Don't Know Much About History

1) Name five important books of the 1920s. Three Soldiers, The Sun Also Rises, Main Street, The Great Gatsby, and Elmer Gantry.
2) What was the first "talkie"? How did it change America? The first talkie was The Jazz Singer, which starred Al Jolson in blackface. After that, Hollywood spent millions of dollars to produce movies because the public couldn't get enough of them.
3) Discuss the "Red Scare of 1919". After a bomb exploded outside his home, Attorney General Palmer unleashed the "Red Scare". It was about communism, and using America's fear of foreign people and ideas. Communism was alive and well in Russia, and the American's didn't want that to happen to them, so it was easy to create hysteria with the "Red Scare".
4) What was the 18th amendment? Why was it enacted? How did it go wrong? The 18th amendment was the prohibition amendment. It was supposed to fix social instability and moral decline at the beginning of the 20th century. It was unenforceable, and bootlegging became a profession seen almost everywhere. It presented to the public a better life, but it overlooked things like increased fatalities from the use of rubbing alcohol, the rise of organized crime, and the idea that Americans like their booze.
5) Who were Susan B. Anthony and Alice Paul? They were both feminists pushing for women's rights. Susan B. Anthony co-founded NWSA and lobbied for local reforms in New York. Alice Paul was a Quaker-raised woman who studied in England. She brought back British-style protests for women's rights, which ultimately helped to gain suffrage in the United States.
6) What is important about Henry Ford? How did he change America? He didn't actually invent anything, he just perfected versions of the car and the assembly line. He envisioned a car for the masses. The model-T car revolutionized American life in that it revived the American dream of freedom and the open road.
7) What is important about Charles Lindbergh? How did he symbolize the times? He also invented nothing. He did, however, perfect the design of the Wright Brothers. The air industry was symbolic of the venturesome spirit of the times. He designed The Spirit of St. Louis, which allowed him to become the first man to fly solo over the Atlantic. He symbolized adventure and expansion and, most importantly, freedom.
8) What were "pool operators" and how were they crooked? Men working together in "pools" bought cheap shares of stock, then drove up the prices inside their group. They brought in outside investors and convinced them to buy at artificially inflated prices. Then the outside investor, or the "sucker", was left holding overpriced stock.
9) How were stocks inflated? How did this cause the crash? People were conned into believing that America had hit "good times". People pulled their life savings from banks and put them in stocks and securities. Investors only had to put down 10-20% to buy a stock, and the rest was available from cheap credit. Eventually, people panicked when the prices hit a peak, and they started pulling out. The problem was, they sold their stocks before they could pay back their brokers, so the brokers could not pay back the banks. This is what caused the crash.
10) What was Black Thursday and Black Tuesday? Black Thursday was October 24th, 1929. 13 million shares of stock were sold off. Black Tuesday was October 29th, 1929. Over 16 million shares were sold on that day.
11) What was Hoover's view of Government relief programs? He didn't believe in them. He believed that the government shouldn't get involved in people's business. He believed the economy would fix itself and that people were tough and could just wait out the depression because it was just part of an economic cycle that happened all the time. He thought relief programs were socialist or communist.
12) What was the "Bonus Army"? It was a large group of veterans and their families who had been promised a bonus to be given in 1945. They camped outside the White House and the Capitol to get their money, because they needed it and knew they deserved it. They were attacked by the military and run off with the use of huge force sent by Hoover.
13) What happened during the "Hundred Days"? FDR and the Congress passed many relief and reform pieces of legislation, sometimes without even reading them. They were aimed at making a dent in the problems that the Depression had caused. FDR's attitude was to try anything, and if it didn't work to get rid of it.
14) What was the WPA and what did it do? The WPA was the Work Projects Administration. The WPA was responsible for 10% of the new roads in the US. It also built new hospitals, city halls, courthouses, and schools. They also set up artistic projects that employed thousands of musicians, writers, and artists.
15) What were Roosevelt's FIRESIDE CHATS and why did they become important? Fireside Chats were FDR's way to speak to the American public. They were talks that he gave on the radio. They became important because it was the first time that the people felt the government was speaking directly to them.

