The New Big Book of U.S. Presidents
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The son of a Presbyterian minister, Wilson earned his law degree as well as a doctorate in government and embarked on an academic career. As president of Princeton University, he gained a national reputation as a progressive reformer and in 1910 was elected governor of New Jersey. In the three-way presidential election of 1912, Wilson campaigned successfully on a program called the New Freedom, which stressed breaking up concentrated financial power.
During his first term, Wilson passed many progressive laws, including those reorganizing the U.S. banking system, prohibiting child labor, and giving workers an eight-hour day. This popular legislation carried Wilson to a narrow victory in 1916.
Wilson’s second term was dominated by America’s entry into World War I. Wilson believed that foreign affairs should be governed by morality and idealism rather than by national interests. By 1917, he had concluded that the U.S. could no longer remain neutral in the European struggle. German submarine attacks on American shipping in particular convinced him of the need to make “the world safe for democracy.” America’s fresh troops and abundant supplies soon tipped the balance in Europe in favor of the Allies. Wilson personally helped negotiate the Versailles Peace Treaty, which was based on his “Fourteen Points.” These points included free trade, self-determination, and an organization for international cooperation called the League of Nations. The Senate, dominated by Republicans, rejected the Versailles Treaty, however.
Despite the warnings of his doctors, Wilson embarked in September 1919 on a national tour to rally public support for the treaty. Exhausted, he suffered a stroke and nearly died. Wilson never recovered fully from his stroke, and for the rest of his term fought in vain for the treaty.
World War I
World War I began as a local European war between Austria-Hungary and Serbia on July 28, 1914. Resulting from the political and economic rivalries caused by the emergence of Germany as a great power, it eventually became a global war involving 32 nations. The Allied Powers, including Great Britain, France, Russia, and eventually the United States, opposed the Central Powers, consisting of Germany, Austria-Hungary, Turkey, and Bulgaria. The majority of the fighting took place in France and consisted of trench warfare, in which each side attacked the other’s position but gained little ground. Lasting more than 4 years, World War I caused nearly 50 million casualties and helped create the conditions that led to World War II.
Born: December 30, 1856
Died: February 3, 1924
Birthplace: Staunton, VA
V.P.: Thomas R. Marshall
First Ladies: Ellen Louise Axson, Edith Bolling Galt
• Only president to have a Ph.D.
• Only president buried in Washington, D.C.
Margaret Sanger (1883–1966)
Trained as a nurse, Margaret Sanger worked in New York City’s poor neighborhoods, which convinced her of the widespread need for information about birth control. As a result, Sanger devoted her life to publicizing contraception, even though her actions were illegal at the time. In 1916, she established the first American birth-control clinic in Brooklyn, New York. Sanger went on to found the American Birth Control League (which became Planned Parenthood in 1942), organize the first World Population Conference (1927), and write several books on birth control.
1913
1913
Charlie Chaplin begins his film career and develops his famous “tramp” character.
1913
Exhibition of cubist paintings introduces modern artists like Pablo Picasso to America.
1915
German U-boat sinks the British liner Lusitania. Nearly 1,200 passengers drown.
April 1917
U.S. enters World War I.
1919
States ratify the 18th Amendment, banning alcohol and beginning the era of Prohibition.
1920
States ratify the 19th Amendment, giving women the right to vote.
WARREN G. HARDING
Republican, 1921–1923
Warren G. Harding was an easygoing politician who never possessed the leadership or vision required to be an effective president. As a result, the Harding administration is mainly remembered for its corruption, which was revealed after his death.
An influential newspaper publisher in Ohio, Harding used his public speaking ability, friendly personality, and party loyalty to win election to the U.S. Senate in 1914. In 1920, the Republican leadership, meeting in a “smoke-filled room,” gave Harding the party’s nomination. Heeding the advice of his managers, Harding conducted a front-porch campaign from his home in Ohio, a technique that had been successfully employed by his fellow Ohioans and Republican U.S. presidents Benjamin Harrison and William McKinley. During the campaign, Harding promised that he and the Republican party could return the United States to “normalcy,” a word he invented. By “normalcy,” he meant the economic and political isolation that had characterized the United States before it entered World War I. He also meant an end to the government activism and experimentalism of the Progressive movement. This message appealed to Americans weary of idealistic crusades, and Harding won the election in a landslide.
Despite his years in the Senate, Harding found being president difficult. In his domestic and economic policies, he followed a conservative course by slashing taxes, eliminating wartime financial controls, and restricting immigration. In foreign affairs, he oversaw the 1921–22 Washington Naval Conference, which resulted in several disarmament treaties. By 1923, Harding’s presidency was unraveling. Persistent rumors about corruption and bribery in his administration, such as the Tea Pot Dome scandal, dominated the headlines. Although there is no proof that Harding himself was corrupt, his good nature and self-indulgent character seem to have blinded him to corruption in his friends and associates. In June 1923, Harding set out on a nationwide speaking tour to assure the American people he was an honest man. Already suffering from poor health, Harding died in San Francisco in August.
