Chapter 11 The Twenties

Chapter 11 The Twenties1919-1929Chapter IntroductionThis chapter will cover the economic boom and government policies of the 1920s. It will discuss changes to American culture that arose from the consumer revolution, new technology, and the Harlem Renaissance. Section 1: A Booming EconomySection 2: The Business of GovernmentSection 3: Social and Cultural TensionsSection 4: A New Mass CultureSection 5: The Harlem RenaissanceObjectivesExplain the impact of Henry Ford and the automobile.Analyze the consumer revolution and the bull market of the 1920s.Compare the different effects of the economic boom on urban and rural America.

11 Section 1How did the booming economy of the 1920s lead to changes in American life? During the 1920s, the American economy experienced tremendous growth. Using mass production techniques, workers produced more goods in less time than ever before. The boom changed how Americans lived and helped create the modern consumer economy.

Did You Know? The automobile changed the landscape and architecture of America. The landscape was filled with paved roads. New houses were built with a garage or a carport and a driveway, making lawns much smaller. New industries and buildings that grew as a result of the automobile included gasoline stations, repair shops, campgrounds, public parking garages, motels, and shopping centers.

The 1920s were a time of rapid economic growth in the United States.Much of this boom can be traced to the automobile.

During the 1920s, Americans enjoyed a new standard of living. Wages increased and work hours decreased.Mass production, or large scale product manufacturing usually done by machinery, increased the supply of goods and decreased costs.The Greater productivity led to the emergence of new industries.

By applying innovative manufacturing techniques, Henry Ford changed that. His affordable Model T became a car for the people. Before 1920, only wealthy people could afford cars.Ford made the Model T affordable by applying mass production techniques to making cars.A moving assembly line brought cars to workers, who each added one part.Ford consulted scientific management experts to make his manufacturing process more efficient.The time to assemble a Model T dropped from 12 hours to just 90 minutes.The assembly line, used by carmaker Henry Ford, greatly increased manufacturing efficiency by dividing up the operations into simple tasks that unskilled workers could perform.Fords assembly-line product, the Model T, sold for $850 the first year but dropped to $490 after being mass-produced several years later. By 1924 the Model T was selling for just $295.Ford also raised his workers pay and shortened their hours.With more money and more leisure time, his employees would be potential customers.By 1927, 56% of American families owned a car.

Ford changed American life with his affordable automobiles. Small businesses such as garages and gas stations opened.The petroleum industry expanded tremendously, and the isolation of rural life ended. How the Automobile Changed AmericaRoad construction boomed, and new businesses opened along the routes.Other car-related industries included steel, glass, rubber, asphalt, gasoline, and insurance.Workers could live farther away from their jobs.Families used cars for leisure trips and vacations.Fewer people traveled on trolleys or trains.The 1920s saw a consumer revolution.Advertising created demand.Using installment buying, people could buy more.New products flooded the market.More disposable income made innovations affordable. From electric razors to frozen foods and household cleaning supplies to labor saving appliances, Americans used his or her new income to make life easier.By 1919 the Post Office had expanded airmail service across the continent with the help of the railroad. In 1927 Charles Lindbergh took a transatlantic solo flight which gained support in the U.S. for the commercial flight. By the end of 1928, 48 airlines were serving 355 American cities.

Higher wages and shorter workdays led to an economic boom as Americans traded thrift for their new role as consumers.American attitudes about debt shifted, as they became confident that they could pay back what they owed at a later time.Advertising was used to convince Americans that they needed new products.Ads linked products with qualities that were popular to the modern era, such as convenience, leisure, success, and style.By the early 1920s many businesses hired professional managers and engineers. The large number of managers expanded the size of the middle class.In the 1920s, unions lost influence and membership. Employers promoted an open shop, a work place where employees were not required to join a union,Welfare capitalism, where employees were able to purchase stock, participate in profit sharing, and receive benefits, made unions seem unnecessary.

Why did Americans' attitudes toward consumerism change during the 1920s?

