1. Themes: 1920’s common themes• Return to normalcy
• US turned inward---isolationism
• Jazz Age
• first modern era in the U.S.
• change from a rural society to an
urban.
2. Cultural clashes in US
 Traditional America vs. Modern
America
 Hostility towards un-American ideas
Why? Feared
communism……..Red Scare
 Rise of KKK
 Immigration restriction/Antiimmigrant feelings


Sacco and Vanzetti
 Scopes Trial---evolution vs. creation
 Liberated woman vs. traditional
 Flappers
 Margaret Sanger----Birth control
 African Americans move to the cities
 led to race riots in some cases
 Americans violate Prohibition
 18th Amendment
 Volstead Act
3. Revolution in styles and
technologies.
 electricity, radio, automobile, mass
media
 Fads---new dances, music &
clothing
4. American heroes:
 Babe Ruth and Charles Lindbergh
5. Presidents during the 1920’s
 Conservative Republicans
 Supported laissez faire
 Warren Harding 1921 to 1923
 Calvin Coolidge 1921 to 1929
6. Foreign policy during the 1920’s and
early 30s- Isolationism the general trend
The New Era of the 1920s
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Consumerism flourishes because of credit,
advertising, and economic (GNP) growth
US Government fosters business growth
Entertainment grows further as big
business
Technology and middle class expand
New attitudes and uses of time emerge,
but some oppose modern changes
(reactionary)
Decade ends with economic collapse
The Economy & Big Business
Decline, 1920–21 (drop in war production)
 Electricity spurs recovery and growth
(1922–29) with new goods for factory and
for home
 Installment plans stimulate consumption
 Consolidation continues; oligopolies control
production, marketing, distribution, finance
 US Steel and General Electric dominate
their respective industries

Business Lobbying; Fate of Labor
Unions & Farmers
Business and professional organizations
lobby government as special-interest groups
 US Government lowers taxes on wealthy and
corporations, raises tariffs, eases regulation
 Supreme Court voids minimum-wage laws
and restrictions on child labor, restricts
strikes
 Farmers suffer rising debt because of falling
prices (overproduction/foreign competition)

The Second Industrial Revolution
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U.S. develops the highest standard of
living in the world
The twenties and the second
revolution
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electricity replaces steam
Henry Ford’s modern assembly line
introduced
Rise of the airline industry
Modern appliances and conveniences
begin to change American society
The Automobile Industry

Auto makers stimulate sales through
model changes, advertising

Auto industry fostered the growth of
other businesses

Autos encourage movement and more
individual freedom.
Glenwood Stove and Washing
Machine
•Beginning of the Jazz Age in New
York City
•Acceptance of African American
culture
•African American literature and
music
J
A
Z
Z
Migration to Cities;
The Great Migration
Majority of Americans are urban by 1920;
during 1920s, 6 million more leave farms
 Great Migration of blacks to urban north
accelerates (1.5 million leave South,
1920s)
 Discrimination and violence in North
results in black movements for racial
independence
 Garvey (UNIA) attracts large following with
demands for black pride and separatism

IKA
Imperial
Klans of
America
Revived Ku Klux Klan (1915–
1925)
Recruits 5 million men and women
(1923) by emphasizing native, white,
Protestant supremacy; opposes other
races and religions
 Expands from rural South to new cities,
claims new immigrants mongrelize US
 Continues earlier terror tactics and
mystical rituals; declines after rape
scandal (1925)
 Reflects pervasive intolerance of 1920s

Rise of the KKK was due to
challenges to traditional America.
1925: Membership of 5 million
1926: Marched on Washington.
Attack on urban culture and defends
Christian/Protestant and rural values
Against immigrants from Southern
Europe, European Jews, Catholics and
American Blacks
Sought to win U.S. by persuasion and
gaining control in local/state
government.
Violence, internal corruption result in
Klan’s significant decline by 1930 but
will reappear in the 1950s and 1960s.
•The U.S. Government began to
restrict certain “undesirable”
immigrants from entering the U.S.
•Congress passed the Emergency
Quota Act of 1921 and Immigration
Act of 1924
• Kept out immigrants from
southeastern Europe.
•The U.S. Government began to restrict certain
“undesirable” immigrants from entering the
U.S.
•Congress passed the Emergency Quota Act of
1921, in which newcomers from Europe were
restricted at any year to a quota, which was set
at 3% of the people of their nationality who
lived in the U.S. in 1910.
•Immigration Act of 1924, the quota down to
2% and the origins base was shifted to that of
1890, when few southeastern Europeans lived in
America.
Cartoon from 1919:
“Put them out and
keep them out”
•Nicola Sacco and
Bartolomeo Vanzetti
were Italian
immigrants charged
with murdering a guard
and robbing a shoe
factory in Braintree,
Mass.
•The trial lasted 1920-1927. Convicted on circumstantial
evidence, many believed they had been framed for the
crime because of their anarchist and pro-union
activities.
•In this time period, anti-foreignism was high as well.
•Liberals and radicals rallied around the two men, but
they would be executed.
Immigration Quotas; Sacco &
Vanzetti Case
Nativists succeed in reducing total numbers
of immigrants, especially new immigrants
 1921, 1924, and 1929 Acts set up yearly
quotas favoring immigrants from north/west
Europe over those from south/east Europe
 Immigration shifts to Western Hemisphere
 Trial/execution of Italian anarchists reflects
anti-immigrant bias and anti-radicalism
(MA)

