How did immigration and nativism address the question of who is an American Quizlet

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• The part of Europe in which these European immigrants were coming from dramatically changed during this time. From 1880 to 1900, the "old immigrants" from Northern and Western were mainly coming to the United States, whereas from 1900 to 1920, these "new immigrants" came from Eastern and Southern Europe.
• They thought that these "new immigrants" were completely wrong. They had the wrong ethnicity, the wrong religion, they were dirt poor, and they didn't even speak English. There were so many cultural, physical, and religious differences that they thought they could not be Americans.
• Protestantism was the dominant religion in the country since the beginning. They were found in small, rural towns, mostly in the Bible Belt (which is the upper part of the South). This is where the most religious people lived. They were the primary resistance to change during the 1920s, like technology, religion, women's gender roles, etc. They thought that the religious culture of the country was changing too much and too fast.
• Basic Protestants, Strict Protestants, Extreme Fundamentalist, and Extreme Nativist
• BP: just upset about the changes occurring in the nation SP: upset about the changes and preached a lot EF: not only upset, but they are now ready to act. They blame immigrants for the changes that are happening. This is when xenophobia/nativism begins to come into play EN: Hate groups like the KKK
• The republicans were mainly in power, so to speak. The republican economic policies made under presidents like Harding, Coolidge, and Hoover greatly contributed to why the economy was doing so well.
• As everyone is buying new products using credit, and companies are mastering the mass production of the assembly lines, there were higher corporate profits than ever before. There was also record unemployment rates because almost everyone had a job as these businesses expanded. This was an extremely productive time in American history because so much stuff was being produced.
• Poor workers still wanted to buy these new appliances, and now they could, with the help of credit. The financial philosophy "buy now, pay later" seemed great, but these workers couldn't actually pay for anything that they were buying. In fact, they were really building up a lot of credit card debt.
• Because they ran out of money, the banks went bankrupt, meaning they had to close. Millions of people who had their life savings in those banks had no way of getting any of their money back. Remember, a bank is a business that earns money by loaning the money out that goes into it by charging interest. The whole economy depends on people borrowing money from banks and putting money into banks. If the banks fail, then the whole economic system fails with it.
• If you could not pay your mortgage on your house, then the bank took back possession of it. If you could not afford to pay your rent, the landlord kicked you out. During the Great Depression, many people became homeless. Millions of Americans were now living in poverty because they could not afford the basic necessities like food and shelter.
• People were living in despair and depression nationwide. They felt as though they were hopeless and helpless. People even began to think that it was their fault that everything failed (when one person alone was not to blame)
• Americans blamed Hoover for the way everything was handled and for the poor living conditions of millions of Americans.