Promoting Peace After The Great War: A Look at Peace Efforts During the 1920’s in America

Angela Bates, History, CATO Middle College, High School

Final Unit(pdf)   Implementing Teaching Standards(pdf)

Synopsis:

The purpose of this curriculum unit is to encourage students to examine peace movements in 1920’s America.  The number of peace organizations increased in the United States after World War I due the desire by many Americans to prevent a war of that magnitude from ever breaking out again. The number of countries involved, the increasingly new war technologies and armaments along with the escalated death toll of the war made room for a national call by private citizens to organize against war and for peace. The unit will examine President Wilson’s attempt to obtain lasting peace efforts through his Fourteen Points and the creation of the League of Nations.  It will also investigate the impact of the American grassroots peace movement. Students will learn about peace organizations such as the National Council for the Prevention of War and foreign policy initiatives for peace such as the Washington Naval Conference and the Kellogg-Briand pact.  Most importantly students will compare and contrast the peace movement of the 1920’s with other peace movements throughout American history such as the efforts of the Copperheads during the Civil War, the Anti-Imperialist League of the Spanish American War or the anti-war movement during the Vietnam War.