Return to Normalcy

Return to normalcy, a return to the way of life before World War I, was United States presidential candidate Warren G. Harding's campaign slogan for the election of 1920.

The United States of America, commonly referred to as the United States or America, is a federal republic composed of 50 states, a federal district, five major self-governing territories, and various possessions.

World War I, also known as the First World War, the Great War, or the War to End All Wars, was a global war originating in Europe that lasted from 28 July 1914 to 11 November 1918.

Warren Gamaliel Harding was the 29th president of the United States from March 4, 1921, until his death in 1923.

Warren G. Harding: "Return to Normalcy" by carovenstine

Although detractors believed that the word was a neologism as well as a malapropism, coined by Harding, there was contemporaneous discussion and evidence found that normalcy had been listed in dictionaries as far back as 1857.

A neologism is the name for a relatively new or isolated term, word, or phrase that may be in the process of entering common use, but that has not yet been fully accepted into mainstream language.

A malapropism is the use of an incorrect word in place of a word with a similar sound, resulting in a nonsensical, sometimes humorous utterance.

Harding's promise was to return the United States prewar mentality, without the thought of war tainting the minds of the American people.

To sum up his points, he stated:

"America's present need is not heroics, but healing; not nostrums, but normalcy; not revolution, but restoration; not agitation, but adjustment; not surgery, but serenity; not the dramatic, but the dispassionate; not experiment, but equipoise; not submergence in internationality, but sustainment in triumphant nationality."