Ch. 32: American Life in the “Roaring

Twenties”1919-1929

Red Scare

Time period in America, after WWI, in which Americans thought that communists were trying to take over democratic and capitalist principles

• pic

Attorney General Mitchell Palmerthe “ Fighting Quaker”

a. On a hunt for communist, socialists, and anarchists

b. Civil liberties violated

c. Never found any real threat

d. Immigrants deported

e. Wall Street bombed

f. Business use to discourage unions

Sacco and Vanzetti1. Fueled suspicions of

foreigners and immigrants

2. Tried and executed, via electrocution, for murder/armed robbery

3. Italians, anarchist, atheist, draft dodgers

4. Case gained worldwide attention

The Ku Klux Klan: “Amerikkka for Amerikkkans”

1. Traditional values

2. White Protestant nativist

3. Supported prohibition

4. Not immune to the American way: corruption!

Immigration Restriction1. The “New Immigrant”

2. Immigration Acts of a.1921 & b. 1924

a. 3%/1910 census; decreases immigration

b. 2%/1890 census of S/E European and Japanese decent

3. The doors of immigration slowly closing

Prohibition

1. 18th Amendment

2. Volstead Act

3. Bootlegging

4. Speakeasies

5. Organized crime

6. 21st Amendment

Al Capone

Flappers

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bc/VictorianPostcard.jpg

• Progressive• “Learning by doing”• Supported students in

the classroom, not at work

The Butler Act 1922

The Butler Act was a Tennessee law prohibiting public school teachers to deny the Biblical account of man’s origin. The law also prevented the teaching of the evolution of man from what it referred to as lower orders of animals in place of the Biblical account.

Religious Fundamentalism1. Literal reading of the

bible

2. Fundamentalism v. modernism/science

3. Scopes trial aka “Monkey trial” (1925)

a. Evolution v. creation in schools

b. Clarence Darrow v. WJ Bryan

Postwar ProsperityConsumer goods became the foundation of the business boom of the 1920’s due to the automobile, electric power, advertising, and installment buying

The Second Industrial Revolution & Technology

1. Electricity and machine

2. Efficient mgmt & labor: increased output but not increased labor; making more w/less=

3. Efficiency

The Auto AgeFord’s Model T

• Ford’s Model T

Ford’s Assembly line

Trickle-effect of the Automobile

Sportsa. Spectator sport

b. AA had to make their own leagues

c. Radio/newspapers

Advertising• Research, surveys

and psychology, not quality

You need it!

1. Movies/celebrities

2. Radio!

3. Newspapers/tabloids/ mergers

influenced growth of nat’l consumer community and behavior; set the standards

Orville and Wibur WrightKitty Kawk, NC

Charles A. Lindberg solo flight 1927

Mr. Marconi and Radio1890

Motion pictures only…

…Then comes sound! (1927)

The New Morality of the 1920s

1. Flappers

2. homosexual subcultures

3. New outlook on sex by professional community: It’s good and good for you!

4. Born after 1900 = women more promiscuous

• Sanger Freud

The New Negro & the Harlem RenaissanceThe 1920’s were a crucial era in African-American history due to the efforts of the NAACP, Marcus Garvey, and the Harlem Renaissance

Harlem 1920s – The Cultural Capital

Harlem Renaissance

1. Celebration of AA artists, writers, and musicans

2. Represented social and cultural change of 1920’s

3. Writersa. Langston Hughesb. Zora Neale Hurston

Marcus Garvey: “ Black is Beautiful, Mon”

1. Wanted separate society for blacks

2. Promoted Blk businesses

3. Advocate of returning to Africa

4. Convicted of mail fraud and deported to Jamacia

Clubbing in Harlem!

The Savoy

The Cotton ClubLena Horne

Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong & Cab Calloway

Harlem today