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Republican
Won election in 1920
“return to normalcy”
Nothing but “normal”
 Increase in efficiency of production
 Climb in wages
 Decline in hours worked
 Weaknesses in the economy helped
bring about the great depression
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Technological innovations increased
industrial output
Electric replaced steam
1914-30% of factories were electrified
1929-70% relied on electric motor
Unskilled and semi-skilled workers
Mass production techniques
Consumer durable goods: automobiles,
radios, washing machines, telephones
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Steady growth for building of
residential and non-residential housing
Growth of automobile led to demand
for new housing
Suburban living became more attractive
Expanded credit by savings and loan
companies made housing affordable
Residential mortgage debt jumped $8
billion in 1919 to 27 billion in 1929
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New corporate ideal: Sloan of GM,
Young of Radio Corporation of America
Salaried executives, plant managers,
engineers= new elite
Psychology tests, scientific management
made business more efficient
1920-200 largest corporations owned ½
the nations corporate wealth
OLIGOPOLY- the control of a market
by a few larger producers
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Challenge the power and appeal of
trade unions and collective bargaining
Large employers promoted programs to
improve worker well-being and morale
Corporate strategy
Example: encourage workers to acquire
property through stock purchase plans
Example: Workers insurance policies
Anti-union campaigns- “The American
Plan”
 Union
membership
dropped from 5 million in
1920 to 3.5 million in 1926
 Remaining union
members-skilled craft
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Postwar automobile explosion
Rise to prominence
American made approx. 85% of worlds cars
Most productive industry in the US during
the 1920’s
New wage scale for workers
Workers were consumers as well as
producers
2/3 of Ford’s workforce were immigrants
Employed more African Americans
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General Motors vs Ford
Chevy vs Model T
Cars made exploration possible
Church on Sunday
Visit neighbors
Vacations
Leisure activities
Young people-more freedom “dates”
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Urban growth on steady increase
New York grew by 20%
Detroit doubled population
Cities offered jobs, culture, freedom
Great Migration
Skylines-cities grew vertical and
horizontal
Suburban communities grew 2x the rate
of core cities
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Wartime=prosperity for farmers
Demand is less after WWI
Farmers acquired heavy debt
Farm mortgages & machinery
Stiff competition from Europe
Relief came by way of supermarkets but
farmers still struggled to make ends
meet
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Stabilize farm prices
Government purchased farm
surpluses
Oil & gas led to decrease in coal
industry
Textiles decreased
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Observation:
Organized labor declines in power.
The cause?
The effect?
The
Ford Assembly
Line
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“Roaring Twenties”
Movies, Radio, new journalism
New media altered the way of life
New mass culture helped redefine the
ideal of “the good life”
Movie Industry-centered in New York
Cheap storefront theatres-Nickelodeons
1914-18,000 “movie houses”
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1927- The Jazz Singer
Introduced sound to movies
New genres: musicals, gangster films,
screwball comedies became popular
“talkies”-higher cost
Stars became vital to the fantasy life of millions
of fans
Movies emphasized social themes, youth,
athleticism
Government censorship-Will Hays

Movie Industry Czar
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Live broadcasts
First radio stations footed the bill for the
broadcasting but by the late 1920’s advertising
took it over
NBC & CBS led the way
Sports broadcasts, daily programing, music
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New kind of newspaper=tabloid
New York Daily News
Photographs
Emphasized sex, scandal and sports
Discovered an audience who never read
newspapers before
Most readers were poorly educated, working
class and immigrants
Gossip columns
Between 1920 and 1929 daily
newspaper circulation rose from 28
million to almost 40 million.
 By 1929 Americans were buying 200
million copies of magazines.
 Saturday Evening Post, Readers
Digest, Ladies Home Journal, and
Time were popular.
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Advertising jumped from 1.4 billion in 1919 to
3 billion in 1929
Larger ad agencies welcomed psychology to
advertising
Began to focus on the needs, desires and
anxieties of the consumer
Most popular advertisement “Listerine”
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Records transformed the popular music
busisness
Dance crazes: fox trot, tango, grizzly bear
Records provided music for new polular
dances like the Charleston and the black
bottom
1921 more than 200 companies produced some
2 million records and annual record sales
exceeded 100 million
Country music was put on records for the 1st
time
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Spectator sports enjoyed an unprecedented
growth
Athletes took their place alongside movie stars
Image of the modern athlete: rich, famous,
glamorous, a rebel against social convention
came into its own
“Babe Ruth”-made baseball popular
Ruth was a larger than life figure off the fieldembraced the New York culture
Excluded from major league baseball = African
Americans
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Negro National League
Organized by Andrew “Rube” Foster
Played exhibitions against white teams often
winning
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Radio broadcasts and journalism made sports
popular
College football=big time sport
Notre Dame-coached by Knute Rockne
“the Four Horsemen of Notre Dame”
Shifted from Ivy league schools to big
universities
Other athletes: Jack Dempsey, Gene Tunney,
Helen Wills, Gertrude Ederle became
household names
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Charles Lindbergh – 1927 NY to Paris
Amelia Earhart – 1932 CA to Hawaii
Jack Dempsey- Heavyweight Champ
Babe Ruth – 60 HR in 1927, Yankees
Gertrude Ederle – Gold medalist 1924
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Flapper: portrayed on screen and in novels
Young, sexually aggressive woman with
bobbed hair, rouged cheeks and short skirts
Loved to dance to jazz music, enjoyed smoking
cigarettes and drank bootleg liquor
Competitive, assertive and a good pal
Embodied the “new morality”
Not as widespread as the image would suggest
Jazz=sexual experimentation/spread to college
campuses
A set of standards granting greater
sexual freedom to men than to
women
 Women were required to observe
stricter standards of behavior than
men did
 Women were pulled back and forth
between new standards and the old
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Troops during WWI exposed to sex education
Sigmund Freud stressed the central role of
sexuality in human experience
Sex is positive and healthy
Birth control review after WWI
Advertisers used sex to sell products
Number of virgins before marriage dropped in
the 1920’s
“morals” loosened
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15% of wage earning women became
professionals, although businesses
remained prejudice towards women.
