1. Decade of prosperity
A. Prevalence of business values
widely spread
B. Industrial boom
1. Surging productivity and output
coca cola prohibition
2. Emergence of new industries
retailing finance education
3. Central role of automobile
main transportation
1. Consumer goods
a. Proliferation
b. Marketing
c.Impact on daily life
-Telephone
-Household appliances
2. Leisure activities
a.Vacations
b.Movies
-Weekly movie attendance had reached 80 million.
-Hollywood's rising dominance of global film industry
c.Sporting events
d.Radio and phonograph
-Brought mass entertainment into American's living rooms.
e.Celebrity culture
-The developments helped to create and spread a new celebrity culture, in which
recording, film, and sports stars moved to the top of the list of American heroes.
3.New values
a.Growing acceptance of consumer debt
b.Shifting ideas of purpose and value of work
-consumer goods had replaced the values of thrift and self-denial, central to nineteenth
century notions of upstanding character
D.The Limits of prosperity
1.Unequal distribution of wealth, income
-The fruits of increased production were very unequally distributed
2.Ongoing concentration of industry
-Improved productivity meant that goods could be consumer economy
3.Scale of poverty, unemployment
-Many of companies failed in the face of low-wage competition from southern factories
4.Deindustrialization in the North
-Shifted production to take advantage of the South's cheap labor
5.The farmer's plight; rural depression
a.Passing of wartime "golden age" for agriculture
-government efforts to maintain high farm prices had raised farmers' income and
promoted the purchase if more land on credit
b.Drop in farm incomes, rise in foreclosures
c.Decline in number of farms and farmers
d.Rural outmigration
E.The image of business
1.Themes
a."American way of life"-"boring its way" into the world's consciousness
b.Permanent prosperity
-In high wages, efficient factories, and the mass production of consumer goods
c.Christ as business prototype
-picked twelve men from the bottom ranks and forged a great organization
2.Promoters
a.Hollywood
b.Photographers and painters
c.Writers
d.Corporate public relations departments
3.Signs of impact
a.Idolization of business figures
-Provided their employees with private pensions and medical insurance plans, job
security and greater workplace safety
b.Growing trust for business, stock market
F. Decline of labor
1. Postwar business campaign against unions
a. Appropriation of "Americanism," "industrial freedom"
I. new style of management: provide employees with private pensions and medical
insurance plans, job security, and greater workplace safety, established sports programs to
occupy heir employees' leisure time
b. "Welfare capitalism": a more socially conscious kind of business leadership, say they pay
more attention to the "human factor" in employment
c. American Plan
I. Open shop: a workplace free of both government regulation and unions
II. Rejection of collective bargaining: represented "an infringement of personal liberty and
a menace to the institutions of a free people," prosperity depended on giving business complete
freedom of action
III. Depiction of unionism and socialism as sinister, alien
d. Use of strikebreakers, spies, blacklists to prevent and defeat strikes
2. Ebbing of labor movement
a. Decline in numbers organized: lost more than 2 million members
b. Union concessions to employers, agreed to demand after demand in an effort to stave off
complete elimination
c. Fading of union strongholds
d. Diminishing prospects of labor strikes
G. Fragmentation of feminism
1.Aftermath of suffrage amendment
-also called the 19th amendment
-women gained the right to vote
2.Social and ideological fault lines
-it is a social mobilization
-it is usually against a new reform of the government
3. Debate over Equal Rights Amendment (ERA)
a.Terms of ERA
-refers to philosophy of e conversation movement
-started in the 1850's in the United States
b.Feminist support
- some men supported it to, because the wives of important people convinced them to do so
- almost all women wanted this right, so they supported each other
i.Alice Paul, National Women's Party
- the national women's party was founded in 1913 by Alice Paul and Lucy Burns
-the main idea of the party was to give women the same rights as men had
ii.Commitment to individual autonomy, equal opportunities
- some men gave a commitment for an individual autonomy but equal opportunities for
both genders
c.Feminist opposition
- the biggest one was founded in 1972 and is called Stop ERA
- it's name means to stop the Era of women getting more rights than before
i.Other leading women's organizations
-league of Women voters of the United States
-national association or female executives
ii.Commitment to motherhood, protective legislation for women
- women finally got the right to vote, but they had to give a commitment to their
motherhood
- furthermore they had a right the protected women
d. Defeat of ERA
- in 1972 the defeat of the ERA started
- that means, that many men got to the opposition of the women rights movement
H "Women's freedom" in the twenty-first century
1. Mixed legacy of prewar feminism
a. Fading of links to political and economic radicalism, social reform
If political feminism faded, the prewar feminist demand for personal freedom survived in the vast
consumer marketplace and in the actual behavior of the decades much publicized liberated
young women.
