SOCIETY OF THE 1920S
WOMEN
• Women’s Suffrage reappears during Progressive Era
• National American Woman Suffrage Association
• Leaders
– Carrie Chapman Catt
– Alice Paul
• 19th Amendment (1920)
– Woman’s right to vote
– League of Women Voters
WOMEN
• After WWI-returned to the home
• Change in morals (cities)
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Pre-marital sex
Birth Control
Shorter/lightweight dresses (knee)
Shorter hair (bob)
Smoked, drank, & drove cars
“flappers”
Liberal divorce laws
FLAPPERS
PROHIBITION
• Temperance=Prohibition
• 18th Amendment (1919)-outlawed the manufacture,
sale, & transportation of alcohol
• Increased crime
– Speakeasies & Bootleggers
– Bath Tub Gin
– Organized Crime-Al Capone
• “Nobel Experiment”
• 21st Amendment (1933)-repealed Prohibition
PROHIBITION
BOOTLEGGER
ORGANIZED CRIME
• New York and Chicago
• Biggest Boss-Al Capone
• St. Valentine’s Day Massacre
– 1929
– Hit on Bugs Moran
– Gunmen dressed liked police
in a stolen police car
– Killed 7
– Moran not one of them
“MONKEY TRIAL”
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Modernists vs. Traditionalists
Dayton, Tennessee (1925)
John Scopes-taught Darwin
Arrested and put on trial
ACLU hires Clarence Darrow to represent Scopes
William Jennings Bryan serves as special prosecutor
Scopes found guilty
MONKEY TRIAL
MONKEY TRIAL
CULTURE
• Radio
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First radio station( 1920)
By 1930-800 stations-10 million radios
National Broadcasting Company (NBC) in 1924
Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) in 1927
News broadcasts, sporting events, soap operas, quiz
shows, & comedies
– Jazz Age
CULTURE
• Movies
– Hollywood, CA
– Silent film stars
• Charlie Chaplin, Greta Garbo, Rudolf Valentino
– Elaborate “movie palaces”
– Talking Pictures (1927)
• The Jazz Singer-Al Jolson
– By 1929, 80 million tickets sold each week
CULTURE
CULTURE
• Literature
– Themes
• Religion-hypocritical
• War sacrifice-fraud
• “Alienation”
• Anti-Consumerism
CULTURE
• Literature
– Authors
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F. Scott Fitzgerald-The Great Gatsby (1925)
Ernest Hemingway-The Sun Also Rises (1926)
Sinclair Lewis-Main Street (1920) & Babbitt (1922)
T.S. Eliot (poet)-”Wasteland” (1922)
Eugene O’Neil (Playwright)
– “Lost Generation”-Gertrude Stein
HARLEM RENAISSANCE
• Largest African-American Community-Harlem,
NY
• Concentration of artists, actors, musicians &
writers
• Main Theme-Overcoming Obstacles
• Langston Hughes-Poet
• Jazz Age-Cotton Club
– Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Bessie Smith
HARLEM RENAISSANCE
• Marcus Garvey
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Advocated individual & racial pride
“Black Nationalism”
“Back to Africa Movement”
United Negro Improvement Association (1916)
1925-convicted of fraud & deported to Jamaica
HARLEM RENAISSANCE
ECONOMY OF 1920s
• Business boom lasted from 1919-1929, due to
• Increased productivity-adopted principles of
scientific management, mass production, and
assembly line
• Energy technologies-increased use of oil and
electricity
• Government policies-offered corporate tax cuts
and not enforcing antitrust laws
ECONOMY OF 1920s
• Mass Consumerism-more stores
• New Appliances
– Refrigerator, vacuum, washing machines
• Advertising
• Buy on Credit
ADS
ADS
AUTOMOBILE
• By 1929-26.5 million registered
• Replaced railroad industry as key factor in
economic growth
• Dependent Industries
– Steel, glass, rubber, gasoline, construction
• Huge influence in American life
– Shopping, travel, commuting, courting, traffic jams,
injuries & deaths
POLITICS OF THE 1920S
NATIVISM
• Over a million immigrants came to the US between 1919 and
1921
• Many saw these immigrants as revolutionists
