the 20th century has been called by many
the American century the US was on the
victorious side in the world wars was at
the forefront of the opposition to the
Soviet bloc and its attempts to expand
communism during the Cold War and was
the global leader of technological
innovation and human development for
much of the 20th century it was the
world's most prosperous nation with the
highest standard of living and it set a
cultural and economic standard that the
world population even in enemy
territories aspired to emulate yes the
u.s. sometimes resorted to the
undemocratic and inhumane methods of its
enemies and there were huge ethnic
struggles and social and economic
inequalities but by many positive
measures it was the world leader but now
in 1921 popular sentiment and the u.s.
political forces that oppose the
progressive movement are in the process
of halting the march toward global
leadership at a crucial moment in world
history
welcome to between two wars a summary of
the interwar years from the uncertainty
and hedonism of the 1920s to humanity's
descent into the darkness of the Second
World War
i'm indy neidell the united states of
america had been founded on the idea of
creating an independent nation apart
from the social economic and military
problems of the colonial powers from
which it had originated although a
nation of immigrants and settlers the US
had until 1865 focused on
self-sufficiency and extreme liberalism
merging on libertarianism it traded with
the world at arm's length and practiced
economic policies of protectionism and
isolationism with the American Civil War
and the industrialization of the
northern states this starts to change
under President Abraham Lincoln and his
successors this rather sprawling
progressive era will end with President
Woodrow Wilson now the progressive era
was a period of reform resulting
generally in better minority rights
better social care and the end of the
deeply corrupt American marcantel system
but let's be clear here the u.s.
Progressive Era has nothing to do with
left or right wing politics you have to
consider that the u.s. at this time is
at the forefront of classical liberalism
within both the Republican and the
Democratic parties and today's
classification of Republicans and
Democrats on the right or the left does
not apply in fact it is the Republican
Party under Lincoln that begins the era
but it is soon adopted as a core
philosophy by both parties in any case
progressivism picked up speed in the
early 1900s under Republican presidents
Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard
Taft and they began to drop the 19th
century state of isolationism the idea
was to bring the u.s. into the budding
global community of nations Roosevelt
had expanded US influence in South
America while laying a foundation for
increased global trade with the
construction of the Panama Canal on the
domestic front
Roosevelt's Taft's and Wilson's policies
brought more equal opportunity and
prosperity and fit right into the ideals
that would later be called living the
American dream
much of this was supported or at least
accepted by the majority of the American
people but there was little public
desire for u.s. involvement in foreign
issues and conflicts in fact Woodrow
Wilson a Democrat had won re-election in
1916 on the slogan he kept us out of the
war so with the US entry into the world
war in April 1917 there was outrage
throughout the nation by the end of the
war with over a hundred thousand
American lives lost and twice that
wounded the public had had enough the
Republicans seized on the popular
sentiment of dissatisfaction and in the
midterm elections of 1918 the Democrats
lost their majority in Congress and even
saw their significant majority in the
Senate shift to a solid Republican
advantage Wilson now faces an uphill
battle to secure ratification for the
peace plans proposed in his 14 points
and the creation of a League of Nations
for which he is fighting during the 1919
Paris Peace Conference the Republicans
led by Senator Henry Cabot Lodge
strongly oppose many parts of the Treaty
of Versailles and the League of Nations
especially the mandate of the league to
make war in the name of all members if
someone breaks the covenant of the
league Wilson refuses to compromise but
it looks like he might get the votes he
needs in the Senate anyway however in
September 1919 he collapses from
exhaustion the next month he suffers a
series of strokes that leaves him
seriously disabled in November his
supporters failed to secure the
two-thirds majority for ratification and
the u.s. walks away from the Treaty of
Versailles and the League of Nations a
significant blow to Wilson's peace plan
that will have massive ramifications and
contribute to the conflicts that lead to
the outbreak of World War two 20 years
later but foreign policy is only the tip
of the iceberg of problems now facing
the ailing president the post-war
economy is suffering there is a growing
feeling of despair as the country heads
toward a sharp deflationary recession
and race and labor riots have sprung up
all over America the economic downturn