(Higher wages and shorter workdays led to an economic boom as Americans traded thrift for their new role as consumers. American attitudes about debt shifted, as they became confident that they could pay back what they owed at a later time. Advertising was used to convince Americans that they needed new products. Ads linked products with qualities that were popular to the modern era, such as convenience, leisure, success, fashion, and style. The ads promised consumers selfimprovement, happiness, and self-fulfillment.)

Throughout the 1920s, a bull market meant stock prices kept going up.Investors bought on margin, purchasing stocks on credit.Rising stock market prices also contributed to economic growth.By 1929, around four million Americans owned stocks.

During the 1920s, cities grew rapidly.Immigrants, farmers, African Americans, and Mexican Americans were among those who settled in urban areas.

More and more people who worked in cities moved to the suburbs.Suburbs grew faster than inner cities.Cities expanded outward, thanks to automobiles and mass transit systems.While cities and suburbs benefited from the economic boom, rural America struggled.Farm incomes declined or remained flat through most of the 1920s.

American farmers did not share in the prosperity of the 1920s. Instead, prices dropped dramatically while cost to farmers technology increased.During wartime, the government had encouraged farmers to produce more food for supplies needed in Europe.Farmers borrowed money at inflated prices to buy new land and new machinery to raise more crops.The farmers prospered during the war, because the government was buying their crops to support the war in Europe.After the war, Europeans had little money to buy American surplus farm products.After Congress raised tariffs, farmers could no longer sell products overseas, and prices fell.President Coolidge twice vetoed a bill to aid farmers, fearing it would only make the situation worse.Why were farmers left out of the economic prosperity of the 1920s? (During wartime, the U.S. government had encouraged farmers to produce more for food supplies needed in Europe. Farmers borrowed money at inflated prices to buy new land and new machinery to raise more crops. Farmers prospered during the war. After the war, Europeans had little money to buy American farm products. After Congress raised tariffs, farmers could no longer sell products overseas, and prices fell. The farmers had technological advances that enabled them to increase production, but because there was no increase in demand, they were forced to lower prices.)

Objectives

Analyze how the policies of Presidents Harding and Coolidge favored business growth.Discuss the most significant scandals during Hardings presidency.Explain the role that the United States played in the world during the 1920s.

11 Section 2Did You Know? During the 1920s, Americans owned about 40 percent of the world's wealth.Most historians rank President Warren G. Harding as one of the country's weakest presidents. They believe he failed as president because he was weak-willed and a poor judge of character.

How did domestic and foreign policy change direction under Harding and Coolidge?Rather than pursue Progressive reform, Presidents Warren G. Harding and Calvin Coolidge favored conservative policies that aided business growth. Foreign policy during this time was largely a response to the devastation of World War I.

In 1920, when Warren G. Harding ran for president, most Americans wanted a return to simpler times.His campaign slogan to return to normalcy, or a normal life after the first world war, made him very popular and he won the presidency.He made a few distinguished appointments to his cabinet, but most appointments were given to his friends.

Unlike Progressives, Harding favored business interests and reduced federal regulations.His Secretary of the Treasury Andrew Mellon was for low taxes and efficiency in government. Mellon cut the federal budget from a wartime high of $18 billion to $3 billion.In 1920 Warren G. Harding was elected President, promising a return to normalcy.Andrew Mellon, named secretary of the treasury by president Harding, reduced government spending and cut the federal budget. His measures reduced the federal debt by $ 7 billion between 1921 and 1929.

Mellon applied the idea of supply-side economics to reduce taxes. This idea suggested that lower taxes would allow businesses and consumers to spend and invest their won extra money, resulting in economic growth. As a result, the government would collect more tax revenue at a lower rate.

Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover sought voluntary cooperation between labor and business.Instead of relying on legislation to improve labor relations, Hoover got business and labor leaders to work together.

Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover attempted to balance government regulation with cooperative individualism. Manufactures and distributors were asked to form their own trade associations and share information with the federal governments Bureau of Standards. Hoover felt this would reduce waste and costs and lead to economic stability.

