1920's, The Great Depression and the New Deal

The Second Industrial Revolution

• Innovation• U.S. develops the highest standard of

living in the world • The twenties and the second revolution

– electricity replaces steam – modern assembly introduced

• Airplanes – Charles Lindbergh – first solo flight over the Atlantic Ocean (1927)

Socially transforming innovations

• electricity– electric lightbulb (1880's – 1924 the Phoebus

cartel)• automobile

– mass production – assembly line– Fordism

• radio

Scientific Advancements and Conservatism

• The Scopes Trial (1925)• Eugenics – Immigration Act of 1924

The Automobile Industry

• Auto makers stimulate sales through model changes, advertising

• Auto industry fosters other businesses• Autos encourage suburban sprawl

Patterns of Economic Growth

• Structural change– professional managers replace individual

entrepreneurs– corporations become the dominant business

form• Big business weakens regionalism, brings

uniformity to America

Glenwood Stove Ad

Economic Weaknesses

• Railroads poorly managed• Coal displaced by petroleum• Farmers face decline in exports, prices• Growing disparity between income of

laborers, middle-class managers• Middle class speculates with idle money

City Life in the Jazz Age

• Rapid increase in urban population • Skyscrapers symbolize the new mass

culture • Communities of home, church, and school

are absent in the cities

Women and the Family

• Ongoing crusade for equal rights• “Flappers” seek individual freedom• Most women remain in domestic sphere• Discovery of adolescence

– teenaged children no longer need to work– indulge their craving for excitement

The Roaring Twenties

• Decade notable for obsessive interest in celebrities

• Sex becomes an all-consuming topic of interest in popular entertainment

The Flowering of the Arts

• Alienation from 20s’ mass culture• "Exiled" American writers put U.S. in

forefront of world literature– T.S. Eliot– Ernest Hemingway– F. Scott Fitzgerald

• Harlem Renaissance--African Americans prominent in music, poetry

The Rural Counterattack

• Rural Americans identify urban culture with Communism, crime, immorality

• Progressives attempt to force reform on the American people– upsurge of bigotry – an era of repression

The Fear of Radicalism

• 1919-- “Red Scare” – illegal roundups of innocent people – forcible deportation of aliens– terrorism against “radicals,” immigrants

• 1927-- Sacco and Vanzetti executed

Prohibition

• 1918--18th Amendment ratified• 1920--Volstead Act prohibits production,

sale, or transport of alcoholic beverages • Consumption of alcohol reduced• Prohibition resented in urban areas • Bootlegging becomes big business• 1933--18th amendment repealed

The Ku Klux Klan

• 1925--Klan membership hits 5 million• Attack on urban culture, inhabitants• Defense of traditional rural values• Klan seeks to win U.S. by persuasion• Violence, internal corruption result in

Klan’s virtual disappearance by 1930

Immigration Restriction

• 1924--Congress restricts all immigration• Preferential quotas to northern Europeans • Mexican immigrants exempt from quota

The Fundamentalist Challenge

• Fundamentalism: stress on traditional Protestant orthodoxy, biblical literalism

• 1925--Scopes Trial discredits fundamentalism among intellectuals

• “Modernists” gain mainline churches• Fundamentalists strengthen grassroots

appeal in new churches

Harding, Coolidge, and Hoover

• Republican presidents appeal to traditional American values

• Harding scandals break after his death• Coolidge represents America in his

austerity and rectitude• Hoover represents the self-made man

The Election of 1928

• Democrat Al Smith carries urban vote– governor of New York – Roman Catholic

• Republican Herbert Hoover wins race– Midwesterner – Protestant

• Religion the campaign’s decisive issue

The Great Crash

• 1928--soaring stock prices attract individual, corporate investment

• 1929--stock market crashes– directly affects 3 million– credit crunch stifles business

