AMERICAN LIFE IN THE “ROARING TWENTIES”

Chapter 31

By Holly Martin

ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS

What were the changes in American culture in the 1920s?

How did the carefree, wild lifestyle of Americans in the 1920s lead to the economic collapse of the 1930s?

How did new opportunities, education, environment, and entertainment lead to the carefree “flapper” lifestyles of the ‘20s?

VOCAB

Modernists

Flappers

Sacco and Vanzetti Trial

Emergency Quota Act of 1921

Fundamentalism

Scopes Monkey Trial

Red Scare

John Dewey

Margaret Sanger

Sigmund Freud

H.L. Mencken

Bruce Barton

F. Scott Fitzgerald

Ernest Hemingway

Henry Ford

Frederick W. Taylor

SEEING RED

A. Big Red Scare (1919-1920)1. Nationwide crusade against left-wingers suspected of being Communists.2. Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer “saw red” easily, gathered up about 6000

suspects. Called “Fighting Quaker”3. Dec. 1919, 249 alleged alien radicals shipped to Russia.4. More hysteria Sept. 1920 when bomb exploded on Wall St. killing 38 people and wounding hundreds of others.5. Legislation made to protect US from Communists – 5 members of NY legislature denied seats because they were Socialists.6. Business people called “closed” or all-union shops “socialism in disguise” – pushed for

“open shop” because it was the “American Plan”7. Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti convicted for the murder of a MA paymaster and his guard in 1921. They were sentenced to death. Communists and radicals claimed this was a “judicial lynching”

HOODED HOODLUMS OF THE KKK

A. Growth in the Klan in the early ‘20s1. More closely resembled the “nativists” movement of the 1850s2. Anti Catholic, black, Jewish, pacifist, Communist,

internationalist, revolutionist, bootlegger, gambling, adultery, and birth control. Pro Anglo-Saxon, “native” American, & Protestant. (Extreme conservatists against diversity & modernity in the US)3. Popular in the Midwest and South. The KKK had

5 million members and had great political influence.4.Collapsed in the late 1920s.

STEMMING THE FOREIGN FLOOD

A. “Sickly Europe vomits on America”1. In 1920-1921 over 800,000 immigrants arrived in the US, 2/3 of them from Eastern

Europe. 2. “100% Americans” dislike immigrants, Emergency Quota Act passed in 1921– Only

3% of the number of people of certain nationalities who lived in the US in 1910 were allowed in. 3. Immigration Act of 1924– Quotas cut to 2% of the numbers in 1890, NO Japanese,

and Latin Americans except from quotas. 4. Immigrants formed small distinct communities of different nationalities. 5. Reformers not a fan of quotas. Horace Kallen: thought immigrants should preserve

their identities and harmonize with other nationalities. Randolph Bourne: wanted all nationalities of immigrants to cross-fertilize with other

immigrants and Americans to create a multicultural nation.

STEMMING THE FOREIGN FLOOD: EUROPEAN IMMIGRATION

THE PROHIBITION “EXPERIMENT”

A. The 18th Amendment and Prohibition1. Abolition of alcohol supported mainly in West

and South and by churches and women. Many cities in the east filled with immigrants against Prohibition.

2. Prohibition not very well enforced – many people didn’t like it and still wanted their alcohol, some legislators voted for prohibition but still drank, not enough enforcement officers.

3. Speakeasies (places that illegally sell alcohol), moonshiners (people who make illegal alcohol), bootleggers (people who illegally ship alcohol) appear.

THE GOLDEN AGE OF GANGSTERISM

A. Gangsters and Organized Crime1. Gangs and gangsters emerged and ruled the underworld of illegal alcohol production and distribution. Later they were also know for gambling, narcotics and prostitution.2. Gang wars of 1920s: In Chicago, approximately 500 gangsters killed. Many times

mobsters killed off their competition. 3. Al Capone: Public Enemy #1. A murderous alcohol distributer, known for the Valentine’s Day Massacre of 1929, made millions of dollars

from illegal activities. Finally convicted in 1931 for income-tax evasion.

