The roaring twenties

I. New economic orderA. Corporate consolidation

• mergers

B. Mass production

• assembly line

•Companies consolidated & strengthened their positions in the market

•Businesses rebounded from the Progressive Era as government supported business (by leaving them alone)

•Decreased costs and increased production

•Limited need for skilled labor in manufacturing jobs

I. New economic order

C. advertising

d. ailing agriculture

•Advertisers were no longer viewed as “snake-oil salesmen”

•Appealed to specific fields of shoppers (women)

•Overexpansion and debt dominated 1920s farmer

•Environmental issues led to future problems

The 1920 ElectionThe 1920 Election

II. Republicans in powerA. harding & coolidge

•“return to normalcy”

•Teapot dome scandal

•‘gov’t which serves best, serves least’

•‘business of the american people is business’

•Progressive Era ended with Harding’s “Return to Normalcy”

•Scandal & corruption hurt Harding’s legacy

•Republicans became small gov’t & big business party

II. Republicans in powerB. return to isolationism

•Defeat of versailles treaty•Return of high tariffs•Dawes plan

•Wilson’s League of Nations flops as Republican Congress defeated ratification of the Versailles Treaty

•U.S. looked at results of WWI and returned to policy of “isolationism”

•Only major legislation by Republican Congress was to protect U.S. from the rest of the world (i.e. immigration, tariffs)

•Dawes Plan sought to make U.S. the world banker (U.S. only dealt with rest of the world through trade & economics)

II. Republicans in powerc. women’s impact on politics

•Appeals by both parties•Movement loses outside support

•Both Democrats and Republicans appealed to women’s rights movement, although neither really attempted to gain gender equality

•Following the right to vote, women did not greatly affect any elections

•Although many more women attended high school, college, and entered scientific & educational fields, women still earned less money and often met the “glass ceiling” in many fields

•Most supporters of the 19th amendment did not support further gender equality

Women’s Women’s Movement in Movement in the 1920s the 1920s

Social freedom Social freedom for young for young generation of generation of women!! women!!

iii. Mass society, mass culture

a. urbanized america

b. modern appliances

•1920: more Americans living in city than countryside (first time in history)

•Large cities developed in Midwest and even West

•Refrigerators, washing machines became affordable to American households for the first time

=Result was first debtor generation

iii. Mass society, mass culture

C. the automobile

•Ford’s assembly line made autos affordable

•The auto freed the youth from “parlor dating”

•Sunday drives

•Allowed people to move farther from inner city

iii. Mass society, mass culture

D. the radio

E. the movies

•Created first national culture

•Entertainment & news value

•As many as 80 million weekly movie-goers; 65% of the population

•In 2000, attendance was 27 million, or 9.7%

•Talkies introduced by end of 1920s

•Early stars in Hollywood

iii. Mass society, mass culture

F. hero worship•National heroes emerged due to exposure and national culture

•Sports became key entertainment value and aerial heroes emerged like Amelia Earhart and Charles Lindhbergh drew national attention•Boxing greats

like Jack Dempsey & Gene Tunney enjoyed enormous fame

•Even crime bosses gained fame from urban, immigrant youth

•Industrial dumping caused environmental hazard problems

•Excess farming led to beginning of soil erosion across Midwest

III. Mass society, mass culture

G. environmental issues

iv. Jazz agea. lost generation

•Feeling of despair (mostly caused by war experiences) led to more cynical literature & art

Gertrude Stein with Hemingwa

y’s son, Jack, in

1924

iv. Jazz ageB. dancing

C. flappers

•Dances like the Charleston became extremely popular

•Young women demonstrated new social standards

•Flappers were a key example of the new life of the 1920s

iv. Jazz ageD. Harlem Renaissance

•Through music, art, and literature, a new artistic movement came from the New Orleans area (Deep South) and moved to Harlem

•Harlem became the “hot spot” for the arts

I, too, sing America.

I am the darker brother.They send me to eat in the kitchenWhen company comes,But I laugh,And eat well,And grow strong.

Tomorrow,I'll be at the tableWhen company comes.Nobody'll dareSay to me,"Eat in the kitchen,"Then.

Besides,They'll see how beautiful I amAnd be ashamed –

I, too, am America.

- Langston Hughes, 1925

v. Society in conflict

A. Red scare

1. Palmer raids

2. FBi (j. edgar hoover)

•Government attempts to eliminate anarchists and communists led to raids of suspected homes & offices

•The FBI came from the Palmer Raids as an organization needed to supervise the U.S. against criminal activities

b. Nativism

1. immigration restriction

•xenophobia

•National Origins Act

•Johnson-Reed Act

v. Society in conflictb. Nativism

2. Sacco & Vanzetti case

•Sacco & Vanzetti were accused of murder

•Later convicted, although the evidence against them was shaky

•Trial divided America: immigrant vs. anti-immigrant

v. Society in conflictb. Nativism

3. Ku Klux Klan

•Glorified in Birth of a Nation

•U.S. average 75 lynching yearly during 1920s

v. Society in conflictc. garvey movement

•Began militant Black Pride movement

•Favored a return to Africa to leave oppressive White America

v. Society in conflictd. fundamentalism & scopes trial

•Evolutionism vs. Creationism

•Test case for view of science vs. faith

John ScopesClarence Darrow

(fresh off Leopold & Loeb Trial) & William Jennings Bryan

v. Society in conflicte. prohibition

•Sale, distribution, creation of alcohol made illegal in the 18th Amendment

Alcohol Consumption in the United States, 1910-1929

Organized crime grew during Prohibition, creating our nation’s first “gangsters.”

Prohibition was eventually repealed with the 21st Amendment