Harding was a popular, fun-loving president who trusted others to make decisions for him.Some advisors, such as Mellon and Hoover, were honest, capable, and trustworthy.Others, including a group known as the Ohio Gang, were not so civic-minded.

His old poker-playing friends became known as the Ohio Gang.Some members used their government positions to sell jobs, pardons, and immunity from prosecution.

Before most of the scandals became public knowledge, Harding fell ill and died in 1923.

Some Scandals of Hardings AdministrationCharles Forbes, head of the Veterans Administration, wasted millions of dollars on overpriced, unneeded supplies.Attorney General Harry Daugherty accepted money from criminals.Secretary of the Interior Albert Fall took bribes in return for federal oil reserve leases. Who were the Ohio gang? President Hardings old poker-playing friends became known as the Ohio Gang.Some members used their government positions to sell jobs, pardons, and immunity from prosecution.

The Teapot Dome scandal became public.In 1921, Fall took control of federal oil reserves intended for the navy in Wyoming.He then leased those reserves to private oil companies.

Fall received bribes totaling over $300,000.When the Teapot Dome Scandal ended with Fall being the first cabinet officer in history to be sent to prison.Another Harding administration scandal involved Attorney General Harry Daugherty.He refused to turn over files and bank records for a German-owned American company.Bribe money ended up in a bank account controlled by Daugherty and he refused to testify under oath, claiming immunity, or freedom from prosecution, on the grounds that he had confidential dealings with the president. .The new president, Calvin Coolidge, demanded his resignation.

Vice President Calvin Coolidge became president after Harding's death. Coolidge distanced himself from the Harding administration. His focus was on prosperity through business leadership with little government intervention. He easily won the Republican Party's nomination for president in 1924.

Coolidge was a quiet, honest, frugal Vermonter.As President, he admired productive business leaders. In August 1923, Vice President Calvin Coolidge became President.

Coolidge believed that the chief business of the American people is business.Coolidge continued Mellons policies to reduce the national debt, trim the budget, and lower taxes.The country saw huge industrial profits and spectacular growth in the stock market. The middle and upper classes prospered, especially in cities. How did Coolidge feel about business and government? (Coolidge felt that business led to prosperity and that the government should not interfere.)

Farmers struggled as agricultural prices fell. Labor unions fought for higher pay and better working conditions.African Americans and Mexican Americans faced severe discrimination.Not everyone shared in the eras prosperity.Coolidge ignored such issues, believing it was not the federal governments job to legislate social change.By the 1920s, the U.S. was the dominate economic power in the world. The Allies owed the U.S. billions of dollars in war debts. The U.S. National economy was greater than that of Britain, France, and Japan combined.Many Americans favored isolationism rather than involvement in international politics and issues. Americans want to be left alone to pursue prosperity. The U.S. was too powerful and interconnected in international affairs to remain isolated.

Under Harding and Coolidge, the United States assumed a new role as a world leader.The Washington Naval Disarmament Conference limited construction of large warships.The Kellogg-Briand Pact, signed by 62 countries, outlawed war.Much of U.S. foreign policy was a response to World War Is devastation. But the U.S. refused to join the World Court.The Washington conference held in 1921 invited countries to discuss the ongoing post-war naval arms race. Secretary of State Charles Evans Hughes proposed a 10-year moratorium or pause, on the construction of major new war ships.The conference did nothing to limit land forces. Japan was angry that the conference required Japan to keep a smaller navy than the U.S. and Great Britain.

Washington Naval Disarmament ConferenceThe Kellog-Briand Pact was a treaty that outlawed war. By signing the treaty, countries agreed to stop war and settle disputes in a peaceful way. On August 27, 1928, The U.S. and 14 other countries signed the pact, and eventually 62 nations ratified it.The treaty had no binding force, but was hailed as a victory for peace.

