America’s HistorySeventh Edition

CHAPTER 22Wrestling with Modernity,

1917-1929

Copyright © 2011 by Bedford/St. Martin’s

James A. HenrettaRebecca Edwards

Robert O. Self

I. Conflicted Legacies of World War IA. Racial Strife

1. White Violence• return of black war veterans and increase of black migrants to the North led to

backlash by whites• lynchings in the South rose (48 in 1917, 78 in 1919)• several black men were lynched in uniform• lynching in Rosewood, FL, 1921 led to black residents arming themselves,

mobs of whites burned their houses and attacked black citizens with no intervention by police.

2. CompetitionB. Erosion of Labor Rights

1. National War Labor Board 2. Public Employees

I. Conflicted Legacies of World War IA. Racial Strife

2. Competition• large numbers of blacks, immigrants, and whites seeking work and

housing increased tension in northern cities• deadly riots in East St. Louis (1917) and Chicago (1919)• an alleged rape in Tulsa, OK, led to a white mob (aided by the National

Guard) burning 35 blocks of Greenwood, OK, and killing several dozen blacks.

B. Erosion of Labor Rights1. National War Labor Board 2. Public Employees

I. Conflicted Legacies of World War IB. Erosion of Labor Rights

1. National War Labor Board• NWLB (1918) established 8-hour day for workers during the

war, allowed for unions to increase in size if they did not strike, assured time and a half pay for overtime, equal pay for women

• increased workers’ expectations of what employers could do for them

• postwar conditions changed, workers frustrated• during 1919 one in five workers in the U.S. went on strike• U.S. Steel hired Mexican and black workers to break strikes;

new industries sought to hire non-union employees.

2. Public Employees

I. Conflicted Legacies of World War IB. Erosion of Labor Rights

2. Public Employees• 1919 Boston police force went on strike over the right to

form a union• Gov. Coolidge fired the entire force and was supported

by the public and by anti-labor Supreme Court rulings• union membership fell from 5.1 million (1920) to 3.6

million (1929).

I. Conflicted Legacies of World War IC. The Red Scare

1. Bolsheviks• fear of Russian Bolsheviks grew in the U.S., coinciding

with the rising cost of living (up 80% 1917-1919)• some new immigrants were socialists• Communist Party in the U.S. was small (fewer than

70,000 people) but the Bolsheviks founding of the Third International (Comintern) in 1919 increased fears among Americans that they would seek a revolution in the U.S.

2. Palmer Raids3. Sacco and Vanzetti

I. Conflicted Legacies of World War IC. The Red Scare

2. Palmer Raids• April 1919 postal workers found 34 mail bombs sent to

government officials• in June a bomb exploded outside of the home of Attorney

General A. Mitchell Palmer• Palmer established an antiradicalism division in the Justice

Dept. (FBI) and named J. Edgar Hoover to direct it• in November raids of radical organizations began• raids peaked in January 1920 with the arrest of 6,000 radicals• situation abated by summer.

3. Sacco and Vanzetti

I. Conflicted Legacies of World War IC. The Red Scare

3. Sacco and Vanzetti• May 1920 Nicola Sacco (shoemaker) and

Bartolomeo Vanzetti (fish peddler) arrested in Massachusetts for the murder of two men during a hold up

• they were self-proclaimed anarchist• convicted and sentenced to death despite lack of

evidence and clear bias of prosecutor.

II. Politics in the 1920sA. Women in Politics

1. Sheppard-Towner Act Federal Maternity and Infancy Act • progressive women hoped voting rights would lead to passage of important

legislation in 1920s• 1921 achieved passage of this Act provide federal money for medical clinics,

prenatal education and visiting nurses• first time Congress gave money directly to states to administer social welfare• critics claimed it would create socialized medicine, ended late 1920s.

1. Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) – international peace organization created in 1919; Jane Addams a founding member; protested imperialism and the negative repercussions of militarism; criticized during Red Scare.

2. Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom

II. Politics in the 1920sA. Women in Politics 2. Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom• (WILPF) – international peace organization created in

1919• Jane Addams a founding member• protested imperialism and the negative repercussions of

militarism• criticized during Red Scare.

