The World of the 1920s
Prosperity
• Productivity up• Wages rise ¼• Corporate profit rise 2x as much• 40% of Americans still in poverty
The New Economy
• Mechanization affects farm, factory workers• Growth of education, retail, professions
Business Fights Unions
• “welfare capitalism”• “open shop”• Pinkertons
Women’s Movement Splits
• Black feminists want racial equality• Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) controversy
The Nativist Nation
• “100% Americanism”• Fear of radicals, foreigners• KKK: 3 million members• Founding of ACLU
Who Is White?
• Immigration Act of 1924• Restricts non-European immigration w/
quotas• US v. Thind (1923)
Morality in the Jazz Age• The flapper• Speakeasies• Black music, white audiences• “Scopes Monkey trial”
The Many Faces of Black America
• Durham, NC – the “black Wall Street”• 1 million leave South• Join educated migrants from West Indies in
Harlem
Harlem Renaissance
• “The New Negro”• Langston Hughes• Marcus Garvey – Jamaican migrant– Back to Africa movement– Convicted of mail fraud in 1923
“The Business of America Is Business”
Herbert Hoover and the Crisis of Individualism
• Engineer• Self-made man• Led food relief during WWI• Secretary of Commerce
Election of 1928
• Republican Hoover against Dem. Al Smith of NYC
• Smith = Catholic• Hoover wins w/ 58% of vote
October 29, 1929 – “Black Tuesday”
Crash
• $10 billion disappears in 1 day• Banks fail• Families lose savings• 25% unemployment by 1932
The Bonus Army under attack in DC