Parents' Guide to 1919 The Year That Changed America

The first of six chapters in 1919 THE YEAR THAT CHANGED AMERICA, under the heading "An Amazing Event," recount the Great Molasses Flood. A tank storing 2.3 million gallons of molasses exploded and sent deadly waves of the thick liquid into Boston's North End, destroying everything in its path. While the company blamed anarchists and Communists, a court would, for the first time, find a company liable for its negligence. The "Women Got the Vote" section looks at suffragists, the women who fought for 70 years for the passage of the 19^th Amendment, and the people and groups who opposed it. "The Red Summer" chronicles not only waves of violence against African Americans, but also how, for the first time, African Americans mounted armed resistance against mobs of Whites. The fall of Russia to the Communists in 1917, sent a wave of fear across America and created "The Red Scare." Communists were thought to be behind labor strikes, suspected Communists were rounded up and deported, and the Department of Justice created a Communist-hunting division headed by a young J. Edgar Hoover. Soldiers returning from World War I expected to find better wages and working conditions. When they didn't, 1919 saw "Strikes and More Strikes," with 36,000 work stoppages (including a strike by the Boston Police Department) that were met with violent responses from companies who blamed the troubles on Communists and "foreigners." The final chapter, "A Noble Experiment," looks at the history behind the movement to ban the production and sale of alcohol and the crime wave (think Al Capone) created by Prohibition.