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The 1920s
Prosperity
WWI good for U.S. economy Brief period of difficulty in moving from war
economy 1922-1929: American economy was vigorous
and prosperous GNP rose at 5.5% annual rate
From $149 billion to $227 billion Unemployment never exceeded 5% Real wages rose 15%
A Consumer Society
1920s: growth of consumer goods Cars, tractors, washing machines, electric irons, radios,
vacuum cleaners “Consumer durable” Fresh fruits and vegetables
Number of cars purchased in the U.S. increased Paved roads extended beyond the city Gas stations, hot dog stands, motels
Greater number of Americans bought into the stock market, especially middle class
Growth of Six Leading Grocery Chains
The Rise of Advertising and Mass Marketing General Motors and annual model change Advertising appealed to consumer desires
Professional advertising firms Beauty products, cigarettes, fashion
Advertisers believed they were helping Americans achieve self-improvement and personal pleasure
Advertising aimed at middle class
Advertising Expenditures
Expenditures on Advertising, 1915-1929
An Age of Celebrity
Mega-events and mass marketing
George Herman “Babe” Ruth
Charles Chaplin Rudolph Valentino Charles A. Lindbergh
Spirit of St. Louis Role of media hype in
celebrity
Industrial Workers
Skilled workers higher wages, more benefits Semiskilled and unskilled industrial workers
contended with labor surplus New machines sometimes replaced workers 40% of workers remained in poverty Coal and textile workers suffered the most
through the 1920s Unions lost significant ground in the 1920s
Changing Attitudes Toward Marriage and Sexuality
More open-mindedness “Flappers” : independent-minded young, single
females
Women and Work
Women were excluded from skilled craftsmen
Women were often relegated to areas of “women’s work” within an industry
Received less pay for equal work of a man
Opportunities grew for white-collar work (secretaries, typists, file and dept. store clerks)
Social services and teaching Amelia Earhart
Birth Control Movement and Margaret Sanger
Speaking out violated the Comstock Laws
Griswold V. Connecticut did not legalize birth control until 1965
The Women’s Movement Adrift Expected changes from women’s voting did
not occur Some success
League of Women Voters Internal division
Equal Rights Amendment Protective labor legislation
The Politics of Business
1921-1933: Republican presidents governed the country
Blend of Gilded Age mediocrity and Roosevelt style state building
Harding and the Politics of Personal Gain Warren G. Harding
(1921-1923) "Ohio Gang“: Harding’s
drinking and womanizing cohorts
Albert Fall Teapot Dome
Charles R. Forbes Veterans’ Bureau
Harding dies in 1923
Coolidge and the Politics of Laissez-Faire Calvin Coolidge (1923-
1929) Revenue Act (1926) Curtailed FTC ability to
regulate industry
The Politics of Business Abroad Hoover wanted Commerce
Dept. to control U.S. international economic relations
Washington Conference Charles Evans Hughes Five-Power Treaty Hoover shut out
Dawes Plan Charles G. Dawes
Kellogg-Briand pact (1928) Continued intervention in
Latin America
Farmers, Small-Town Protestants, and Moral Traditionalists Not all Americans enjoyed prosperity of the
1920s Farmers suffered due to overproduction Moral-traditionalist white Protestants in small
towns Fear and suspicion of foreigners
Agricultural Depression
Slump for farmers after the wartime boom Tractor enabled over-production
Produce market flooded Prices fell dramatically
Many farmers lost, sold, or abandoned their farms
Price of Major Crops, 1914-1929
Cultural Dislocation
Majority of farmers saw themselves as ‘backbone of the nation’ White, Protestant, Northern-European, hard-working,
honest, God-fearing 1920 Census: urban areas vs. rural areas Fears of rural whites manifested in their support of
Prohibition The Ku Klux Klan Immigration restrictions Religious fundamentalism
Urbanization, 1920
Prohibition Eighteenth Amendment: prohibited manufacture and sale of alcohol
January 1920 Difficulty of enforcing the law Speakeasies and bootleggers