b. Survival and recasting of call for personal freedom
The new freedom, however, was available only during one phase of a women's life.
2. Themes and images
a. Consumer lifestyle
Female liberation resurfaced as a life style, the stuff of advertising and mass entertainment,
stripped of any connection to political or economic radicalism.
b. Sexual freedom as individual autonomy, rebellion
No longer one element in a broader program of social reform, sexual freedom now meant
individual autonomy or personal rebellion.
c. Youthful "flapper"; Clara Bow
The provocative it girl and Rudolph Valentino , the original on screen Latin lover.
Single flapper epitomized the change in standards of sexual behavior.
d. "Modernizing Mothers"
The one pursuit that stands foremost in the mind of every girl and women.
3. Continued stress on marriage, homemaking as ultimate goals
Having found a husband, women we're expected to seek freedom within the confines of the
home, finding liberation according to the advertisements, in the use of new labor saving
appliances.
II. Business and government
A. Retreat from progressivism
- "one of the most critical ten year periods"
1. Themes of disillusionment
a. Popular ignorance, irrationality, disengagement
b. Shift from public concerns to private (leisure, consumption)
2. Voices of disillusionment
a. Walter Lippmann (Public Opinion, The Phantom Public)
- He published 2 of the most penetrating indictments of democracy ever written
b. Robert and Helen Lynd (Middletown)
B. The Republican era
- "was going to keep the world running"
1. Pro-business agenda
a. Content of
i. Low income and business taxes
ii. High tariffs
iii. Support for employer anti-unionism
iv. Business-friendly appointees to regulatory agencies
b. Support for in Washington
i. Presidents Warren G. Harding and Calvin Coolidge
- declared the Wall Street journal
ii. Supreme Court
- extremely conservative
- President Taft was Chief Justice
III.Persistence of World War I–era repression, censorship into 1920s
Targets of
Political dissent
Sexual themes in the arts
Agents of
Mob violence
Government agencies
Local crusades
Self-censorship; Hollywood's Hays code
Disaffection of Lost Generation
Wartime formation of Civil Liberties Bureau
Reaction to Espionage and Sedition Acts
Predecessor to American Civil Liberties Union
C. The Supreme Court and civil liberties
1. Initial blows to civil liberties
Upholding of Espionage Act (Schenck case); Oliver Wendell Holmes's "clear and
present danger" doctrine
1919, the Court upheld the constitutionality of the Espionage Act and the conviction of
Charles T. Schenck, a socialist who had distributed anti draft leaflets through the mails.
Speaking for the Court, Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes declared that the First
Amendment did not prevent Congress from prohibiting speech that presented a “clear
and present danger” of inspiring illegal actions.
Upholding of Eugene V. Debs conviction
A week after Schenck v. United States , the Court unanimously upheld the conviction of
Eugene V. Debs for a speech condemning the war. It also affirmed the wartime jailing of
the editor of a German-language newspaper whose editorials had questioned the draft’s
constitutionality.
Further cases
For the next half-century, Holmes’s doctrine would remain the basic test in First
Amendment cases.