4. Many honest merchants had to pay off the mobsters to keep themselves and their businesses safe from the gangs.

5. By 1930 the yearly earnings from the underworld was about $12 to $18 billion, 3 times that of the US gov.’s income.

MONKEY BUSINESS IN TENNESSEE

A. A Growth in Education and Public Health1. More states required kids to stay in school until 16 or 18 or until graduated. The

number of 17 year olds who finished high school jumped up to more than 1 in 4.2. Prof. John Dewey, from Columbia University, made a large contribution to education by introducing the idea of “learning by doing,” that teachers’ primary goal should be to teach things that would help in life.3. Rockefeller Foundation launched health program in 1909 that wiped out hookworm. 4. Better nutrition and health care increase life expectancy from 50 (in 1901) to 59

(in 1929).B. Darwinism and the Scopes Monkey Trial

1. Fundamentalists (devoted religionists) claimed Darwinism was destroying faith in Christian teachings and creating the immorality of the youth. Tried to

get laws passed outlawing the teaching of evolution in schools. 3 states outlawed it.

MONKEY BUSINESS IN TENNESSEE

2. John T. Scopes, a high school biology teacher from Tennessee, was put on trial for teaching evolution.

3. The Trial: Scopes defended by Clarence Darrow and prosecuted by Williams Jennings Bryan (who died 5 days after the trial was over). Verdict: Scopes guilty, fined $100

http://www.history.com/videos/the-scopes-monkey-trial#the-scopes-monkey-trial

Watch a Video about the Scopes Trial

THE MASS CONSUMPTION ECONOMY

A. New Prosperity in the ‘20s1. Assembly line perfected by Henry Ford. At

Ford’s Detroit plant a finished car was produced every 10 sec.

2. Cars become common, approximately 30 million cars owned by Americans in

1930.3. Advertising becomes important. Founder of

the advertising profession was Bruce Barton. Used sexual suggestions and seduction to sell products

4. Sports became popular, especially baseball.5. Buying things on credit started in the ‘20s.

People started buying new things like refrigerators, cars, radios, and

vacuum cleaners on credit.

Babe Ruth

PUTTING AMERICA ON RUBBER TIRES

A. The Automobile1. Henry Ford and Ransom E. Olds (Oldsmobile) were leaders in developing the

automobile industry, though at first cars were not very reliable2. Detroit becomes motorcar capital of the US3. Frederick W. Taylor: “Father of Scientific Management,” wanted to improve production efficiency by getting rid of wasted time and energy.4. Ford’s assembly line production made the Model T affordable to the average worker.

THE ADVENT OF THE GASOLINE AGE

A. The Effects of the Automobile1. New Jobs: over 6 million Americans were employed directly and indirectly by the

auto industry in 1930.2. Oil and Petroleum industries shot up.3. New prosperity: standard of living rose3. Trains hit with competition4. Farmers able to get their products to market faster.5. New Roads: paved roads, highways6. More freedom: Easier to travel, women further freed from dependence on men7. School buses: Less but larger schools8. Car accidents killed 1 million Americans by 19519. Young people have more freedom: Parents worry what would happen in closed

cars, “condemned the automobile as ‘a house of prostitution on wheels’”10. Gangsters (and others) can escape more easily.

HUMANS DEVELOP WINGS

A. The Invention of the Airplane and Air travel1. Airplane invented by Orville and Wilber

Wright, first successful flight at Kitty Hawk, NC on Dec. 17,

1903.2. Planes were used a little in the Great

War3. The 1st transcontinental airmail route

established in 1920 and went from NY to San Francisco.4. Charles Lindbergh: 1st person to fly nonstop across the Atlantic, he flew the 33 ½ hour flight alone in his plane The Spirit of St. Louis

THE RADIO REVOLUTION

A. Radio and its Effects1. Guglielmo Marconi invented wireless

telegraphy in the 1890s and it was used in WWI2. In Nov. 1920, the 1st radio broadcast took

place in Pittsburgh, PA from the 1st radio station KDKA.

3. By the late 1920s both local and national radio available. Commercials

appeared.4. Radio drew families and neighbors together as they gathered around to listen to popular programs.5. Sports, comedies, politics, and music were

all heard on the radio.

HOLLYWOOD’S FILMLAND FANTASIES

A. Movies in the 1920s1. The motion picture was invented in the 1890s by many

people including Thomas Edison.2. 1st real movie was in 1903, it was called The Great Train

Robbery but the 1st full-length movie was Birth of a Nation in 1915.

3. Hollywood became the movie capital of the world at the start of the movie industry.

4. At first movies were full of nudity, female vampires and other content that angered many citizens who called for censorship.

