the 1920s. a return to normalcy americans desired a return to normalcy following world war i. they...
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Results of Return to Normalcy Isolationism: US did not get involved in world affairs Nativism: suspicion of people who are foreign born Political Conservatism: turned away from government controlTRANSCRIPT
The 1920s
A Return to Normalcy
Americans desired a return to normalcy following World War I.
They wanted to get back to the every day life that existed prior to the war.
Results of Return to NormalcyIsolationism: US did not get
involved in world affairsNativism: suspicion of people
who are foreign bornPolitical Conservatism: turned
away from government control
The Red Scare1917, Russian Revolution:
Russia becomes communistCommunism: system where
government controls the industries
Palmer Raids Mitchell Palmer and J. Edgar
Hoover hunt down communist and anarchists and arrest them
Anarchists: those opposed to any and all forms of government
Sacco & VanzettiNicola Sacco and Bartolomeo
Vanzetti: Italian immigrants accused and convicted of robbery and murder with little evidence; both were executed.
Displayed nativism in US.
The Ku Klux Klan In 1920s, the KKK grew due to
the Red Scare and anti-immigration feelings.
It feared that foreigners were going to change American way of life; also looked down on AA
Labor Strikes Hurt USFollowing WWI, workers began
to demand higher wages to keep up with rising prices.
Workers joined labor unions and held strikes against their employers.
Boston Police, Steel, & Coal
Warren Harding & The Business of
America
Harding Works For PeacePresident Harding invited 4
major nations to discuss arms reductions (Russia not invited)
Called for a reduction in naval power, and a 10 year period of not building any new ships.
Kellogg-Briand Pact
1929, US and 64 other nations agreed to denounce (reject) war as an instrument of national policy.
Problem: There was no way to enforce the pact.
Limiting ImmigrationNativist and anti-foreign views
led to a restriction of the amount of immigrants allowed.
Emergency Quota Act: 1921, limited number of foreigners allowed into US (excluded Japan)
Teapot Dome ScandalOhio Gang: Harding’s friends
he appointed to government positions; very corrupt
Albert Fall (Interior Secretary) secretly leased oil fields to private companies in return for money.
August 2, 1923After becoming ill, Warren
Harding dies.Vice-President Calvin
Coolidge takes over as President.
Increase in Standard of LivingCoolidge sought to keep taxes
low and business profits up.Americans owned 40% of the
world’s wealth.Cars, airplane, new electrical
devices changed peoples’ lives.
Consumer SpendingAs businesses expanded more
money was spent on advertising to get people to buy goods.
Installment plans: enabled people to buy goods over an extended period, or on credit.
Changing Ways of Life
The Prohibition Era18th Amendment: bans the
production, sale, and transportation of alcohol
Why? It was believed that alcohol was a major cause of crime, wife and child abuse, and other social problems.
Prohibition’s Opponents ReactSpeakeasies: underground
saloons and night clubs that sold alcohol illegally.
Bootleggers: criminals who smuggled in alcohol from Canada or Cuba
Organized CrimeDeveloped from prohibition;
gangsters made their money from bootlegging.
Al Capone: crime boss in Chicago; eventually convicted of tax evasion
The End to ProhibitionRealizing the failure of the 18th
Amendment to end drinking among the majority of Americans, Congress acts.
21st Amendment: repeals the 18th Amendment; makes alcohol legal again
The Scopes Trial1925, Tennessee passed a
law making it a crime to teach evolution.
John Scopes (24 year old biology teacher) taught evolution instead of “Adam & Eve”
The State of Tennessee arrests Scopes and he is put on trial.
Clarence Darrow - defends Scopes
William Jennings Bryan - prosecutor
Results of the Scopes TrialScopes is found guilty and
fined $100.Importance: displayed the
tension that existed in the US surrounding the separation of church and state
1920s Pop Culture & The Harlem Renaissance
Women and the 1920sFlappers: an emancipated
woman who embraced the new fashions and urban attitudes
Drinking, smoking, dancingShort hair and short skirtsNew jobs and more sexual
freedom.
Pop Culture in the 1920sSports: Babe Ruth (baseball) Jack Dempsey (boxing)Movies: Charlie Chaplin,
Disney’s “Steamboat Willie”Literature: “The Great Gatsby”
by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Lindbergh Crosses the AtlanticCharles Lindberghmade the first solo non-stop
flight across the AtlanticSpirit of St. Louis: Lindbergh’s
planeNational hero
African-Americans Move NorthMany African-Americans move
to northern cities during the Great Migration.
Marcus Garvey: founded Universal Negro Improvement Association to promote black rights and individuality
Harlem RenaissanceA literary and artistic
movement celebrating African- American culture in the 1920s.
Based out of Harlem, a neighborhood on the upper west side of NYC, it spread to other areas.
Prominent African-AmericansLangston Hughes: wrote
poems of the working class lives of African-Americans.
Zora Neal Hurston: most accomplished female author; Their Eyes Were Watching God
The Jazz AgeJazz was born in New Orleans
in the early 1900s, but began to flourish and spread in the 1920s
Louis Armstrong: trumpeter, most famous jazz musician, along with “Duke” Ellington and Bessie Smith.