2. Signs of a shift
a. Defenses of free speech by individual justices
Holmes: marketplace of ideas doctrine
“The only meaning of free speech,” Holmes now declared, was that advocates of every
set of beliefs, even“proletarian dictatorship,”should have the right to convert the public
to their views in the great “marketplace of ideas” (an apt metaphor for a consumer
society).
ii.Louis Brandeis: democratic citizenship doctrine
Holmes and Louis Brandeis dissented, marking the emergence of a court minority
committed to a broader defense of free speech. Six years after Abrams , the two again
dissented when the majority upheld the conviction of Benjamin Gitlow, a communist
whose Left wing Manifesto calling for revolution led to his conviction under a New York
law prohibiting “criminal anarchy.”
b.Pro–civil liberties rulings
In 1931, the Supreme Court overturned the law as “repugnant to the guaranty of liberty
contained in the Fourteenth Amendment.” A judicial defense of civil liberties was slowly
being born.
Section IV
A. Fundamentalist reaction against modern urban culture
1. Sources of alarm
Religious and ethnic pluralism- Protestants felt threatened by the decline of traditional
views.
Mass entertainment- was increasing people were from all parts of the country filling
these new views.
Alcohol- the prohibition where alcohol was illegal and speak-easies were created to drink
alcohol with out worrying about the law.
Entry of "modernist" outlook into Protestant mainstream
2. Manifestations
Billy Sunday was a pro baseball player who who became a revivalist preacher.
Nationwide presence- he was said to of preached to 100 million people during his life
time.
Prohibition -was the illegal sell of alcohol and drinking it.
B. The Scopes trial
1.Clash of traditional and modern perspectives- the trial in Tennessee threw into sharp
relief the division between traditional values and modern secular culture.
Fundamentalism vs. secularism
Darwinian science vs. scripture- because john scopes violated a state law prohibiting he
teaching of Charles Darwin theory of evolution.
"Moral" liberty vs. freedom of thought
2.Face-off of Clarence Darrow and William Jennings Bryan he was an expert witness on
the bible. Viewing the trial to be a duel to the death.
3.Outcome and aftermath- the jury found scopes guilty although the Tennessee
Supreme Court over turned the decision on technicality.
C.The Second Ku Klux Klan
1.Roots in wartime "Americanism" obsession- a decade of citizenship education
programs in public schools, legally sanctioned visits to immigrants homes to investigate their
house hold arrangements and vigorous efforts by employers to instill appreciation for "American
Values."
2.Profile and influence- Chicago Tribune could "hope to escape Americanization by a
process being prepared for a special benefit.
3.Rapid growth- the kkk grow larger and larger over time since the cival war when
slavery was abolished.
Wide following among white, native-born Protestants- they felt more out of it than they're
immigrant populations and cultures.
Nationwide presence- in the mid 1920s they claimed 3 million members all white,native
born Protestants who all held respective positions in their communities.
3.Diverse range of targets the kkk targeted blacks from all parts of the country.
D.Immigration restriction—closing the golden door
1.Earlier legislative precedents- immigrants coming into the USA that had been excluded
among Protestants like the mentally retarded and those with contagious diseases.
2.1921 temporary restriction measure- restricting immigrants from Europe to 357000 per
year.
3.1924 permanent restriction measure- did bar the entry of all I eligible for naturalized
citizenship-that it is,the entire population of Asia. Even though Japan fought on Americas side.
National quotas for Europeans- they were not aloud in for an extended period of time.
Exclusion of Asians (exception for Filipinos)- boarder control was created to keep all
chimes that try to get into the country.
Admittance and curtailing of Mexicans- Mexicans we're need to do cheap labor for
farmers on the west coast.
Emergence of "illegal alien" classification- the "illegal alien" were immigrants coming
from either Mexico or Canada and even other countries like eastern and Western Europe amd
Asia.
4.Ideological underpinnings
Conservative nativism- blacks were moved to second class
E.Pluralism
1.Scholarly challenges to prevailing racial thought
-Pioneering voices:
#Horace Kallen; "cultural pluralism":describe a society that gloried in ethnic
diversity rather than attempting to suppress it.
#Anthropologists Franz Boas, Alfred Kroeber, Ruth Benedict:insisted that no
scientific basis existed for theories of racial superiority or for the notion
that societies and races could be ranked on a fixed scale running from
“primitive” to “civilized.”
