Roaring Twenties
The years following World War One were known as the Golden Twenties or the Roaring Twenties
*these were times of great hope and prosperity
*people wanted to forget about the horrors of war
Urban v Rural
More people lived in cities at this time and there was a difference between urban dwellers and rural dwellers for example:
- Scopes Trial (1925)—Tennessee
- John T. Scopes was a high school science teacher who taught Darwin’s theory of evolution
- Fundamentalists (people who believe in the literal translation of the Bible) were outraged that he was teaching that humans came from lower life forms
- Bible clearly states the universe/humanity was created in 6 days
- to not believe that would be blasphemous
- Fundamentalists did not want this taught to their children
- TN had passed a law earlier forbidding the teaching of evolution
- Scopes was found guilty and had to pay a fine but evolution is still taught today
- Big city papers made fun of the trial and called it the “Monkey Trial”
- People up North thought the people in the South were ridiculous for fighting about evolution because science had proven this information
- Prohibition (18th Amendment January 16, 1920)
- Outlawed the distribution, manufacturing, and consumption of alcohol
- Many rural people believed that alcohol/drunkenness led to crime, child/spousal abuse, accidents on the job, unemployment, etc.
- Drunkenness and alcoholism declined even though there were
- Speakeasies—places where liquor was sold illegally
- Bootleggers—people who provided illegal drink
- rise of organized crime, like Al Capone of Chicago
- 1933—21st Amendment repealed the 18th and we could drink again (if you are 21!)
Changes for Women
August 26, 1920—19th Amendment—Women suffrage (received the right to vote)
Women entered the job force and became more daring in the way they dressed; these women were known as flappers:
*skirts raised above the knees *got rid of corsets *short haircuts called “bobs”*using
make up
*smoking and drinking in public
New jobs: doctors, bankers, lawyers, police, social workers, etc.
*Still paid less then men *Most working women were single *Woman’s place is in the
home
Black Renaissance
Great migration of African Americans from the South to the North (1910-1920); 1 million crossed the Mason-Dixon Line (boundary between Pennsylvania and Maryland; dividing line of North and South)
*faced a lot of prejudice in the North
*Race riots—Chicago July 27, 1919—10,000 people—38 killed; (read page 620)
1.W.E.B. Du Bois—National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)
in 1909
2.MarcusGarvey—Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA)
*blacks go back to African homeland (this idea fails)
*”black is beautiful”—blacks should not envy or imitate whites or seek integration; better
than whites
3.JamesWeldon Johnson and Ida B. Wells-Barnet & the NACCP established anti-lynching
organizations
*1889-1919—3,224 blacks were shot, burned, and hung without any trials
*1919-1927—only 400
4.Harlem Renaissance—Harlem, New York becomes the center of the nation’s black
intellectual and cultural life
*Writers: James Weldon Johnson, Claude McKay, Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen
*Actors: Roland Hayes, Paul Robenson
*Musicians: Louis Armstrong, Cab Calloway, Duke Ellington, Ethel Waters, Bessie Smith,
Josephine Baker
**JAZZ—started in New Orleans in 1915
New Fears
Red Scare: Americans were scared of the new threat of communism (everyone owns property collectively; the state is more important than the individual; advocates the overthrow of the capitalistic system and no private property); Russia fell to it in 1918; many communists in USA were fired from their jobs or ran out of town; afraid of US government being overthrown and the chaos that would come from it.
Sacco and Venzetti Trial (1920): Italian immigrants who were anarchists (no government!)’ arrested for the murder of a payroll clear and officer in a Massachusetts robbery; circumstantial evidence; no real proof; found guilty; judge was not impartial; unsuccessful appeals; lost of protests all over the world; Executed in 1927; showed how the US was afraid of foreign influence and the crumbling of the government by radicals
KKK: began to rise again; 1924 there were 4.5 million members; expanded-not just blacks-now ANTI-Catholic, Jewish, foreigners, communist, evolutionist, bootlegger, gambling, adultery;
The Roaring Twenties
I. Postwar American Attitudes
A. Disillusionment following World War I, particularly among veterans, artists, and intellectuals (the Lost Generation)
1. Society was lacking in idealism and vision
2. Sense of personal alienation
3. Americans were obsessed with materialism and outmoded moral values
B. Fear of Bolshevism
1. Success of Russian Revolution combined with epidemic of strikes frightened Americans into "Red Scare" mentality of 1919-1920
2. Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer arrested 6000 suspected radicals and deported many following several bombings
C. Fear of foreigners
1. Over 800,000 immigrants came to America in 1920-21, with 2/3 coming from southern and eastern Europe
2. To preserve the northern European racial composition of America, quotas were set up to restrict new immigration in a series of acts, including the National Origins Act of 1924 which cut immigration to 2% of each nationality from the 1890 census.
3. Sacco and Vanzetti, two Italian anarchists, were executed in 1927 for murder despite protests from within and outside the U.S. that anti-immigrant attitudes prejudiced their trial.
