27: The Accidental Superpower

And you might say to yourself: "How did I get here?"
– David Byrne

The segments of this great lecture are:

• 27a: Introduction
• 27b: Safe For Democracy?
• 27c: Isolationism and Depression
• 27d: America in World War II
  
• 27e: Conclusions
  

 Important terms, concepts, individuals, and events:

Unrestricted Submarine Warfare, Fourteen Points, Versailles Treaty, League of Nations, Great Depression, Axis, Lend-Lease, "America First," Pearl Harbor, "Second Front," atomic bomb, United Nations

Questions for consideration:

1. Compare Woodrow Wilson's vision for universal democracy with Vladimir Lenin's vision for universal communism. The differences are fairly clear, but what were the similarities?
2. Trace the course of American isolationism in the first half of the 20th Century. What caused such fluctuations, and why did the isolationist movement eventually slow down for good?
3. Was Franklin D. Roosevelt right in taking liberties with his powers to assist Britain against the Axis before we entered World War II? Why or why not?