1920s
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Transcript of 1920s
1. Themes: 1920’s common themes-• Return to normalcy• US turned inward---isolationism• Jazz Age• first modern era in the U.S.• change from a rural society to an
urban.
2. Cultural clashes in US Traditional America vs. Modern America Hostility towards un-American ideas
Why? Feared communism……..Red Red ScareScare
Rise of KKKKKK Immigration restriction/Anti-
immigrant feelings Sacco and Vanzetti
Scopes Trial---evolution vs. creation Liberated woman vs. traditional
Flappers Margaret Sanger----Birth control
African Americans move to the cities led to race riots in some cases
Americans violate Prohibition 18th Amendment
Volstead Act
3. Revolution in styles and technologies. electricity, radio, automobile, mass
media Fads---new dances, music &
clothing4. American heroes:
Babe Ruth and Charles Lindbergh
5. Presidents during the 1920’s Conservative Republicans Supported laissez faire
Warren Harding 1921 to 1923 Calvin Coolidge 1921 to 1929
6. Foreign policy during the 1920’s and early 30s- Isolationism the general trend
The New Era of the 1920s Consumerism flourishes because of credit,
advertising, and economic (GNP) growth US Government fosters business growth Entertainment grows further as big
business Technology and middle class expand New attitudes and uses of time emerge,
but some oppose modern changes (reactionary)
Decade ends with economic collapse
The Economy & Big Business
Decline, 1920–21 (drop in war production)Electricity spurs recovery and growth (1922–29)
with new goods for factory and for home Installment plans stimulate consumptionConsolidation continues; oligopolies control
production, marketing, distribution, financeUS Steel and General Electric dominate their
respective industries
Business Lobbying; Fate of Labor Unions & Farmers
Business and professional organizations lobby government as special-interest groups
US Government lowers taxes on wealthy and corporations, raises tariffs, eases regulation
Supreme Court voids minimum-wage laws and restrictions on child labor, restricts strikes
Farmers suffer rising debt because of falling prices (overproduction/foreign competition)
The Second Industrial Revolution U.S. develops the highest standard of living
in the world The twenties and the second revolution
electricity replaces steam Henry Ford’s modern assembly line introduced
Rise of the airline industry Modern appliances and conveniences begin
to change American society
The Automobile Industry
Auto makers stimulate sales through model changes, advertising
Auto industry fostered the growth of other businesses
Autos encourage movement and more individual freedom.
Glenwood Stove and Washing Machine
•Beginning of the Jazz Age in New York City
•Acceptance of African American culture
•African American literature and music
JAZZ
Migration to Cities;The Great Migration
Majority of Americans are urban by 1920; during 1920s, 6 million more leave farms
Great Migration of blacks to urban north accelerates (1.5 million leave South, 1920s)
Discrimination and violence in North results in black movements for racial independence
Garvey (UNIA) attracts large following with demands for black pride and separatism
IKAIKAImperial Klans of America
Revived Ku Klux Klan (1915–1925)
Recruits 5 million men and women (1923) by emphasizing native, white, Protestant supremacy; opposes other races and religions
Expands from rural South to new cities, claims new immigrants mongrelize US
Continues earlier terror tactics and mystical rituals; declines after rape scandal (1925)
Reflects pervasive intolerance of 1920s
Rise of the KKK was due to challenges to traditional America.
1925: Membership of 5 million1926: Marched on Washington.
Attack on urban culture and defends Christian/Protestant and rural valuesAgainst immigrants from Southern
Europe, European Jews, Catholics and American Blacks
Sought to win U.S. by persuasion and gaining control in local/state
government.Violence, internal corruption result in Klan’s significant decline by 1930 but will reappear in the 1950s and 1960s.
•The U.S. Government began to restrict certain “undesirable”“undesirable”
immigrants from entering the U.S.
•Congress passed the Emergency Emergency Quota Act of 1921Quota Act of 1921 and Immigration Immigration
Act of 1924Act of 1924
• Kept out immigrants from southeastern Europe.
