THE ROARING

20sThe Jazz Age & Prohibition

USA’s Loss of Innocence• USA becomes global

power in 1900 after Sp-Am War

• WWI initiates USA- how world works

• Wilson has Stroke- no leadership, Congress bickering

• USA turns inward- look for goodness within

• BASEBALL is ultimate American Purity- need it to make us feel good

THE TURN INWARD• WWI has ended

• Bitter feelings left over among Allies

• The Black Sox Scandal has been exposed

• America turns inward-becomes ISOLATIONIST

• Removed from global affairs

THE RED SCARE - 1919

• 1917 Bolshevik Revolution brings Communism to Russia

• America fearful of “Reds” in the US Gov’t

• Series of Bombings in US cities blamed on Communist agents

• Labor Strikes in Boston, Seattle

The Roaring 1920s

• Bipolar Decade

• Social Barriers / Roles Broken Down

• Fight to Keep Tradition

• Credit

• Technology

• Sense of Change

• Women Vote

• Isolationism

• “Laissez-Faire” Gov’t

PRESIDENT WARREN G.HARDING

• Elected in 1921

• Gambler, Partier, Womanizer

• “Ohio Gang” Cabinet – Rewarding old friends

• Dies in 3rd year of Presidency (Heart)

• Numerous scandals publicized after death

Harding Quote

• "My God, this is a hell of a job. I have no trouble with my enemies...But my damn friends, my G-D friends,...they're the ones that keep me walking the floor nights!"

President Calvin Coolidge

• Vice President of Harding – finished his term

• Elected in 1924

• Stiff, sullen, quiet, withdrawn, man

• Nickname “Silent Cal”

Coolidge Policies

• “Hands off” President

• Didn’t regulate business

• "The chief business of the American people is business."

• Lowered Taxes twice

• Helped to set stage for Great Depression

NATIVISM in USA

• Preference for those born in USA

• Anti-Immigrant Sentiment

• Fear injection of Immigrant values, ideas, politics into culture

Immigration Act of 1924

• “National Origins Act” “Quota Act”

• Greatly reduced the number of immigrants to the USA

• Unfairly targeted certain immigrants (E. European- Polish, Slavic, Russian)

KKK Re-Birth

• ANTI…• Blacks• Jews• Roman Catholics• Immigrants• Intellectuals

Religion vs. Science

Scopes Monkey Trial

Inherit the Wind

High Tariffs and Reparations

AUTOMOBILE

AIRPLANES

ELECTRICITY

ATTITUDE OF THE AGE

• Break from traditional America

• WWI destroyed old social standards – new ones developed

• Age characterized by: Freedom, Expression, Narcissism, Greed, Carelessness, Invention, Style, Lawlessness

THE NEW STYLE

• Revolution of the young

• FLAPPER – New style for women

• Short hair, short dresses, arms & legs exposed

• Smoked cigarettes, drank booze, danced at parties and underworld clubs

• Bold, brazen, fun, carefree

FLAPPER

• Offense to the older generation

• Considered a rebel

• Defied old notions of proper feminine behavior

• 19th Amendment August 18, 1920Women’s Suffrage

(vote)

NEW DANCE

African Americans in the 1920sHarlem Renaissance

Movement to discover and explore African American culture and heritage

• Originally called “New Negro Movement”

• Focused out of Harlem, New York

Reasons for the Renaissance

• Age of freedom and experimentation

• Urban Migration of Blacks

• Rise of radical African American thinkers

• Striking back at the rebirth of the KKK

Legacy of the Harlem Renaissance

• African American arts absorbed into mainstream culture

• How Blacks viewed in America redefined – a capable individual if given the chance

• Transformed African American identity and history

JAZZ

• Original American musical Art

• Origin in New Orleans in 1920s

• Cultural contributions of African-Americans

LITERATURE

• THE GREAT GATSBY by F. Scott Fitzgerald

• "They were careless people, Tom and Daisy—they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made . . . ."

AGE OF PROHIBITION• 18th Amendment

(Jan. 16, 1920) - Section 1. …the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors for beverage purposes is hereby prohibited. (Prohibition)

• VOLSTEAD ACT – Enforced 18th Amd.

Women’s Christian Temperance Union

• Oldest Women’s Organization in USA

• Alcohol blamed for ills of society

• Group crusaded to prohibit alcohol

THE SPEAKEASY

• Illegal, Underworld Bars / Clubs

• The term comes from a patron's manner of ordering alcohol without raising suspicion — a bartender would tell a patron to be quiet and "speak easy"

• Also called a “Blind Pig”

• 18th Amendment not ban “possession” of alcohol

BOOTLEGGING

• Smuggling alcohol

• Most comes through Canada

• “Rum Routes” form Cuba or Mexico

• Thought to be 100,000 Speak Easy’s in NYC alone

• Becomes cash crop of Organized Crime

RISE OF CRIME

• President Harding kept White House stocked with bootleg liquor

• Discrepancy between legality and actual practice

• Disdain for law and authority

• Police notorious for bribery and corruption during the age

RISE OF THE GANGLORDSNEW YORK CITY

Arthur Flegenheimer Charlie “Lucky” Benjamin

“Dutch Schultz” Luciano “Bugsy” Siegel

ALPHONSE CAPONEChicago

• Built Organized Crime Empire off of bootlegging profits

• Most notorious gangster of all time – ruled the south side

21st Amendment

• Repeals 18th Amendment (Prohibition)

• Alcohol allowed in USA again

DECLINE OF THE JAZZ AGE

• Economy slows down, sales drop off - 1928

• Stock Market Crashes - 1929

• Great Depression begins - 1930

• Attitude of America changes again – the party is over – so much suffering in America

• Prohibition is over – reckless, lawless spirit of Age gone