APUSH Unit 8

NOTES- Trends of the 1920s

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE PERIOD (1920-1932)

  1. Political Conservatism-
  • During the 1920s, Progressivism as a movement came to an end.
  • People wanted a “return to normalcy”.
  • Disillusionment with WWI- world NOT made safe for democracy.
  • Public looked upon reformers with suspicion.
  • Hostile attitude strengthened by the “Red Scare” of 1919-1920.
  1. Economic Conservatism-
  • During the 1920s, conservative Republicans dominated national politics.
  • Presidents Harding, Coolidge, and Hoover favored closer relations between business and government.
  • They favored “laissez faire” and “rugged individualism”.
  1. Boom and Bust-
  • After a brief postwar boom and depression, the nation moved into a period of unparalleled economic growth and prosperity.
  • Most Americans shared in the rise in the nation’s standard of living with the exceptions of the farmer and the unskilled worker.
  • The businessman became a national hero.
  • “Golden Twenties” came to an end in 1929, when, after an unprecedented stock market crash, the nation slid into its longest and most disastrous depression.
  1. Cultural Changes-
  • The 1920s were also characterized by rebellion against traditional standards, new forms of cultural expression, and important advances in science and thought.
  1. A Mixed Foreign Policy-
  • The nation’s foreign policies in the 1920s reflected the division of opinion between those who favored isolation and those who preferred international cooperation. Thus, while the US did not join the League or World Court, it participated in disarmament conferences and treaties, and helped sponsor a pact to outlaw war.

Modernists vs Fundamentalists

“Roaring 20s”
Modernists / Conservative 20s
Fundamentalists
Flappers
Jazz Age
Alcohol/Speakeasies
Harlem Renaissance
Affordable Products
Automobile Age
Women’s Rights (vote)
Consumerism/Credit
Advertising/Capitalism
Mass entertainment/ sports
Mass urbanization
Electrical Age
Movie Stars
KKK / Immigration Laws/KKK/ nativism
Fundamentalism vs. Darwinism
Prohibition
Generation Gap
Anti-flapper/Anti-Jazz

PRESIDENTS AND POLICIES (1920-1032)

  1. Warren G. Harding(Republican 1921-23)
  • US Senator who was elected to succeed Woodrow Wilson.
  • In Senate- member of the anti-League group.
  • Much of Harding’s term of office, which ended in his sudden death in 1923, was occupied with problems of postwar adjustment.
  • Because of his general lack of leadership and the many scandals that were uncovered in high office, Harding is considered one of the nation’s least effective Chief Executives.

Noteworthy Events and Achievements of the Harding Administration:

  • Veterans Bureau created in 1921
  • Bureau of Budget was established
  • Broad tax reduction program (pleased big business)
  • Congress adopted severe restrictions on immigration
  • President Harding signed a separate peace treaty with German
  • Washington Disarmament Conference in 1921-22
  • Harding refused to sign the bonus bill for veterans in 1920
  • Administration plagued by scandal and corruption (Teapot Dome/Interior Secretary Albert Fall)
  1. Calvin Coolidge (Republican, 1923-1929)
  • Upon Harding’s death, Vice President Calvin Coolidge became President and went on to serve an additional term in his own right.
  • Had been Governor of Massachusetts (ended Boston police strike)
  • Was a popular president
  • His administration coincided with the prosperity of the 1920s and the materialism and frenzy of the “Jazz Age”
  • Coolidge believed in “laissez faire”

Noteworthy events/achievements in the Coolidge Administration:

  • Characterized by reduction in taxes and the national debt
  • Ending a dispute with Mexico over threatened seizure of American oil properties
  • The drafting of several arbitration treaties
  • Signing of the Kellogg-Briand Pact to outlaw war
  • Over Coolidge’s veto, Congress passed a veterans bonus bill
  • Like Harding, Coolidge was unsuccessful in getting the Senate to approve US entry into the World Court
  1. Herbert Hoover (Republican, 1929-1933)
  • President Coolidge chose not to run for President again in 1928.
  • Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover succeeded him in the White House.
  • Reputation as a humanitarian, an administrator, and a mining engineer.
  • Favored a minimum of government intervention to business and was a strong supporter of “rugged individualism.”
  • His administration ended with the nation deep in depression
  • Hoover was forced to introduce programs of government assistance.

Noteworthy Events/Achievements of the Hoover Administration:

  • Immigration restricted by quota system based on national origins.
  • Agricultural Marketing Act of 1929 (purchase farm surpluses)
  • Hawley-Smoot Tariff (highest tariff in the history of the nation)
  • Accomplishments in Foreign Affairs (London Disarmament Conference; opposed Japanese imperialism in China; took steps to end US intervention in Latin America)
  • Everything overshadowed by the stock market crash of 1929 and the Great Depression that followed.
  • Establishment of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation (lend money to business)
  • Beginning of public works programs to provide employment
  • Growing public bitterness (“too little, too late”).