•The U.S. Government began to restrict certain “undesirable”“undesirable” immigrants from entering the
U.S.
•Congress passed the Emergency Quota Act of Emergency Quota Act of 19211921, in which newcomers from Europe were restricted at any year to a quota, which was set
at 3% of the people of their nationality who lived in the U.S. in 1910.
•Immigration Act of 1924Immigration Act of 1924, the quota down to 2% and the origins base was shifted to that of
1890, when few southeastern Europeans lived in America.
Cartoon from 1919: “Put them out and
keep them out”
•Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti
were Italian Italian immigrantsimmigrants charged
with murderingmurdering a guard and robbing a
shoe factory in Braintree, Mass.
•The trial lasted 1920-1927. Convicted on circumstantial evidence, many believed they had
been framed for the crime because of their anarchist and pro-union activities.
•In this time period, anti-foreignismanti-foreignism was high as well.
•Liberals and radicals rallied around the two men, but they would be executed.
Immigration Quotas; Sacco & Vanzetti Case
Nativists succeed in reducing total numbers of immigrants, especially new immigrants
1921, 1924, and 1929 Acts set up yearly quotas favoring immigrants from north/west Europe over those from south/east Europe
Immigration shifts to Western HemisphereTrial/execution of Italian anarchists reflects
anti-immigrant bias and anti-radicalism (MA)
•Goal: was to reduce crime and was to reduce crime and poverty and improve the quality of lifepoverty and improve the quality of life by making it impossible for people to
get their hands on alcohol. •Called the "Noble Experiment""Noble Experiment"
•Midnight, January 16th, 1920, US went dry.
•The 18th Amendment18th Amendment, known as the Volstead Act,Volstead Act, prohibited the
manufacture, sale and possession of alcohol in America. Prohibition lasted
for thirteen years. •So was born the industry of
bootlegging, speakeasies and Bathtub bootlegging, speakeasies and Bathtub GinGin..
•No other law in America has been violated so flagrantlyflagrantly by so many "decent law-abidingdecent law-abiding"
people.
•Overnight, many became criminalscriminals.
•Mobsters controlled liquor created a booming black market economy.
•Gangsters owned speakeasies and by 1925 there were over 100,000 speakeasies in New
York City alone.
Detroit police inspecting equipment
found in a hidden underground brewery during the prohibition
era.
Agent with the U.S. Treasury Department's
Prohibition Bureau during a time when
bootlegging was rampant throughout the
nation.
Chicago gangster during Prohibition who controlled the
“bootlegging” industry.
Al CaponeAl Capone Elliot Ness, part of the
Untouchables
Elliot Ness, part of the
Untouchables
“Prohibition is an awful flop.We like it.
It can't stop what it's meant to stop.We like it.
It's left a trail of graft and slime,It's filled our land with vice and crime,
It can't prohibit worth a dime,Nevertheless we're for it.”
Franklin Pierce Adams, New York World
“It is impossible to stop liquor trickling through a dotted line”
A Prohibition agent
“Flappers” sought individual freedom
Ongoing crusade for equal rights
Most women remain in the “cult of domesticity”“cult of domesticity”
sphere
Discovery of adolescence
Teenaged children no longer needed to work
and indulged their craving for excitement
The Playful flapper here we see,The fairest of the fair.
She's not what Grandma used to be,You might say, au contraire.
Her girlish ways may make a stir,Her manners cause a scene,
But there is no more harm in herThan in a submarine.
She nightly knocks for many a goalThe usual dancing men.
Her speed is great, but her controlIs something else again.
All spotlights focus on her pranks.All tongues her prowess herald.
For which she well may render thanksTo God and Scott Fitzgerald.
