After World War One, America formed into a fearful country. To most countries America represented a powerful country, but within America fear of other countries and many people living in America rested within every citizen. In David J. Goldberg’s Discontented America the United States in the 1920s, Goldberg discuses different events that occurred in the postwar era. During the course of the book, competition with other countries, change within the United States, and immigration caused fear within the country; therefore, resulting in new laws that transformed the United States of America.
During the postwar, competition with Japan over control for the Pacific Ocean caused fear within the government and citizens of the United States. Since Japan became such a naval rival, Americans began to form a hatred towards Japanese immigrants. Already in the United States, Americans treated Japanese-Americans unfairly by only allowing a certain amount of land in California.…show more content… In fact, many feared other Americans. From a naval competition that nearly started a war, to whites fearing a change in African American status that worsened segregation, and discrimination toward immigrants to the point of creating laws to limit immigration, Americans became a country consumed with paranoia to the brick of chaos. Goldberg discusses many different series of events that cause fear within the country, and it shows that everything scared Americans which manifested into different laws and changes. By allowing all of these things to cause fear, American could not move forward with progression because tension took over the country. Some could argue that due to the tension in American, the results turned into the depression, but the world cannot rewind history. Now Americans can see the fear that formed in the postwar; therefore, Americans can prevent such catastrophes from ever happening