1. What is the “League of Women Voters”?

2. What is the significance of the woman and child in this image?

II. Politics in the 1920sB. Republican “Normalcy”

1. Warren Harding• Ohio Senator who promised “normalcy”• won 1920 in a landslide over James Cox• appointed Herbert Hoover as Sec. of Commerce; died of a heart attack

August 1923• scandals revealed, included leasing of oil reserves to private companies

(Teapot Dome Scandal).2. Calvin Coolidge

• wanted limited government, isolationism and tax cuts for businesses• Republicans did not want to continue most progressive measures from

the 1910s, did not enforce antitrust laws.

II. Politics in the 1920sC. Dollar Diplomacy

1. Foreign Affairs• all three Republican presidents wanted private banks to make

loans to foreigners, hoping to stimulate the U.S. economy by increasing demand for products

• banks wanted government to ensure that loans would be paid back, even by unstable governments

• banks gave loans with conditions such as oversight by bank commissions and military force by the U.S.

• U.S. Marine occupation of Nicaragua, Dominican Republic, and Haiti began as part of forced-repayment

• Americans saw these lands as “possessions.”

2. On the Defensive

II. Politics in the 1920sC. Dollar Diplomacy

2. On the Defensive• critics called loan guarantees and military intervention as

“dollar diplomacy”• African Americans criticized American involvement in Haiti• WILPF visitors to Haiti in 1926 claimed that U.S. soldiers

were exploiting Haitian women• calls for isolationism forced presidents to defend these

foreign relationships.

II. Politics in the 1920sD. Culture Wars

1. Religion in Politics•rural and native-born Protestants wanted prohibition, aided by calls that drinking German beer was “unpatriotic” during World War I•18th Amendment passed in 1917 and ratified by 1920; prohibited manufacture, sale, transport of “intoxicating liquors”•state and local school boards in some areas wanted to mandate school curricula based on Biblical teachings•Tennessee took the lead on this by outlawing the teaching of any theory that did not hold Biblical teachings central to the existence of humans

2. Nativism3. The Klan Revived4. The Election of 1928

II. Politics in the 1920sD. Culture Wars

1. Religion in Politics (Cont’d)•American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) intervened in the case of John Scopes (high school biology teacher) who faced a jail sentence for teaching evolution; press called case the “monkey trial”•jury took eight minutes to find Scopes guilty, Tennessee Supreme Court later overturned.

2. Nativism3. The Klan Revived4. The Election of 1928

II. Politics in the 1920sD. Culture Wars

2. Nativism•fears about unrestricted immigration by native-born Protestants who believed them to be the cause of problems in U.S.•Catholics and Jews were targets of hostility; Coolidge: “America must be kept American”•arguments that immigrants undermined Christianity, imported anarchism, socialism•The National Origins Act (1924) used the 1890 census to determine how many people could enter from individual nations

3. The Klan Revived4. The Election of 1928

II. Politics in the 1920sD. Culture Wars

2. Nativism (Cont’d)•further restricted immigration from Europe in 1929; immigrants from Western Hemisphere were allowed to come unrestricted•Great Depression led to cuts in immigration from Mexico; hostility towards Asians grew in California.

3. The Klan Revived•following The Birth of a Nation (1915 film) the KKK grew, targeting Jews and Catholics•ran for political offices and won•more than 3 million members at height.

4. The Election of 1928

II. Politics in the 1920sD. Culture Wars

4. The Election of 1928•Catholic Gov. Al Smith (D-NY) against Herbert Hoover, Sec. of Commerce•opponents: “No Governor can kiss the papal ring and get within gunshot of the White House”•Hoover won 58% of popular vote and 444 electoral votes.

1. What are these men demanding in this 1933 march?

2. In your opinion, why did the ending Prohibition take on a more urgent tone in 1933?

1. What does this photograph of US Border Patrol agents in Texas reveal about the American society in 1926?

2. The National Origins Act of 1924 set guidelines for the percentage of immigrants of various nationalities who could legally enter the United States until 1927. Although many white Americans were themselves descended from immigrants, what led to the passage of such legislation?

1. How does this image of women in the Klan challenge our perceptions of the KKK in American history?

2. This photograph captures a 1928 march. What events and/or social changes might have led to women joining the Klan in large numbers during the 1920s?

III. Intellectual ModernismA. Harlem in Vogue (Black population of NY tripled 1910-1920; black artists and

writers migrated to Harlem.)1. Jazz

• most visible piece of Harlem culture for most Americans• started in New Orleans before World War I• combination of blues, ragtime, and other musical forms• improvised solo made trumpeter Louis Armstrong a star• radio helped grow the nationwide popularity of jazz• 1920s saw advent of companies producing “race records” for black audiences,

records for immigrant communities in native languages.