is largely due to the end of a war
economy with hundreds of thousands of
soldiers coming home
and looking for jobs that are no longer
there this will eventually turn around
into economic prosperity and the roaring
20s when the Allies start paying back
their war debts but in 1920 1921 this
seems far away so as the u.s. heads into
the 1920 elections the country is in
turmoil Wilson is not only losing
popularity but his health prevents him
from running for a third presidential
term back then you could do that
actually instead the Democratic
candidate is the relatively unknown
Governor James M Cox who's running mate
as Franklin D Roosevelt the opposing
Republican nominee senator warren g
harding crushes Cox in a landslide
winning the largest popular vote margin
in a century
but before Harding officially takes
office on March 4th 1921
President Wilson presides over two major
amendments to the US Constitution on
August 26 the 19th amendment is passed
granting women the right to vote you can
learn more about that in our video sex
drugs and the right to vote the other
amendment overseen by the Wilson
administration is the 18th amendment
this will famously be known as
prohibition in 1919 the idea of banning
the production distribution and sale of
alcohol is considered a progressive idea
that has been brewing throughout the
Progressive Era the temperance movements
had been around for over a hundred years
in the state's alcoholism was in fact
rampant all over the Western world and
exacerbated things like poverty domestic
abuse and crime in general in 1830 the
average American drank three times as
much alcohol as in 2010 though women
tended to drink far less than men
Christian activists labeled drinking as
immoral and unchristian the temperance
movement also became closely associated
with women's suffrage as many of the
activists were women by 1900 though it
was still a state issue with Kansas
being the first to abolish alcohol in
1881 it was during the world war that
the idea of a nationwide ban on alcohol
became popular with progressive
politicians taxes on alcohol were
increased and by 19
17 a majority of both Republicans and
Democrats were dries as prohibitionists
were popularly called an unexpected
effect of the war was that it's
sidelined the power base of German
Americans who had been strongly anti
prohibition as many of them were linked
to the brewing industry
a majority of Americans and President
Wilson personally are actually opposed
to Prohibition despite both parties in
Congress supporting it by broad
majorities by 1919 prohibition had been
enacted as state law in 36 of the 48
states and on the 28th of October 1919
the 18th amendment passed Wilson
actually vetoed the amendment but the
Senate overrode him On January 16th 1920
it goes into effect what followed though
was not a more moral and stable Society
instead it was an unprecedented wave of
crime as Wilson and other wets had
predicted the total ban of alcohol
distribution in a country where most
adults are alcoholics is not something
you do without encountering major
problems as soon as the news of the 18th
amendment reaches the public people
begin stockpiling like crazy filling
basement storerooms and warehouses with
liquor even Wilson fills up his
Washington mansion with liquor in 1921
when Harding who voted for the amendment
takes office he'll move a huge supply of
all kinds of booze into the White House
the implementation of the law is also
badly planned for instance alcohol has
medicinal value but suddenly doctors
cannot use it and when the law is
amended so that physicians can sell
medicinal alcohol many start selling it
illegally at a high profit and there are
plenty of customers especially once
those stockpiles run dry
people living in the border states can
get liquor in Mexico or Canada but for
the most part people have to find other
avenues of access to satisfy that demand
come the bootleggers bootlegging begins
a smuggling from Mexico and Canada but
as border controls tighten many
bootleggers start working at sea off the
coast of Atlantic City foreign ships
dump crates of alcohol into speedboats
fast enough
to outrun the Coast Guard running these
complex operations is organized
syndicate crime
thus the birth of prohibition is also
the birth of something else the American
Mafia okay in New York gambling and Loan
King Arnold Rothstein was already
running his criminal organization as a
serious business in the teens and he
will briefly foray into bootlegging that
we in the 20s his focus will shift to
becoming America's and the world's drug
kingpin before his murder in 1928 by
then his empires ranks will include such
familiar names as Dutch Schultz Lucky
Luciano legs diamond and Meyer Lansky
but the most famous gangster of all to
us in 2018 was Al Capone who in 1920 was
still Alphonse Gabriel and working as a
bouncer in a Chicago brothel
Capone's boss Big Jim Cullum ISA is
murdered in May and Johnny Torrio takes
over making Capone his second-in-command
Torrio and Capone get into bootlegging
big-time selling to the whole south side
of Chicago with the profits they expand
