1920s

AP Themes: 3. Economic Transformation: • • • • •

Significant economic growth in the 20s. New technologies, techniques, and especially marketing fueled much of this transformation. Consolidation of pre-war era continued. Union membership declined- hostility from government and people; welfare capitalism. Farmers faced continued difficulties- falling demand and overproduction resulted in falling prices.

1. Culture 

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Culture became more “national” in characterradio, movies, national consumer goods, etc. Many became more disillusioned or cynical after WWI. People, particularly women, began pushing against some boundaries- increased economic freedom spurred demands for social freedom.

1. American Diversity  

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What is “American”? Fears of subversion left over from WWI- led to hostilities against minorities, immigrants, political “radicals” Congress restricted immigration. KKK rose in popularity as a response to “outsiders” At the same time, Harlem Renaissance demonstrated a flourishing African-American culture.

1. American Identity 

Many Americans, especially in rural America, sought to maintain traditional notions of Americanism- traditional gender roles, prominence of religion, etc. Fought against urbanization, secularization, modernization. 

Prohibition, anti-Darwin, etc.

Cultural clashes in US  Traditional America vs. Modern America 

Hostility towards un-American ideas

Why? Feared communism…….. Red Scare  Rise of KKK  Immigration restriction/Antiimmigrant feelings 

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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 & clothing 4. American heroes:  Babe Ruth and Charles Lindbergh

5. Presidents during the 1920’s  Conservative Republicans  Supported laissez faire 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 Recession- 1920–21 (drop in war production)  Electricity spurs recovery and growth (1922–29) with new goods for factory and for home  Improved wages combine w/ installment plans stimulate consumption 

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National per capita income ↑ by 30% by 1929.

Consolidation continues; oligopolies control production, marketing, distribution, finance  Relatively small number of large companies dominate their respective industries- continuation of trend from around 1900. 

Glenwood Stove and Washing Machine

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  

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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

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Auto industry fostered the growth of other businesses

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Autos encourage movement and more individual freedom.

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

Economic Weaknesses    

Railroads poorly managed Cotton fabrics increasingly displaced by man-made materials. Coal displaced by petroleum Farmers face decline in exports, prices 

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By 1921 farm exports ↓ by more than $2 billion [approx. $23 billion in today’s currency] By 1929, per capita farm income only $273 [3,304] (national per capita was $681 [$8,242]).

Growing disparity between income of laborers, middle-class managers Middle class speculates with idle money

•Beginning of the Jazz Age in New York City •Acceptance of African American culture •African American literature and music

J A Z Z

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

IKA

Imperial 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 million 1926: Marched on Washington. 50,000+ Attack on urban culture and defends

Christian/Protestant and rural values- found followers in cities Against immigrants from Southern Europe, European Jews, Catholics and American Blacks Used tactics of violence and intimidation- first terrorist group in America Sought to win U.S. by persuasion and gaining control in local/state government. Violence, internal corruption, and a rape scandal result in Klan’s significant decline by 1930 but will reappear in the 1950s and 1960s.

•Red Scare, 1919 to 1921, was a time of great upheaval…U.S. “scared out of their wits".

Attorney General Mitchell Palmer

•"Reds” as they were called, "Anarchists” or "Outside Foreign-Born Radical Agitators” (Communists).

•Anti-red hysteria came about after WWI and the Russian Revolution. •6,000 immigrants the government suspected of being Communists were arrested (Palmer Raids) and 600 were deported or expelled from the U.S. •No due process was followed

•The U.S. Government began to restrict certain “undesirable” immigrants from entering the U.S. •Congress passed the Emergency Quota Act of 1921 and Immigration Act of 1924 • Kept out immigrants from southeastern Europe.

•The U.S. Government began to restrict certain “undesirable” immigrants from entering the U.S. •Congress passed the Emergency Quota Act of 1921, 1921 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 1924, 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 immigrants charged with murdering 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-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 Hemisphere  Trial/execution of Italian anarchists reflects anti-immigrant bias and anti-radicalism (MA)

•Goal: was to reduce crime and poverty and improve the quality of life by making it impossible for people to get their hands on alcohol. •Called the "Noble Experiment" •Midnight, January 16th, 1920, US went dry. •The 18th Amendment, Amendment known as the 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 Gin.

•No other law in America has been violated so flagrantly by so many "decent law-abiding" law-abiding people. •Overnight, many became criminals. criminals •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.

Al Capone

Detroit police inspecting equipment found in a hidden underground

Chicago gangster during Prohibition who controlled the “bootlegging” industry.

Elliot Ness, part of the Untouchables Agent with the U.S. Treasury Department's Prohibition Bureau during a time when bootlegging was

“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” 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 her Than in a submarine. She nightly knocks for many a goal The usual dancing men. Her speed is great, but her control Is something else again. All spotlights focus on her pranks. All tongues her prowess herald. For which she well may render thanks To God and Scott Fitzgerald. Her golden rule is plain enough

Fundamentalism; Scopes Trial (1925)  Evangelical

Protestant denominations grow  Advocate literal interpretation of Bible; reject materialism, science, and “modernism”  Darrow and Bryan debate TN’s ban on teaching evolution; other states follow TN  Pentecostal churches also expand in cities  KKK, nativism, and religion reflect attempts to sustain traditional values in new era

1925

The first major conflict between religion 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. Bryan Sec. 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’

The right to teach and protect Biblical teachings in schools was the focus of the controversy.

The acceptance of science and that all species have evolved from lower forms of beings over billions of years was under

Advertising; Radio  Increases

demand for new products/services through use of psychology and celebrities  Radio emerges as key advertising medium  US Govt rejects public funding of radio  Programming focuses on entertainment  Many 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 •220 stations eighteen months after KDKA Harding-Cox took the plunge. Presidential election •$50 to $150 for firstreturns radios on November 2, 1920.

•Radio sets, parts and accessories brought in $60 million in 1922… [$741M] • $136 million in 1923 [$1.7B] •$852 million in 1929 [$10.5B] •Radio reached into every 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 electricity  Automobiles 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 probusiness; Progressives fail to revive reform

The 1920 Election

The 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 1920 Election

The Ohio Gang: President Warren Harding (front row, third from right), Vice-President Calvin Coolidge (front row, second from right), and members of the cabinet.

Har ding and Coo lid ge  Republican 

presidents appeal Secretary of the Interior, Albert B. toFall traditional American values leased naval reserve oil land in Teapot Dome, Wyoming, and Elk Hills,  Harding dies in office after 2 California, to oilmen Harry F. Sinclair years. and Edward L. Doheny  Scandals Fall had received breaka after bribe ofhis $100,000 from Doheny and about three times death that amount from Sinclair.  Teapot Dome Scandal Fall found guilty of taking a bribe.  Calvin

Coolidge becomes President after Harding’s death in 1923.

Republican Policies Return

to "normalcy"

 tariffs

raised  corporate, income taxes cut  spending cuts Government-business  “The

cooperation

business of government, is business”

Return

to “isolation”

The 1924 Election Calvin Coolidge served as President from 1923 to 1929. “Silent Cal”. Republican president

REPUBLICAN ECONOMY SUPPORTED LAISSEZ FAIRE AND BIG BUSINESS……….

+ Lower Taxes

+ Less Federal Spending

= Higher Tariffs

$

Fordney-McCumber Tariff---1923 Hawley-Smoot Tariff ---1930 raised the tariff to an unbelievable 60%!!!

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. Sincl ai r and Edwa rd 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