Theme 1
Political landscape
• Wilson’s New Freedom Program 1912: investigate/regulate finances large business corps, limit extent working day, progressive
levy income tax + no stop racial segregation/welfare provisions
• Espionage Act 1917: bans criticism of gov
• War Revenue Act 1917: top rate increased to 67%
• 19th Amendment 1919: women given nationwide vote
• Wilson’s Peace Program 8th Jan 1918: ’14 points’, creation League of Nations
• 1st Red Scare: 1919-20: communist revolutions in Russia sent shockwaves worldwide + disturbed US capitalism
• Palmer Raids 1920: series of raids conducted by the Department of Justice to capture and arrest suspected socialists, especially
anarchists and communists, and deport them
• Emergency Quota Act 1921: immigration 357k pa, 150k by 1924
• Emergency Tariff Act 1921: protectionist policy for farmers, whose wartime markets in Europe disappearing with recovery of
European agricultural production +U.S. industries that had been stimulated by the war
• Washington Conference 1921: discussed naval disarmament/ways relieve growing tensions East Asia; wake of WW1,
international leaders sought prevent possibility another war.
• Budget and Accounting Act 1921: reduce gov costs + increase domestic business philosophy
• Federal Highways Act 1921: 10k miles new road built per year + aided development of industry
• Fordney-McCumber Tariff Act 1922: encouraged ‘buy American’ + promote pro-business psyche, creating boom period.
Prohibition reduced demand for grain, overproduction (mechanisation)
• Teapot Dome Scandal 15th April 1922: Harding’s presidency tainted by corruption; secret arrangement which secretary of the
Interior, without competitive bidding, leased U.S. Naval petroleum reserve at Wyoming's Teapot Dome to private oil company.
• Agricultural Acts 1923 + Capper Volstead Act 1923: gave ‘associations’ of persons producing agricultural products certain
exemptions from antitrust laws.
• Mississippi Flood 1927: estimated $1bn damage + destroyed agriculture
• Neutrality Acts 1925-29: aided European economic rebuild
• Wall Street Crash 1929: boom cycle went bust + Sept 1929 investors began sell over-heated company shares, too heavily
invested on credit
• Agricultural Marketing Act 1929: established Federal Farm Board from Federal Farm Loan Board established by Federal Farm
Loan Act of 1916 with revolving fund of half billion dollars.
• Droughts Great Plains 1930: natural disasters hampered economic recovery
• Hawley-Smoot Tariff Act 1930: enacted protect U.S. farmers from foreign competition by increasing tariffs certain foreign goods;
choked international trade + asine measure
• National Credit Corporation 1931: $500m aim break liquidity crisis; banks self-interest created demise initiative
• FED Home Loan Bank Act 1932: intended lower cost home ownership by creating network government-sponsored banks/boards
provide mortgage credit; failed deal seriousness situation
• Reconstruction Finance Corporation 1932: 50% loans to 7% borrowers + conflicted Hoover’s economic policies balanced budget
• The Revenue Act 6th June 1932: top rate income tax increased 25% to 63%. Estate tax 2x + corporate taxes raised by almost 15%;
hitherto largest peacetime tax rise US history (failed correct 15m unemployed)
• The Bonus Army conflict 1932: 43k demonstrators, 17k veterans U.S. involvement WW1, their families/affiliated groups
gathered Washington D.C. demanding early cash redemption service bonus certificates.
• First New Deal 1933-34: the ‘alphabet soup’ of relief, recovery, and reform agencies created; restore, basic economic functions
• Glass-Steagall Act 1933: forced commercial banks refrain investment banking activities to protect depositors from potential
losses through stock speculation
• Farm Credit Act 1933: established Farm Credit System as group cooperative lending institutions provide short, intermediate +
long-term loans for agricultural purposes
• Economy Act 1933: FDR reduced gov salaries + reduced pensions; set up separate executive Presidential office (increased
importance of presidency)
• Truth in securities Act 1933: required that investors receive financial/other significant information concerning securities being
offered for public sale
• Federal Emergency Relief Act 1933: $500m to all states + each set up relief program + raise money borrowing/taxes + set
important precedent direct relief by FED gov
• Securities Act 1934: securities exchange commission oversee stock market/prevent fraudulent activities
• Gold Reserve Act 1934: $ devalued at $35 per ounce at 60% since March 1933, increased money circulation + increased prices
to aim revitalise economy
• Wagner Act 1935: established NLRB + addressed relations unions/employees + banned company unions (basis foundation
statute US Labour Law)
• Second New Deal 1935-36: the first new deal tried restore, basic economic functions, second new deal tried improve people's
lives; included union protection programs, the Social Security Act, and programs to aid tenant farmers and migrant workers
• US Neutrality Acts 1935-37: prohibiting export ‘arms, ammunition + implements of war” from US to foreign nations at war +
requiring arms manufacturers in US apply for export license; highlighted where sympathies lay