– Socialists & Communists
– A. Mitchell Palmer-”raids”
• Demands for restrictive laws were acted upon by Congress
• First Quota Act of 1921-limited immigration to 3% of immigrants
from certain countries as counted in the census of 1910
• The Second Quota Act of 1924-Changed to 2% and used the
census of 1890
NATIVISM
• By 1927, the quota for all Asians, eastern and southern
Europeans had been limited to 150,000 with all
Japanese barred
• Canadians and Latin American immigrants were exempt
• One example of nativism was the Sacco- Vanzetti case
– Italian shoemakers
– Accused, tried, and executed for murder
– Historians later proved their innocence
NATIVISM
KKK
• Resurgence in 1920s
• Midwest & South
• Blacks, Catholics, Jews, Foreigners,
Communists
• Grew to 5 million due to advertising
• Developed strong political influence
• Began to decline in 1925
– Leader convicted of murder
PRESIDENCY OF WARREN
HARDING
• Return of the “Old Guard” Republicans
• Elected because he “looked like a president”
• Cabinet
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Sec. of State-Charles Evans Hughes
Sec. of Commerce-Herbert Hoover
Sec. of Treasury-Andrew Mellon
Chief Justice-William H. Taft
PRESIDENCY OF WARREN
HARDING
• Approved a reduction in the income tax
• Approved an increase in tariff rates (FordneyMcCumber Act of 1922)
• Established the Bureau of the Budget
• Died in August 1923 of stroke while traveling west
– Many believe wife poisoned him with arsenic
• After death Teapot Dome Scandal erupts-Harding not
implicated
TEAPOT DOME SCANDAL
• Harding appointed Sec. of Interior-Albert Fall
and Attorney General Harry Daugherty to his
cabinet
• 1924-Congress discovered Fall had accepted
bribes for granting oil leases near Teapot Dome,
WY
• Daugherty also took bribes to not prosecute
certain criminal suspects
PRESIDENCY OF CALVIN
COOLIDGE
• “Silent Cal”
• Summarized his presidency in the single phrase,
“The business of the American people is
business.”
• Wins the election of 1924 easily
• Believed in limited government, especially where
business was concerned
• Cut spending which will especially hurt farmers
ELECTION OF 1928
• Coolidge declines to run for another term
• Republicans nominate Herbert Hoover, had
served under three presidents but never held
elected office
• Democrats nominate Alfred Smith-Gov. of NY,
Roman Catholic
• Hoover wins in landslide due to “Coolidge
Prosperity” and dislike for Smith’s religion
PRESIDENTS OF THE 1920S
FARM PROBLEMS
• Did not share in prosperity
• Best years from 1916-1918 due to war time
demand in Europe and US government policy of
minimum pricing for corn and wheat
• Surpluses by increased productivity added to
farmers problems
LABOR PROBLEMS
• Wages rose during the 1920s, therefore the Union
movement declined
• Some companies began practicing “welfare capitalism”voluntarily offering their employees improved benefits
and higher wages in order to remove all need for unions
• The Union Mine Workers led by John Lewis suffered
setbacks in a series of violent unsuccessful strikes
• Conservative courts routinely issued injunctions against
strikes
HEROES OF THE 1920S
• Charles Lindbergh
– 1927-flew the first solo
nonstop flight across the
Atlantic Ocean
• Amelia Earheart
– 1928-first women to fly
across the Atlantic
HEROES OF THE 1920S
• Harold “Red” Grange
– Football Player
– “The Galloping Ghost”
– 3 time All American
– Played professionally for the
Chicago Bears and New
York Giants
• Jack Dempsey
– Boxer
– “Manassa Mauler”
– Held the Heavyweight Title
from 1919-1926
HEROES OF THE 1920S
• Babe Ruth
– Baseball Player
– “The Sultan of Swat”
– Boston Red Sox and New
York Yankees
– 1927-set record for the
most home runs hit in a
season-60
– From 1920-1933 hit 637
home runs