5. Movies used in WWI to portray anti-German propaganda which helped in the sale of war bonds and growth of support of the war.

6. 1st “talkie” (movie with sound) was The Jazz Singer in 1927. Colored movies arrived shortly afterwards.

THE DYNAMIC DECADE

A. New Changes in American Society1. More Americans lived in urban areas vs. country areas2. More women worked outside the home, lead to more women’s rights movements

like Alice Paul’s campaign for a Equal Rights Amendment and the birth-control movement lead by Margaret Sanger.3. Fundamentalists vs. the Modernists (believed God is good and the world was an

ok place) in churchesB. “The chimes ‘strike sex o’clock in America’”

1. Flappers: young women bob their hair, wear short dresses, rolled stockings and lots of makeup, smoke, and wear the shocking one piece swimsuit.

2. Dr. Sigmund Freud, a Viennese doctor, argued that sexual repression leads to some nervous and emotional illnesses.

3. Young men and women explored their sexuality: Dancing, kissing (or necking) in movie theaters, cars and other places.

THE DYNAMIC DECADE

C. Jazz Music1. The most popular music of the ‘20s2. Moved up from New Orleans and spread throughout the US3. Blacks were the inventers of jazz but soon whites

joined in and stole most of the profits.D. African Americans

1. Harlem, in NYC, one of the biggest black communities in the world, over 100,000 African Americans lived there in ‘20s.

2. Langston Hughes: Black poet, published 1st book in 1926.

3. United Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) founded by Marcus Garvey. Promoted the resettlement of blacks to Africa, sponsored black businesses.

CULTURAL LIBERATION

A. Literature of the 1920s1. New young writers emerge, bring new energy, vitality, and imagination.2. H.L. Mencken wrote the monthly American Mercury.3. F. Scott Fitzgerald: This Side of Paradise, The Great Gatsby4. Ernest Hemingway: The Sun Also Rises, A Farewell to Arms5. Sinclair Lewis: Main Street, Babbitt6. William Faulkner: The Sound and the Fury, As I Lay Dying, Absalom Absalom!7. Robert Frost wrote poetry.8. Black writers: Claude McKay, Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston

B. Other new cultural aspects1. Louis Armstrong and Eubie Blake: Jazz Artists2. Architecture: New cities planning, Empire State Building opened in 1931, Frank Lloyd

Wright was a big architect.

WALL STREET’S BIG BULL MARKET

A. Economics 1. The Stock Exchange – speculation ran wild, became a gambling den.2. Everyone was buying stocks in small down payments3. National debt skyrocketed.4. Sec. of the Treasury Mellon reduced

income taxes and encouraged Congress to repeal or reduce many other taxes.

REVIEW QUIZ

The 1st restriction on immigration from Europe which only allowed 3% of the people of certain nationalities who were living in the US in 1910.

REVIEW QUIZ

The 1st restriction on immigration from Europe which only allowed 3% of the people of certain nationalities who were living in the US in 1910.

The Emergency Quota Act of 1921

REVIEW QUIZ

What caused the Scopes Monkey Trial of 1925?

REVIEW QUIZ

What caused the Scopes Monkey Trial of 1925?

A high school biology teacher in Tennessee, John Scopes, was caught teaching evolution in a Tennessee school, which had been outlawed thanks to the efforts of Fundamentalists.

REVIEW QUIZ

Name 3 effects of the Automobile.

REVIEW QUIZ

Name 3 effects of the Automobile. New Jobs

Oil and Petroleum industries shot up.

New prosperity: standard of living rose

Trains have more competition

Farmers able to get their products to market faster.

New Roads: paved roads, highways

More freedom: Easier to travel, women further freed from dependence on men

School buses: Less but larger schools

Car accidents killed 1 million Americans by 1951

Young people have more freedom

Gangsters (and others) can escape more easily.

REVIEW QUIZ

Who was Al Capone?

REVIEW QUIZ

Who was Al Capone?

A notorious gangster and booze distributor who gained millions of dollars through illegal activities and was branded Public Enemy Number One who was finally jailed in 1931 for income-tax evasion.

REVIEW QUIZ

Name 3 important authors from the 1920s.

REVIEW QUIZ

Name 3 important authors from the 1920s.

H.L. Mencken

F. Scott Fitzgerald

Ernest Hemingway

Sinclair Lewis

William Faulkner

Robert Frost

Claude McKay

Langston Hughes

Zora Neale Hurston