Isolationism, Immigration and Communism

Following World War I, the United States population turned to isolationism during the 1920s, opposing any action by the government that would drag the country into another European war. This isolationist tendency led to the imposition of tariffs. For the most part, American isolationism came to an end during World War II, particularly following the Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor in December of 1941.

America's isolationist philosophy after World War I gave rise to a xenophobic feeling across the nation. This was concentrated in rural areas and especially in the south where the Ku Klux Klan gained widespread support and sought to persecute immigrants and minorities in the early 1920s. At the same time, Communism was still a new philosophy in government, and much of the general American public held a hostile view toward it. The beginning of the 1920s saw the height and fall of First Red Scare as exemplified in the trials of Sacco and Vanzetti. This opposition to Communism was caused mostly by its Anti-war associations and its connection with a series of bombings.Rural areas became increasingly reactionary in the 1920s, partly in reaction to the liberalism of urban areas.The 1920s saw the rise of a variety of social issues in lieu of a rapidly changing world. Conflicts arose in what was considered acceptable, illegal, and respectable. The conflict quickly became developed into one between the liberal urban areas against the conservative (and often reactionary) rural areas.