Chapter 23: The New Era
1920s• The Era: A great divide existed with
regard to developments in the economy, culture, and for women, African-American Americans, and immigrants
The New Economy• Economic growth w/inequality, poverty• Causes of boom: WWI, technology,radio & film, theautomobile; & laissez faire gov.
New Economy--Corporations• Assembly line production• Taylorism: Scientific Management• Mass advertising • “Welfare capitalism” first developed by
Henry Ford• The gov’t reduce corporate taxes, left
monopolies alone, and raised tariffs (Fordney-McCumber 1922)
New Economy--Minorities• Women: pink collar jobs• African Americans: The Great Migration; Phillip Randolph formedThe Brotherhood ofSleeping Car Porters
New Economy--Labor• American Plan/ “open shop”
• Blacks often hired as “scabs”• What happened to union membership
during 1920s?
New Economy--Agriculture• Wartime prosperity gave way to hard times• Overproduction
• Proposed solution: parity (McNary-Haugen bill vetoed by Coolidge in 1928)
New Culture: Consumerism-Buying goods for pleasure, often on installment-Fueled by marketing on the radio & newspapers
-The automobile stimulated other industries & had a great impact on geography, youth, women
-Gas & electric appliances
New Culture: Mass Entertainment• More leisure time and disposable income• First talkie film The Jazz Singer in 1927• Radio wasinexpensive &created a common culture• Life, ReadersDigest, & The Saturday Evening Post
New Culture: Women• limited work opportunities; 25% of
married women worked outside home
• Divorce rate doubled; birth control introduced by Margaret Sanger
New Culture: Women• The flapper: they could drink, smoke, &
dance publically; go on unchaperoned dates; wear short skirts and bobbed hair
New Culture: Women• Women’s rights: National Women’s
Party, League of Women Voters; ERA proposed• Sheppard-Towner Act established
prenatal healthcare programs
New Culture: Celebrities• Charles Lindbergh (pilot); Babe Ruth
(baseball); movie stars; singers
New Culture: Writers• The Lost Generation “debunkers”–Criticized materialism, conformity,
fundamentalism–F. Scott Fitzgerald, Sinclair Lewis, H.L.
Mencken,Hemingway
New Culture: Harlem Renaissance• A flourishing black culture in Harlem• Poets, playwrights, musicians
• Langston Hughes, Duke Ellington, Bessie Smith
Conflict of Cultures: Wets vs. Drys• Prohibition—18th amendment – lost support
of Progressives; gained support of rural areas and Protestants
• During 1920s, lacked enforcement and popular support
• Speakeasies, bootleggers• Organized crime- Al Capone• Repealed in 1933
Conflict of Cultures: Anti-Immigration• Emergency Quota Act of 1921• National Origins Act of 1924
• Limited/banned immigrants into U.S. based on country of origin (particular discrimination against East Asians and Eastern Europeans)
Conflict of Cultures: Racism• Rise of the KKK in north and south• Lynchings increased• Defacto segregation in northern cities• White gangs attacked blacks • Race riots
Conflict of Cultures: Modernists vs. Fundamentalists
• The Fundamentals believed in a literal interpretation of Bible
• Billy Sunday• Aimee SimpleMcPherson
• Scopes “Monkey” Trial, 1927: ultimately, Scopes fined; Wm. Jennings Bryan (prosecutor) ridiculed