The Roaring Twenties

From Prentice Hall’s Brief Review in United States History

and GovernmentUnit 5 Section 1

IMPACT OF THE FIRST WORLD WAR

The changes in prosperity and technology caused cultural conflicts between the new

urban-centered and traditional lifestyle

Changes for Women and Minorities

• Women worked in jobs vacated by soldiers during the war--most worked traditional ones

• Only half a million women were added to the workforce after the war

• Many African Americans served with distinction only to have rights and freedoms denied at home, for some it built up resentment

Migration to the North

• African Americans were moving to Northern Cities since the Civil War and WWI accelerated the movement

• They were looking for jobs that were available because of restrictions on immigration

• This would continue through the Second World War

Return to Normalcy

• Some sought a return to isolationism

• Harding and Coolidge represented a withdraw from world politics

• Progressivism continued but on a slower and more local level

1920’s ECONOMICS

The return to normalcy was welcome by the population, but

there were plenty of other problems under the surface

Greed and Scandal

• Harding did do some laudable things while in office, like pardon Debs and passing anti-lynching legislation

• He’s remembered for the scandals that surfaced after he died in 1923, like the Teapot Dome

• Many came from his “Ohio Gang” that he brought with him when he was elected

Prosperity for Some

• Coolidge returned to the laissez-faire economic approach

• He appointed Andrew Mellon as his Treasury Secretary

• They felt government should serve business

Recession

• The shift from a wartime to peace brought on a recession

• Exports, farm prices and overall production fell and unemployment rose to 12% in 1921

• Farmers were hit particularly hard

Recovery

• By 1923 other sectors of the economy experienced growth

• From 1923-29 there was a boom– GNP rose 40%– PER Capita Income

went up 30%– With little inflation—

the standard of living went up for some

Pro-Business Policy

• This “Coolidge Prosperity” had many characteristics…– Lower taxes for the wealthy and

corporations– Balanced budgets by raising tariffs—this

had an negative effect on the global economy

– Regulatory agencies were to aid business– The government had a relaxed attitude

towards corporate mergers

Those Left Out

Key segments of the population did not share in

this “Coolidge Prosperity”

Labor

• During the war, Wilson supported the Unions collective bargaining rights and wages rose—gains were lost due to inflation

• The Unions tried to strike in the 20’s but their efforts were often quashed by troops or court orders

• The real growth in wages came in the auto and telephone industries but many others could not afford the goods they produced

Farmers

• During this time small farmers were adversely affected…– They increased

production for the war– They took out loans to

increase in yields– Post war Europe

replaced production

• Farm income fell 50% and the number of farmer decreased

Native Americans

• During the ’20s Native Americans had the highest unemployment rate of any group

• Most lived on reservations and without running water or electrification

Father Peter Huell, who worked with Indian tribes in the 1920s and 1930s, poses here with a group of Paiutes outside Holy Family Church in Burns, Oregon, in 1930

African Americans

• The African Americans that migrated North enjoyed a better standard of living

• But they still were still paid less than whites

• They also had higher rates of unemployment

Stock Market Speculation

• The recovery saw a surge in investment

• People were encouraged to play the “Bull Market”

• Some invested their life savings

Trading on the Margin

• Investors could buy stocks with as little as 5% of the stock’s value

• They counted on the profits to repay the brokers

• This worked until the values of stocks went down

MASS CONSUMPTION

People were gaining “Buying Power” and this fed the

consumption of many new household goods

New Auto Industries

• Stimulated rubber, steel, paint, glass and oil industries

• Real estate boom in suburbs• Increase in road construction• Tractors replaced horses on farms• Increased social equality when cars

became affordable

New Electrical Industry

• Changed homes, businesses, and industry

• Doubled productivity

• Transformed life and leisure with the innovations like washing machines, stoves, vacuums, refrigerators and Irons

Radio and Movies

• Helped erase regional differences• Increased people’s expectations• Helped end rural isolation• Popularized Ragtime and Jazz• Provided place to advertise• Increased interest in politics and

sports

Technology

• Technology shaped American Culture through the production and marketing of new products

• Like Ford’s Assembly line; there were many industries that helped create a manufacturing based economy

• It also created installment buying—paying for something over time

Cultural Homogenization

• Homogenization is a process used to keep cream in milk distributed throughout the container rather than rising to the top…

• Americans became more alike…they started to use the same products, wear the same styles, see the same movies, and listen to the same music.

• Regional and class differences are blurred

Suburban Growth

• More of the population was living in areas with a population of 2,500 or more for the first time

• Sub-urban areas grew even faster than the cities

Shifting Cultural Values

America became a modern industrialized society…changes in

lifestyle, values, morals, and manners increased tension and

conflict…

Leisure

• Modern conveniences and a reduction in the work day gave Americans more free time

• Movies were popular with The Jazz Singer • Sports were popular with Babe Ruth and

the “Golden Age” of college sports• “Flappers” represented women exercising

new freedoms, but it was more of a media image…

Literature

• The cultural shift was also reflected in literature

• Writers criticized the effects of technology, business, conformity, and mass consumption,

• Some even left for Europe

Harlem Renaissance

• Centered around Harlem in the 20s

• African American writers wanted to celebrate their art, music, literature and dance

• We look at it as having a positive impact on American culture today—it’s where the Jazz Age began

Women’s Changing Roles

• Women started to enter the workforce, but it was contained to single women, married women were expected to stay at home

• Women also held jobs that were traditional, like teaching, clerical work and retail sales

• Even though they gained the vote, they didn’t vote in large numbers or as a block thus reducing their influence

Other changes for Women

• They fought to improve infant mortality rates and for an Equal Rights Amendment

• The flapper was a symbol and didn’t affect most women, it was advancements in household goods that gave them freedom

• Divorce and family planning gained a little acceptance and the size of families decreased…

CONSTITUTIONAL and LEGAL ISSUES

The struggle between the traditional agrarian and modern urban values

continued…

Red Scare

• During the First World War, when the Bolsheviks came to power in Russia there was concern about communism here

• This led to the Attorney General's rounding up of communists and a general distrust of some labor unions like the Wobblies (IWW)

• There was general hysteria and it led to some racism, anti-immigration policies and squelching free speech

Sacco and Vanzetti

• They were self-proclaimed anarchists who were charged with murder

• Many believed that the case against them was more because of their beliefs and being Italian than the evidence

• In spite of the demonstrations, they were executed in 1927

The Ku Klux Klan

• The early Klan had died out in the late 1880s after reconstruction

• The new group grew out of the nativism of the day and expanded their targets to include Catholics, Jews and immigrants.

• They thought that only white, protestant, American-born people were true Americans

Nativism

• Immigrants were seen as a threat to American values

• There were restrictions on immigration—quotas were placed on each country with fewer coming form eastern and southern Europe and none from Asia

Prohibition

• The temperance movement grew out of the effort to improve the life of the poor both urban and rural

• The 18th Amendment was passed in 1919 and repealed by the 21st in 1933

• The law however proved to be unenforceable with bootlegging and speakeasies

The Scopes Trial

• 1925 Trial held in Tennessee over the teaching of evolution

• Famous prosecutor William Jennings Bryan and defense attorney Clarence Darrow faced off

• It is another example of the cultural struggle of the era

The Twenties Come to an End

With the stock market crash late in 1929, it set the stage for a

different decade to follow…the great depression…