During this period the United States also became a world economic leader.To protect American businesses, Harding raised tariffs on imported goods by 25%.European nations retaliated, creating a tariff war.The Dawes Plan loaned money to Germany so that Germany could pay reparations to Britain and France; in turn, those countries could repay the U.S. for wartime loans.Other countries felt the U.S. should help with the wars financial debt. The U.S. government disagreed, arguing that the Allies had gained new territory and received reparations, or huge cash payments that Germany paid as punishment for starting the war.War reparations crippled the German economy. As a result, Charles G. Dawes, an American diplomat, and banker negotiated an agreement called the Dawes Plan- with France, Britain, and Germany by which American banks would make loans to Germany so they could meet their reparations payments. France and Great Britain also agreed to accept less in reparations and pay more on their war debts.

How did the Dawes Plan effect Europes economic problems?The plan did little to help. Britain, France and Germany tried to pay what they owed while going deeper in debt to the American banks and corporations.ObjectivesCompare economic and cultural life in rural America to that in urban America.Discuss changes in U.S. immigration policy in the 1920s.Analyze the goals and motives of the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s.Discuss the successes and failures of the Eighteenth Amendment.

11 Section 3How did Americans differ on major social and cultural issues? In the 1920s, many city dwellers enjoyed a rising standard of living, while most farmers suffered through hard times.

Conflicting visions for the nations future heightened tensions between cities and rural areas.

Did You Know? During the 1920s, cosmetic sales soared as women tried to copy the look of Hollywood movie stars. The average American woman used about one pound of face powder a year.

In 1920, for the first time, more Americans lived in cities than in rural areas.In cities, many people enjoyed prosperity and were open to social change and new ideas.Times were harder in rural areas. Rural people generally preferred traditional views of science, religion, and culture.

An example of this clash of values was the tension between modernism and Christian fundamentalism in the 1920s.Modernism emphasized science and secular values.Fundamentalism emphasized religious values and taught the literal truth of the Christian Bible.

Attitudes toward education illustrate another difference between urban and rural perspectives.Urban people saw formal education as essential to getting a good job.In rural areas, book learning interfered with farm work and was less highly valued.

Some Americans feared the new morality and worried about America's social decline. Many of these people came from small rural towns and joined a religious movement called Fundamentalism.The Fundamentalists rejected Darwin's theory of evolution, which suggested that humans developed from lower forms of life over millions of years. Instead, Fundamentalists believed in creationismthat God created the world as described in the Bible.

Education became a battleground for fundamentalist and modernist values in the 1925 Scopes Trial.Tennessee made it illegal to teach evolution in public schools.Biology teacher John Scopes challenged the law.Defense attorney Clarence Darrow tried to use science to cast doubt on religious beliefs.In 1925 Tennessee passed the Butler Act, which made it illegal to teach anything that denied creationism and taught evolution instead.The debate between evolutionists and creationists came to a head with the Scopes Trial. Answering the request of the ACLU, John T. Scopes, a biology teacher, volunteered to test the Butler Act by teaching evolution in his class.

The conflict over teaching evolution in public schools continues today.The Scopes Trial illustrated a major cultural and religious division, but it did not resolve the issue.

Scopes was found guilty of teaching evolutionand fined but the case was later overturned. After the trial, many fundamentalists withdrew from political activism.

Immigrants were at the center of another cultural clash.Many Americans recognized the importance of immigration to U.S. history.Many Mexicans settled in the sparsely populated areas of the southwest.Nativists feared that immigrants took jobs away from native-born workers and threatened American traditions.After World War I, the Red Scare increased distrust of immigrants.In the 1920s, racism and nativism increased. Immigrants and demobilized military men and women competed for the same jobs during a time of high unemployment and an increased cost of living.Ethnic prejudice was the basis of the Sacco and Vanzetti case, in which the two immigrant men were accused of murder and theft. They were thought to be anarchists, or opposed to all forms of government. Sacco and Vanzetti were sentenced to death, and in 1927 they were executed still proclaiming their innocence.

Nativists used the idea of eugenics, the false science of the improvement of hereditary traits, to give support to their arguments against immigration. Nativists emphasized that human inequalities were inherited and said that inferior people should not be allowed to breed. This added to the anti-immigrant feeling of the time and further promoted the idea of strict immigrant control.

