Examkin

Question

Difficulty: HardSocial and Political Controversies of the 1920s

"Under the guise of a campaign for the suppression of radical activities, the office of the Attorney General of the United States has committed continual illegal acts. . . . Wholesale arrests both of aliens and citizens have been made without warrant or any process of law; men and women have been jailed and held incommunicado without access of friends or counsel; homes have been entered without search warrants and property confiscated and destroyed; and persons have been threatened, beaten, and starved to force confessions."
— National Popular Government League, *Report upon the Illegal Practices of the United States Department of Justice*, 1920

The excerpt was written in response to the Palmer Raids of 1919–1920. Which of the following developments in the immediate aftermath of the First World War most directly contributed to the government actions criticized in the excerpt?

  1. A
    The official launch of the containment policy to counter Soviet influence in Eastern Europe
  2. B
    A federal effort to dismantle Gilded Age laissez-faire policies and regulate corporate monopolies
  3. Widespread public anxiety regarding foreign political radicalism and labor unrestAnswer
  4. D
    The formal adoption of an isolationist foreign policy that severed all economic ties with Europe

Answer

Widespread public anxiety regarding foreign political radicalism and labor unrest
The correct option is correct because the First Red Scare was directly fueled by the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution in Russia and a series of high-profile postwar labor strikes in the United States in 1919. These events created a climate of fear where many Americans believed that radical immigrants and labor unions were conspiring to launch a communist revolution. Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer capitalized on this anxiety to execute the Palmer Raids, which bypassed standard constitutional procedures to arrest, detain, and deport suspected radicals, as described in the excerpt.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Identify the historical context and timing of the excerpt (1920).
The document refers to illegal practices committed by the Attorney General (A. Mitchell Palmer) under the guise of suppressing radical activities, which corresponds to the Palmer Raids of the First Red Scare (1919–1920).
Establishing the correct historical era and event is crucial to eliminating choices from other time periods.
2
Analyze the primary causes of the Palmer Raids and the First Red Scare.
The Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 and a series of strikes and bombings in 1919 sparked intense nativism and fear of radical subversion.
Connecting the stimulus to its causal historical developments allows for identifying the correct answer.
3
Evaluate the options to identify which development matches this cause.
The option concerning anxiety over political radicalism and labor unrest matches the cause of the Palmer Raids. Other options describe postwar containment (Cold War), anti-trust regulation (Progressive Era/New Deal), or absolute isolationism (which misrepresents the unilateralism of 1920s foreign policy).
Comparing the options to the identified historical evidence ensures the selection of the correct response.

Key Concept

The First Red Scare and the Palmer Raids of 1919–1920
Rate this question

Topics

Social and Political Controversies of the 1920s

More questions from this topic