Born: November 2, 1865
Died: August 2, 1923
Birthplace: Corsica, OH
V.P.: Calvin Coolidge
First Lady: Florence Kling De Wolfe
• First president to visit Alaska
• First president to ride in a car at his inauguration
The Red Scare
The communist revolution in Russia, postwar strikes, bombings, and riots at home convinced many Americans that anarchy was just around the corner. The government, led by a young J. Edgar Hoover, began raiding radical groups and deporting their members without the benefit of court hearings. Although it began to evaporate by the summer of 1920, the Red Scare led to a wave of nativism and reaction against the modernism of the 1920s. A similar, but more virulent, Red Scare would appear following World War II.
Sacco and Vanzetti
Many Americans believed the 1920s to be a frightening era of change. Defenders of tradition often blamed this change on immigrants and the influence of foreign ideas. The most celebrated criminal case of the time seemed to prove the connection. Two Italian-born anarchists, Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, were convicted of robbery and murder in 1920. Although their conviction may have been based on their political ideas and their ethnic origins rather than on evidence of their crimes, the two men went to the electric chair on August 23, 1927.
1923
1920
The Boston Red Sox sell Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees for $125,000.
1920
African-American baseball players form the Negro National League.
1921
The Immigration Restriction Act establishes first quotas on immigration.
1922
T. S. Eliot publishes the poem The Wasteland.
1923
More than 500 radio stations are in operation in the United States, fundamentally changing American life.
CALVIN COOLIDGE
Republican, 1923–1928
Aquiet New Englander with a strong sense of public service, Calvin Co
olidge served as president during the prosperous and peaceful 1920s. Believing in old-fashioned values, Coolidge was dedicated to preserving the status quo. His homespun personality captivated the nation, and to this day, he remains a symbol of his era.
The son of a Vermont storekeeper, Coolidge graduated from Amherst College, practiced law, and slowly climbed the political ladder in Massachusetts. He rose from city councilman to governor, where he famously broke a Boston policeman’s strike by sending in state troops and firing the strikers. Becoming president following Harding’s death, Coolidge had to deal with the aftermath of Harding’s scandals. His direct, upright manner enabled him to restore confidence in the government in short order. In the 1924 election, “Silent Cal,” a symbol of integrity, easily won the presidency by defeating Democratic candidate John W. Davis and Progressive party nominee Robert M. La Follette.
Coolidge’s calm style of governing contrasted with the exuberance and extravagance of the Roaring Twenties. He believed that the presidency should revert to its Gilded-Age stance of deference to Congress. He also believed that American prosperity was closely linked to the success of American business. Declaring, “the chief business of America is business,” he opposed using government to regulate private enterprise and focused on industrial development at the expense of labor and agriculture. As a result, he supported tax cuts, refused federal aid to farmers, and declined to use government power to check the economic boom. Throughout his term, he viewed with approval the steadily rising stock market and saw no sign of the coming stock market crash. In fact, the president believed the surging prosperity of the time validated his philosophy of governing.
When Coolidge’s first full term came to an end in 1928, the country was still thriving, but the president decided not to run for re-election. Coolidge passed his remaining years quietly, writing his autobiography as well as articles advocating individualism and a laissez-faire economic policy. In January 1933, 3 years into the Great Depression, Coolidge died at his Massachusetts home.
Mass Culture
During the 1920s, such inventions in communications and transportation as movies, radios, airplanes, and automobiles transformed society. More people than ever before had money to spend and leisure time to fill. Young women especially were eager to exercise new freedoms. Known as “flappers,’ these independent women sported bobbed hair, smoked cigarettes, wore lipstick, drove cars, and defied general expectations of womanly behavior.
Born: July 4, 1872
Died: January 5, 1933
Birthplace: Plymouth, VT
V.P.: Charlew G. Dawes
First Lady: Grace Anna Goodhue
• His father swore him in as president
• One of three mayors to become president
Harlem Renaissance
After World War I, the neighborhood of Harlem in New York City became a center for an African-American creative outpouring. Black writers, artists, and musicians, such as Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston, described the unique experience of being black in the United States.
1923
July 1925
John T. Scopes of Dayton, Tennessee, is arrested, tried, and convicted for teaching evolution in school.
1927
The Jazz Singer, the first feature-length talking movie, premieres.
May 21, 1927
Charles Lindbergh lands in Paris, completing the first solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean.
1928
Walt Disney introduces the character Mickey Mouse.
July 24, 1929
The Kellogg-Briand Pact, an agreement making war illegal, goes into effect.
HERBERT HOOVER
Republican, 1929–1933
Herbert Hoover had established himself as one of America’s finest statesman before he became president. Yet when the U.S. economy collapsed during the first stage of his administration, Hoover failed to revitalize the nation’s economy and reassure the American people.
Born into a devout Quaker family, Hoover was orphaned at the age of 9 and grew up with his uncle in Oregon. His difficult childhood and religious upbringing caused him to value hard work and mutual self-help. After graduating from Stanford University, he made his fortune as a mining engineer. His work in such places as Australia, China, Russia, and Mexico provided him with an excellent knowledge of world affairs at a young age. When World War I erupted in 1914, Hoover helped evacuate Americans in Europe, officially beginning his career in public service.
