involvements. But in the long run, Wilson’s combination of idealism and power
politics had an enduring impact. His appeals to democracy, open markets, and a
special American mission to instruct the world in freedom, coupled with a will-
ingness to intervene abroad militarily to promote American interests and values,
would create the model for twentieth- century American international relations.
On its own terms, the war to make the world safe for democracy failed.
Even great powers cannot always bend the world to their purposes. The war
brought neither stability nor democracy to most of the world, and it under-
mined freedom in the United States. It also led to the eclipse of Progressivism.
Republican candidate Warren G. Harding, who had no connection with the
party’s Progressive wing, swept to victory in the presidential election of 1920.
Harding’s campaign centered on a “return to normalcy” and a repudiation of
what he called “Wilsonism.” He received 60 percent of the popular vote. Begun
with idealistic goals and grand hopes for social change, American involvement
in the Great War laid the foundation for one of the most conservative decades
in the nation’s history.
CHAPTER REVIEW
REVIEW QUESTIONS
- Explain the role of the United States in the global economy by 1920.
- What were the assumptions underlying the Roosevelt Corollary? How did the doctrine
affect U.S. relations with European nations and those in the Western hemisphere? - What did President Wilson mean by “moral imperialism,” and what measures were
taken to apply this to Latin America? - How did the ratification of both the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Amendments suggest both
the restrictive and democratizing nature of Progressivism? - Why did Progressives see in the expansion of governmental powers in wartime an oppor-
tunity to reform American society? - What were the goals and methods of the Committee on Public Information during World
War I? - What are governmental and private examples of coercive patriotism during the war?
What were the effects of those efforts? - What were the major causes— both real and imaginary— of the Red Scare?
- How did World War I and its aftermath provide African- Americans with opportunities?
- Identify the goals of those pressing for global change in 1919, and of those who opposed
them.
CHAPTER REVIEW ★^777Why was 1919 such a watershed year for the United States and the world?