THE

20TH
AND 21ST
CENTURI
 20TH CENTURY
Progressive Era
• Progressivism, in the United States, was a political and social-reform movement that brought major
changes to American politics and government during the first two decades of the 20th century.

• The Progressive movement accommodated a diverse array of reformers who formed new organizations
and institutions with the common objective of strengthening the national government and making it more
responsive to popular economic, social, and political demands.

• In contrast, the progressives championed a new national order that completely repudiated the localized
democracy of the 19th century.
 Women's suffrage
• In July 1848 they issued a call for a convention to discuss the issue of women's rights.
• The National Woman Suffrage Association was formed in 1869.
• In 1869 another organization, the American Woman Suffrage Association was founded by Lucy Stone.
• By 1918 women had acquired equal suffrage with men in 15 states.
• On August 26 the Nineteenth Amendment was proclaimed by the secretary of state as being part of the
Constitution of the United States. Women in the United States were enfranchised on an equal basis with
men.
•
World War I
US President Woodrow Wilson sought to maintain US neutrality but was ultimately unable to keep the
United States out of the war.
• On May 7, 1915, the Germans sunk the British ocean liner RMS Lusitania, which had over a hundred
Americans on board.
• In January 1917, the Germans resumed submarine warfare.
• The publication of the Zimmermann Telegram and the escalation of German submarine attacks on US
merchant vessels led the US Congress to declare war on Germany on April 6, 1917.
• The ‘winners’ of the First World War were the Allied Powers (France, Russia, Britain, USA and various others)
 Roaring Twenties
• In 1920, the manufacture, sale, import and export of alcohol were prohibited by the Eighteenth
Amendment, Prohibition. The result was that in cities illegal alcohol became a big business, largely
controlled by racketeers.
• The 1920s were called the Roaring Twenties due to the great economic prosperity during this period.
Great Depression
and the New Deal
• The Great Depression (1929–1939) and the New
Deal (1933–1936) were decisive moments in
American political, economic, and social history
that reshaped the nation.

The Great Depression lasted approximately 10

years and affected both industrialized and
nonindustrialized countries in many parts of the
world. The New Deal was the effort by
President Franklin D. Roosevelt to respond to
the calamity of the Great Depression and
alleviate the despair besetting America.
 World War II
• On December 7, 1941, following the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor, the United States declared war on
Japan.
• The U.S. entry into the war helped to get the nation's economy back on its feet following the depression.
• After the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan surrendered on September 2, 1945,
and the Second World War came to an end.
•
Cold War
The Cold War was a political, economic, and military confrontation between capitalism and communism
that lasted from 1945 to 1991.
• The countries involved were the U.S. and most nations located in Western Europe, along with their allies,
versus the Soviet Union, China, and their allies.
• The impact of the Cold War can still be seen worldwide. They’ve learned to live with the threat of nuclear
annihilation and ongoing conflicts in world hotspots. At the same time, they’ve benefited from the
technological innovations sparked by NASA and other advances of the era.
 Climax of liberalism
• The liberalism of the early 1960s contained no hint of radicalism.
• Johnson was rewarded with an electoral landslide in 1964 against conservative Barry Goldwater, which
broke the decades-long control of Congress by the Conservative Coalition.
• The Republicans bounced back in 1966 and elected Richard Nixon in 1968.
• Conservative reaction would come with the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980.
•
Civil rights movement
The Civil Rights Movement was another phase of black political protest, rather than something entirely new in the
history of the United States, which is why the Civil Rights Movement is sometimes called ‘The Second
Reconstruction’. Today many consider the Civil Rights Movement to have been led by Martin Luther King Jr, but
key events make clear that it was the actions of everyday people - men, women, and children - that helped make the
movement successful.

• The Civil Rights Movement challenged legal inequality.

• However, despite these laws, African Americans did not achieve economic equality. Although there has been
significant progress since the Civil Rights Movement, African Americans remain a socially disadvantaged group.
 The first person on the moon
• It was 1961. John F. Kennedy was the president of the United States. He wanted to land humans
on the moon. The United States had just started trying to put people in space.
• Apollo 11 blasted off on July 16, 1969. Neil Armstrong, Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin and Michael Collins
were the astronauts on Apollo 11.
• On July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong became the first human to step on the moon.
•
Women's liberation
Women’s liberation movement in the 1960s and ’70s sought equal rights and opportunities and greater

•
movement
personal freedom for women.

The second-wave feminism of the women’s rights movement touched on every area of women’s experience
—including politics, work, the family, and sexuality.
 21ST CENTURY

•
9/11 and the War on Terror
On September 11, 2001, 19 militants associated with the Islamic extremist group al Qaeda hijacked four airplanes and
carried out suicide attacks against targets in the United States.
• Almost 3,000 people were killed during the 9/11 terrorist attacks, which triggered major U.S. initiatives to combat
terrorism and defined the presidency of George W. Bush.
• In 2003, from March 19 to May 1, the United States, along with coalition forces primarily from the United Kingdom,
initiates war on Iraq.
• In 2008, the unpopularity of President Bush and the Iraq war, along with the 2008 financial crisis, led to the election of
Barack Obama, the first African-American President of the United States.
 Great Recession
• In September 2008, the United States and most of Europe entered the longest post–World War II
recession.

• The financial crisis threatened the stability of the entire economy in September 2008.

• Barack Obama – signed into law the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, which was an
economic stimulus aimed at helping the economy recover.
•
Recent events
In 2012, President Obama became the first president to openly support same-sex marriage.

• Black Lives Matter (BLM), international social movement, formed in the United States in 2013, dedicated to
fighting racism and anti-Black violence, especially in the form of police brutality.
• Donald Trump was inaugurated as the 45th president of the United States on January 20, 2017.

• The U.S. suffered more coronavirus deaths than any other nation.

• The 2020 presidential election saw Kamala Harris become the first woman to be elected as Vice
President of the United States.
 ¡Thank you for
watching!
Students: Guadalupe Fowler - Sofía Sosa
Teacher: Carolina Zandrino
Estudios socio-culturales y
literarios de pueblos de habla inglesa II
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