1920–1945

Abstract

The decades following World War I were marked by continuities and disruptions. During the 1920s the nation continued to develop its industrial and consumer economy, and employers and the state were largely successful in preventing workers from unionizing those industries. Legislation restricting immigration from Europe and Asia drew new migrants from the American South and Mexico to the farms and factories of the North and West. The automobile, prohibition, new arts, radio, and movies changed Americans’ leisure and culture. The Great Depression of the 1930s led to high unemployment, and then dramatic change with a new government that altered political, cultural, and social relations. The New Deal offered jobs, recognized unions, and supported cultural expression, but it was the economic boom of World War II that stimulated optimism as well as fears. The “Good War” transformed American society in new ways: it offered jobs to women and African Americans, attracted new migrants to cities, created a publicly funded military-industrial complex, and resulted in one of the largest human rights infractions in the country’s history, the internment of West Coast Japanese Americans.