NOTES- Chapter 24 The New Era of the 1920s

The decade of the 1920s began with troubling economic signs but soon became an era of economic prosperity for many Americans. Prosperity was accompanied by pro-business attitudes and unparalleled consumerism. The federal government remained active in its support of business interests but became more passive in its regulation of those interests. While the Supreme Court handed down anti-regulatory decisions and organized labor suffered setbacks, pro-business attitudes reminiscent of the Gilded Age marked the Harding, Coolidge, and Hoover administrations. Most reforms took place at the state and local levels. Interest in reform concerning Native American affairs led to the reorganization of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, but Native American policy matters continued to be characterized by paternalism. While newly enfranchised women lobbied and gained passage of some legislation helpful to them, women generally struggled to find their political voice.The consumerism of the age was fueled by the growing purchasing power of many American families and the accompanying ability to acquire the goods associated with a consumer society. Both the automobile and the sophisticated techniques of modern advertising transformed the American lifestyle. The urbanization of American society continued in the 1920s. Although movement to cities offered opportunities to many, African American migrants found that white racism was as prevalent in urban areas as it had been in the rural South. However, African Americans’ urban ghetto experience aroused their class and ethnic consciousness, as seen both in Marcus Garvey’s black nationalist movement and in the cultural outpouring known as the Harlem Renaissance. Racism also shaped the lives of Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, and other newcomers to American cities and contributed to “white flight” from the inner city and to suburban growth.

The way in which Americans spent their time changed. For instance, labor-saving devices lightened the tasks of women working in the home. But since women were still expected to clothe and feed the family and since women produced clothes and preserved food at home, they spent their time shopping for these goods and became the primary consumers in society. Altered attitudes and values brought about by societal changes found expression in new clothing and hair styles and in a new openness about human sexuality. Increased longevity resulting from improved diets and improved healthcare led to an increase in the number of older Americans and to limited attempts to respond to their needs. At the same time, compulsory-school-attendance laws increased the influence of the peer group in the socialization of children. Furthermore, a combination of consumerism and economic necessity caused more women, including married women, to work outside the home. The work they performed and the wages they earned were largely determined by the sex-segregated characteristics of the labor market and, for nonwhites, by racial bias. In spite of sexism and racism, however, many women placed family needs above individual needs.More leisure time and a search for entertainment meant that spectator sports and the movies became big business. As the conformist aspects of mass culture caused individuality to fade, Americans found heroes in sports figures, movie idols, and media-created personalities. Caught between two value systems, many Americans gave lip service to the old, as evidenced in their professed support of the Prohibition experiment, but chose the new, as the breakdown of Prohibition in the cities shows. In literature, the 1920s saw the work of the Lost Generation and of the Harlem Renaissance. In music, it was the age of jazz, America’s most distinctive art form, and of such talented composers as Aaron Copland and George Gershwin. In architecture, Frank Lloyd Wright predominated. Overall, the period stands as one of the most creative in American literature.

Many people felt threatened by change, and some, attempting to protect traditional attitudes and values, reacted defensively, sometimes with attempts to blame change on scapegoats. The emergence of the “new” Klan and the increase in nativism and fear of radicalism (evidenced in the Sacco and Vanzetti case) can be seen in this light. Religious fundamentalism also gained strength, as the Scopes Trial revealed. In politics, the presidency remained in Republican hands in 1928 as most Americans affirmed their confidence in the building of a New Era of prosperity for all. But with the stock market crash of 1929, the optimism of 1928 gave way to concern and ultimately, with the onset of the Great Depression, to despair. The Jazz Age ended. The American economic system would have to be rebuilt.

Internationally, the world order was unstable in the 1920s and would lead to another world war in the 1930s. Involvement in disarmament talks and arms limitation treaties, acceptance of the Kellogg-Briand Pact outlawing war, and international economic expansion by the US serve as examples of the independent internationalist approach to foreign policy undertaken by the US during the 1920s. At the same time, isolationist sentiment (the desire to remain aloof from European power struggles and war) increased. Such sentiment found expression in the investigations of the Nye Committee, which attempted to prove that business interests had selfishly pulled the US into the First World War. In the 1920s, the US altered its policy toward Latin America. Blatant military intervention no longer seemed to preserve American interests and maintain the order and stability so important to those interests. The Good Neighbor policy enhanced American power throughout the region but did not bring to Latin America the stable, democratic governments that the US professed to desire.

I. Big Business Triumphant

  1. Business Consolidation and Lobbying
  • The consolidation movement that began in the late 19th century continued into the 1920s.
  • Business and professional associations began to engage in “the new lobbying.”
  1. Fate of Organized Labor
  • Public opinion continued to be generally hostile toward unions.
  • Some large corporations attempted to counter the appeal of union through what is known as welfare capitalism.