• Adjusted Compensation Payment Act 1936: paid over $2bn to WW1 veterans as consequence Bonus Army conflict
, • Wagner Steagall Housing Act 1937: established US Housing Authority (USHA), providing $500 million loans for low-cost housing
projects across country
• Lend Lease 1941: introduced $50bn to lend war supplies to any nation/Allies deemed ‘vital to defence of USA’
• FDR Executive Order 8807 7th December 1941: created gov agency overseeing scientific research into defence technology +
funding from newly created Office of Scientific Research + Development paid for top-secret nuclear weapon program known the
Manhattan Project
• USA enters WW2 8th December 1941: reaction to Japanese Pearl Harbour bombings (7th December 1941)
• National Security Act 1947: reported to White House not Congress/Pentagon → armed forced enlarged; permanent US bases +
created CIA + National Security Council
• Truman Doctrine March 12th 1947: asked Congress for $400 million in military and economic assistance for Turkey and Greece +
aid those countries at risk falling to Communism
• Marshall Plan April 3rd 1948: provide economic aid to Europe to rebuild after WW2 and prevent spread communism; Congress
overwhelmingly passed the Economic Cooperation Act of 1948
• Korean War starts 25th June 1950
• Senator Joseph McCarthy headed 2nd Red Scare 1950-54
• Korean War ends 27th July 1953
• Vietnam War starts 1st November 1955
• Interstate Act 1956: road network rapid evacuation, Fed/state legislative divide made national system defence difficult
• Nikita Khrushchev Leader USSR visits USA 1959: met with large anti-communist demonstrations
• Woodstock Festival 1960: > 200k tickets sold, >500k tickets sold for hippie movement
• Student’s for Democratic Society 1960: denounced conventional politics as forgotten principle equality; rejected all forms
bigotry, racism + Vietnam War
• JFK’s Executive Order 10924 creates the Peace Corps 1961: >240k Peace Corps volunteers have served in 142 countries since
1961, to volunteer in the struggle against poverty, illiteracy, and disease
• The Civil Rights Act 1964: prohibits discrimination basis of race, colour, religion, sex or national origin
• Gulf of Tonkin incident 2nd August 1964: two U.S. destroyers stationed in Gulf of Tonkin in Vietnam radioed they had been ‘fired
upon’ by North Vietnamese forces; in response LBJ requested permission from Congress increase U.S. military presence in
Indochina + more direct engagement in Vietnam
• JFK’s ‘New Frontier’ Program 1965: focused on domestic programs expand education, widen the social safety net, and
encourage Americans to serve those in need.
• Voting Rights Act 1965: outlawed discriminatory voting practices adopted in many southern states after Civil War, including
literacy tests as prerequisite to voting
• SDS organised 1st rally against Vietnam War 1965: free speech + radical campaign led by University of California student using
sit-ins + peaceful protest tactics used by civil rights movement
• The ‘Great Society’ Program 1965: LBJ’s agenda, aid to education, attack on disease, Medicare, urban renewal, beautification,
conservation, development depressed regions, a wide-scale fight against poverty, control + prevention of crime and delinquency
• VVAW demonstration 1967: NY 6 veterans marched in peace demonstration + gained 30k membership, highlighting horror
war/ill treatment of veterans
• Tet Offensive 31st January 1968: 12,727 US deaths; coordinated series North Vietnamese attacks more than 100 cities + outposts
in South Vietnam; attempt foment rebellion among South Vietnamese population + encourage US scale back its involvement
• Nixon’s ‘New Right’ 1969: Democrats supported his Republican views + pledge restore law/order + promise unite society under
traditional values; response to American-style liberalism; a more combative, anti-egalitarian +uninhibited right
• Ohio National Guardsmen shot 4 unarmed students 4th May 1970: students protesting at invasion Cambodia during Vietnam
War
• Religious right emerges 1970: campaigned return traditional family values + away ‘liberal’ policies abortion + contraception;
general shift back to Conservative values spearheaded by religious right
• National Guard killed 4 students + 9 wounded at Kent State University 1970: protesting against invasion of Cambodia during
Vietnam War
• The Watergate Scandal 1972-74: major political scandal involving administration President Richard Nixon that led to Nixon's
resignation; broke into Democrat’s Watergate HQ, stole copies top-secret documents + bugged office's phones
• 29th April 1975 US evacuation/fall of Saigon: collapse of non-communist South Vietnamese regime + start of transition period
from formal reunification Vietnam into Socialist Republic of Vietnam under communist rule
• 30th April 1975 Vietnam War ends
• Reagan inaugurated 20th January 1981
Theme 2
Black Civil Rights
• 25 Anti-black riots 1919: set off by police injustice + ‘Red Summer’ riots Chicago
• Great Migration 1920: large number African Americans
• 6 black Americans of NAACP + 3k black communists protest in Birmingham 1930
• NAACP active role Black court cases 1931: means fight against racism by whites
• Resettlement Administration set up by Executive Order May 1935: relocated struggling urban + rural families to planned
communities funded by gov loans
