The Roaring Twenties

The Roaring Twenties

A Booming Economy

The Automobile Drives Prosperity

Automobiles allowed for urban sprawl. In the late 1920s,

80% of cars were in the United States. Think of everything

associated with cars. What does this mean for our economy?

A Bustling Economy

40% of the world’s money was in the U.S. Electricity was more common which allowed for refrigerators, ranges, washing machines…

Danger Signs of the 1920s

·  Everything was growing too fast.

o  Farms making too much food.

o  Businesses expanding too fast.

·  People buying on margin.

o  Installment Plan – “A dollar down, a dollar forever”

·  People getting deeper and deeper into debt.

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The Roaring Twenties

The Business of Government

The Harding Administration

Warren Harding was not especially intelligent and it showed during his

administration. Harding did not learn the complexities of his job, so he

trusted others to make the tough decisions for him.

Harding’s cabinet included the so-called Ohio Gang, the president’s

poker-playing cronies.

Teapot Dome Scandal

Sec. of Interior, Albert Falls, transferred oil reserves in Elk Hills, CA & Teapot Dome, WY, from the navy to the

Interior Department. Then Fall, secretly leased the land to two private oil companies in exchange for bribes.

Coolidge Prosperity

Calvin Coolidge, a respected man of integrity, helped to restore

people’s faith in their government. Coolidge reduced the national debt, trimmed the federal budget, and lowered taxes to give incentives to

businesses. The economy soared, generating industrial profits,

and a spectacular growth in the stock market.

Coolidge remained silent on many social issues:

1.  Falling prices for farmers.

2.  Jim Crow Laws in the South.

3.  Labor union demands for better working conditions.

America’s Role in the World

Under both Harding and Coolidge, America continued to play a

major role in international affairs…

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The Roaring Twenties

Social & Cultural Tensions

Education & Popular Culture

1914 = 1 million people in school

1926 = 4 million people in school

Taxes needed to be increased to help pay for schools across America. More and more people became educated, so going to college became more common than ever before.

Traditionalism & Modernism Clash

The growing trend of emphasizing science over

traditional ideas about religion became known as

modernism.

Tennessee made it illegal to teach evolution. John Scopes taught it anyways and was brought to trial. Clarence Darrow hired by ACLU and

William Jennings Bryan for the government.

Result: Each side still believed in the truth of its own position. The conflict over evolution continues to rage on today.

Postwar Trends

Many Americans responded to the stressful conditions of WWI by becoming fearful of outsiders. A wave of nativism and isolationism swept through the nation.

Isolationism – A policy of pulling away from involvement in world affairs.

Fear of Communism

One perceived threat to American life was the spread of communism. Vladimir Lenin and the Bolsheviks overthrew the Russian government, establishing a new communist state.

The Communists cried out for a worldwide revolution that would abolish

capitalism everywhere. 70,000 radicals joined the newly formed

Communist Party in the U.S., which mailed dozens of bombs to the government.

U.S. Attorney General Palmer and

J. Edgar Hoover hunted down

suspected communists, socialists,

and anarchists.

They trampled people’s civil rights, invading

homes and offices and jailing suspects without allowing them legal counsel.

Palmer’s raids failed to turn up evidence of a revolutionary conspiracy. Soon, the public decided that Palmer didn’t know what he was talking about.

Sacco & Vanzetti

The Red Scare fueled people’s suspicions of foreigners and immigrants. Sacco and Vanzetti were both Italian immigrants that were arrested and charged with robbery and murder.

Witnesses had said that the criminals appeared to be Italians.

Both men claimed their innocence and provided alibis;

the evidence against them was circumstantial.

The jury still found them guilty and sentenced them to death.

Protests rang out throughout the U.S., Europe, and Latin America

because many believed that they were mistreated.

Limiting Immigration

During the wave of nativist sentiment, “Keep America for Americans” became the prevailing attitude. Anti-immigrant attitudes had been growing ever since immigrants began arriving from southern and eastern Europe. The Emergency Quota Act of 1921 setup a quota system for immigrants.

Quota System – System established the maximum number of people who could enter the U.S. from each foreign country.

Historical Significance: The Quota System discriminated against people from eastern and southern Europe (Roman Catholics & Jews); Japanese immigration was prohibited.

The Klan Rises Again

The KKK used the Red Scare and anti-immigrant feelings as an execuse to harass any group unlike themselves.

By 1924, KKK membership reached 4.5 million.

The KKK targeted: 1. African Americans

2. Foreign-Born

3. Roman Catholics & Jews

Cities & Urban Life Continue to Increase

By 1920, 51.2% of Americans lived in cities.

New York City = 5.6 million

Philadelphia = 2 million

Prohibition & Crime

Temperance reformers finally get prohibition passed in January 1920 (18th Amendment). Congress then passed the Volstead Act, a law that officially enforced the amendment. The biggest problem was that there are only 1,500 men to enforce this new law.

Bootleggers – People who sold illegal alcohol to consumers.

Speakeasies – Secret drinking establishments in cities that attracted new customers.

The lack of law enforcement for prohibition brought rise to both

organized and unorganized crime.

Al Capone was the biggest bootlegger in Chicago. He made $60 million a year.

By the mid 1920s only 19% of Americans supported the law. In 1933 the

21st Amendment was passed, which repealed the 18th Amendment.

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The Roaring Twenties

A New Mass Culture

New Trends in Popular Culture

American’s now had more spending money, but the question

that remained was what to do with all the money. During the

1920s Americans started to spend money on games, the arts,

and watching sports.

Lindbergh made the first solo non-stop flight across the

Atlantic Ocean. The trip took 33 hours. People had parties

upon his return to the states.

Women Assume New Roles

In the 1920s, people were eating and drinking like there was no tomorrow.

Flappers influenced styles and

attitudes, but relatively few women were full-fledged flappers. Not all women wanted to be flappers, but many wanted more control over their lives –

and got it.

Women started to get jobs in traditional roles (teachers, nurses, musicians,

librarians, secretaries, etc.) Women began living longer, marrying later &

having fewer children, freeing their time to pursue other interests.

The Roaring Twenties

The Harlem Renaissance

A New “Black Consciousness”

Marcus Garvey was an immigrant from Jamaica, who believed in a

“Back to Africa” movement. Garvey advocated for separation of the races as the only means to improvement life for African Americans.

In 1914 he founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association. The Association claimed to have 2.5 million followers that advocated for black pride and black support of black-run businesses.

The Jazz Age

The 1920s is also referred to as “The Jazz Age.”

African Americans, such as, Louis Armstrong,

Duke Ellington, and Bessie Smith were the

unofficial ambassadors of the jazz.

The Harlem Renaissance

The Great Migration of African Americans

from the South to the North during WWI, meant that over

40% of all African Americans lived in cities. There were riots due to the unfair practices in cities regarding African Americans.

A.A. were moving to the Upper West Side.

Harlem became known as the “Black Capital,” which had many problems, but the people overcame them.

The Harlem Renaissance was:

§  Literary and Artistic movement that celebrated African American culture.

§  Well-educated African Americans who focused on black pride and wrote about the trials of being black in America.