1920s: The New Era
U.S. History II
The Election of 1920
• Republican candidate
Warren G. Harding
promised a “return to
normalcy”
• End of progressivism on
national level, but
continued on state &
local level
– Many states passed old
age pensions & workers’
compensation laws
Consumer Economy
• Consumer goods like automobiles led economy,
rather than producer goods like steel
– Ford Model T = $300; Chevrolet = $700
– Average blue-collar salary $1,300
– Average white-collar salary $2,300
• Modern marketing techniques created demand
to meet supply
– $4.3 billion spent on advertising in 1929
– Bruce Barton’s The Man Nobody Knows described
Jesus as a salesman
Radio Advertising
• KDKA Pittsburgh was first
commercial station in 1920
• 508 stations by 1922
• Networks created for
nationwide advertising
– National Broadcasting
Corp. (1926)
– Columbia Broadcasting
System (1927)
• By 1929, Americans
spending $50 million/year
on radios
Women as Consumers
• Women still seen as
homemakers, but now
consumers rather than
producers
• Ads targeted women
• Employed married women
increased by 30% to 3.1
million, but still only 12% of
total
• Marriage seen as romantic
companionship, & divorce
rate rose
Entertainment Culture
• Entertainment grew as leisure time &
purchasing power increased
• Amount spent increased from $2.5 billion in
1919 to $4.3 billion in 1929
• Fads like mini golf swept the nation
• 100 million moviegoers a week by 1930
– Total population = 120 million
– 60 million a week = average church attendance
The Harlem Renaissance
• Black actors
– Charles Gilpin
– Paul Robeson
• Black authors
– Langston Hughes
– Countee Cullen
– Claude McKay
• Black jazz musicians
– Duke Ellington
– Count Basie
Duke Ellington
Darwin’s Challenge to
Christianity
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Literal interpretation of Genesis 1-2
Divine creation (argument from design)
Human souls
Original sin
Social Darwinism
– Herbert Spencer – sociology
– Francis Galton - eugenics
3 Responses to Challenges:
• Hostility – Fundamentalism
– The Fundamentals reasserted basic Protestant
doctrine
– Premillenial dispensationalism taught that world
would get worse, not better, before Jesus’ return
– Holiness movement emphasized personal purity &
devotion
– Pentecostal movement featured ecstatic worship &
spiritual gifts
• Azuza St. Revival (Los Angeles, 1906-09)
– Pope Pius IX’s Syllabus of Errors insisted on papal
infallibility & the immaculate conception of Mary
3 Responses (cont.)
• Capitulation – Modernism
– The Social Gospel focused on political & economic
reform
– Federal Council of Churches founded in 1908
• Compromise – Evangelicalism (Neo-Orthodoxy)
– Salvation Army combined evangelism & aid to poor
– Pope Leo XIII’s Rerum Novarum (1891) called on
Catholics to work to ameliorate poverty & combat
injustice
The Scopes Trial (1925)
• Attracted celebrity lawyers:
– Clarence Darrow for the defense
– William Jennings Bryan for the prosecution
• Scopes found guilty, but overturned on technicality