• Businesses lay off workers• Demand for consumer goods declines

Effects of the Depression

• Hardship affects all classes • The middle class loses belief in ever-

increasing prosperity• Thousands of young homeless, jobless

Fighting the Depression

• Republican attempts to overcome catastrophe flounder

• Depression gives Democrats opportunity to regain power

Hoover and Voluntarism

• Hoover initially seeks solution through voluntary action, private charity

• Eventually aids farmers and bankers• Resists Democratic efforts to give direct

aid to the unemployed– perceived as indifferent to human suffering– programs seen as incompetent

Bank Failures, 1929-1933

The Emergence of Roosevelt

• Franklin Roosevelt– born to wealth and privilege– 1921--crippled by polio– 1928--elected governor of New York– talented politician

• 1932--defeats Hoover with farmer- worker-immigrant-Catholic coalition

The Hundred Days

• Banking system saved from collapse• Fifteen major laws provide relief• New Deal aims to reform and restore, not

nationalize, the economy

Roosevelt and Recovery• National Recovery Administration

– industries formulate codes to eliminate cut-throat competition, ensure labor peace

– codes favor big business, unenforceable– 1935--NRA ruled unconstitutional

• Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1933– farmers paid to take land out of cultivation– prices increase– sharecroppers, tenant farmers dispossessed

Roosevelt and Relief

• 1933--Harry Hopkins placed in charge of RFC to direct aid to unemployed

• 1933--Civilian Conservation Corps provides employment to young people

• 1935--Works Progress Administration place unemployed on federal payroll

• Programs never sufficiently funded

Roosevelt and Reform

• 1933-34--focus on immediate problems • 1935--shift to permanent economic reform

Challenges to FDR

• Father Charles Coughlin advocates nationalizing banks, anti-Semitism

• Francis Townsend calls for wealth redistribution from young to the elderly

• Huey Long calls for redistribution of wealth by seizing private fortunes

Social Security

• 1935--Social Security Act passed• Criticisms

– too few people would collect pensions – unemployment package inadequate

• Establishes pattern of government aid to poor, aged, handicapped

Labor Legislation

• 1935--Wagner Act – allows unions to organize – outlaws unfair labor practices

• 1938--Fair Labor Standard Act – maximum hour – minimum wage

Impact of the New Deal

• Had a broad influence on the quality of life in the U.S. in the 1930s

• Helps labor unions most• Helps women, minorities least

Rise of Organized Labor

• 1932--National Recovery Act spurs union organizers

• Congress of Industrial Organization (CIO) formed by John L. Lewis

• CIO unionizes steel, auto industries• 1940--CIO membership hits 5 million, 28%

of labor force unionized

The New Deal Record on Help to Minorities

• Crop reduction program allows whites to fire or evict blacks, Hispanics

• Public works programs help by providing employment

• New Deal figures convince minorities that the government is on their side

• 1934--Indian Reorganization Act gives American Indians greater control

Women at Work

• Position of women deteriorates in ‘30s– jobs lost at a faster rate than men– hardly any New Deal programs help

• Progress in government– Frances Perkins, Secretary of Labor, the first

woman cabinet member– women appointed to several other posts– Eleanor Roosevelt a model for activism

End of the New Deal

• 1936--New Deal peaks with Roosevelt’s reelection

• Congress resists programs after 1936

The Election of 1936

• FDR’s campaign– attacks the rich – promises further reforms – defeats Republican Alf Landon

• Democrats win lopsided majorities in both houses of Congress

• FDR coalition: South, cities, labor, ethnic groups, African Americans, poor

The Supreme Court Fight

• Supreme Court blocks several of FDR’s first-term programs

• 1937--FDR seeks right to "pack" Court• Congressional protest forces retreat• FDR’s opponents emboldened

The New Deal in Decline

• 1936--cutbacks for relief agencies • 1937--severe slump hits economy• Roosevelt blamed, resorts to huge

government spending• 1938--Republican party revives

The New Deal and American Life

• New Deal’s limitations– depression not ended– economic system not fundamentally altered – little done for those without political clout

• Achievements– Social Security, the Wagner Act – political realignment of the 1930s