D. Rise of the nativist Ku Klux Klan
1. Reconstituted partly after the success of the movie Birth of a Nation, the new KKK was more antiforeign than antiblack. Its strength was in the midwest and South.
a) Targets: foreigners, Jews, Catholics, pacifists, communists, and evolutionists
b) By 1925, 5 million members had joined to march in parades, burn crosses, and hold secret meetings
2. Movement lost strength, particularly after it was exposed as a money-making scheme by organizers
II. Movements of the 1920s
A. Prohibition--authorized by passage of the 18th Amendment in 1919
1. Strong demand for alcohol and weak enforcement led to widespread hypocrisy
2. Saloons were replaced by illegal "speakeasies" serving high proof alcohol
3. Home-made alcohol (bathtub gin) sometimes resulted in blindness and death
4. Organized crime stepped in, most famously in Chicago, to meet consumers' needs to drink
a) Over 500 murders in Chicago in the 1920s by competing gangs
b) Gangsters used Prohibition profits to move into prostitution, gambling, and narcotics sales
B. Fundamentalism vs. Modernism
1. Fundamentalist Christians, stressing literal biblical interpretation, opposed any scientific teaching that cast doubt on veracity of scripture, particularly Genesis
2. Modernist Christians, mainly urban and better educated, attempted to adapt religion to the teachings of modern science and a changing world
3. Scopes Trial, Dayton, Tennessee, 1925
a) John Scopes purposely violated Butler Act forbidding the teaching of evolution
b) William Jennings Bryan assisted prosecution while Clarence Darrow defended Scopes
c) Scopes found guilty (conviction later overturned), but Darrow's cross-examination of Bryan exposed narrowness of fundamentalist position as anti-science and anti-progress
C. Prosperity and Consumerism
1. Tremendous performance of American economy in early 1920s. From 1920-1929:
a) Manufacturing output rose more than 60%
b) Gross national product (total of goods and services) rose 5% a year
c) Industrial output per worker grew 33%
d) Per capita income grew 30% with virtually no inflation
2. Causes of economic boom
a) Destruction of European economies during World War I left the U.S. as the only major industrial nation
b) Technology allowed for expansion, particularly in the auto industry
i) 1.5 million cars sold in 1920, 5 million cars sold in 1929
ii) Assembly line methods used by Ford and others made cars affordable to many American families
c) Radio and motion picture industry grew as a result of technological innovations
d) Cheap, readily available energy sources (coal, oil) made expansion affordable
e) Scientific management techniques promoted by Frederick Taylor were adopted widely in an attempt to improve efficiency
3. Consumerism fostered growth of advertising which benefited from expansion of national mass-circulation magazines, such as Time, Reader's Digest, andThe Saturday Evening Post.
III. Republican Government
A. Three conservative presidents (Harding, Coolidge, and Hoover) encouraged a warm relationship between business and government
1. Harding--1921-1923-- ("I am a man of limited talents from a small town") delegated much of his responsibility to subordinates and friends, with whom he partied regularly
a. Teapot Dome Scandal--Secretary of Interior Albert Fall was jailed for a year for accepting bribes to provide oil leases in Wyoming and California to wealthy businessmen
b. Harding, largely unaware of the corruption that was riddling his administration, died in August 1923 on a trip to the West
2. Coolidge--1923-1929--("The business of America is business") was the least active president in history, taking daily afternoon naps and proposing no new legislation
3. Hoover--1929-1933-- was much more progressive than his predecessors and actively ran the Department of Commerce in the 1920s. (See "Great Depression" outline for Hoover's programs and demise)
B. Major goal of government in the 1920s: help business and industry to operate with maximum efficiency and productivity
WHAT MADE THE TWENTIES ROAR?
Rebellious teenagers, illegal drugs, bizarre fashions, and movies glorifying sex and violence. Sound familiar? This wild and shocking era was the Roaring Twenties.
It is often called the Jazz Age, or the Roaring Twenties. The 1920s was an era of scantily clad women called flappers, illegal saloons called speakeasies, notorious gangsters like Al Capone, silent movies, and a wild, new music called jazz. At first, though, the 1920s appeared to be anything but a party. Americans had been exhausted by World War I (1914-1918), which the U.S. entered in 1917. A worldwide flu epidemic had killed more than 500,000 Americans in 1918 and 1919. And workers demanding higher wages had led a series of labor strikes.
By 1920, Americans were tired of responsibilities overseas and unrest at home. "America's present need is not heroics but healing," Republican Presidential candidate Warren G. Harding told voters. "Not revolution but restoration."
Harding's election in 1920 seemed to herald quiet, uneventful times ahead. So did Prohibition--a nationwide ban on liquor mandated by the 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution that took effect in January 1920.
But as the decade progressed, a social revolution, fueled by a desire to enjoy life, swept the country. Young people led the revolution--especially young women. The 19th Amendment gave women the right to vote, beginning in August 1920. But many young women went a step further, breaking with the past and adopting new fashions and attitudes that shocked their elders. Young men cheerfully did the same. Many of them had served in the war in Europe and came back determined to live for the moment,
New forms of media--mainly Hollywood movies and radio--helped spread fads and ideas. Prohibition also had a profound impact, although instead of weaning Americans off booze, it seemed to make alcohol even more alluring.