•Goal: was to reduce crime and poverty
and improve the quality of life by making
it impossible for people to get their hands
on alcohol.
•Called the "Noble Experiment"
•Midnight, January 16th, 1920, US went
dry.
•The 18th Amendment, known as the
Volstead Act, prohibited the manufacture,
sale and possession of alcohol in America.
Prohibition lasted for thirteen years.
•So was born the industry of bootlegging,
speakeasies and Bathtub Gin.
•No other law in America has been violated so
flagrantly by so many "decent law-abiding"
people.
•Overnight, many became criminals.
•Mobsters controlled liquor created a
booming black market economy.
•Gangsters owned speakeasies and by 1925
there were over 100,000 speakeasies in New
York City alone.
Al Capone
Detroit police
inspecting equipment
found in a hidden
underground brewery
during the prohibition
era.
Chicago gangster
during Prohibition
who controlled the
“bootlegging”
industry.
Elliot Ness, part
of the
Untouchables
Agent with the U.S.
Treasury Department's
Prohibition Bureau
during a time when
bootlegging was
rampant throughout the
nation.
“Prohibition is an awful flop.
We like it.
It can't stop what it's meant to stop.
We like it.
It's left a trail of graft and slime,
It's filled our land with vice and crime,
It can't prohibit worth a dime,
Nevertheless we're for it.”
Franklin Pierce Adams, New York World
“It is impossible to stop liquor trickling through a dotted
line”
A Prohibition agent
“Flappers” sought
individual freedom
Ongoing crusade for
equal rights
Most women remain in
the “cult of domesticity”
sphere
Discovery of adolescence
Teenaged children no
longer needed to work
and indulged their
craving for excitement
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.
by Dorothy Parker
Fundamentalism;
Scopes Trial (1925)
Evangelical Protestant denominations grow
 Advocate literal interpretation of Bible;
reject materialism, science, and
“modernism”
 Darrow and Bryan debate TN’s ban on
teaching evolution; other states follow TN
 Pentecostal churches also expand in cities
 KKK, nativism, and religion reflect attempts
to sustain traditional values in new era

1925
The first major conflict
between religion vs. science
being taught in school was in
1925 in Dayton, Tennessee.
John T. Scopes
Respected high
school biology
teacher arrested
in Dayton,
Tennessee for
teaching
Darwin’s Theory
of Evolution.
Clarence Darrow William J. Bryan
Sec. of State for
Famous trial
President
lawyer who
Wilson, ran for
represented
president three
Scopes
times, turned
evangelical
leader.
Represented the
prosecution.
Dayton,
Tennessee
Small town in the
south became
protective
against the
encroachment of
modern times
and secular
teachings.
The trial is conducted
in a carnival-like
atmosphere. The
people of Dayton are
seen as ‘backward’ by
the country.
The right to teach and
protect Biblical
teachings in schools.
The acceptance of
science and that all
species have evolved
from lower forms of
beings over billions of
years.
Advertising; Radio
Increases demand for new
products/services through use of
psychology and celebrities
 Radio emerges as key advertising medium
 US Gov’t rejects public funding of radio
 Programming focuses on entertainment
 Many workers able to purchase goods
only by using credit or by working extra
jobs
 Indoor plumbing spreads to urban workers

•Westinghouse Radio Station
KDKA was a world pioneer of
commercial radio
broadcasting.
•Transmitted 100 watts on a
wavelength of 360 meters.
•KDKA first broadcast was
the Harding-Cox Presidential
election returns on November
2, 1920.
•220 stations eighteen months after KDKA took the plunge.
•$50 to $150 for first radios
•3,000,000 homes had them by 1922.
•Radio sets, parts
and accessories
brought in $60
million in 1922…
• $136 million in
1923
•$852 million in
1929
•Radio reached into
every third home in
its first decade.
•Listening audience was 50,000,000 by 1925
Expansion of Consumer
Society
Purchasing power increases for many
(cost of living is stable, while earnings
increase)
 By 1929, 2/3 of all homes have electricity
 Automobiles are the vanguard of
expanding materialism, even some
workers purchase one
 Cars alter US life with emerging network
of government-sponsored roads and
highways
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Harding (1921–1923) &
Coolidge (1923–1929)
Republican presidents (1921–1933)
symbolize goodwill toward business
 Spoils system and scandals (Teapot Dome)
undermine Harding’s administration
 Anti-union Coolidge lowers taxes, begins
US highway system, vetoes farm
assistance
 In 1924 election, both major candidates are
pro-business; Progressives fail to revive
reform

The 1920 Election
The 1920 Election
Wilson’s idealism and Treaty
of Versailles led many
Americans to vote
Republican Warren Harding
 Many in the US turned
inward and feared foreign
influences.