2. Marcus Garvey and the UNIAB. Critiquing American Life

1. The Lost Generation2. The Dark Side

III. Intellectual ModernismA. Harlem in Vogue (Black population of NY tripled 1910-1920; black artists

and writers migrated to Harlem.)2. Marcus Garvey and the UNIA

• United Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) formed in 1920s’ Harlem• Garvey: born in Jamaica, advocated black separatism, claimed to have 4

million followers• published Negro World and sought to create a steamship company to

bring blacks back to Africa, The Black Star Line• Garvey imprisoned for mail fraud and deported in 1925; symbol of

emerging “pan-Africanism”: idea that people of African descent had a common destiny and should cooperate in political action.

B. Critiquing American Life1. The Lost Generation2. The Dark Side

III. Intellectual ModernismB. Critiquing American Life

1. The Lost Generation• post-World War I voices proclaimed growing dissent:

Gertrude Stein called those who survived the war “the Lost Generation”

• John Dos Passos criticized the war in The Three Soldiers (1921), as did Ernest Hemingway in The Sun Also Rises (1926) and A Farewell to Arms (1929).

III. Intellectual ModernismB. Critiquing American Life

2. The Dark Side• examinations of the dark side of human beings: Eugene

O’Neill in Desire Under the Elms and The Emperor Jones (1920)

• Sinclair Lewis criticized conformity in Babbitt (1922)• 1930 Lewis first American to win Nobel Prize for literature• F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby (1925) criticized the

pursuit of pleasure and wealth.

IV. From Boom to BustA. Business after the War

1. Corporate Monopolies• by 1920s corporations were the majority of business in the U.S.• a few major producers were at the top of most markets (oligopoly)• mergers between banks made Wall Street the financial center of U.S.• post-World War I inflation was followed by two years of recession with

10% unemployment• expansion from 1922 to 1929 as a result of rise in spending on consumer

products.

2. Welfare CapitalismB. Consumer Culture

1. “Buy Now, Pay Later”2. The Automobile3. Hollywood

IV. From Boom to BustA. Business after the War

2. Welfare Capitalism• management’s responsibility for the well-being of employees, hope for a

more loyal workforce and fewer strikes• about 5% of companies offered health insurance and old-age pensions• agriculture very weak during 1920s.

B. Consumer Culture1. “Buy Now, Pay Later”2. The Automobile3. Hollywood

IV. From Boom to BustB. Consumer Culture

1. “Buy Now, Pay Later”•advertising suggested to Americans things they might want and/or need: “Sell them their dreams”•both the poor and the wealthy used installment plans to overextend themselves during the 1920s.

IV. From Boom to BustB. Consumer Culture

2. The Automobile•mass production aided Americans in spending $2.58 billion on automobiles in 1929•stimulated other industries: steel, petroleum, chemical, rubber, glass; helped grow suburbs and the new “shopping center”•hurt the railroad industry•in rural areas schools, churches were consolidated.

IV. From Boom to BustB. Consumer Culture

3. Hollywood•by 1910 movie-making industry was growing in California on cheap land•young people followed the fashions of movie actors, including flapper Clara Bow from “It”•flappers represented social and sexual emancipation for women.

1. Charlie Chaplin’s silent films are a notable example of American popular culture before the Great Depression. Why was film such a significant mode of entertainment in this period?

2. In addition to seeing films, how did Americans spend their leisure time in the early twentieth century?

IV. From Boom to BustC. The Coming of the Great Depression

1. Causes• too much lending ($7 billion/year by 1927)• drop in consumer spending as credit became more difficult to

get• global economic problems• adherence to the gold standard, which the British and Germans

had abandoned with some positive results in 1931.

2. President Hoover

IV. From Boom to BustC. The Coming of the Great Depression

1. Causes• too much lending ($7 billion/year by 1927)• drop in consumer spending as credit became more difficult to get• global economic problems• adherence to the gold standard, which the British and Germans had

abandoned with some positive results in 1931.2. President Hoover

• created Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC) to give federal loans to banks, railroads, utilities

• cut taxes• tried to stimulate economy through manufacturing; conditions

worsened.