Bell Work
Do Now: Define the term fad, then make a list of fads from
your generation.
The Roaring 20’s: Chp. 20 (659-687)
•
•
In a teams of 4
identify and list
themes/events in
the 1920’s that
attach to each of the
listed topics
Out of the 5 topics,
what do you think is
the crucial topic of
the roaring 20’s?
Topics:
1. Politics
2. Economics
3. Values
4. Cultural innovations
5. African American
Culture
On your poster
Politics
Economics
Values
Cultural
Innovations
African
American
Culture
•Jazz
The Twenties and the New Era
• Post War America
• Recession 1919
• 15% Inflation
• Labor Strife
• Boston Police Strike 1919
• Racial Strife
• Chicago 1919
• Tulsa 1921
• Failure of the Treaty of
Versailles
• Isolationism
The Twenties and the New Era
• 1918 Influenza
Pandemic (Spanish
Flu)
– First Reported in
Spain
– 675,000 Americans
Die
– Over 50 Million World
Wide
I had a little bird,
Its name was Enza.
I opened the window,
And in-flew-enza.
—Children's Rhyme, 1918
Conflict of Cultures
• Red Scare and the Palmer Raids
• Bolshevik Revolution 1917
• 1919
• Communist International
• Strike!
• 4 million worker (1in 5)
• Bomb Threats
• Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer
• Palmer Raids
• “Soviet Ark” 1920
• 249 Citizens Deported
Conflict of Cultures
• Sacco and Vanzetti
• Italian Immigrants
• Anarchists
• Guilty 1920
• Executed 1927
• Significant questions
about the evidence
and fairness of the
trial
Conflict of Cultures
• Nativism- Again
• Emergency Quota Act
1921
• Quotas set on 1910
Census (3%)
• National Origins Act of
1924
• Quotas set on 1890
Census (2%)
Images of Nativism
Were the Immigration Quotas Effective?
Total Immigration, 19201960
Conflict of Cultures
• The New Klan 1915
• Defending “Traditional Values”
• Rural/Urban Divide
• Against “Moral Corruption” of
Cities
• Fought “Un-American” Values
• Target Blacks, Jews, Catholics,
and immigrants
• Membership peaked at 4
Million in 1924
Conflict of Cultures
• Failure of Prohibition
• 18th Amendment-
Volstead Act 1919
• Alcohol and Organized
Crime
• Bootlegging
• Speakeasies
• 21st Amendment 1933
• Repeals prohibition
The Twenties and the New Era
• Modernists vs.
Traditionalist
• Scopes Monkey Trial
1925
• Evolution vs. Creationism
• Clarence Darrow vs.
William Jennings Bryan
• Scopes found guilty
• Influence of Radio
The Twenties and the New Era
• Mass Entertainment
• The Movies
• Hollywood
• 1929 – 100 Million
• Radio and
“Broadcasting”
• 1929- 10 million
• Mass Marketing
The Twenties and the New Era
•
19TH
Amendment
Women’s right to vote
• Professional Women
• Limited opportunities
• 10 Million Workers by
1930
• Few Managers
• The “Flapper”
• Automobiles
• Mobility
“Our Dancing Daughters”
By Dorothy Parker
The Playful flapper here we see,
The fairest of the fair.
She's not what Grandma used to be,
-- You might say, au contraire.
Her girlish ways may make a stir,
Her manners cause a scene,
But there is no more harm in her
Than in a submarine.
She nightly knocks for many a goal
The usual dancing men.
Her speed is great, but her control Is
something else again.
All spotlights focus on her pranks.
All tongues her prowess herald.
For which she well may render thanks
To God and Scott Fitzgerald.
Her golden rule is plain enough Just get them young and treat them rough.
The Twenties and the New Era
• Education and
Youth
• Increased
Attendance
• Truancy Laws
• Americanization
The Twenties and the New Era
• Lost Generation’s
Critique
• Rejected Success
• Rejected Consumerism/
Materialism
• Rejected Idealism
• F. Scott Fitzgerald
• Ernest Hemingway
• T.S. Eliot
The Twenties and the New Era
• The Harlem Renaissance
• Great Migration
• African-American Pride
• “New Negro”
• NAACP
• Anti-Lynching Crusade
• Integration
• Marcus Garvey
• Self Reliance
• “Back to Africa”
Harlem
Renaissance
• Common Themes:
– Alienation
– Marginality
– The use of folk
material
– The use of the blues
tradition
Harlem Renaissance
• More than just a literary
movement:
– Included racial consciousness
– Celebration of African
traditions
– “Folk” Culture
• Explosion of music
particularly jazz, spirituals
and blues
• Painting, dramatic revues,
etc.
