Americas Government in the 1920s and 1930s (Essay Sample)

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America’s Government in the 1920s and 1930s
After its involvement in the Great War conflagration, it was time for America to “return to normalcy,” as Warren Hardin termed it, by dealing with its domestic affairs. The early 1920s of America was faced with the eruption of new movements regarding foreign policy, culture, society, economics, and politics which continued to the Great Depression Decade. In the 1930s, America was faced with serious economic problems that challenged the American capitalistic ideology. Major changes in the American society are linked to as back as the occurrences of the 1920 and the 1930s.
1920s
The “Decade of Optimism” began shortly after 1918 when America together with the Allies defeated the Germans in World War1. The onset of this decade was faced with a series of new inventions that defined a new wave of life in America (Turner 25). Mobility was improved by automobiles; additionally, the national culture was inaugurated by the invention of the radio and motion pictures. It was in 1920 when the 19th Amendment was enacted, issuing women the right to vote in a federal election. Following the war, women were allowed to smoke and drink in public; moreover, women increasingly participated in professions and businesses that were traditionally considered as masculine.
In the 1920s, America elected three different Republican presidents. Conservative Warren Hardin won the 1920 presidential election by a landslide, but his rule was associated with scandals such as the Oil Reserve Scandal (Turner 28). Following the death of Hardin in 1923, Engineer Calvin Coolidge (1923-1929) succeeded the office of president. Herbert Hoover (1929-1933) was later elected as a result of his soundness and deep faith in capitalism, which according to Hoover, was a full representation of individualism.
1930s
The crash of the stock market in 1929 marked the onset of the great economic catastrophe. The “Depression” of the 1930s led to high levels of unemployment dropping the national income grid to more than a half; by 1933, 15 million Americans were unemployed and the rate of industrial production declined by a whole third as compared to the rate in 1929 (Turner 32). Following the national despair, franklin Roosevelt easily won the 1932 elections against Herbert Hoover. Roosevelt’s authority was associated with visionary reforms set to specifically revive the American collapsed economy, and protect the American capitalism ideology that was under criticism.
In Roosevelt’s recovery mission, the First New Deal of 1933 to 1935 was aimed at discouraging the existing unhealthy competition, and encouraging farmers and business proprietors to work in unison and establish fair prices that would and upward turn and generate profits to all involved parties. The terms of the First New Deal were monitored by governmental organizations such as the Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA), and the National Recovery Administration (NRA) (Turner 36). The fruits of Roosevelt’s efforts were seen as early as 1935 where the economy seemingly embarked on the new plateau; however, by then, 10million Americans were still unemployed. The spirit of capitalism throughout the decade resulted to series of new Neutrality Acts between 1935 and 1937 (“Office of the Historian”). These Neutrality Acts advocated for an arms embargo, by prohibiting the government from loaning belligerents and also denying the sale of ammunitions to belligerents.
The Second New Deal of 1935 to 1938 was fashioned to be a pro-consumer and an anti-business reform. Under the Works Progress Administration (Turner 39), Roosevelt increased relief expenditure so as to improve the consumer purchasing power, and in turn, boost the economy. In 1933, Roosevelt enacted the Monetary Policy that set the price at which th...