Posted: September 16th, 2017

Introduction to the Jazz Age

1. The last quarter of the nineteenth century brought a slow but perceptible change in American foreign policy. Discuss how that change developed down through the end of the Spanish-American War. Then trace the development of American foreign policy though the administrations of Roosevelt, Taft, and Wilson (to 1917). What assumptions and objectives lay behind their decisions? How did their foreign policies differ in focus? World War I, or the Great War, was the opening phase of what historians increasingly refer to as the Second Thirty-Years War. It was a great watershed in American foreign policy – the first time that American soldiers were sent in massive numbers to fight on another continent. Discuss American participation in the war – the path of entry, the struggle on the western front, and the effect of the conflict on the home front. Then discuss the basis of Wilson ‘s peace plan and the ultimate result. In the final analysis, how did the Great War reshape American life?
2. The Roaring Twenties began with a severe reaction to the war and the ardent progressivism of the Wilson years. What programs, policies, and commitments marked the domestic and foreign policies of the Harding and Coolidge administrations? In your analysis, discuss to what extent the policies of these two administrations were a reaction to progressivism.

   Perhaps its most famous aspects of the Jazz Age were the emphasis on business and the new consumerism – notably the love affair with the automobile – coupled with the remarkable “new” social developments that altered American life in many ways. Discuss these sensational changes. In the final analysis, to what degree did the Jazz Age change the social contours of American life?

3. Identify and give the significance of five of the following ten items?
   1. Dollar Diplomacy
   2. Open Door Notes
   3. Lusitania incident
   4. The Fourteen Points
   5. The Great Red Scare
   6. KDKA
   7. Flappers
   8. Prohibition
   9. The Scopes Trial
   10. Harlem Renaissance