In 1921 President Harding signed the Emergency Quota Act, limiting immigration to 3 percent of the total number of people in any ethnic group already living in the United States. This discriminated heavily against southern and eastern Europeans.

In 1924, the National Origins Act set up a quota system for immigrants. For each nationality, the quota allowed up to 2% of 1890s total population of that nationality living in the U.S.This further restricted immigrants from southern and eastern Europe. The act exempted immigrants from the Western Hemisphere from the quotas.

The immigration acts of 1921 and 1924 reduced the labor pool in the United States. Employers needed laborers for agriculture, mining, and railroad work. Mexican immigrants began pouring into the United States between 1914 and the end of the 1920s. The immigrants fled their country in the aftermath of the Mexican Revolution of 1910.

Trends such as urbanization, modernism, and increasing diversity made some people lash out against change.Beginning in 1915, there was a resurgence of the Ku Klux Klan.The Klan promoted hatred of African Americans, Jews, Catholics, and immigrants. By 1925, the Klan had between 4 and 5 million members.

The Ku Klux Klan (KKK) led the movement to restrict immigration. This new Klan not only targeted the freed African Americans but also Catholics, Jews, immigrants, and other groups believed to have "un-American" values.

Others embraced the idea of racial, ethnic, and religious diversity.Many valued the idea of the United States as a melting pot.Groups such as the NAACP and the Jewish Anti-Defamation League worked to counter the Klan and its values.By the late 1920s, many Klan leaders had beenexposed as corrupt.Alcohol has played a historic role in the politics of the nation. As early as the American Revolution the local tavern was a place to meet and discuss the candidates and issues over a drink. The taverns also served as polling places, and more often than not, whoever could ply the most alcohol to the voters as they arrived won the election. Despite alcohols place in politics and social structures, there was a rising concern over the effects about the consumption of alcohol by the 1880s

Prohibition Just after the Civil War, several states introduced referenda trying to deal with liquor and the social problems it represented. While most of these measures failed, by 1890 prohibition proponents known as drys, made up primarily of church members and concerned citizen leagues, had managed to pass a statewide prohibition in Maine, Kansas, and North Dakota.

Alcoholic beverages were another divisive issue.In 1919, the Eighteenth Amendment, which banned the making, distributing, or selling of alcohol, became part of the Constitution. The Volstead Act enabled the government to enforce the amendment.Prohibition became law in the United States.

Many people felt that the Eighteenth Amendment, which prohibited alcohol, would reduce unemployment, domestic violence, and poverty.The Volstead Act made enforcement of Prohibition the responsibility of the U.S. Treasury Department. Until the 1900s, police powers, a governments power to control people and property in the publics interest had been the job of the state governments.

Prohibition led the nation down the road to its first attempt at social reform at the federal level. The necessary increase in government agencies that accompanied the Volstead Act provided the federal government and the American public an avenue for the federal governments unprecedented foray into major social reform.

This paradigm shift, and the change in attitudes of the federal governments role, made it possible for people to accept the New Deal policies President Franklin Roosevelt would later enact.

Drys favored Prohibition, hailing the law as a noble experiment.Drys believed that Prohibition was good for society.Wets opposed Prohibition, claiming that it did not stop drinking.Wets argued that Prohibition encouraged hypocrisy and illegal activity.

Prohibition did not stop people from drinking alcoholic beverages.A large illegal network created, smuggled, distributed, and sold alcohol, benefiting gangsters such as Al Capone. People bought alcohol illegally from bootleggers and at speakeasies. Prohibition contributed to the rise of organized crime.Americans ignored the laws of Prohibition. They went to secret bars called speakeasies, where alcohol could be purchased. Crime became big business, and gangsters corrupted many local politicians and Governments.

In 1923, the mayor of Philadelphia brought in Brigadier General Smedley D. Butler from the Marines to enforce the law in that city. Within the first week, Butler closed 973 liquor establishments, which made him highly unpopular with the residents. In a short period, the citizens turned against him, making his task all but impossible.

General Butler attempted to carry out the letter of the law in Philadelphia for two more years, but at the end of his leave of absence President Coolidge sent him back to the Marine contingent permanently stationed in China. Before leaving the city, the General remarked, Trying to enforce law in Philadelphia was worse than any battle I was ever in.