Her golden rule is plain enough -Just get them young and treat them
rough.
by Dorothy Parker
Fundamentalism;Scopes Trial (1925)
Evangelical Protestant denominations growAdvocate literal interpretation of Bible; reject
materialism, science, and “modernism”Darrow and Bryan debate TN’s ban on
teaching evolution; other states follow TNPentecostal churches also expand in citiesKKK, nativism, and religion reflect attempts
to sustain traditional values in new era
1925
The first major conflict between religion vs.vs. science being taught in school was in 1925 in Dayton, Tennessee.
John T. Scopes
Respected high school biology
teacher arrested in Dayton,
Tennessee for teaching
Darwin’s Theory of Evolution.
Clarence Darrow
Famous trial lawyer who represented
Scopes
William J. BryanSec. of State for
President Wilson, ran for president three times, turned evangelical
leader. Represented the
prosecution.
Dayton, Tennessee
Small town in the south became
protective against the
encroachment of modern times and secular teachings.
The trial is conducted in a carnival-like atmosphere. The
people of Dayton are seen as ‘backward’ by
the country.
The right to teach and protect Biblical
teachings in schools.
The acceptance of science and that all
species have evolved from lower forms of
beings over billions of years.
Advertising; Radio Increases demand for new products/services
through use of psychology and celebritiesRadio emerges as key advertising mediumUS Gov’t rejects public funding of radioProgramming focuses on entertainmentMany workers able to purchase goods only
by using credit or by working extra jobs Indoor plumbing spreads to urban workers
•Westinghouse Radio Station KDKA was a world pioneer of
commercial radio broadcasting.
•Transmitted 100 watts on a wavelength of 360 meters.•KDKA first broadcast was
the Harding-Cox Presidential election returns on November
2, 1920. •220 stations eighteen months after KDKAKDKA took the plunge.
•$50 to $150 for first radios
•3,000,000 homes had them by 1922.
•Radio sets, parts and accessories brought in $60 $60
millionmillion in 1922…
• $136 million$136 million in 1923
•$852 million$852 million in 1929
•Radio reached into every third homeevery third home in
its first decade.
•Listening audience was 50,000,000 by 1925
Expansion of Consumer Society
Purchasing power increases for many (cost of living is stable, while earnings increase)
By 1929, 2/3 of all homes have electricityAutomobiles are the vanguard of expanding
materialism, even some workers purchase one
Cars alter US life with emerging network of government-sponsored roads and highways
Harding (1921–1923) & Coolidge (1923–1929)
Republican presidents (1921–1933) symbolize goodwill toward business
Spoils system and scandals (Teapot Dome) undermine Harding’s administration
Anti-union Coolidge lowers taxes, begins US highway system, vetoes farm assistance
In 1924 election, both major candidates are pro-business; Progressives fail to revive reform
The 1920 ElectionThe 1920 Election
The 1920 ElectionThe 1920 Election
Wilson’s idealism and Treaty of Versailles led many Americans to vote Republican Warren Harding
Many in the US turned inward and feared foreign influences.
The 1924 ElectionThe 1924 Election
Calvin Coolidge served as President from 1923 to 1929.
“Silent Cal”.
Republican president
Calvin Coolidge served as President from 1923 to 1929.
“Silent Cal”.
Republican president
+ + = $$REPUBLICAN ECONOMY SUPPORTED LAISSEZ FAIRELAISSEZ FAIRE AND
BIG BUSINESS……….
Lower Taxes
Fordney-McCumber Tariff---1923Hawley-Smoot Tariff ---1930
raised the tariff to an unbelievable 60%!!!
Less Federal Spending
Higher Tariffs
Strong National Economy
• Secretary of the Interior, Albert B. Fall leased naval reserve oil land in
Teapot Dome, Wyoming, and Elk Hills, California, to oilmen Harry F. Sinclair
and Edward L. Doheny
•Fall had received a bribe of $100,000 from Doheny and about three times
that amount from Sinclair.
•Fall found guilty of taking a bribe.
•Sinclair and Doheny were acquitted of charges.
