Presidents of the 1920s:
A Return to Conservative Politics
– Elected in 1920 “Return to
Normalcy”
– Domestic Issues
(1922) —very high, 38.5%
• 14% increase
Gang”
• Teapot Dome
Scandal
—
• Dawes Plan
2

• Calvin Coolidge
– Republican
– Took office upon death of
Harding (1923).
– Re-elected 1924
– August,1923 to March,1929
– Domestic Issues
• Cleaned up scandals of the
Harding Administration.
• Restored the image of the
Republican Party.
• “The business of America is business.”
– Foreign Policy
• Isolationism
• Kellogg-Briand Pact (1928
)
3

• Mass Production
– Assembly line
– Scientific management (Taylor)
• Electrical Conveniences
– Electricity available in more places (mostly cities)
– Refrigerators, Irons, Stoves,
Toasters, Vacuums, Furnaces,
Lighting
• Shopping
– Emergence of Advertising
• Reinforce buying things that we don’t need
• Create a need, brands
– Emergence of Credit
• The installment plan
• Down payment, Monthly payments, Interest
• Buy now! Pay later!
4

– Example: Refrigerator
5

• Henry Ford (assembly line)
• Huge impact on society
– Construction of paved roads
– Patterns of settlement—suburbs
– Petroleum industry
– Rubber industry
– Glass industry
– Steel industry
– Repair shops
– Parking lots
– Hotels & Motels
– Restaurants
– Amusement parks
– Dating
6

• Nativists vs.
Immigrants
• Race: KKK rises again
• Religion vs. Science
• Prohibition: “Drys” vs.
“Wets”
• Women’s roles: “New
Woman” vs. Victorian
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– Red Scare—Palmer
Raids
– Fear of labor agitators
• Boston Police Strike
(1919)
• Steel Strike (1919)
• American Federation of
Labor —John L. Lewis
(UMWA)
– Sacco & Vanzetti 8

• Literacy Test
• Quota System to limit immigration
– 1921 Emergency Quota
Act
• 3% of those here in1910
– 1924 National Origins Act
• 2% of the people here in
1890
– ‘closing’ the Golden Door
– Eugenics: science used to prove racial/ethnic inferiority
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• KKK rises again in
1915
• Targets Blacks, Jews,
Catholics, and
Immigrants
• “invisible Empire”
• Led by an Imperial
Wizard or Grand
Dragon
• 5-6 million participants 10

• Age-old argument
– Religion (fundamentalists) vs. science
– Often rural vs. urban
• Scopes Trial
– John Scopes—biology teacher in
Tennessee
– Clarence Darrow—defense attorney
– William Jennings Bryan— prosecuting attorney
– Outcome?
11

• 18 th Amendment : cannot
“manufacture, sell, or transport” alcoholic beverages.
• Volstead Act : outlined procedures to enforce the amendment — underfunded!
• Urban vs. Rural– passed by rural strength
• Drys vs. wets---Scofflaws
• Proof that the “Noble
Experiment” failed!
12

• Crime on the Rise
– Organized Crime:
• Al Capone
• St. Valentine’s Day
Massacre
• Jailed on tax evasion
– Bootleggers and
Speakeasies
– NASCAR
– Repealed in 1933 (21 st
Amendment)
• Utah cast the deciding vote
13

• Easier for Urban women with new inventions
• More women going to college. Many wanted to change the cultural norms
• Women moving into the work place.
– Typewriters
– Telephones
• Married later with fewer children.
• The Flapper: (not all were flappers)
– Dress: short dresses
– Behavior: “new morality”
14

• The “lost Generation” who no longer had faith in cultural norms.
They looked for new truths.
• F. Scott Fitzgerald
– “The Jazz Age”
– The Great Gatsby
• Ernest Hemingway
– The Sun Also Rises
– A Farewell to Arms
15

16

• Participation sports
– Baseball
– Football
– Golf
– Tennis
– Swimming
– Biking
• Spectator sports
– Boxing
– Football
– Baseball
• Heroes
– Gertrude Ederle (English
Channel)
– Jack Dempsey (Heavyweight)
– George Herman “Babe” Ruth
– Red Grange "If you have the football and 11 guys are after you, if you're smart, you'll run."
17

• The Wright Brothers (1903)
– Kitty Hawk, North
Carolina
• 1920 Transcontinental
Airmail Service
• Charles Lindbergh (May 20-
21, 1927)
– New York to Paris
(nonstop)
– Solo
– 33 hours, 29 minutes
– Perhaps the greatest
American hero of the
1920s!
• Amelia Earhart
18

• The “Golden Age” of Radio
– First commercial radio station—
KDKA in Pittsburgh
– Radio programs—comedy, drama, science fiction, children’s programs
– Music, sports, News
– It creates a national culture
19

• Charlie Chaplain—”the little tramp”
• Rudolph Valentino—
”heart throb”
• The Jazz Singer
(1927) —first with sound
• Steamboat Willie (1928)
– Introduced Mickey
Mouse to the world
– First cartoon with sound
20

• Birth of art and literature in the Black community
• By-product of the Great Migration
• Writers: explored the pain and joy of being Black
– Claude McKay
– Langston Hughes
– Zora Neale Hurston
21

by Claude McKay
His spirit is smoke ascended to high heaven.
His father, by the cruelest way of pain,
Had bidden him to his bosom once again;
The awful sin remained still unforgiven.
All night a bright and solitary star
(Perchance the one that ever guided him,
Yet gave him up at last to Fate's wild whim)
Hugh pitifully o'er the swinging char.
Day dawned, and soon the mixed crowds came to view
The ghastly body swaying in the sun:
The women thronged to look, but never a one
Showed sorrow in her eyes of steely blue;
And little lads, lynchers that were to be,
Danced round the dreadful thing in fiendish glee.
22

By Langston Hughes
I've known rivers:
I've known rivers ancient as the world and older than the flow of human blood in human veins.
My soul has grown deep like the rivers.
I bathed in the Euphrates when dawns were young.
I built my hut near the Congo and it lulled me to sleep.
I looked upon the Nile and raised the pyramids above it.
I heard the singing of the Mississippi when Abe Lincoln went down to New
Orleans, and I've seen its muddy bosom turn all golden in the sunset.
I've known rivers:
Ancient, dusky rivers.
My soul has grown deep like the rivers.
23

Harlem
What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore –then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over-- like syrupy sweet?
Maybe it just sags like a heavy load.
Or does it explode?
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• Argued in opposition to
NAACP
• “Keep Black dollars in Black businesses & the Black community.”
– Black nationalism
– Will lead to the Civil Rights movement
• “Back to Africa” Movement
– Raised money
– Purchased ships (Black Star
Line)
– Many sunk
– Jailed for mail fraud. Deported from the country.
25

• Perhaps the greatest cultural symbol of the
1920s.
• “Blended instrumental ragtime” with “vocal blues.” Improvised!
• Performers:
– Louis Armstrong
(trumpet) oh yeah
– Edward Kennedy
“Duke” Ellington (piano)
– Bessie Smith (vocals)
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