While the party platform of the three presidential races from 1920 to 1928 all endorsed a strict enforcement of prohibition, a new faction arose during the 1924 Democratic national convention. In 1929, the Great Depression struck, seriously compounding the problems the Treasury Department was having enforcing the law.

The Depression resulted in such a wide spread break down in social structure that poverty, unemployment, and the other social problems that prohibitionists had used as propaganda to pass the Eighteenth Amendment could no longer be blamed solely on alcohol.

ObjectivesTrace the reasons that leisure time increased during the 1920s.Analyze how the development of popular culture united Americans and created new activities and heroes.Discuss the advancements of women in the 1920s.Analyze the concept of modernism and its impact on writers and painters in the 1920s.

11 section 4How did the new mass culture reflect technological and social changes? The automobile made it easier for people to travel. Other technological advances, such as radio and film, created a new mass culture. New styles also emerged in art and literature.

In many ways, the 1920s represented the first decade of our own modern era.

In the 1920s, urban dwellers saw an increase in leisure time.Farmers worked from dawn to dusk and had little time for recreation.In cities and suburbs, people earned more money and had more time for fun. They looked for new kinds of entertainment.

A "new morality" challenged traditional ideas and glorified youth and personal freedom. New ideas about marriage, work, and pleasure affected the way people lived. Women broke away from families as they entered the workforce, earned their own livings, or attended college. The automobile gave American youth the opportunity to pursue interests away from parents.

The economic prosperity of the 20s afforded many Americans leisure time for enjoying sports, music, theater and entertainment. Radio, motion pictures and News papers gave rise to a new interest in sports. Sports figures such as Babe Ruth and heavyweight champion Jack Dempsey, were famous for their abilities but became celebrities as well. Motion pictures became increasingly popular. The first talking picture, The Jazz Singer, was made in 1927. the golden age of Hollywood began.

The mass media- radio, movies, newspapers, and magazines- helped break down the focus on local interests. Mass media helped to unify the nation and spread new ideas and attitudes.

One of the new kinds of entertainment was the motion picture. In the 1920s, 60 to 100 million people went to the movies each week.Throughout most of the decade, movies were silent, so people could watch them no matter what language they spoke.

Movies were affordable and available to everyone, everywhere.In 1927, Al Jolson appeared in The Jazz Singer, the first talkie, ending the era of silent films.Movies democratic, universal appeal created stars known the world over.Charlie Chaplin became the most popular silent film star by playing The Little Tramp.

The radio and the phonograph were powerful instruments of mass culture.The first commercial radio station, KDKA, began in 1920.Within three years, there were 600 radio stations.People all over the country could hear the same music, news, and shows.With phonographs, people could listen to music whenever they wanted.Improvements in recording technology made records popular.People listened to the same songs and learned the same dances.In 1926 the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) established a permanent network of radio stations to distribute daily programming.In 1928 the Columbia Broadcasting Company System (CBS) set up coast-to-coast stations to compete with NBC.

The world of sports produced some nationally famous heroes.Baseball player Babe Ruth, nicknamed The Sultan of Swat, thrilled people with his home runs.Thanks to newspapers and radio, millions of people could follow their favorite athletes.

In May 1927, Lindbergh flew his single-engine plane, Spirit of St. Louis, non-stop from New York to Paris.The flight took more than 33 hours.Aviator Charles Lindbergh became a national hero when he made the first solo flight across the Atlantic.Womens roles also changed in the 1920s.Women married later, had fewer children, and generally lived longer, healthier lives.Labor-saving appliances, such as electric irons and vacuum cleaners, allowed time for book clubs, charitable work, and new personal interests.Such changes benefited urban women more than rural women.Women's fashion drastically changed in the 1920s. The flapper, a young, dramatic, stylish, and unconventional woman, exemplified the change in women's behavior. Professionally, women made advances in the fields of science, medicine, law, and literature.