-Minimal immediate impact:major cities still contained ethnic enclaves by their
own ways.
2.New immigrants and the pluralist impulse
-Urban ethnic enclaves, community institutions:asserted the validity of cultural
diversity and identified toleration of difference as the essence of American
freedom.
-Self-reinvention as "ethnic" Americans:claim an equal share, the right to
remain in many respects culturally distinct.
-Resentment of cultural hostility and coercion:roam Catholic Church urged them
to learn English and embrace American principle but still remain separate
schools and institution.
-Claims to equal rights, mainstream acceptance, cultural autonomy:
-Anti discriminatory campaigns:organizations like theAnti-DefamationLeagueof
B’nai B’rith and the NationalCatholic Welfare Council lobbied, in the name of
“personal liberty,” for laws prohibiting discrimination against immigrants by
employers,colleges,and government agencies.
3.Anti discriminatory rulings by Supreme Court, federal courts:the Supreme
Courts truck down Oregon’s law, mentioned earlier, requiring all students to
attend public schools and Nebraska’s prohibiting teaching in a language other
than English. aftermath,federal courts overturned various Hawaii laws imposing
special taxes and regulations on private Japanese-language schools. interpreted
the Fourteenth Amendment’s guarantee of equal liberty to include the right to
“marry, establish a home and bring up children” and topracticereligionasonechose,“without
interference from the state.”
F.The emergence of Harlem
1.Ongoing migration from South, West Indies:Nearly 1 million blacks left the
South during the 1920s, and the black pop-ulation of New York, Chicago, and
other urban centers more than doubled.
2.Emergence of Harlem; "capital" of black America: South and immigrants fromthe
West Indies, 150,000 of whom entered the United States between 1900and 1930.
3."Exotic" Harlem vs. real Harlem:The real Harlem was a community of widespread
poverty, its residents confined to low-wage jobs and, because housing
discrimination barred them from other neighborhoods,.MostHarlembusi-nesses were
owned by whites.
4.Harlem Renaissance:also contained a vibrant black cultural community
#Poets, novelists:like Countee Cullen, Langston Hughes,and Claude McKay were
be friended and sponsored by white intellectuals and published by white presses.
#Actors, dancers, musicians:Dixie to Broadway( first use black actors)and
Blackbirds that featured great entertainerslike the singers Florence Mills and
Ethel Waters and the tap dancer BillRobinson.
#"New Negro":
-In politics:associated in politics with pan-Africanism andthe militancy of
the Garvey movement
-In art:the rejection of estab-lished stereotypes and a search for black
values to put in their place.
5.New black assertiveness; Henry O. Sweet case:a black physician who moved into
a previously all-white Detroit neighborhood in1925, reflected the new spirit of
assertiveness among many African-Americans.
G.Election of 1928
1.Republican candidate Herbert Hoover
-Background and career:Born in Iowa in 1874, the son of ablacksmith and his
school teacher wife, Hoover accumulated a fortune as amining engineer working
for firms in Asia, Africa, and Europe. After WWI, gained international fame by
coordinating overseas food relief.
-Embodiment of "new era" of American capitalism:1922,published American
Individualism (condemned government regulation asan interference with the
economic opportunities of ordinary Americans, but also insisted that
self-interest should've subordinated to public service.)
2.Democratic candidate Alfred E. Smith
-Background and career:the first Catholic to be nominated by a major party.
Born into poverty on New York’s Lower East Side. had become a fixture in Tammany
Hall politics.
-Embodiment of urban, Catholic, Progressive outlook: triangle fire of 1911
made him an advocate of Progressive social legislation. served three terms as
governor of NewYork, securing passage of laws limiting the hours of work-ing
women and children and establishing widows’ pensions.
3.Outcome and significance
-Hoover victory:With more than 58 percent of the vote, Hoover was elected by a
landslide.
-Reflection of "culture wars":Many Protestant ministers and religious
publications denounced Smith for his faith.