The automobile came of age in the 1920s, changing everything From how teenagers dated to the way cities were planned. Easy credit made the economy boom and gave millions of Americans the comfortable life they were looking for. But it also had a darker side--a side that would help close out the decade with a thundering crash. Here's a photographic look at some of the changes Americans lived through in the 1920s, some of which may sound surprisingly similar to a decade you're more familiar with.
ANYTHING GOES
During the 1920s, young women called flappers shocked their elders--their hemlines went from floor length to well above the knees, they began wearing makeup ("painting") and gaudy costume jewelry, and they bobbed their hair--that is, they chopped it off just below the ears. "Women have come down off the pedestal lately," one flapper explained. "They are tired of this mysterious-feminine-charm stuff. Maybe it goes with independence, earning your own living and voting and all that." Young men called sheiks adopted a gangster look--a low, slung hat, slicked-back hair parted in the middle, and baggy pants. Adults complained about their kids' fashions, their wild dances like the Charleston (the winners of a 1926 Charleston contest in Michigan), and their raucous music called jazz. And for the first time, teenagers were speeding off in their parents' cars to buy an illegal drug--alcohol--and drive under its influence.
ON THE ROAD
Like movies, automobiles had been around since the turn of the century. But the combination of assembly-line factories, lower prices, easier credit, and better roads made the 1920s the first decade when cars seemed to be everywhere. Never before had Americans had so much freedom of movement. For families who lived in cities, the automobile made it easier to move to the newly developing suburbs. Teenagers seized on their new mobility for dating, which didn't always please their elders. One educator despaired: "A young couple, a bottle of moonshine, and an auto are the most dangerous quartet for the destruction of human society." In fact, the car also brought traffic jams, highway accidents, and increasing air pollution.
SILENT MOVIES AND A NOISY BOX
"Sheik" was originally the nickname of Rudolph Valentino, Hollywood's most famous silent-screen lover. Movies got their start around the turn of the century, and by the 1920s, they drew about 100 million patrons every week. The popularity of movie stars skyrocketed. When Valentino died suddenly in 1926, his funeral drew more than 30,000 female mourners. But not even movies could match the explosive growth of radio. Radio first made its appearance in 1920, and by 1929, 10 million households had sets. Most programs were sports, music, or news. Over time, radio story shows such as Amos `n' Andy-- the ancestors of modern TV sitcoms-became popular as well.
THE NOBLE EXPERIMENT
Prohibition--called the Noble Experiment--boomeranged in a way no one predicted. Prohibitionists hoped to rid the country of alcohol, which they blamed for destroying families and causing crime. But Americans weren't ready to give it up. Illegal bars called speakeasies sprang up overnight. Bootleggers set up secret distilleries, young people carried hidden flasks, and smugglers rowed cases of whiskey ashore from Canada in the dead of night. The government hired 1,550 special agents to enforce the law, but widespread bribery and corruption made them ineffective. As the humorist Will Rogers put it, "Prohibition is better than no liquor at all."
THE GOOD LIFE
Easy credit made home life in the 1920s more comfortable. A family could buy a $97.50 washing machine for just $5 down and $8 a month. Americans used credit to buy all sorts of things, including shares of stock. The stock market was booming. Investors who bought stock in RCA (Radio Corporation of America) for $85 a share in 1926 could sell it for $420 a share two years later. But in October 1929, stock prices tumbled in a market crash, and banks called in their loans. Few debtors could pay, so the banks and other businesses failed. Jobs grew scarce and millions of prosperous Americans became poor overnight. The Roaring Twenties were over and the Great Depression had begun.
In 1922, Literary Digest magazine asked a group of prominent journalists, religious leaders, and educators to comment on the state of American youth. Here's what some of them said.
Unclad and Immoral
"Too many of our young women are improperly clad, and just so long as these conditions prevail, the average masculine mind will have less and less respect for the feminine." --C.B. Riddle; Editor of the Christian Sun
"A spirit of libertinism [immorality] is abroad among our youth. There is little or no respect for parents and superiors in many of our homes and schools and churches. Women paint and powder and drink and smoke. Pleasure-madness and love of luxury have become epidemic, and the vast multitude seem to have banished all noble idealism and usefulness, and refuse to take life seriously, save under compulsion of some misfortune." --George W Sandt; Editor of the Lutheran
"Can we expect young men and young women to rise, above the conditions with which society has surrounded them, in the way of jazz music, modem dance halls, public swimming pools, auto joy-riding, luxury and freedom, the sensual and suggestive movies, where they learn to see nakedness and where immorality does not seem so bad? All of these things have a tendency to rouse the lowest passions, and instill ideas of materialism, of free thought, and free love, and the spirit of `it is all right to do what you want to, if you can get away with it.'" --Eva M. Glue Dean of Women, Gooding College Gooding, Iowa
"Political and economic liberty has come to women, who, retaining their sex instincts and not yet knowing how to use their freedom, are apt to claim the virtues and ape the vices of men." --Warren A. Seavey; Dean, University of Nebraska