Reform; Indian Affairs; Women & Politics
State and local reforms (workers’ compensation, old-age pensions, aid to poor, and housing codes)
Indians suffer neglect by US Gov’t (ignores groups that try to help Indians regain land)
Female groups devise tactics (publicity) to lobby for help to working women (LWV)
Pursuit of different goals fragments women (LWV v. feminist National Women’s Party)
Employment for Women
Number in workforces continues to increase 10.8 million working women (1930) Segregated in jobs (clerical); receive low pay Most female workers are single, but 3.1
million wives work (1930) to help with consumption
Many African, Japanese, and Mexican American wives work as domestics or rural laborers to help their families survive
The New Woman
“Flappers” remake image of femininity with stress on personal freedom and sexuality
Few actually become flappers, but dress styles change and some assert independence
New habits spark move to reassert traditions
Mexicans & Puerto Ricans; Growth of Suburbs
Most Mexicans work as agrarian laborers in southwest, but many move to cities
Puerto Ricans migrate to northern cities (especially NYC) and form barrios
Prosperity and cars fuel suburban expansion Middle and upper classes flee urban
problems and resist annexation by cities Cities and suburbs are centers of consumer
culture
New Rhythms of Everyday Life
Apportion time into work, family, and leisure Proportion changes as time at work drops for
many and people have fewer children Appliances ease some household tasks, but
also make wives into household managers Improved nutrition and sanitation increase life
expectancy (60 years by 1930 from 54 years in 1920) for most, but not all people
Older Americans & Retirement; Social Values
More people living past age 60 and forced retirements increase poverty among elderly
Europeans create pensions in early 1900s, but US leaders reject these as socialistic
Many states in 1920s adopt pensions and retirement homes to reduce elderly poverty
New values emerge with consumption and peer groups: self-expression via clothing, etc.
Age of Play
Commercial entertainment expands Middle class participates in fads (mahjong,
crossword puzzles, dance crazes, etc.) Spectator recreations (movies, sports) boom Motion pictures emerge as a leading US
industry, especially with sound and color (late 1920s)
To appeal to a mass audience, movies make escapist spectacles, dramas, and comedies
Sports Heroes; Movie Stars; Prohibition
Professional baseball blossoms; media glorifies its suspense and unpredictability
Ruth symbolizes heroes of 1920s: unique individuals in a mass industrial society
Compare/contrast Valentino and Lindbergh After 1925, prohibition breaks down as more
people break law; criminal groups (Capone) supply public demand for alcohol
Cultural Currents Writers and artists critique era’s materialism
and conformity; express disillusionment Hemingway, Faulkner, Fitzgerald, etc. African Americans celebrate black culture
and explore identity in Harlem Renaissance Rooted in black culture, jazz becomes
popular; gives African American musicians (Armstrong) a place in consumer culture
The Election of 1928 & the End of the New Era Hoover (Republican) wins, but Smith increases
Democratic strength among urban ethnics Hoover campaigns on continued prosperity As president (1929–33), Hoover continues his
past efforts to promote business growth Stock prices drop with panic selling (Oct. 1929) Crash helps unleash devastating depression
Declining Demand
Several interrelated factors cause depression Sales in growth industries (autos, electric
appliances, housing) stagnate in late 1920s Underconsumption: neither farmers nor
workers earn enough to preserve demand Widening income gap contributes to problem:
income of rich skyrockets, but only modest gains for middle/lower classes
Corporate Debt; Speculation on Stock Market
Businesses took out large loans to pursue expansion; when sales drop, defaults occur
Corporations, individuals, and banks engage in risky purchase of stocks “on margin”
When stock prices decline, many brokers, banks, investors, and businesses face ruin
Growing US stock investments (late 1920s) hamper US-European economic links
International Economy; Federal Policies
In WWI, US banks loaned billions to Europe, but high tariffs prevent Europeans from selling in US to pay back loans
Allies/Germany depend on continued US loans until late 1920s; then begin to default
Global trade in goods/money collapses US Government does not regulate wild stock
market; prefers US-business cooperation