The 1920: A Bi Polar DecadeOseas Romero APUSH Stafford High SchoolStafford, Texas

A Decade by Many Names The New Era Return to Normalcy Jazz Age Roaring 20’s Harlem Renaissance

A New American Standard U.S. developed the highest standard of living

in the world

Europe would need time to recover from the devastation of World War I

America would be the only viable economy left

The 1920s and the second Industrial Revolution

Electricity replaced steam Modern assembly introduced

Automobile Industry Automakers stimulated sales through

model changes, advertising

Modern Administrative system

GM and Alfred P Sloan

Auto industry fostered other businesses

Think vertical integration

Autos encouraged suburban sprawl

Business is here to stay New technologies meant new industries such as

radio and motion pictures

Structural change Professional managers replaced individual

entrepreneurs Corporations became the dominant business form

Marketing and national brands spread

Big business weakened regionalism, brought uniformity to America

Some Economic Weaknesses Railroads poorly managed

Speculation would be rampant

Coal displaced by petroleum

Dirty, expensive, and extremely limited

Farmers faced decline in exports, prices

Plight of the Farmers: use previous notes for refresher

Growing disparity between income of laborers, middle-class managers

Middle class speculated with idle money

People were not financially literate

Buying on margins

Women and the Family Ongoing crusade for equal rights

“Flappers” sought individual freedom

Much of the feminism we know today is heavily influenced by this time

Women would no longer be afraid to try the new and unexpected

Most women remained in domestic sphere

Discovery of adolescence Teenage children no longer needed to work Indulged their craving for excitement

Many religious figures will point to this time when America becomes worldly and sinful

The Roaring Twenties Sports, like golf and baseball, became much

bigger part of national popular culture Bobby Jones, Babe Ruth

Decade was notable for obsessive interest in celebrities Charles Lindbergh Gertrude Ederle

Sex became an all-consuming topic of interest in popular entertainment Sex, sex, and more sex

Artists felt alienation from 1920s mass culture “Exiled” American writers put U.S. at forefront of

world literature primarily in Paris T.S. Eliot Ernest Hemingway F. Scott Fitzgerald

Black Writers- Harlem Renaissance Writers Zora Neale Hurston Claude McKay Langston Hughes WEB Du Bois

The New Negro Movement This term was coined by Alaine Locke

Writing and creating a new history of the American Black

In 1915, Washington is going to die Du Bois is going to become the primary

leader of the American Negro Talented Tenth NAACP

A New Negro The American Negro has changed. During the 1900’s and 1910’s

we see a migration of African Americans from the South to the North and North East Harlem is a neighborhood in New York

Cultural explosion in music, literature, poetry, and arts Shuffle Along- Josephine Baker- 1st all Black cast in Broadway Musical Cotton Club- popular New York nightclub. Prominent musicians would

play at the club, but only white patrons were allowed Poetry- Langston Hughes, “The Negro Speaks of Rivers”

Claude McKay, “If We Must Die” Pan Africanism- Universal Negro Improvement Association

Marcus Garvey and the Black Star Line Goal was to unite all Blacks in America and lead them back to the

motherland, where they would live as a united people under one banner

Country Folk think the city is whack Rural Americans identified urban culture with communism,

crime, immorality

Progressives attempted to force reform on the American people Upsurge of bigotry An era of repression

1919: “Red Scare” Illegal roundups of innocent people Forcible deportation of aliens Terrorism against “radicals,” immigrants

1927: Sacco and Vanzetti executed Supposed anarchist and communist

The New Ku Klux Klan Many people indeed felt ostracized by the

modernity of the 1920’s. Many needed to feel welcomed and so the new Ku Klux Klan was created

1925: Klan membership hit 5 million

Attack on urban culture, inhabitants

Defense of traditional rural values

Klan sought to win U.S. by persuasion

Violence, internal corruption resulted in Klan’s virtual disappearance by 1930

More Fear 1924: National Origins Act

150,000 person quota on immigration

Quotas favored northern Europeans

Mexican immigrants exempted from quota

They were needed as agriculture laborers in the American Southwest

Sounds very familiar doesn’t it

Religion what is it good for? Fundamentalism: Stress on traditional Protestant

orthodoxy, biblical literalism

Billy Sunday

1925: Scopes Trial discredited fundamentalism among intellectuals

Creationism vs. evolution

“Modernists” gained mainline churches

Decrease in the power of the Revival type churches

Fundamentalists strengthened grassroots appeal in new church

Late 20th century an increase of conservatism throughout the world

Harding, Coolidge, and Hoover Republican party apparently dominant

Urban wing of the Democratic party emerged as the most powerful force

Republican presidents appealed to traditional American values

Harding scandals broke after his death

Teapot Dome Scandal

Coolidge represented America in his austerity and rectitude

Hoover represented the self-made man

Return to “normalcy” Tariffs raised Corporate and income taxes cut Spending cut

Coolidge blocked Congressional aid to farmers as unwarranted interference

Government-business cooperation

Democrats make a move 1924: Urban-rural split weakened Democrats

Major shift in political loyalties

Will start seeing AA moving towards Dems and White Southerners moving towards Reps

Will become a permanent shift in Civil Rights Era

Democrats gained more Congressional seats than Republicans after 1922

Election of 1928 Democrat Al Smith carried urban vote

Governor of New York Roman Catholic

Republican Herbert Hoover won race Midwesterner Protestant

Religion the campaign’s decisive issue

The 1920’s The 1920’s is fondly remembered as a

Golden Age for music, literature, movies, musicals, etc.

1920’s will lay the foundation for modern America Increased science and technology

Political Scandals are still happening The Great Depression is going to end the

decade of prosperity and plunge America into an economic black hole