-Preview of new Democratic coalition:Smith’s campaign helped to lay the
foundation for the triumphant Democratic coalition of the 1930s, based on urban
ethnic voters, farmers, and the South.
V. The Great Depression
A. Stock Market Crash of 1929
1. Black Thursday
2. Onset of Great Depression
- Even before the stock market crash, there had been signs of economic trouble.
B. Precursors of Depression
1. Frenzied Speculation
- Southern California and Florida experienced frenzied real-estate speculation and
mortgages foreclosed.
2. Unequal distribution of wealth, income
- The highly unequal distribution of income and the prolonged depression in farm regions
reduced American purchasing power.
3. Rural Depression
4. Stagnating demand for consumer goods
C. Repercussions of Crash
1. Magnitude
2. Scope of Devastation
a) Business and consumer confidence - The bloated stock market greatly reduced
business and consumer confidence
b) Solvency of investment companies, businesses, banks - Germany defaulted on
payments to Britain and France caused them to stop paying back repaying debts
to American Banks.
c) Gross national product - The value of all goods and services in the county had
fallen by one-third.
d) Life savings - Millions of families lost their life savings
e) Employment - There was a huge loss in employment due to lack of money to pay
workers.
f) Wages - Wages were lowered in order to be able to pay their workers.
3. Persistence of Downward Slide
- Although stocks recovered in 1930, they resumed their relentless downward slide.
D. Americans and the Depression
1. Material Hardship
a) Hunger; breadlines - There we're hundreds of hungry men and women lined in
the streets of major cities.
b) Homelessness; Hoovervilles - Thousands of families were evicted from their
homes and forced into ramshackle shantytowns.
c) Meagerness of public relief - Cities spent the little money they have to go towards
for poor relief.
d) Reversal of movement from farm to city - Many Americans left the cities in order
to try and grow food for their families.
2. Resignation and protest; patterns of popular response
a) Collapse of faith in big business - The image of big business collapsed as
congressional investigators revealed massive irregularities committee by bankers
and stockbrokers.
b) Personal resignation, self-blame - People started to resign or blamed themselves
for economic misfortune.
c) Stirrings of protest
(1) Spontaneous Incidents - The protests were at first spontaneous and
uncoordinated, since unions, socialist organizations, and other groups that
might have provided disciplined leadership had been decimated.
(2) Bonus March - World War I veterans marched on Washington demanding a
bonus due in 1945 but were turned away by Federal Soldiers.
(3) Rallies for jobs and relief, against evictions - The unemployed demonstrated
for jobs and public relief.
(4) Farmers' Holiday Campaign - Milo Reno protested low prices by temporarily
blocking roads in the Midwest to prevent farm goods from getting to the
market.
(5) Communist Party - They helped with the unemployed and created
unemployed councils, sponsoring marches and demonstrations for public
assistance.
E. Hoover and the Depression
1. Hoover's Response - was considered inadequate and uncaring
a) Acceptance of Business Cycle - Andrew Mellon told Hoover that economic
downturns were a normal part of capitalism, which weeded out unproductive
firms and encouraged moral virtue among the less fortunate.
b) Aversion to government relief - Many businessmen strongly opposed federal aid
to the unemployed.
c) Preference for voluntary, "associational" initiatives - Strongly opposed on
principle to direct federal intervention in the economy, Hoover remained with his
"associational action."
d) Regular forecasts of recovery - Hoover attempted to restore public confidence
making frequent statements that "the tide had turned".
2. Perception of Hoover as indifferent, out of touch - His perception just made him look
more out of touch with reality.
3. I'll-Fated Remedies - Were signed in 1930, made the situation worse.
a) Hawley-Smoot Tariff - Were signed in 1930, made the situation worse.
b) Tax increase - Raised taxes on imported goods, which caused a similar reaction
across the board, ending in reduced international trade.
4. Eventual turn to recovery measures
a) Reconstruction Finance Corporation - Loaned money to failing banks, railroads,
and other businesses.
b) Federal Home Loan Bank System - Offered aid to home owners threatened with
foreclosure.