into gambling prostitution racketeering
extortion and new fields like narcotics
in 1924 Capone will ambush and murder
his aunt Oreos rival Dean O'Banion the
crime boss and leader of the mainly
Irish North Side gang thus consolidating
power over all of Chicago and putting
Capone on track to be the most powerful
crime boss in America but for now that's
in the future in 1921 Al Capone's story
is there's nothing out of the ordinary
organized crime literally explodes
throughout the states when the
distribution of illegal liquor becomes
increasingly complex it's the most
lucrative criminal activity in the
country and before long people start
making booze within the borders again
denatured alcohol used by various
industries is washed for toxic chemicals
and mixed with regular water and sold by
small crime rings to unknowing buyers
thousands of bargain drinkers become
paralyzed blind or even die these small
crime rings merge to create larger
operations and it creates an entire dark
economy Valley
chain from farmers selling wheat to
underground breweries and backroom
distilleries and finally the illegal
bars and nightclubs which become known
as speakeasies who pay top dollar for
the product to protect their operations
the gangs fight the police and each
other in the streets and alleys of
America and the gangsters become
household names America has again become
the land of opportunity
but criminal opportunity and as so often
happens the fish stinks from the head
President Harding will die of a heart
attack in office in 1923 and it will be
revealed that here in 1921 he's one of
the most corrupt citizens of them all
during the Teapot Dome scandal he and
Secretary of the Interior Albert befall
set up a lease program to give naval oil
reserves at low rates to private oil
companies for which those companies paid
the to a fortune a fortune Harding uses
to live the early roaring 20s like a
gangster boss
he organizes high-stakes poker games in
the White House he he entertains
numerous mistresses and he drinks away
at his stockpile of booze turning 1600
Pennsylvania Avenue into the most
glorious speakeasy of them all but he
does more than that Harding ran on a
ticket of return to normalcy which to
the people meant that America should
focus on itself so he enacts heavy
isolationist and protectionist policies
that make America turn its back on a
world that is left to Hitler Stalin
Mussolini Tojo and the like to define
although he continues progressive
measures to give for example black
Americans more rights and he is not
personally opposed to immigration there
is widespread fear of new arrivals from
Eastern Europe that might infect America
with communism so under popular pressure
he restricts immigration especially from
Eastern Europe many of these Eastern
Europeans are Jews who must now remain
in Europe and continue to suffer
oppression and persecution together with
his Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover
Harding does a lot to promote business
he act
we promotes the development of new
technology he cuts taxes above levels
recommended by his economists and in an
effort to I guess free the American
economy abolish --is the regulations of
businesses and the financial sector put
in place by his predecessors the market
will in fact boom as taxes go down and
fresh money flows back into the country
with the repayment of allied war debts
but unchecked and unregulated financial
markets will eventually inflate into a
gigantic bubble that will burst in 1929
wreaking havoc on the entire planets
economy but the financial rush Hoover's
and Harding's policies begin to unleash
on the country creates so much
short-term prosperity that despite the
Teapot Dome scandal being actively
investigated and Harding already shortly
after his death being labeled the worst
president in US history
his Vice President Calvin Coolidge has
no problem winning the presidential
election of 1924 Coolidge keeps Hoover
at his post and largely pursues the same
policies as Harding but nearly ten years
from now then President Hoover will be
overwhelmed by the Great Depression but
already before that hits all the
programs that Wilson had hoped would
stop our resurgence of militarism will
begin to fail now that the US has turned
its back on the world and refused to
join the peace effort the League of
Nations is weakened to the point of
being meaningless
thus useless in checking the upcoming
rise of militarism in Germany and Japan
and renewed plans of the Soviets to
violently expand their communist empire
events that are driven by extremists
increasing their power on the heels of a
financial collapse created by wild
speculation on financial markets that
have been unleashed and left unchecked
by the world's governments the price for
a warm feeling emanating from the
burning hot furnace of short-term
financial growth behind the closed doors
of uncle Harding's cabin in the 1920s
will be counted in American lives
starting December 7 1941
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see you next time Cheers the temperance
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