These young women rejected Victorian morality and values.They wore short skirts, cut their hair in a short style called the bob, and followed dance crazes such as the Charleston. Flappers represented a revolution in manners and morals.

The decade saw many firsts for women.More women entered the workforce.They moved into new fields such as banking, aviation, journalism, and medicine.Nellie Tayloe Ross of Wyoming became the first female governor.Other firsts included the first woman judge and the first woman elected to the U.S. Senate.The wars devastation left many questioning the optimistic Victorian attitude of progress.Modernism expressed a skeptical, pessimistic view of the world.Writers and artists explored the ideas of psychologist Sigmund Freud, who suggested that human behavior was driven by unconscious desires. World War I strongly affected the art and literature of the 1920s.

During the 20s , American artists, writers, and intellectuals began challenging traditional ideas as they searched for meaning in the modern world.The artistic and unconventional, or Bohemian, lifestyle of Manhattans Greenwich Village and Chicagos South Side attracted artists and writers. These areas were considered centers of creativity, enlightenment, and freedom from conformity to old ideas.

Artists such as Edward Hopper, Joseph Stella, and Georgia OKeefe challenged tradition and experimented with new subjects and abstract styles.

The European art movement Influenced American modern artists . The Range in which artist choose to express the modern experience was very diverse.Writing styles and subject matter varied. Chicago poet Carl Sandburg used common speech to glorify the Midwest and the expansive nature of American life. Play write Eugene ONeills work focused on the search for meaning in a modern society.

Writers of the 1920s were called the Lost Generation because theyd lost faith in Victorian cultural values. F. Scott Fitgerald explored the idea of the American dream, writing that his generation had foundall faiths in man shaken. Ernest Hemingway questioned concepts of personal sacrifice, glory, honor, and war and created a new style of writing.Playwright Eugene ONeill explored the subconscious mind in his plays. A Coin Your western heads here cast on money, You are the two that fade away together, Partners in the mist.

Lunging buffalo shoulder, Lean Indian face,We who come after where you are gone Salute your forms on the new nickel.

You are To us: The past.

Runners On the prairie: Good-by.

Carl SandburgO'Neill was the first American dramatist to regard the stage as a literary medium and the only American playwright ever to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature. Through his efforts, the American theatre grew up during the 1920s, developing into a cultural medium that could take its place with the best in American fiction, painting, and music. Until his Beyond the Horizon was produced, in 1920, Broadway theatrical fare, apart from musicals and an occasional European import of quality, had consisted largely of contrived melodrama and farce.

ObjectivesAnalyze the racial and economic philosophies of Marcus Garvey.Trace the development and impact of jazz.Discuss the themes explored by writers of the Harlem Renaissance.

11 Section 5Did You Know? Langston Hughes was a recent graduate from high school when his first poem, "The Negro Speaks of Rivers," was published. He enrolled in Columbia University in 1921, but only stayed a year. While working as a busboy in a Washington, D.C., hotel in 1925, Hughes showed some of his writings to poet Vachel Lindsay, who helped Hughes get his work published.

How did African Americans express a new sense of hope and pride? As a result of World War I and the Great Migration, millions of African Americans relocated from the rural South to the urban North. This migration contributed to a flowering of music and literature.

Jazz and the Harlem Renaissance had a lasting impact on American culture.

The Great Migration occurred when hundreds of thousands of African Americans from the rural South headed to industrial cities in the North with the hope of a better life.African Americans created environments that stimulated artistic development, racial pride, a sense of community, and political organization which led to a massive creative out-pouring of African American arts known as the Harlem Renaissance.

Writer Claude McKay became the first important writer of the renaissance, his work expressed defiance and contempt of racism.Langston Hughes became a leading voice of the African American experience in the U.S.Louis Armstrong introduced Jazz, a style of music influenced by Dixieland music and ragtime.Bessie Smith sang about unrequited love, poverty, and oppression, which were classic themes in blues style music.

