the 1920s
DESCRIPTION
The 1920s. Changing Consumer Habits. Companies focused on inventing & producing consumer goods Examples: radios, automobiles, icebox, washing machine, vacuum cleaner People buying goods using “credit” mass production of goods = cheaper products - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
• Companies focused on inventing & producing consumer goods Examples: radios, automobiles, icebox, washing machine, vacuum cleaner
• People buying goods using “credit”
• mass production of goods = cheaper products
• increased use of advertisingto sell products
• Car ownership grew 18 million from 1920 to 1930
• New roads = more mobility, causing growth in the suburbs
• Charles Lindbergh’s 1927 transatlantic flight – could fly
across the Atlantic Ocean
• Republican President elected in 1920
• Most famous for three scandals:
- “Ohio Gang” (president’s advisors caught using power of the
presidency to get rich) - Teapot Dome Scandal
(extreme example- gov. claimed some land oil- rich land for supplying the navy, but the secretary of the navy secretly let private companies get and use the oil in return for $)
- Mysterious death in S.F at the Palace Hotel in 1923
• Harding’s Vice President
• Became President in 1923 (after Harding’s death)
• Elected in 1924 with slogan “Coolidge or Chaos”
Anecdotes- ‘Silent Cal’ (you don’t have to write this stuff…)
•in private he was a man of few words and was therefore commonly referred to as "Silent Cal." A possibly apocryphal story has it that Dorothy Parker, seated next to him at a dinner, said to him, "Mr. Coolidge, I've made a bet against a fellow who said it was impossible to get more than two words out of you." His famous reply: "You lose.“
•It was also Parker who, upon learning that Coolidge had died, reportedly remarked, "How can they tell?"
• Conservative pro-business Republican elected in 1928
• Believed in the individual & a small federal government
• Mitchell Palmer (U.S. Attorney General) started the “First Red
Scare”
• He deported immigrants during the “Palmer Raids”
• In 1921 & 1924 limits were placed on immigrants from Italy,
Russia, and Slavic nations.
• Fear and discrimination against immigrants & minority ethnic
groups spread throughout the U.S.Ex: Sacco & Vanzetti Trial
Question: Question: Why would AmericansWhy would Americans
dislike immigrants?dislike immigrants?
• The 18th Amendment “Volstead Act” prohibited the manufacturing or sale of alcohol (1919)
• It was hard to enforce – smuggled and bootleg liquor was common – led to a rise in organized crime (mob)
• The 21st Amendment ended Prohibition in 1933
• Gain right to vote in 1920 with the 19th
Amendment • Women expressed new
freedoms and political rights - birth control,
voting, and new fashions (though few in number,
flappers represented the “new woman”)
• Black Americans moved north to cities for jobs, but still suffered from discrimination
• KKK membership grew to 4.5 million by 1924
• Increase in Civil Rights groups fighting for change (ex: Marcus Garvey’s “Back to Africa” movement)
• Era of Babe Ruth & Yankee Stadium
• Sports figures were heroes and big business (1927 Dempsey fight made $2.6 million)
• Negro National Baseball League started in the 1920s
• Rise of movie stars (Rudolph Valentino & Charlie Chaplin) became popular in the 1920s
• Talking movies started October 6th, 1927 with “The Jazz Singer”
• Harlem Renaissance – rebirth of black culture in New York City