Prohibition effect: encouraged law-breaking more than abstinence Al Capone
Liquor trafficking and violence Chicago
Urban supporters rethink Prohibition
The Ku Klux Klan
William Simmons D.W. Griffith’s Birth of a Nation Hiram Evans Hatred of members extended beyond Blacks to
include Jews, Catholics, foreigners 1924: 4 million Americans were members of the
KKK, many outside the South Women’s Auxiliary group: Women of the KKK
In many ways, Klan was also typical fraternal organization
Klan hate speech often sexually themed, reaction against changed attitudes toward sexuality
Immigration Restriction
Many white Protestants responded to Klan style nativist arguments
Johnson-Reed Act (1924) Limits and quotas on immigration Western hemisphere exempt
Border Patrol Limitation quotas spread to other areas
Ivy League colleges
The First Red Scare
Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer and his “Palmer” raidsSacco and Vanzetti CaseCrusade against anarchy
The Ethnic and Racial Communities Government policy discouraged “new
immigrants” Continued migration within the United States
African Americans moved from the South to the North
Mexicans crossed the Rio Grande into the Southwest
Creation of vibrant subcultures Surge in religious
European Americans
“Americanization campaigns” Many Americans responded by strengthening their
ethnic and religious identities and cultures through organizations and associations
Use of the vote: Democrats Split in the Democratic Party between
Urban-ethnic forces: Smith Rural-Southern forces: McAdoo
Election of 1928 Alfred Smith First Catholic nominated to presidency
Fundamentalism vs. Liberal Protestantism Protestant fundamentalism
Bible as God’s word Bible as the source of all “fundamental” truths Took opposition to liberal Protestantism and the
discoveries of science Fundmentalists anti-urban Liberal Protestants believe that religion had
to adapt to modernism, including skepticism and scientific discoveries
The Scopes Trial Fundamentalists pass law prohibiting
teaching of Theory of Evolution in Tennessee (1925)
ALCU and other worried it could be start of new wave of restrictions of Free Speech
John T. Scopes William Jennings Bryan vs. Clarence
Darrow Bryan’s rejection of Darwin partly
reaction of Populist defender against Social Darwinism
Publishers, afraid of Fundamentalist backlash, remove Darwin from textbooks until the 1960s
African Americans
African-Americans continue to migrate north
Harlem: the “Negro Capital” A Black ghetto
Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters A. Philip Randolph
Jazz Willie Smith Count Basie Duke Ellington Louis Armstrong
Duke Ellington
The Harlem Renaissance
Harlem Renaissance: create works in rooted in African culture not imitations of white culture
"New Negro“ White owned Harlem Jazz
Clubs refused to admit African-Americans
Charlotte Mason Langston Hughes and Zora
Neale Hurston
Mexican Americans
Johnson-Reed Act, 1924 Mexican-Americans became primary source of immigrant
labor 500,000 Mexicans came to U.S. in 1920s Most settled in Southwestern, U.S.
Texas, California Dominated agriculture and construction jobs Exploited and discriminated against
Californios Los Angeles to Mexican-Americans what Harlem
was to African Americans
The “Lost Generation” and Disillusioned Intellectuals Alienated White artists Sinclair Lewis
Main Street (1920) Babbit (1922)
T.S. Eliot-- The Waste Land (1922)
F. Scott Fitzgerald-- The Great Gatsby (1925)
Eugene O'Neill’s plays Ernest Hemingway-- A
Farewell to Arms (1929)
F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald
Democracy on the Defensive
Alienated intellectuals begin to distrust democracy
H.L. Mencken: democracy “the worship of jackals by jackasses”
John Dewey: Faith in democracy
H. L. Mencken
Conclusion
Consumerism and mass production Society seemed somewhat more egalitarian
However, many groups did not benefit from economic prosperity of the 1920s: Working-class, rural Americans
Democratic party Tensions between traditionalists and new
populations Alienated intellectuals Republicans take credit for prosperity