The 1924 Election
Calvin Coolidge served as
President from 1923 to 1929.
“Silent Cal”.
Republican president
REPUBLICAN ECONOMY SUPPORTED LAISSEZ FAIRE AND
BIG BUSINESS……….
+
Lower Taxes
+
Less Federal
Spending
=
$
Higher
Tariffs
Fordney-McCumber Tariff---1923
Hawley-Smoot Tariff ---1930
raised the tariff to an unbelievable 60%!!!
Strong
National
Economy
• Secretary of the Interior, Albert
B. Fall leased naval reserve oil land
in Teapot Dome, Wyoming, and Elk
Hills, California, to oilmen Harry F.
Sinclair and Edward L. Doheny
•Fall had received a bribe of
$100,000 from Doheny and about
three times that amount from
Sinclair.
•Fall found guilty of taking a bribe.
•Sinclair and Doheny were
acquitted of charges.
Reform; Indian Affairs; Women
& Politics
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State and local reforms (workers’
compensation, old-age pensions, aid to poor,
and housing codes)
Indians suffer neglect by US Gov’t (ignores
groups that try to help Indians regain land)
Female groups devise tactics (publicity) to
lobby for help to working women (LWV)
Pursuit of different goals fragments women
(LWV v. feminist National Women’s Party)
Employment for Women
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Number in workforces continues to increase
10.8 million working women (1930)
Segregated in jobs (clerical); receive low pay
Most female workers are single, but 3.1
million wives work (1930) to help with
consumption
Many African, Japanese, and Mexican
American wives work as domestics or rural
laborers to help their families survive
The New Woman
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“Flappers” remake image of femininity with
stress on personal freedom and sexuality
Few actually become flappers, but dress
styles change and some assert
independence
New habits spark move to reassert
traditions
Mexicans & Puerto Ricans;
Growth of Suburbs
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Most Mexicans work as agrarian laborers in
southwest, but many move to cities
Puerto Ricans migrate to northern cities
(especially NYC) and form barrios
Prosperity and cars fuel suburban expansion
Middle and upper classes flee urban
problems and resist annexation by cities
Cities and suburbs are centers of consumer
culture
New Rhythms of Everyday Life
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Apportion time into work, family, and leisure
Proportion changes as time at work drops for
many and people have fewer children
Appliances ease some household tasks, but
also make wives into household managers
Improved nutrition and sanitation increase life
expectancy (60 years by 1930 from 54 years
in 1920) for most, but not all people
Older Americans & Retirement;
Social Values
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More people living past age 60 and forced
retirements increase poverty among elderly
Europeans create pensions in early 1900s,
but US leaders reject these as socialistic
Many states in 1920s adopt pensions and
retirement homes to reduce elderly poverty
New values emerge with consumption and
peer groups: self-expression via clothing, etc.
Age of Play
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Commercial entertainment expands
Middle class participates in fads (mahjong,
crossword puzzles, dance crazes, etc.)
Spectator recreations (movies, sports) boom
Motion pictures emerge as a leading US
industry, especially with sound and color (late
1920s)
To appeal to a mass audience, movies make
escapist spectacles, dramas, and comedies
Sports Heroes; Movie Stars;
Prohibition
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Professional baseball blossoms; media
glorifies its suspense and unpredictability
Ruth symbolizes heroes of 1920s: unique
individuals in a mass industrial society
Compare/contrast Valentino and Lindbergh
After 1925, prohibition breaks down as more
people break law; criminal groups (Capone)
supply public demand for alcohol
Cultural Currents
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Writers and artists critique era’s
materialism and conformity; express
disillusionment
Hemingway, Faulkner, Fitzgerald, etc.
African Americans celebrate black culture
and explore identity in Harlem
Renaissance
Rooted in black culture, jazz becomes
popular; gives African American musicians
(Armstrong) a place in consumer culture
The Election of 1928 & the End
of the New Era
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Hoover (Republican) wins, but Smith
increases Democratic strength among
urban ethnics
Hoover campaigns on continued prosperity
As president (1929–33), Hoover continues
his past efforts to promote business growth
Stock prices drop with panic selling (Oct.
1929)
Crash helps unleash devastating
depression
Declining Demand
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Several interrelated factors cause depression
Sales in growth industries (autos, electric
appliances, housing) stagnate in late 1920s
Underconsumption: neither farmers nor
workers earn enough to preserve demand
Widening income gap contributes to problem:
income of rich skyrockets, but only modest
gains for middle/lower classes
Corporate Debt; Speculation
on Stock Market
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Businesses took out large loans to pursue
expansion; when sales drop, defaults occur
Corporations, individuals, and banks engage
in risky purchase of stocks “on margin”
When stock prices decline, many brokers,
banks, investors, and businesses face ruin
Growing US stock investments (late 1920s)
hamper US-European economic links
International Economy;
Federal Policies
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In WWI, US banks loaned billions to Europe,
but high tariffs prevent Europeans from
selling in US to pay back loans
Allies/Germany depend on continued US
loans until late 1920s; then begin to default
Global trade in goods/money collapses
US Government does not regulate wild stock
market; prefers US-business cooperation