From Boom to Bust:
The Roaring 20s and
the Great Depression
Americans Struggle with
Post War Issues
The 1920s: Roaring or Racist?
Wanting to Return to “Normalcy”
 A stressed nation
1.
League of Nations  Divided Nation
2.
Progressive Era  Changed Nation
3.
Returning Soldiers  Unemployment OR minorities out of
jobs
4.
Inflation  cost of living had doubled
 Trends in 1920s politics
 1. Renewed isolationism
 2. Resurgence of nativism
 3. political conservatism
 Go against Progressive movement
The Threats to “Normalcy”
 A. Communism
 1. Origins of Communism
 a. “Communist Manifesto” ~ 1848
 Outlines communism
 Achieving this government
 Characteristics of this goverment
 b. Communism spreads to Russia in 1917
 Vladimir Lenin and the Russian Revolution
 2. Americans fear communism
 a. Communist clubs began to spread around the U.S.
 b. Mail bombs were sent to prominent businessmen and
government leaders
 c. Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer began to combat
the “Red Scare”
 3. Combating the Red Scare
 a. Palmer Raids
 Government agents sent to investigate suspected Communists,
socialists, anarchists, and radicals
 Questionable methods used
 Raids failed to show any concrete evidence
 Cost Palmer the trust of the American public
 B. Immigration
 1. Sacco and Vanzetti
 a. anarchists, evaded draft in WWI
 b. falsely accused of a murder in Ma in 1920
 c. despite evidence that cleared them, they were found
guilty and were executed in 1927
 d. significance
 2. Resurgence of the Ku Klux Klan
 a. Revived in 1915
 b. Devoted to “100% Americanism”
 Against anyone not white, native born, and gentile
 Against activities such as joining unions and
drinking alcohol
 Why do they feel threatened?
 c. Activities
 3. Quota Systems
 a. Emergency Quota Act 1921
 C. Labor Unrest
 1. background
 2. Boston Police Strike, 1919
 3. Steel Mill Strike, 1919
 4. Coal Miners Strike, 1919
Labor Movement Loses Appeal
 Rulings in all the cases showed that Americans were
distrustful of radicalism
 Growing sentiment that labor unions = communism
 Union leaders had a hard time organizing immigrants
 Farmers did not want to put their fate in someone else’s
hands
Warren G. Harding
1920-1923
Warren G. Harding
 Born in Ohio, 1865
 Key Players
 VP: Calvin Coolidge
 Sec. of State: Charles Evan
Hughes
 Sec. of Commerce: Herbert
Hoover
 Sec of Treasury: Andrew Mellon
 Considered to be one of the least
successful presidents to date
 Why?
The Struggle for Peace
 Strike a balance – keep America in foreign relations economically but not
politically
 Washington Naval Conference
 “Nine Powers Treaty”
 Kellogg-Briand Pact
Keeping America in the Economic Game
 Fordney-McCumber Tariff
 Germany refuses to pay debt
 Mellon sent to Germany to negotiate reparations for Germany (12 billion
dollars to France, England, and the US)
 Problem:
 Solution
 Charles G. Dawes and the Dawes Plan
Domestic Scandals
 “The Ohio Gang”
 Veterans Bureau
 Teapot Dome Scandal
 Reform
 Budget and Accounting Act, 1921
Death of Harding
 Died in summer of 1923
 Legacy
Calvin Coolidge
1923-1928
Calvin Coolidge
 Disliked public attention
 Took long naps during the
day
 Held the most press
conferences of any president
-520 in 4 years
 Spoke on the radio more than
any other president
 “Let’s avoid trouble”
Foreign Policies
 Supports Kellogg-Briand Pact
 Latin America
 Manages to dissuade a major rebellion against America
The Pro-Business President
 Keep business taxes down
 High tariffs
 Strict economy
 No farm relief
 Refused to pass a Bonus Bill to help WWI veterans
 Impacts
Troubles loom for American buyers
 Superficial Prosperity
 Installment Plan
 Low Interest Rates
Society During the 1920s
What characterized 1920s society?
1. Religion v. Science
 Background
 Europe at the turn of the century
 WWI
 Religious Fundamentalism takes hold
 Protestants support the literal translation of the Bible
 A response to the fast paced society of the 1920s
 The Scopes Trial
 March 25, 1925: teaching evolution is illegal
 John Scopes was arrested for teaching evolution and was backed by ACLU
lawyer Charles Darrow
 Court ruled that although the Bible can be interpreted in different ways, the
theory of evolution does not hold ground
 Scopes fines 100 dollars, laws stayed on the books
2. Prohibition
The 18th Amendment to the Constitution--passed by
Congress in 1917, and ratified by 3/4 of states by
1919--prohibited the manufacture or sale of alcoholic
beverages within the boundaries of the United States.
