Reforms
This tragic event in 1911, which captured the attention of the nation, drove home the need for government protections for vulnerable workers.
What is the Triangle Fire?
Viewed as a key symbol of changing gender roles in the 1920s, these young women pushed back against restrictive norms by bobbing their hair, shortening their skirts, and even smoking and wearing makeup.
Who were flappers?
This area, consisting of 1500 acres of dry midwestern farmland, became the epicenter of an environmental crisis in the early 1930s, exacerbating the effects of the Great Depression and forcing many Americans to uproot.
What is the Dust Bowl?
A talented professional and humanitarian, she helped Americans see the White House as an ally during the Depression and in the process expanded the role of the First Lady.
Who is Eleanor Roosevelt?
This fictional female symbolized American women’s participation during World War II. Part of a government propaganda effort, she helped to reassure men that women belonged in the factories and encouraged women to see themselves as capable but still feminine and desirable.
Who was Rosie the Riveter?
This cooperative peacekeeping organization, a priority of Woodrow Wilson, formed at the end of World War I, but the U.S.’s failure to join limited its potential to stop future wars.
What was the League of Nations?
This innovation introduced by Henry Ford in 1908, changed many aspects of American life, including living patterns, manufacturing practices, and even courtship.
What was the Model T?
This group of World War I veterans marched on Washington D. C. in the summer of 1932 to demand the government pay them money due them. Hoover’s response to these individuals helped to fuel his growing unpopularity.
What is the Bonus Army?
This Louisiana Governor and Senator promised to make “every man a king” with a guaranteed salary, free education, old age pensions, and other services. By doing so, he pushed FDR to incorporate bolder reforms into the New Deal.
Who is Huey Long?
This legislation signed into law in 1917, which required men to register for the draft was controversial, especially as we were fighting a war to “make the world safe for democracy.”
What is the Selective Service Act?
This idea introduced by African American newspaper, Pittsburgh Courier, during World War II demanded victory over both Fascism and racism and encouraged the freedom fight that would follow.
What was Double V?
This group of Black soldiers, members of the segregated 369th infantry, became famous during World War I for their brave service and their musical talent, which helped to popularize jazz music and spark the Harlem Renaissance.
Who were the Harlem Hellfighters?
FDR began communicating directly with the American people on a regular basis through this weekly practice, which proved important in making him and his administration seem approachable and trustworthy.
What were the Fireside Chats?
Arrested under the Sedition Act during World War I, this socialist and founding member of the International Workers of the World (IWW) ran for president from a jail cell in 1920. The fact that he received almost a million votes shows that many Americans bought into his vision of a freer and fairer America.
Who is Eugene V. Debs?
This top-secret plan to create a “gadget” that could end the war involved scientists and everyday Americans who demonstrated unquestioning loyalty and a willingness to do their part. The plan changed the world forever by launching us into the atomic age.
What is the Manhattan Project?
Many Christians at the turn of the century endorsed this reading of scripture which condemned excessive wealth and encouraged Progressive reform and political action.
What is the Social Gospel?
Though some scholars have recently suggested that a new name would be more appropriate, this benign and rather hopeful name is the one we have traditionally given to the movement of black Americans from the South to other areas of the country at the start of the 20th century.
What is the Great Migration?
Established in 1933 during the New Deal, this government agency improved life for rural Americans by providing affordable electricity, flood control, and recreation sites. Though controversial, it encouraged economic development and offered a model of government planning.
What is the Tennessee Valley Authority?
A "race man," this civil rights leader urged Americans to abandon the US and return to Africa in the 1920s.
Who was Marcus Garvey?
This meeting held to discuss the future of Czechoslovakia in 1938, although heralded as a remarkable step toward peace, revealed that appeasement doesn't work.
What is the Munich Conference?
This list of basic American values and promises that FDR identified in his 1941 address to Congress informed the Atlantic Charter and shaped the Allies’ statement of war aims in World War II, thus promising security across the globe.
What are the Four Freedoms?
In 1925, the nation’s attention focused on this court case in Tennessee, which involved a teacher who had violated the state’s ban on the teaching of evolution. Similar to more recent “culture wars,” this event represented a battle between traditional values and the forces of modernity.
What was the Scopes Trial?
This Depression-era documentary photographer’s most famous image, Migrant Mother continues to influence our memory of the Great Depression. Her own struggles as a single mother helped her identify with the subjects of her photographs.
Who was Dorthea Lange?
Defeated by Hoover in 1928, this wet, Catholic, Democratic candidate for president stood for a more diverse, more urban America. Many Americans, even southern members of his own party, struggled to embrace his modern vision.
Who is Al Smith?
This 1944 Supreme Court case upheld America’s war-time internment policy, ruling that the nation’s security needs trumped the civil rights of those forced to relocate.
What is Korematsu v. United States?