US History timeline & concept chart: 1900-1940
US History timeline & concept chart: 1900-1940
Objectives:
- to help students to
- associate timelines with events, persons, themes & concepts
- associate presidents with timelines, themes & concepts
- identify timelines with BIG IDEAS across periods of US history
- find connections and common themes across US history
- easily find relevant details for larger comprehension
- to help teachers to
- quickly review US History content for lesson planning
- provide students with easy and complete reference source for US history
Click EXPAND for a note for mobile phone users (already shows on mobile)
- these timeline & concept charts use tables in order to connect ideas, timelines, and major concepts
- tables are not mobile-friendly (they do not wrap to a single column)
- when these charts are complete, we will in the future convert the charts to mobile-friendly format as an alternative file
- we encourage you to use a tablet or larger monitor in order to see the charts here
Index
Page structure & format guide
U.S. History course pages:
1890s=1910s: Progressive Era[edit | edit source]
| PERIOD / TIMELINE | Major Events, Concepts & Themes | Notes & connections: details of issues, concepts, themes & events |
|---|---|---|
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BIG IDEAS subsection
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1890s-1910s Progressive Era
Anti-Corruption “Scientific Approach” to public policy” “Direct Democracy”
>> which fueled political agitation and demand for government reform > governments, local, state and national responded with regulations and greater enforcement of laws, especially for food, drugs, workplace conditions > womens’ suffrage advanced during progressive era, although it took WWI for the constitutional amendment to protect the right of women to vote (19th amendments, 1920 - “Direct democracy” : progressives believed that government corruption would be fixed by more “direct” participation of voters in laws and government. > successful in many cities and some states, they promoted: 1. initiative: voters could propose new laws to be voted on by the public 2. referendum: voters could vote on proposals set for popular vote by officials or legislatures 3. recall: voters could vote to remove public officials from office - Commissions: progressives wanted governments to be “scientific” and not political, so they promoted use of “commissions” as independent governing bodies, especially for regulatory bodies - economic reforms: > anti-trust (banning monopolies) > railroad regulations, especially prices for passengers and freight > child labor, workplace, maximum work hours, & other workplace rules > food and drug safety, sanitation, and truthful advertising - other reforms: > municipal sanitation > anti-corruption > forest and park management 1890s-1910s Progressive Era personalities - Robert LaFollette: WI Senator, progressive movement leader - President Theodore Roosevelt - WEB DuBois: founder of the NAACP - Margaret Sanger: womens’ suffrage & rights, promoted contraceptives and abortion 1890s-1910s Progressive Era Constitutional Amendments Progressive Era legislation - 16th Amendment, 1913: federal income tax - 17th Amendment, 1913: direct election of Senators (states previously selected Senators by vote in the legislature; by the time of this amendment, most states had already allowed for “direct” or “popular” election of Senators by the public - 18th Amendment, 1919: banned sale of alcohol - 19th Amendment, 1920: guaranteed right to vote for women Laws/ Agencies: - Pure Food & Drug Act, 1906 (following publication of “The Jungle” exposing meat industry conditions) - Federal Trade Commission - Clayton Antitrust Act of 1914 - Federal Reserve Act === subheading
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1900s: McKinley, (T) Roosevelt & Taft administrations[edit | edit source]
| PERIOD / TIMELINE | Major Events, Concepts & Themes | Notes & connections: details of issues, concepts, themes & events |
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| PERIOD / TIMELINE | Major Events, Concepts & Themes | Notes & connections: details of issues, concepts, themes & events |
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1910s: Taft & Wilson administrations[edit | edit source]
| PERIOD / TIMELINE | Major Events, Concepts & Themes | Notes & connections: details of issues, concepts, themes & events |
|---|---|---|
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BIG IDEAS subsection
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World War I, 1914-1918, US: 1917-18 Neutrality “Foreign War” Protest/ dissent Ensuring Peace - American neutrality = official US policy at beginning of the European war - English blockade of US ports to block shipments to Germany > Germany responded with U-Boats (submarine) attacks on ships supplying Great Britain - Zimmerman telegram: German ambassador to Mexico tried to get Mexico to declare war on U.S.; his telegraph was intercepted by British and sparked anti-German outrage in U.S. - Espionage Act, 1917, Sedition Act , 1918: laws prohibiting dissent against U.S. (reminiscent of Alien & Sedition Acts of 1798) - Selective Service Act of 1917: authorized draft of soldiers - Spanish Flu, 1917-18: massive pandemic exacerbated by wartime preparations with concentrations of young solders - Committee on Public Information (CPI) ran anti-German and anti-Russian propaganda during the war - Worldwide attempts to prevent future wars: > Washington Conference (limiting arms stockpiling) > Kellogg-Briand Pact: international agreement to outlaw war U.S. Prohibition, Red Scare Communist Revolution in Russia Radicalism in US (bombs, strikes) - 18th Amendment put into law the long temperance fight to ban alcohol - Red Scare: socialists and anti-war radicals demonstrated and led strikes during the War, which they saw as a capitalist enterprise > many radical leaders were immigrants, who were often blamed for those movements > bombings: during 1918-1920 a series of bombs were set off by radicals, including the Wall Street Bombing, which killed 30 - Palmer Raids, 1920s: US government responded to bombings and agitations by arresting 10,000+ people under suspicion of anti-American and pro-Russian sympathies - FBI created to investigate radicals during WWI and was used to enforce prohibition laws > J. Edgar Hoover ran the agency, led it like his own kingdom - following WWI and anti-war agitation, public turned anti-immigrant and immigration was largely shut down through 1920s until after WWII === subheading