II. Politics and Government

  1. Harding and Coolidge Administrations
  • Harding began his presidency as a reformer. Scandals and corruption (Teapot Dome Scandal) plagued his admin.
  • Calvin Coolidge, aided by Andrew Mellon, helped private enterprise, a stance that helped him win election in 1924.
  • Interest in reform faded in the 1920s, but some innovations occurred on the state and local levels.
  1. Indian Affairs
  • During the 1920s, the government conferred citizenship on all Indians and restructured the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
  1. Women and Politics
  • After gaining suffrage, many women continued to maintain their own organizations through which they engaged in pressure-group politics.
  • Most women, like most men, did not vote.
  1. Materialism Unbound
  1. Expansion of Consumer Society, Advertising, and Radio
  • Technological advances, modern marketing, and higher wages helped increase the number of consumers.
  • As most Americans acquired a radio, it became an influential advertising and entertainment medium.
  • Cars brought more independence, spurred road building, and increased oil consumption.
  1. Cities, Migrants, and Suburbs
  1. Farm-to-City Migration
  • By the 1920s, over half the people of the US lived in urban areas. Industrial jobs lured thousands of migrants to the cities.
  • African Americans made up a significant percentage of those moving to urban areas.
  1. Marcus Garvey
  • Jamaican immigrant- headed the Universal Negro Improvement Association; called for black separatism, racial pride, and equal rights.
  1. Mexican and Puerto Rican Immigrants
  • During the 1920s, large numbers of immigrants from Mexico and Puerto Rico entered the United States.
  1. Growth of the Suburbs
  • Advances in transportation allowed many people to flock to the suburbs to escape the crowded cities.
  1. New Rhythms of Everyday Life
  1. Family Time
  • Birth rates declined, divorce rates rose, life expectancy increased.
  • Adult Americans devoted less time to raising children.
  1. Household Management
  • Ready-made clothes/processed food/mass-produced furniture provided more leisure time; wives still worked hard.
  1. Nutrition, Older Americans and Retirement
  • An emphasis on nutrition led to better diets.
  • That coupled with improved sanitation led to increased life expectancy.
  • Improved health lead to increased retirees and the need for some minimal assistance for the poor elderly.
  1. Social Values
  • A loosening of social values in the 1920s occurred as traditional ideas of proper behavior came under criticism.
  1. Women in the 1920s
  • Millions of women continued to move into the work force after WWI, despite gender discrimination.
  • The percentage of minority women who worked for pay was double that of white women.
  • Women experimented with new images of femininity, such as the “flapper” look.
  • These changes marked a sharp break with the restraint of the 19th century.
  1. Gay and Lesbian Culture
  • An underground homosexual culture began to expand in some cities, despite general intolerance from society.
  1. Lines of Defense
  1. Ku Klux Klan
  • The Ku Klux Klan revived in 1915 to ensure the survival of “Native, white, Protestant supremacy.”
  1. Immigration Quotas and Nativist Sentiments
  • Congress responded to nativist pressure and set quotas that blocked large numbers of eastern and southern Europeans.
  • Nativist sentiment characterized the arrest, trial, & execution of Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti.
  1. Fundamentalism, Scopes Trial, and Revivalism
  • Many Americans turned to fundamentalist religious beliefs in reaction to the skepticism and materialism of American society.
  • In 1925, fundamentalism clashed with science when John Scopes stood trial for teaching evolution.
  • Through the use of modern advertising techniques, revivalist preachers attracted more followers.
  1. The Age of Play
  1. Movies, Sports, and Stars
  • Movies became a premier American medium; many films, esp. comedies, included social commentary.
  • Movie stars satisfied America’s want of romance/adventure
  • Spectator sports boomed
  • Sports personalities had hero status.
  1. Prohibition
  • Prohibition proved successful at first, but bootleggers soon made the illicit liquor industry into a thriving business in the 1920s.
  • Al Capone met the demand for liquor, gambling, and prostitutes;best-known gangster of the era.
  1. Cultural Currents
  1. Literature of Alienation
  • Disillusioned writers of the 1920s, known as the “Lost Generation,” indicted modern American society.
  1. Harlem Renaissance and Jazz
  • Black artists asserted pride in their heritage.
  • Harlem became the Mecca for many African Americans.
  • Jazz grew from their urban experiences & blurred the line between composer/performer
  • Influenced a generation of artists.
  1. The Election of 1928, and the End of the New Era
  1. Election of 1928
  • Herbert Hoover advocated the old values of hard work along with the new ideas of associationalism.
  • The Democrats nominated NY Governor Al Smith, a Catholic and 2nd generation immigrant
  • Appealed to urban ethnic groups.
  • Hoover won the election and began his term with high hopes and with an emphasis on personal responsibility.
  1. Stock Market Crash
  • The stock market crash in 1929 led to further dumping of stock.
  • Hoover believed the economy would stabilize, but the crash instead helped begin a devastating depression.
  1. Declining Demand and Corporate Debt
  • Overproduction prevented economic expansion, forcing producers to fire workers, which exacerbated problems.
  • Oligopolies dominated American industry, and once the pyramids started to fail, corporate structures collapsed.
  1. Speculation on the Stock Market
  • Widespread speculation based on margin buying characterized the bull market.
  • When the market crashed brokers called in loans, adding to the panic.
  1. International Economic Troubles
  • International economic conditions affected Americans, and crises abroad aggravated the deepening depression.