Primary Sources in U.S. History ISoLATIoNISm World War I was more costly in terms of lives than most Americans had expected By 1918 around 114,000 Americans had in Europe After the war and a deadly Spanish flu pandemic many Americans wanted to turn their backs on the world They wanted to concentrate on U.S. issues not get caught up in international affairs This attitude toward the rest of the world was known as Isolationism The Unknown Soldier was buried in Washington D.C. in 1921 The huge losses of the war convinced many Americans to turn their backs on the world
THE JAzz AgE AND THE gREAT DEPRESSIoN SouRCE ExPLoRED This cartoon was published in Punch magazine in London on December 10 1919 It shows Uncle Sam beside the League of Nations bridge resting on the keystone that would hold the bridge up Without U S involvement the cartoon implies the bridge will collapse The cartoon is a comment on the fact that the League of Nations was proposed by U S President Woodrow Wilson as an organization for settling international disputes Most Americans did not want to join however for fear of being dragged into another war In March 1920 the U S Congress refused to join the League or ratify the Treaty of Versailles that had ended the war AS THEy SAW IT We are met to-day to pay the impersonal tribute The name of him whose body lies before us took flight with his imperishable soul We know not whence he came but only that his death marks him with the everlasting glory of an American dying for his country President Warren g Harding at the dedication of the tomb of The unknown Soldier Arlington Cemetery November 11 1921 This Punch cartoon reflected a common belief that without U.S. support the League of Nations was bound to fail
Primary Sources in U.S. History THE RISE oF NoRmALCy President Harding throws out a baseball at a game in Washington D.C. Harding promoted a return to normalcy The start of the 1920s brought a determination to keep the United States out of international trouble The new president republican Warren g Harding caught the mood by promoting a return to normalcy The word was an unusual alternative to normality Harding encouraged prosperity bringing in tax cuts eliminating controls on business and introducing tighter immigration policies
THE JAzz AgE AND THE gREAT DEPRESSIoN During his presidential campaign before the 1920 election Warren g Harding made a key speech to a rally in Boston He went on to win the election by a landslide America’s present need is not heroics but healing not nostrums but normalcy not revolution but restoration not agitation but adjustment not surgery but serenity not the dramatic but the dispassionate not experiment but equipoise balance not submergence in internationality but sustainment in triumphant nationality It’s one thing to battle successfully against the world’s domination by a military autocracy but it’s quite another thing to revise human nature and suspend the fundamental laws of life and all of life’s requirements This U.S. Employment Service poster encouraged employers to offer work to returning veterans SouRCE ExPLoRED With hundreds of thousands of soldiers returning home from Europe finding jobs for many of them was a key government concern More than two thousand bureaus were set up across the country to help soldiers and sailors find work Where possible they were given jobs that women and older men had done while the men had been away fighting in the war