Journeys WWI Questions

5. Alliances strengthened the armies of individual countries by joining them with others. They were an attempt to keep peace because, with the alliances, no one country could dominate or take over all of the others. These nations were loyal to one another, so they agreed to fight with each other.
6. The Zimmerman Telegram exposed some German actions that were being take in the war. When it was published in newspapers, the public reacted with anger toward Germany. This helped push the government to join in the war.
7. The Sussex Pledge was an agreement between Germany and the US in 1916, before the US entered WWI. It said that passenger ships wouldn't be purposefully targeted, merchant ships wouldn't be targeted until the presence of weapons was confirmed, and merchant ships would be warned and given a chance to safeguard their passengers and crew before being shot at.
8. Woodrow Wilson.
9. The Allies were forced to gather more troops, using Americans to bolster their declining numbers. Lenin surrendered Poland, Ukraine, and other lands to the Germans, so Germany was able to move hundreds of thousands of troops from the Eastern Front to the Western Front.
10. Many women were able to get jobs for the first time, and jobs that were usually held by men. Thousands of African Americans were able to find work in the North, and thousands of Mexicans immigrated to the US to get jobs as well. It also expanded American manufacturing and pushed us to industrialize even further.
11. President Wilson, Prime Minister David Lloyd George of Great Britain, Premier Georges Clemenceau of France, and Prime Minister Vittorio Orlando of Italy.
12. He thought that American troops and ships would be ordered to various parts of the world by nations that weren't the United States.
13. They allowed bombs to be dropped without troops having to go in and do the fighting, risking their lives. They allowed much more work to be done in a smaller amount of time because airplanes could fire many more bullets than troops ever could. They basically revolutionized and streamlined warfare to make it even more efficient.
14. President Wilson used Russia's 1917 revolution as an excuse to enter the war. Many Americans believed that the new Russian government would help the Allies. Wilson used the change in government to claim that the Allies were fighting a war of democracy against autocracy. He told the American people that they had to join the war to uphold democracy and American ideals.
15. France, Great Britain, Italy, and the United States.
16. The two causes of labor shortage in the United States were:

• Our nation's industries needed badly to expand. This had to happen so we could meet the need for supplies and weapons that the war was creating.
• Millions of men were leaving their industrial jobs to go fight in the war. Very few European immigrants came to America during the war to fill their shoes. This left us with a huge deficit of industrial workers.

17.

• After The War

a. 27 nations gathered in Paris for a peace conference
b. Wilson was given a hearty reception in Europe
c. Europe was in ruins
d. Wilson offered a 14 point peace plan
e. One of the points concerned the creation of a League of Nations

• The Peace Conference

a. The “Big Four” world leaders attended the conference, those from Great Britain, France, Italy, and the United States
b. European leaders showed little enthusiasm for Wilson’s 14 Points
c. Wilson was forced to compromise his plan over and over again
d. The leaders discussed how to deal with both Germany and Russia
e. The treaty of Versailles was signed after months of negotiations
f. This treaty made Germany accept full responsibility for the war and pay billions in reparations
g. The treaty also broke up and rearranged the world map
h. Though the “14 Points” had been rejected, the League of Nations was included in the treaty

• Opposition at Home

a. Wilson presented the Treaty of Versailles to the US Senate, but they were not very receptive
b. The senate did not want to ratify the treaty, and the most powerful opponent was Henry Cabot Lodge of Massachusetts
c. Wilson went on a speaking tour to rally support for the treaty, when he had a stroke
d. In the following months, the senate refused to ratify the treaty and signed separate treaties with each of the Central Powers, and never joined the League of Nations

18. About 50 miles or so.
19. They moved East toward Belgium.
20. France.