Following World War I, the U.S. grew steadily in stature as an economic and military world power. The after-shock of Russia's October Revolution resulted in real fears of communism in the United States, leading to a three year Red Scare.

The United States Senate did not ratify the Treaty of Versailles imposed by its Allies on the defeated Central Powers; instead, the United States chose to pursue unilateralism, if not isolationism.

In 1920, the manufacture, sale, import and export of alcohol was prohibited by the Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. Prohibition ended in 1933, a failure.

During most of the 1920s, the United States enjoyed a period of unbalanced prosperity: farm prices and wages fell, while industrial profits grew. The boom was fueled by a rise in debt and an inflated Stock Market. The Stock Market crash in 1929 and the ensuing Great Depression led to government efforts to re-start the economy and help its victims, with Roosevelt's New Deal. The recovery was rapid in all areas except unemployment, which remained fairly high until 1940.

If you found this interesting and would like to read more about American history, please click here to select the next section in this series on American history. If you are not interested, please click on the link below and you will return to our Reading Selections II page. Please see if you can find other reading there that interests you. If not, we suggest you venture out on the Internet and try to find something that does interest you.

This page is a modified section of an article at Wikipedia on American history. Click here to read the original article at Wikipedia about American history. According to the Wikipedia leftright, this modified section can be used or modified as long as there are links provided to both Wikipedia and Aaron Language Services.