Historical Problems

Woodrow Wilson has been described as c old, aloof and often arrogant, but he was not all intellect. By the time Wilson was elected governor of New Jersey he had never held a political office, and had never taken more than than a theorisers interest in politics. Wilsons personal view on how the Presidential office should be run is to lead a hoidenish rather than to be lead. He believed that a president should act bid a prime minister and not be isolated from Congress.Wilson him egotism woolgather of a Utopian society and amongst his intellectual supporters believed that this most terrible and bleak wars could be countenanced only by perceiving of it as the harbinger of eternal peace. The utopian spirit of the war took concrete form in Wilsons proposition of a postwar federation of nations, in itself not a utopian scheme but one which, from the first, was freighted with utopian aspirations. Though Wilson may gestate been an effective war president by delegating responsibiliti es to those qualified his aspirations for a perfect world and his sentiments of peace without victory obscured his humans.President Wilson presented his ideas for peace in his storied Fourteen Points address on January 8, 1918. Wilsons chief goal was to shake off the treaty provide for the formation of a League of Nations. He hoped that the affright of economic or multitude punishment from League members, including Ger umpteen, would prevent afterlife wars. Though Wilson held a prominent role in drafting the accordance of Versailles, and would later receive the Nobel Peace Prize for, the other major Allies, however, had smallish interest in honoring either Wilsons Fourteen Points or all his goals for the League of Nations.The allies had suffered far greater losses and treasured to punish Ger some severely. Strong opposition to the treaty developed in the get together States. Many Americans disagreed with Wilsons generous approach to worn-torn Europe. Republicans objected t o U. S. commitments to the League of Nations. The U. S. Senate refused to approve the treaty. withal blocking the passage of the League of Nations was the personal and political conflicts between Wilson and heat content Cabot Lodge. Lodge, who was then the Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, insisted the specific and limiting changes be ade to protect U. S. interests. Wilson would not compromise. Unable and perhaps unwilling to gift an agreement with Wilson, Lodge used his power and position to ensure the beat of the treatyand prevent American participation in the League of Nations. As to whether or not the postwar would dumbfound been different if the United States had legitimate and entered the League of Nations, it is unlikely. Americas refusal to join the League, fitted in with her desire to have an isolationist policy throughout the world.Therefore, the League had a final paragon to end war for good. However, if an aggressor nation was determined enough to give the sack the Leagues verbal warnings, all the League could do was give economic sanctions and hope these worked as it had no chance of enforcing its decisions using military might. Postwar 1920 brought many radical changes to Americans by the emanation in technology, discoveries, and inventions. start up culture during the 1920s was characterized by the flapper, automobiles, nightclubs, movies, and jazz. invigoration moved fast as a new sense of successfulness and freedom emerged at the end of cosmea War 1. The 1920s gave Americans radio, films, advertisements, and new literature to ponder. 1915 gave us a movie milestone in The Birth of a Nation, produced by D. W. Griffith. Americans were also given notable authors as F. Scott Fitzgerald, carrel Tarkington, Ernest Hemingway, and Sinclair Lewis. Authors of this period struggled to understand the changes occurring in society. While some writers praised the changes others ex kettle of fished shame in the passing of old w ays.But not before the printing press had Americans been brought together by shrinking the distances between citizenry and homes. Of all the new products put on the market during the decade, none met with more spectacular success than the radio. The radio brought into American homes commercials, stories, news, music, sports, and advertisement. Improvements in radio send and radio manufacturing itself quickly became a big business. Along with the increasing approachability of free-home entertainment it created a soaring demand for radios.The 1920s were wrought with many issues of cultural conflict, prejudices, nativism, and good policing. Widespread abuse of alcoholic beverage had been recognized as a serious social problem since the colonial days, in inelegant America as well as in cities, and demon special(a) had been long condemned from many Protestant pulpits during the 1920s. Prohibition was the governments solvent to protect women, children, and families from the effect s of abuse of alcohol, in other words, moral policing.Another font of moral policing today can be found in the disputable topic of legalizing marijuana. Conversely, their omission in the present debate reflects the unfortunate reality that marijuana prohibition is perpetuated not by science, but rather by emotion and rhetoric. The topic of nativism can be shown in three patriarchal issues immigration restriction, the KKK, and the cases of Sacco and Vanzetti. The old culture was generally anti-immigrant and tended to blame many of the problems of urban industrial American on immigrants.During the 1920s the old culture, which was extremely nativist in attitude, was able to pass several immigration restriction laws which both(prenominal) lowered the number of immigrants to the U. S. and limited the numbers immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe, which the old culture was particularly against. They did this through the quota system, set up in the touch Immigration Act of 1921 (and the revised with the 1924 National Origins Act) which established a legitimate number of immigrants from each country to be allowed into the U.S. per yr. Each countrys quota was based on a percentage (3%) of people of that nation in the U. S. in the base year of (1910). The rebirth of the KKK was another sign of the nativism of the 1920s as this new KKK was not only black, but also anti-Jewish, anti-Catholic and anti-immigrant. So have Americans learned their lesson from the 1920s and have they changed their attitudes concerning nativism, moral policing, and are we so far considered a prejudice country?In the year 2011, do Americans still consider them as macrocosm progressive and that they refuse to repeat history? Nativisim and prejudices can still be felt and seen throughout the United States. Our country is still debating nativism in the authorized situation with illegal immigrants. Newspapers, television shows, the radio, and internet are covered in stories of immigr ation policies. Our country is still swarmed with prejudices between races, religions, and lifestyles. It is our history to repeat and go forth our past mistakes.As stated before, the 1920s brought many radical changes to America with the advancement in technology, discoveries, and inventions. Pop culture in the 1920s was characterized by the flapper, automobiles, nightclubs, movies, and music. Life moved fast as a new sense of prosperity and freedom emerged at the end of World War I. In many ways our current era is like that of the 1920s. Our society is now attached to each other via the internet, and Facebook. On the spot news is even fracture now with television and radio and better yet the cell phone.Society is overflow with the most current, up-to-date news, even if no one cares what reading or hearing about. We are still a drug crazed and alcohol abusing society with fast cars, outrageous clothes and hairstyles. It just may be that we are going at a faster pace than those in the 1920s. What can be seen differently is that maybe our morals have debased in some aspects of society. Not that all society can be defined as a whole, as there are still those in our current society and those of the 1920s that still and did value self respect, morals, God, and country.Works Cited1920-1930. 1920s Literature. 2005. http//www.1920-1930.com/literature. (accessed display 6, 2011. Content, new. Woodrow Wilson. http//www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/wilson/peopleevents/p_lodge.html. (accessed March 6, 2011). Durant, John Durant Alice. Pictorial write up of American Presidents An informal record of the Presidents and their times from George majuscule to Lyndon B. Johnson. New York A.S. Barnes and Company Inc. 1965 77-78 Learning History. League of Nations. 2011. http//www.historylearningsite.co.uk/leagueofnations.htm (accessed March 6, 2011). Leuchgenburg, William E. The Perils of Prosperity 1914-1932. shekels The University of Chicago Press. 1993 349 NORML. Government & Pr ivate Commissions Supporting Marijuana Law Reform. 2010. http//www.norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=3382 (accessed March 6, 2011). Raford. Nativism (as part of the 1920s culture conflict. 1997. http//www.radford.edu/-shepburn/nativism.htm (accessed March 6, 2011). Time Life Editors. The spiel Era, Prohibition.Alexandria. Time Life Inc., 1998 Time Life Editors. Events That Shaped Our Century, Our American Century. Alexandria, 1998