Fear , Paranoia, and Conflict:

1
Fear , Paranoia, and Conflict

• Post WWI America

2
The legacy of WWI

• The U.S. never ratified the treaty and never
  joined The League of Nations
• Republican Warren G. Harding elected President in
  1920 by promising to keep the U.S. out of the
  League of Nations- Healing, not heroism.
• The 1920s were a very isolationist period in U.S.
  history

3
Labor unrest in America

• Raging inflation, concern about job security, and
  poor working conditions combined to generate
  labor discontent in America.

4
The Red Scare of 1919-1920

• Bolsheviks (Communists) took over in Russia in
  November, 1917

5
Bombings on American soil

• Post Office intercepts packages addressed to
  political leaders and businessmen

6
Palmer Raids

• Palmer told Americans that there would be an
  attempted Communist revolution on May Day, 1920

7
Hoover and Palmer
8
Racial violence
9
Nativism

• Support of Prohibition by native-born Americans
• Between 1891-1920 10.5 million people came from
  Eastern and Southern Europe mostly Catholic and
  Jewish (seen as undesirables)
• National Origins Act of 1924

10
Immigration rate
11
The return of the KKK

• Reborn in 1915 in Stone Mountain, Georgia
  expands in the 1920s
• Targets Jews, Catholics, African Americans,
  immigrants, immorality
• Tactics threats, boycotts, cross-burnings,
  arson, whippings, attacks on priests and rabbis,
  lynchings.

12
The case of Sacco and Vanzetti

• http//www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?story
  Id5245754
• http//writing.upenn.edu/afilreis/88/sacvan.html
• http//www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAsacco.htm
• http//thephoenix.com/boston/news/46042-replaying-
  injustice/
• http//www.americanheritage.com/articles/web/20070
  823-sacco-vanzetti-anarchist-criminal-capital-puni
  shment.shtml
• http//www.crimelibrary.com/sacco/saccomain.htm
• http//library.syr.edu/digital/exhibits/s/SaccoVan
  zetti/index2.htm
• www.courttv.com/greatesttrials/sacco.vanzetti/inde
  x.html
• http//www.saccoandvanzetti.org/index.php
•