Nineteenth century America was known for traditional values such as isolationism, providence, and most of all individualism. Primarily an agrarian society, Americans were used to making their livings off the land and had high aspirations of expanding into the seemingly endless western frontier. A frontier that was ordained for us to eventually conquer and modernize. These ideals branded nineteenth century America with the image of a misty-eyed, lone cowboy looking into a metaphorical horizon of endless possibilities and tangible gain. But the gain didn’t come easy. It was only to be attained by way of individual drive and discipline. Being able to stand on your own two feet without the assistance of another was after all the American dream. But the close of our involvement in World War I ushered in the slow but sure change from this individualism to a more modern, mass society America. Throughout this essay I will describe political and economic institutions that embodied this shift to modernism in America.The super patriotism driven “Red Scare” was a facility for economic blame and legislative intervention. With the War came a great economic boom, and with its end came the bust. Bankruptcy and strikes run rampant, leaving many Americans asking why? The government’s way of handling the blame was to dole it out to the “radical influence” that was infiltrating our countries pure democratic nature. Hindsight tells us that this radical or communist threat was nothing more than a fabricated enemy built by our government to distract us from any self induced problem and align us with the
