American History: A Survey (Brinkley), 13th Edition

Chapter 25: THE GLOBAL CRISIS

Main themes of Chapter Twenty-five:

• The character of America's "unilateral internationalist" foreign policy in the 1920s, whereby the United States tried to increase its role in world affairs, especially economically, while avoiding commitments



• The response of America to the growing world crises in the 1930s, particularly isolationism and legislated neutrality



• The gradual road to American military involvement in WWII, leading up to the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941

• The new directions of American foreign policy—and the attempts to replace the League of Nations as a guarantor of global stability—in the 1920s



• The effects of the Great Depression on foreign relations under both Hoover and Roosevelt



• The patterns of Japanese, Italian, and German aggression that eventually led to World War II, and the response to each by the Roosevelt government



• The factors that led to the passage of neutrality legislation in the 1930s, and Roosevelt's application of the legislation to various foreign crises



• The growing pro-English sentiment in the United States after the onset of WWII, and its effect on American neutrality up until 1941



• The specific sequence of events that brought the United States into the war, culminating with the attack on Pearl Harbor



• The American role in the Sino-Japanese War that preceded and eventually became part of what is normally considered World War II