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1920s: Wilson, Harding, Coolidge & Hoover administrations[edit | edit source]
| PERIOD / TIMELINE | Major Events, Concepts & Themes | Notes & connections: details of issues, concepts, themes & events |
|---|---|---|
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1910-1920s Court Cases “Incorporation” of the Bill of Rights into state law Expanding federal jurisdiction over states - Supreme Court began to apply the protections of the Bill of Rights to state law > process called “Incorporation” > BOR originally applied only to federal government > 14th amendment opened door to “incorporation” > cases tended to be >> freedom of speech, especially regarding protests during WWI >> protections against illegal search and seizures Cases: - Schenk v. US: socialist agitator arrested for violating Espionage Act of 1917 that prohibited “interference” w/ War effort >> court ruled that some speech can be regulated if it endangers others (presents a “clear and present danger” such as “yelling fire in a crowded theatre”) 1920s Themes: - return to normalcy after WWI - economic boom - consumerism / consumer loans - technology spread, esp. autos, telephones, radio - women’s expanding roles in economy, politics - Great migration: black social & economic change - Economic boom - business oriented governance > Republican presidents reduced income taxes but kept tariffs, including to enact the disastrous Smoot-Hawley tariff, which was “protectionist” or “protectionism” > labor unions lost favor, growth of “welfare capitalism” under which businesses offered workers benefits in exchange for not forming unions or striking - consumer culture: > expansion of consumer credit fueled consumer purchases, esp: > automobiles, appliances, radios, suburbs growth > “labor saving devices” < freed women from many household tasks - Jazz Age: > flappers > jazz > “Lost Generation” writers: Hemingway, Fitzgerald, O’Neill Also: - Prohibition era > bathtub gin (home-made alcohol) > gangster era (Al Capone, rum runners) - Stock market frenzy > stock market crash, 1929 - restrictions on Immigration: Emergency Quota Act of 1924 - Scopes Monkey Trial: over teaching evolution 1929-32 Stock Market Crash of 1920 Leads to Great Depression
- Hoovervilles: shantytowns of unemployed, named for President Hoover - Bonus Expeditionary Force (protest in DC by impoverished veterans) - Dust Bowl - New Deal > “ABC” Agencies: created to respond to every aspect of life > see FDR for more > Workers Progress Administration (WPA): to put people to work, including artisans, artists, writers
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1930s: Hoover & (F) Roosevelt administrations[edit | edit source]
| PERIOD / TIMELINE | Major Events, Concepts & Themes | Notes & connections: details of issues, concepts, themes & events |
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New Deal Restoring confidence in banks and in America Federal intervention in economy Regulations, Social Welfare FDR administration “relief” and interventions > see Franklin Roosevelt in Presidents timeline New Deal laws included: > Emergency Banking Relief Bill (to stop panics), 1933 > Banking Act of 1933 >> authorized the > Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation to insure/ guarantee individual deposits in banks > Agricultural Investment Act (AAA) > Farm Credit Act > National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA) >> which created the Public Words Administration (PWA) to build roads and other projects for employment and Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) to support similar programs in states >> under the NIRA, FDR seized control of the Tennessee Valley Authority (which built dams and electrical plants) > National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) > Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) - New Deal legacies: > Alphabet Agencies: federal agencies, many with abbreviations (AAA, CCC) that were created and led to huge federal increase in regulatory powers > Social welfare programs became permanent part of federal role in people’s lives > enacted much of the agenda of the 1900s progressives and 1890s populists WWII, 1939-45 US: 1941-45 Total Mobilization - Nye Commission of 1936: Senate investigation into arms sales by US companies that led up to WWI, including making bribes to foreign leaders, led to the: - Neutrality Acts (1935-37) > barred sale of weapons to nations at war > official US neutrality as war became inevitable in Asia and Europe > “isolationism” : anti-war sentiment === subheading
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1940s (F) Roosevelt & Truman administrations[edit | edit source]
| PERIOD / TIMELINE | Major Events, Concepts & Themes | Notes & connections: details of issues, concepts, themes & events |
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- U.S. preparation for war, including > Selective Training & Service Act, 1940: 1st peacetime military draft > Hollywood propaganda movies > Lend-Lease Act, 1941: authorized “loans” of military equipment to Britain > Atlantic-Charter Conference: Pres Roosevelt and British PM Churchill met to declare mutual agreement and goals for defeating Nazis - Pearl Harbor, Dec 7, 1941: Japanese attack on US Naval base in Hawaii led to U.S. Declaration of War against Japan and Germany - Internment of Japanese Americans, 1942 === subheading
WWII Home Front - total mobilization for war - civilian efforts to support military via rationing, “victory gardens” buying US gov bonds to finance the war - women and minorities apart of mobilization - Manhattan project: race to build the atomic bomb European Theater: v. Germany, starting in N. Africa, working up through Italy, then Normandy Invasion of France > Germany surrendered June 1945 after US closed in on West and Russians from the East Asian Theater v. Japan, starting w/ Pearl Harbor, loss of Philippines, then working up towards Japanese mainland via “island hopping” - Atomic Bomb, Aug, 1945 ended the war === subheading
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