During World War I, Hoover headed the Commission for Relief in Belgium and led efforts to ration and distribute food in the United States. When the war ended in 1919, Hoover took charge of the American Relief Administration, which fed and clothed millions of suffering Europeans. Hoover then served as secretary of commerce for presidents Warren Harding and Calvin Coolidge. In this position, he established himself as a “progressive Republican” by attempting to increase governmental efficiency, boost foreign trade, and promote cooperation between employers and workers.
Elected president in 1928, Hoover planned to work for all Americans by putting “two chickens in every pot and a car in every garage.” But the stock market crash of October 1929 ruined his plans. The banking reforms, business loans, and public assistance Hoover sponsored did not restore prosperity. When he allowed the U.S. Army to use force against protesting World War I veterans in 1932, Hoover became even more unpopular. Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt defeated him easily in that year’s election.
After he left the White House, Hoover remained politically active, leading efforts to reorganize the executive branch in 1947 and 1953. Before dying at age 90, he wrote a number of books concerning individual responsibility and good government. His ideas continue to inspire Republican politicians and individual citizens.
Born: August 10, 1874
Died: October 20, 1964
Birthplace: West Branch, IA
V.P.: Charles Curtis
First Lady: Lou Henry
• First president born west of the Mississippi River
• Refused to accept a salary for the presidency
The Ashcan School
During Hoover’s presidency, artists in New York City’s Greenwich Village flourished. Inspired by their surroundings, artists like John Sloan, William Glackens, and Edward Hopper produced paintings celebrating activities that defined urban life. Although a critic named this movement the Ashcan School because he found paintings of slums, tenements, and business districts distasteful, painters like Sloan, Glackens, and Hopper showed that American cities could be as poetic and wondrous as small towns and country villages.
“Black Tuesday”
In October 1929, the U.S. economy began to show signs of weakness. Although financial experts claimed that the economy was fundamentally sound, the stock market collapsed on October 29, known as “Black Tuesday.” As businesses across the nation closed their doors, America’s wealthiest lost millions of dollars, and common folk lost their jobs. Unemployed people traveled around the country looking for work, living in broken-down settlements called “Hoovervilles” (after the president). Hard times had come to America, and they would not depart for more than 10 years.
1933
1929
Ford introduces the first “station-wagon,” a car with a boxy body and extra cargo space.
1929
Elzie Crisler Segar’s cartoon character Popeye appears for the first time.
1930
Sinclair Lewis becomes the first American to win the Nobel Prize for Literature.
March 3, 1931
Hoover designates The Star-Spangled Banner as national anthem.
August 18, 1931
Japan invades the Chinese province of Manchuria, effectively beginning World War II.
FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT
Democrat, 1933–1945
The only person to win four presidential elections, Franklin Delano Roosevelt grew to love the presidency. He guided the United States through the Great Depression a
nd World War II, meeting challenges with a unique combination of confidence, vigor, and grace.
Born into an aristocratic New York family, Franklin Roosevelt had an idyllic childhood. An able student, the young FDR attended Massachusetts’s Groton Academy and later earned a degree from Harvard University. After college, Roosevelt attended Columbia Law School and practiced law in New York. In 1910, he started his political career by serving in the New York state senate. Three years later President Woodrow Wilson made FDR the assistant secretary of the navy. In 1920, Roosevelt became the Democratic party’s vice presidential nominee, but his personality and charm failed to help James Cox win the presidency. In spite of this failure, FDR appeared destined for greatness.
In August 1921, however, tragedy struck Roosevelt when a case of polio left him with only partial use of his legs. Encouraged by his friends and family, Roosevelt refused to abandon politics and became governor of New York in 1928. Roosevelt’s illness made him a more compassionate person, and his actions as governor reflected this fact. Between 1928 and 1932, he attempted to help the underprivileged by sponsoring unemployment insurance, child labor laws, and old-age pensions. After promising to make the central government a powerful instrument of reform, FDR won the Democratic party’s nomination for president in 1932 and went on to defeat Herbert Hoover in a landslide. Desperate for innovative leadership, America’s unemployed citizens hoped that FDR would relieve their suffering.
A whirlwind of activity followed Roosevelt’s inauguration. Acting on his promise to offer Americans a “New Deal,” FDR created a host of government agencies designed to provide people with both immediate relief and lasting work. Most importantly, the New Deal’s National Recovery Administration (NRA), Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), Public Works Administration (PWA), and Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) restored confidence in the American system of government. Indeed, Roosevelt’s New Deal reforms permanently changed the face of American politics by proving that the central government could serve as an aggressive source of social and economic change. His wife, Eleanor Roosevelt, helped FDR achieve this lasting change by serving as his conscience. Traveling to impoverished regions that the president did not have the time to visit and meeting with African-American leaders he often chose to ignore, Eleanor made sure the president understood how badly some Americans suffered and how deserving they were of governmental support. Were it not for Eleanor’s contributions, President Roosevelt would have made a less effective and less compassionate leader.