Conflict of Cultures
• Jazz!
• Roots in Dixieland and
Ragtime
• New Orleans – Up River
• Kansas City
• Chicago
• New York- Harlem
• Louis Armstrong
• Duke Ellington
The Twenties and the New Era
Technology and Economic
Growth
• Automobiles
• Where people live and work
• Aviation and Trains
• Travel and interdependence
• Radio
• What people hear and know
• Consumer Goods
• What people want and need
The Twenties and
the New Era
• Impact of the
Automobile
• Social
• Family Structure
• Challenges Stability
• Work
• Commuters
The Twenties and the New Era
• Consumerism
• Growing Mass
Consumption
• Mass Marketing/
Advertising
• Easy Credit
• Installment Plan
• Buying on Margin
The Twenties and the New Era
• A New Economy
• Economies of
Scale/Mass
Production
• Assembly Line
• Henry Ford
• $5.00 a day
The Twenties and the New Era
• The New Economy
• Improved Conditions for
Workers- “Welfare Capitalism”
• Increased Productivity
• Increased Standard of living
• Decline in Working Hours
• 1929- $1,500 vs. $1,800??
• Hard Times for Organized
Labor
• Open Shops- “American Plan”
The Twenties and the New Era
• Hard Times on the Farm
• New Agricultural
Technology
• Mechanized Farming
• Overproduction
• Tariffs
• Increasing Debt
• Farm Tenancy
• Nature
• Drought
Farm Tenancy
The Twenties and the New Era
• Republican Government
• Warren G. Harding
• “Return to Normalcy”
• Isolationism/Neutrality
• Washington Naval Conference
1922
• Raised Tariffs (Ford-McCumber
Act)
• Smaller Government
• Cut Regulation (FTC)
• Cut Taxes
• Top tax rate reduced from 50%
to 25%
The Twenties and the New Era
• Republican Government
• Warren G. Harding
• Scandals
• “Ohio Gang”
• Veteran’s Bureau
Scandal
• Charles Forbes
• Tea Pot Dome
• Albert Fall
The Twenties and the New Era
• Republican Government
• Calvin Coolidge
• Silent Cal
• Traditional Conservative
• “The business of America is
business.”
• 1924- Easily Wins
Reelection
“The man who builds a factory,
builds a temple. The man who
works there, worships there.”
The Twenties and the New Era
• Calvin Coolidge
• “The expenses of the government
reach everybody. Taxes take from
everyone a part of his earning and
force everyone to work for a
certain part of his time for the
government.”
• “. . . I want the people of
America to be able to work less
for the government and more for
themselves.”
The Twenties and the New Era
• Divided Democrats
• Regional Splits- Rural/ Urban
• Ethnic/Religious Divisions
• Alcohol- Wets vs. Dries
• Failed Elections
• 1920- James Cox and
Roosevelt
• 1924- John M. Davis and
Lafollette
• 1928- Al Smith and Robinson
Isolationism/
Neutrality in
the 1920’s
The Twenties and the New Era
• World Affairs- Harding and
Coolidge
• Return to Isolationism
• Reject Treaty of Versailles
• Reject League of Nations
• Arms Control
• Washington Conference 1922
• 4-5-9 Power Treaties
• Open Door in China
• Kellogg-Briand Pact 1928
The Twenties and the
New Era
• World AffairsFinance
• Post War Economic Crisis
• German Reparations
• French and British War
Debts- 10 Billion
• High U.S. Tariffs
• Dawes Plan 1926
Herbert Hoover 1928
“The Engineer”
•Rugged Individualism
“We in America today are nearer to the
final triumph over poverty than ever
before in the history of any land.”
Herbert Hoover
“. . . The average man won’t really
do a day’s work unless he is caught
and cannot get out of it.”
Henry Ford
Sources of Immigration,
1920-1960
Total Immigration,
19201960