home broken men. Some, like Ernest Hemingway, were so distraught that they spend the majority of the 1920s drinking whiskey in Paris and struggling to put pen to paper. This "Lost Generation" of writers, Hemingway foremost among them, produced some of the finest works of art in the Western canon, but at the same time, Ernest Hemingway also put a shotgun in his mouth later in life. The boys who marched off to World War I did not return the same.
Sadly, the meaning of the war was ultimately cheapened. Germany was punished heavily by the Treaty of Versailles, which ended the war. The American Senate wanted nothing to do with European affairs after almost 120,000 American boys had been killed in France, and so rejected the treaty, eliminating any tooth that the League of Nations might have had. Instead, Germany would fall into the thrall of demagoguery, as Adolf Hitler took his hyper-nationalistic viewpoints, threw in some anti-Semitic elements, and basically precipitated World War II.
The awfulness of the war cannot be understated. This was the first war in which widespread use of photography and a limited use of primitive motion-picture technology helped to bring the war home to people not mucking it out in the trenches of France. Even so, many of the war's participants were unable to express themselves, and returned home broken men. Some, like Ernest Hemingway, were so distraught that they spend the majority of the 1920s drinking whiskey in Paris and struggling to put pen to paper. This "Lost Generation" of writers, Hemingway foremost among them, produced some of the finest works of art in the Western canon, but at the same time, Ernest Hemingway also put a shotgun in his mouth later in life. The boys who marched off to World War I did not return the same.
Sadly, the meaning of the war was ultimately cheapened. Germany was punished heavily by the Treaty of Versailles, which ended the war. The American Senate wanted nothing to do with European affairs after almost 120,000 American boys had been killed in France, and so rejected the treaty, eliminating any tooth that the League of Nations might have had. Instead, Germany would fall into the thrall of demagoguery, as Adolf Hitler took his hyper-nationalistic viewpoints, threw in some anti-Semitic elements, and basically precipitated World War II.
Chapter 32: American Life in the Roaring Twenties, 1919-1929
The 1920s were a bipolar period for America. Although the United States had been on the winning side of World War I, most Americans were tired of hearing about the war by the onset of the 20s. Instead of discussing what had happened in France, many Americans turned inward, both on the international stage and within their own homes. This gave us the rise of consumer culture, as well as mass culture, two things which Ernest Hemingway and fellow members of the "Lost Generation" were highly critical of. Perhaps the most emblematic book of the 1920s is The Great Gatsby, wherein F. Scott Fitzgerald, himself a soldier during the Great War, takes the hedonistic culture of the upper class during the 1920s to task.
Sadly, as awesome as the 20s were (for some folks), they were not to last. By the end of the decade, roughly one in five Americans was unemployed, and the United States had not quite reached the darkest point of the Great Depression. It would take a few more years of Herbert Hoover's ineffective leadership to reach that low-water mark in American history.
Sadly, as awesome as the 20s were (for some folks), they were not to last. By the end of the decade, roughly one in five Americans was unemployed, and the United States had not quite reached the darkest point of the Great Depression. It would take a few more years of Herbert Hoover's ineffective leadership to reach that low-water mark in American history.
Chapter 33: The Politics of Boom and Bust, 1920-1932
The 1920s was a great time... unless you were looking for inspiration in the political arena. In that case, the joke is on you, because American politicians were sub-par at best. Sure, they got to be pretty good at taking money from the government, as well as accepting bribes, but if you wanted to make actual progress, well, that didn't happen. America, for the most part, turned inward, throwing up the highest tariff in American history to keep foreign goods out of American markets. Also, Calvin Coolidge sometimes gave speeches, to unfortunate effect.
So, that happened. Also, the American fascination with business, and the preoccupation with making oodles of cash (at the expense of the stability of the entire economy) precipitated the greatest economic crisis in American history, known to all the inspired students of APUSH as "The Great Depression." |
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