The Volstead Act of 1919, also known as the National
Prohibition Enforcement Act, gave the 18th
Amendment some teeth. It clearly defined an alcoholic
beverage as one with an alcoholic content greater than
0.5 percent.
Prohibition was
created education of
alcohol consumption,
which in turn would
reduce:
 Crime
 Poverty
 Death Rates
 Improve the economy
 Improve quality of life
Per Capita Consumption of Alcoholic Beverages (Gallons of Pure Alcohol) 1910-1929.
 A German visiting the United States during the 1920s
described Prohibition like this:
 'But,' it might be asked, 'where do all these people get the
liquor?' Very simple. Prohibition has created a new, a
universally respected, a well-beloved, and a very profitable
occupation, that of the bootlegger who takes care of the
importation of the forbidden liquor. Everyone knows this,
even the powers of government. But this profession is
beloved because it is essential, and it is respected because its
pursuit is clothed with an element of danger and with a
sporting risk....
 Yet it is undeniable that prohibition has in some respects been signally
successful. The filthy saloons, the gin mills which formerly flourished on
every corner and in which the laborer once drank off half his wages,
have disappeared. Now he can instead buy his own car, and ride off for
a weekend or a few days with his wife and children in the country or at
the sea. But, on the other hand, a great deal of poison and methyl
alcohol has taken the place of the good old pure whiskey.
 The number of crimes and misdemeanors that originated in
drunkenness has declined. But by contrast, a large part of the
population has become accustomed to disregard and to violate the law
without thinking. The worst is that, precisely as a consequence of the
law, the taste for alcohol has spread ever more widely among the youth.
The sporting attraction of the forbidden and the dangerous leads to
violations. My observations have convinced me that many fewer would
drink were it not illegal.
There was one way to obtain alcoholic beverages legally during the
prohibition years: through a physician's prescription, purchasing
the liquor from a pharmacy. Physicians could prescribe distilled
spirits--usually whiskey or brandy—on government prescription
forms. The government was even willing to allow the limited
production of whiskey and its distribution when stocks were low.
Failure?
 Organized crime grew into an empire—Al
Capone
 Disrespect for the law grew
 Massive murder/crime rates
 Bootleggers smuggled liquor
 The per capita consumption of alcohol
increased dramatically
 City officials fell to gangsters and corruption
 Government lost money—Taxes
 Home brewing of alcohol became increasingly
popular
 The rate of alcohol related deaths due to
poisoning drastically increased from 1,064 in
1920, to 4,154 in 1925.
Success?
 United the country under nationalism
 Brought people together – united against a common enemy
 Led to better trained police forces
 Grain can be used for food supply
Flappers and the new Role for women
3. The Speakeasy
 “Speakeasy Language”
 Beeswax ~ business
 On the lam ~ on the run from the police
 Ragamuffin ~ a dirty person
 Joe ~ Coffee
 Bible Belt ~ The South
 Handcuff ~ Engagement Ring
 Beef ~ Complaint
 Gold Digger ~ a women after wealth
 Cat’s pajamas ~ the ultimate
(same as Bee’s Knees)
 Crush ~ infatuation
 Daddy ~ The Gold Digger’s husband
 Glad Rags ~ Party Clothes
 Giggle Water ~ Alcohol (Also Hooch)
 Joint ~ a speakeasy club
 Also, many slang words relating to premarital
sex and “hooking up” and prevalent alcohol
use
4. Flag Pole Sitting
5. The Charleston!
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJC21zzkwoE
6. Anything Egyptian!
7. Increase in Education
 School enrollment on the rise
 High Schools offer vocational training
 Rise in school taxes
8. Popular Culture
 Beginning of radio
 Expanding news coverage
 Baseball is popular culture
 Jazz
 Famous celebs
 Charles Lindbergh
 George Gershwin
 Louis Armstrong
 Bessie Smith
 Georgia O’Keefe
The “Lost Generation” and the Harlem
Renaissance
The Lost Generation
The Harlem Renaissance
 Why are they lost?
 Langston Hughes
 F. Scott Fitzgerald
 Zora Neale Hurston
 Ernest Hemingway
 Civil Rights
 Marcus Garvey and the UNIA
The Great Depression
Chapters 22 and 23
The Great Depression
 1929-1941
Troubles Loom for Americans
Troubles in Industry
 Mining and lumbering industries diminishes
 Housing markets begin to decline
Farmers
 Food prices drop and demand slows
Credit Cards
 Too many people are buying on credit
 Too many bills meant little spending
Uneven distribution of income
 Lower class Americans were not receiving sufficient wages to
meet the inflation rates
 5% of the country controlled 1/3 of the wealth
Stock Market
 Risky business
The Volatile Stock Market
 Dow Jones Industrial Average
 Steady rising through the 1920s
 Too many people are buying stocks
Election of 1920
 Herbert Hoover (R) v. Alfred Smith (D)
 Why did Hoover win?
