Americans After Ww2

In the book, America’s Great War: World War I and the American Experience, Robert H. Zieger discusses the events between 1914 through 1920 forever defined the United States in the Twentieth Century. When conflict broke out in Europe in 1914, the President, Woodrow Wilson, along with the American people wished to remain neutral. In the beginning of the Twentieth Century United States politics was still based on the “isolationism” ideals of the previous century. The United States did not wish to be involved in European politics or world matters. The U.S. goal was to expand trade and commerce throughout the world and protect the borders of North America.

World War II brought several changes to the world and specifically America. It not only changed the world map but also set impact on the behaviours. WWII played a major role in building turning points during different periods. Before WWII, African Americans were not offered equal rights in the community. It was considered an impossible thing that African could ever do a white collar or even a blue collar job. However, soon after the WWII, there came a turning point in the lives of African American with the Civil Rights Act in 1964.

At first the government supported open immigration in the open and settled land, but after the Civil War while, states began to pass their own immigration regulations and immigrating become more difficult. The Supreme Court decided immigration would be under federal jurisdiction in 1875, and Congress created the Department of Immigration in 1891. Since 1900 to 1921, Congress created the "quota system," which gave authorization for a specified number of individuals of all ethnic groups in immigration like most Asian nations (Wellman, Cole).

In the book, America's Great War: World War I and the American Experience, Robert H. Zieger discusses the events between 1914 through 1920 forever defined the United States in the Twentieth Century. When conflict broke out in Europe in 1914, the President, Woodrow Wilson, along with the American people wished to remain neutral. In the beginning of the Twentieth Century United States politics was still based on the "isolationism" ideals of the previous century. The United States did not wish to be involved in European politics or world matters. The U.S. goal was to expand trade and commerce throughout the world and protect the borders of North America.

After World War II, the American psyche became permanently stained with new ideas. During this time period, the American government actively sought to change the way the American people thought. The support of the American public was crucial to the success of the war effort. Many ideas introduced during this point of time consisted of new roles of certain people groups in American society. Women and minority groups would prove themselves in the workplace, millions of citizens would be discriminated against, and social barriers would be broken and assembled. Even though World War II took place in Europe and the Pacific, it made lasting social changes that can still be seen in America.

In 1924 the U.S. passed the National Origin Act which restricted the immigration of Southern and Eastern Europeans and practically excluded immigration from Japan into the United States all together.

The period between 1900 and 1915 is thought to be the peak of immigration. More than ten million people came to the United States looking for a better future. The fact that these included Jews and Catholics alerted older Anglo-Saxon and Protestant American citizens. They also disliked the fact that newcomers with their Old World customs, dared to compete for low-wage jobs. As the tension over immigration rose, a series of anti-immigration measures were taken. Immigration Quota Law of 1924 and a 1929 act, both of these laws limited the number of immigrants to over a hundred thousand to be distributed among people of different nationalities as oppose to the number of the fellow countrymen already living in the United States in 1920.

1924’s Johnson-Reed Act lowered the quota to two per cent and used the 1890 census figures. It also provided that in 1927 no more than 150,000 immigrants per year would be admitted on the basis of their national origin. These quotas favored the Western European countries. No restrictions were placed on Western Hemisphere countries such as Canada and Mexico. Asians were totally excluded. Another feature the 1924 law provided was the partiality and non quota status given to certain relatives of American citizens such as parents, children under twenty-two, husbands and the wives and children under eighteen.

The immigration act of 1924 was really the first permanent limitation on immigration. This limitation was like a quota system that only aloud two percent instead of the three percent of each foreign born group living in the United states in 1890. Like it say in Document A “Under the act of 1924 the number of each nationality who may be admitted annually is limited to two per cent of the population of such nationality resident in the United States according to the census of 1890.” Using the 1890 census instead of newer up-to-date ones they excluded a lot of new immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe that came by in resent years (This is shown awfully well in Document B). This acts annual quota changed from 358,000 in 1921 to 164,000

The literacy tests required anyone over the age of 16 to “demonstrate reading comprehension in any language” (office of the historian). The test was only given to enable the government to deny people they did not want in the country. The other law which the Immigration Act of 1924 upheld was the ‘asiatic barred zone’. This law prevented anyone from most of Asia and the Pacific Islands from coming to America. It did not include japan or China, but people from these areas were already banned from immigrating to the United States. In addition to these rules the Immigration Act of 1924 instilled a stricter quota system that determined the number of migrants allowed into the United States from each country in the Eastern Hemisphere. The Western Hemisphere was exempt from the quota system. The new quota system allowed only “two percent of the foreign-born population” (office of the historian). It also made changes to the way in which quotas were calculated. The quota calculation would now be based on “the origins of the U.S. population, including natural-born citizens” rather than the number of people born outside of the U.S. (office of the historian). The result of these new restrictions and methods of

Any conflict with these countries would be detrimental to the recovering American economy. World War I was seen as a mistake by many Americans due to the senate hearings from 1934-1935 where the banking and arms industry was accused of influencing Wilson’s administration to go to war. The idea of pacifism became the progressive initiative. Many people of German and Italian decent even supported their home countries advancement in Europe.

The act set quotas limiting annual immigration from particular countries. Wives and unmarried children of US citizens, residents of the Western hemisphere, religious or academic professionals were all allowed free entrance. Other than that, everyone else was subject to annual numerical limits. For three year until July 1927, the quota would be two percent of the total population of that nationality based upon the 1890 Census. After that, the quota would be limited to a total of 150,000 immigrants which would be divided in proportion of the birth countries to the ancestry of the 1920

Is it possible to know what Americans thought of World War II, if they believed that the war was a just war or whether they did not agree for what the United States was fighting for? The historian Studs Terkel believes he knows this answer and that Americans saw themselves as liberators of an oppressed world fighting for the just war which can be concluded from his famous volume, The Good War. Of course one person’s beliefs should not be believed as easily just by reading a book. A person should base their opinions on something much more analytical than that. In order to decide whether some Americans actually thought that World War II was a just war, a thorough analysis should be done of American life looking at all the facts found. Beginning with American experience before the war then analyzing the experience of the war and the home-front itself and finally ending with the analysis of America after World War II a conclusion can be made regarding the American point of view.

Third, the U.S started importing more products than we exported causing a deficit for the competition products made here had with imported goods, which was very high

The Effects of World War II on American Society Introduction paragraph… World War II (Sep 1, 1939 – Sep 2, 1945) led to many things. Our Technology as a whole grew more advanced, we learned new techniques in the medical field and most importantly democracy spread throughout the allies. The allies included America, Russia, Great Britain, and France. These countries united to defeat Germany, Italy, and Japan who were known as the axis powers. It was a hard fought war that was very costly for both sides.