They hoped to escape the poverty and racism of the South.The North offered higher wages and a middle class of African American ministers, physicians, and teachers. Discrimination did exist in the North, however, and African Americans faced low pay, poor housing, and the threat of race riots.Many African Americans were attracted to northern cities by dreams of a better life.Harlem, in New York City, was the cultural focal point of the northern migration.

In Harlem, 200,000 African Americans mixed with immigrants from Caribbean islands such as Jamaica.

The Great Migration led to African Americans becoming powerful voting blocs that influence election outcomes in the North. Oscar DePriest was elected as the First African American representative in Congress from a Northern State after African Americans voted as a block.The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) battled against segregation and discrimination.

The NAACPs efforts led to the passage of anti-lynching legislation in the House of Representatives, but the Senate defeated the bill.Jamaican black leader Marcus Garveys idea of Negro Nationalism glorified black culture and traditions.

He founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA), which promoted black pride and unity.Garvey encouraged education as the way for African Americans to gain economic and political power; but he also voiced the need for separation and independence from whites.

Garveys plan to create a settlement in Liberia in Africa for African Americans caused middle class African Americans to distance themselves from Garvey.His ideas, however, led to a sense of pride and hope in African Americans that resurfaced during the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s.Garvey promoted universal black nationalism and support of black-owned businesses.He founded a Back to Africa movement and the Universal Negro Improvement Association.Eventually, Garvey was convicted of mail fraud and deported.

Jamaican immigrant Marcus Garvey encouraged black pride.Jazz was a kind of music based on improvisation that grew out of African American blues and ragtime.It began in southern and southwestern cities such as New Orleans. Jazz crossed racial lines to become a uniquely American art form.The 1920s was known as the Jazz Age.

New Orleans trumpet player Louis Armstrong was the unofficial ambassador of jazz. Armstrong played in New Orleans, Chicago, and New York.His expert playing made him a legend and influenced the development of jazz.Duke Ellington was a popular band leader who wrote or arranged more than 2,000 pieces of music and earned international honors.Jazz bands featured solo vocalists such as Bessie Smith, the Empress of the Blues. White composers such as Cole Porter, Irving Berlin, and George Gershwin found inspiration in jazz. Spread by radio and phonograph records, jazz gained worldwide popularity.Jazz and the blues were part of the Harlem Renaissance, a flowering of African American arts and literature.Novelists, poets, and artists celebrated their culture and explored questions of race in America.Jean Toomers Cane showed the richness of African American life and folk culture.The writings of Claude McKay emphasized the dignity of African Americans and called for social and political change.Langston Hughes, the most celebrated Harlem Renaissance writer, captured the diversity of everyday African American life in his poetry, journalism, and criticism.Zora Neale Hurston published folk tales from her native Florida. Her novel Their Eyes Were Watching God speaks of womens longing for independence.

Yet this artistic movement had a lasting effect on the self-image of African Americans.It created a sense of group identity and soldarity among African Americans. It later became the cultural bedrock upon which the Civil Rights movement would be built.As the Great Depression began, the Harlem Renaissance came to an end.Chapter SummarySection 1: A Booming EconomySection 2: The Business of GovernmentThe mass production of automobiles changed the U.S. economy, creating new industries. Easier travel gave Americans a new sense of freedom. New consumer goods, methods of buying, and advertising appeared. The stock market boomed.Presidents Harding and Coolidge followed a laissez-faire policy that allowed business to grow during the 1920s. Much of the wealth focused on the stock market. There were major scandals in the Harding administration.

Chapter Summary (continued)Section 3: Social and Cultural TensionsSection 4: A New Mass CultureAmericans had more leisure time than ever before. Radio, phonograph records, movies, and sports heroes created a new popular culture. Writers and artists searched for new truths and forms of expression.

A major cultural divide existed between the modernism found in cities and the fundamentalism that dominated rural America. Disputes over Prohibition, education, and immigration illustrated this divide.

Chapter Summary (continued)Section 5: The Harlem RenaissanceThe Roaring Twenties were also called the Jazz Age. This uniquely American musical form began with African Americans and gained worldwide popularity. Marcus Garvey and the writers of the Harlem Renaissance expressed a new sense of pride in African American culture.