The Stock Market Crash
September 1929: Stock
prices peak and then
begin to fall
October 24, 1929:
Investors start to pull out
of the market
October 29, 1929:
Continuous buying and
selling of stocks causes
stock prices to bottom
out
Americans panic and
pull money out of the
banks
Worldwide Depression
GNP is cut in half
85,000 businesses go
bankrupt
Unemployment rate goes
from 3% in 1929 to 25%
in 1932
European Depression
 Already in debt from WWI
 Hawley-Smoot Tariff Act (1930)
 Highest protection tariff in United States history
 Designed to help American farmers and manufacturers
 Opposite effect: reduced the flow of goods into the US
 Cannot buy American exports
 World Trade reduces by 40%
Leading towards “Depression Mentality”
 Cities
 Rural
 On the Family
Herbert Hoover’s
Presidency
1928-1932
Herbert Hoover (R)
 Elected 1928
 From Iowa
 Supported humanitarian causes
Hoover’s Philosophy
o Government aid v. “rugged individualism”
 Opposed:
 Federal Welfare
 No free handouts or charity
Domestic Affairs
Foreign Affairs
Public Sentiment on Hoover
 “Blame it on Hoover”
 Show displeasure in the 1930s
congressional elections
 People stop working
 Bonus Army
Beginning Steps
 Developing theories
 Boulder Dam
 POUR
Hoover takes more action
 Backing cooperatives
 Federal Farm Board
 National Credit Corporation
 Direct Relief
 Federal Home Loan Bank Act
 Glass-Steagall Banking Act
 Reconstruction Finance Program
Legacy of Herbert Hoover
The Presidency of
FDR
1932-1945
Candidate
Herbert Hoover
FDR
Party
Platform
FDR’s First Attempt at Reform
 FDR takes office in January 1933
 The New Deal
 “One Hundred Days”
Reorganizing Banks and
Businesses
 Fireside Chats
 Glass –Steagall Act
 Federal Securities Act, 1933
 Securities and Exchange
Commission 1934
 Repeal the 18th Amendment
Criticisms of the New Deal
 New Deal did not end the Depression
 Liberals object
 Conservatives object
 Supreme court reacts
 Charles Coughlin
 Francis Townsend
 Huey Long
The Second New Deal
1935
 How does it differ than the first hundred days?
FDR (538 e.v.) v Alfred
Landon (8 e.v.)
 Reading on Eleanor Roosevelt
Effect of the New Deal
 Women
 African-Americans
 Native Americans
 Mexican Americans
Art and Culture of the
Great Depression
Art and Culture of the Great
Depression
 Photography and photo journalism
 Radio and Literature
 Music
“Talkin’ Dust Bowl Blues”
 Back in Nineteen Twenty-Seven, I had a little farm and I called that heaven.
Well, the prices up and the rain come down, And I hauled my crops all into town -I got the money, bought clothes and groceries, Fed the kids, and raised a family.
 Rain quit and the wind got high, And the black ol' dust storm filled the sky.
And I swapped my farm for a Ford machine, And I poured it full of this gas-i-line -And I started, rockin' an' a-rollin', Over the mountains, out towards the old Peach Bowl.
 Way up yonder on a mountain road, I had a hot motor and a heavy load,
I's a-goin' pretty fast, there wasn't even stoppin', A-bouncin' up and down, like popcorn
poppin' -Had a breakdown, sort of a nervous bustdown of some kind, There was a feller there, a
mechanic feller,
Said it was en-gine trouble. Way up yonder on a mountain curve,
It's way up yonder in the piney wood, An' I give that rollin' Ford a shove,
An' I's a-gonna coast as far as I could -- Commence coastin', pickin' up speed,
Was a hairpin turn, I didn't make it. Man alive, I'm a-tellin' you,
The fiddles and the guitars really flew. That Ford took off like a flying squirrel
An' it flew halfway around the world -- Scattered wives and childrens
All over the side of that mountain. We got out to the West Coast broke,
So dad-gum hungry I thought I'd croak, An' I bummed up a spud or two,
An' my wife fixed up a tater stew --We poured the kids full of it,
Mighty thin stew, though, You could read a magazine right through it.
Always have figured That if it'd been just a little bit thinner,
Some of these here politicians Coulda seen through it.
 Movies:
 Praised the government
 Helped you “forget”
Legacy of the New Deal
 The Economy
 On workers
 On banking
 On society
 On the environment