Question

What was the concept of "normalcy" based on ?
A) pride in winning the war
B) nostalgia for an earlier America
C) America's expanding role in world affairs
or
D) getting Britain and France to repay war loans

Answer 1

None of these. It was related to the strong interference in daily life -- many new rules and restrictions* -- undertaken by the Wilson Administration, ostensibly to win the war, but because Wilson himself believed very much that the United States needed strong top-down re-organization to properly flourish. Popular distaste for these ran strong, once the war was won, and in addition because by the end of the war resistance had turned ugly, with strikes and violence. Harding was able to capitalize on the wish to return to a government much less intrusive in daily life.

* a partial list:

1. Creation of the Federal Reserve system, which started controlling the value of money, and inflation.

2. Creation of the income tax.

3. Adamson Act, Clayton Antitrust Act.

4. The draft, of course.

5. Espionage Act, Sedition Act, Immigration Act.

6. Vigorous prosecution under these acts of socialists, labor leaders, and businessmen who were anti-war, or anti-British. The Palmer Raids.

7. Creation of the Committee on Public Information, and the imposition of censorship in newspapers.

Answer 2

CORRECTION!!!
I took the test multiple of times and found that B IS the RIGHT answer! :D