This definitions covers Key Terms You Must Know within America in 1920 for GCSE History. Revise America in 1920 in America 1920-1973 for GCSE History with 10 exam-style questions and 8 flashcards. This topic appears regularly enough that it should still be part of a steady revision cycle. It is section 9 of 14 in this topic. Make sure you can use the exact wording confidently, because definition marks are often lost through vague language.
Topic position
Section 9 of 14
Practice
10 questions
Recall
8 flashcards
📖 Key Terms You Must Know
- Isolationism
- The policy of staying out of other countries' affairs and focusing on domestic matters. After WW1, most Americans wanted no more foreign entanglements. This shaped Republican foreign policy throughout the 1920s — America refused to join the League of Nations and retreated from world affairs. Isolationism remained powerful until Pearl Harbor (1941) forced America back into a world war.
- Laissez-faire
- French for "leave alone" — the Republican belief that government should NOT interfere in the economy. Under Harding and Coolidge, taxes were cut, regulations were minimal, and businesses could do largely as they pleased. This fuelled the boom but left workers, farmers, and the poor without any safety net.
- Rugged individualism
- The belief that Americans should rely on themselves and not on government help. People who worked hard would succeed; those who failed had only themselves to blame. This was central to Republican philosophy and helps explain why Hoover refused direct relief during the Depression.
- Federal republic
- A system where power is divided between a national (federal) government and individual state governments. Each state makes its own laws on many matters — which is why racial segregation could exist legally in Mississippi while being illegal elsewhere. Federal structure explains why change was so slow in America.
- Jim Crow laws
- Laws in Southern US states that enforced racial segregation — keeping Black and white Americans legally separated in schools, transport, restaurants, and all public spaces. Named after a racist caricature. These laws remained on the books until the Civil Rights Acts of 1964-65.
- WASP
- White Anglo-Saxon Protestant — the dominant group in American society in 1920. WASPs had the most political power, economic opportunity, and social status. Much of the intolerance of the 1920s (KKK, immigration restrictions, anti-Catholic prejudice) came from WASP anxieties about losing dominance.