Only 35% of women voted in 1920.
Progressive women did lobby the
Shepard –Towner Act which aided
women and children. (Infant/Pre-natal
care.)
Jeanette Rankin WY, US House of
Reps.
The Birth Rate dropped during the
1920’s
 Birth Control information was
widespread
 Margaret Sanger ( First BC Clinic
1916)
 Some 1920’s women juggled work
and career
 Leisure Time increased
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Republican party dominated national politics
Relationship between national government and
business changed
Republicans: Harding, Coolidge, Hoover
Harding understood his own limitations
Surrounded himself with his cronies or friends
“Ohio Gang”
No problems with enemies but his friends
“Kept him walking the floor at night”
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Harding favored a limited role for
government in business affairs and
social reform
Herbert Hoover- Secretary of Commerce
Andrew Mellon-Secretary of Treasurycut taxes and reduced debt-one of richest
men in US
Mellon’s policies succeeded in rolling
back much of the progressive taxation
associated with Wilson
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
OHIO GANG- president’s poker
playing cronies
President did not understand many
issues
Corrupt friends used power to gain
wealth
Charles R. Forbes- head of Veterans
bureau was caught illegally selling
government and hospital supplies to
private companies

TEAPOT DOME SCANDAL- government
had set aside oil rich public lands at Teapot
Dome, Wyoming and Elk Hills, California
for U.S. Naval usage
 Secretary of the Interior Albert B. Fall- got
oil reserves transferred to the Interior
Department
 Leased the land to two private companies
 Received more than $400,000 in loans,
bonds and cash
 Became the first American to be convicted
of a felony while holding a cabinet
position
August 2, 1923 Harding died of
a heart attack or stroke or ?????
 Americans mourned good
natured president
 Calvin Coolidge took over
presidency
 Restore nation’s hope in
Republican party
 Next year elected president
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Temperamental opposite of Harding
Raised in Vermont-Governor of Massachusetts
“Silent Cal” was a new England Yankee
Coolidge won election in 1924
Benefitted from prosperity
Coolidge showed most interest in reducing
federal spending, lowering taxes, and blocking
congressional initiatives
Primary function was clearing the way for
American businessmen
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Secretary of Commerce
Became president in 1929
Hoover believed that the government need to
only advise private citizens financially not
control
Trusted individualism
Government encourages voluntary cooperation
among corporations, consumers, workers,
farmers, and small businessmen
Government provided an ideal climate for
concentration of corporate wealth and power
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1929, the 200 largest American corporations
owned almost half the total corporate wealth
Vertical Combinations: large, integrated firms
that controlled the raw materials,
manufacturing and distribution for the
products.
Vertical integration became common in the
automobile, electrical, radio, motion picture
and other new industries
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U.S. emerged from World War I the strongest
economic power in the world
War transformed the nation from the worlds
largest debtor to the largest creditor
European governments owed the US about $10
billion
New York replaced London as the center of
international finance and capital markets
Germany's War reparations set at $33 billion
deprived them of their economy and means to
repay
 Germany
was experiencing
terrible inflation
 Germany failed to make a
payment and French troops
marched into Germany
 To avoid war Charles G.
Dawes-American banker
negotiated loans
Dawes Plan- American investors
loaned Germany 2.5 billion to
pay back Britain and France
 Countries then paid the U.S.
 The United States arranged to be
repaid with its own money
 U.S. benefited from the defeat of
Germany without risking
millions of lives
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1928-the US and 62 other nations signed the
Pact of Paris (Kellogg-Briand Pack)-renounced
war in principal
Nations were disarming
Formally outlawed war
Pact was meaningless because it lacked powers
of enforcement-relied on moral code
Within weeks the US had approved $250
million for new battleships
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Throughout the 1920’s Secretary of State Charles
Evans Hughes pursued policies designed to
expand American economic activity abroad
Capitalist economies must be dynamic
Expand markets to thrive
British tried to drive up the cost of rubber
American retaliated but threatening to take back
loans
American investment in Latin America more than
doubled
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Prohibition-18th amendment: banning the
manufacture, sale and transportation of
alcoholic beverages
January 1920
Associated drinking with the degradation of
the working class family life and the worst
evils of urban politics
Supporters: a coalition of women's temperance
groups, middle class progressives, and rural
protestants
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Only about 1500 agents to police the entire country
Public demand for alcohol especially in cities led to
widespread law-breaking
Drinking was a routine part of life
Bootlegging became a big business
Illegal stills and breweries, liquor smuggled in
from Canada supplied the needs of Americans
“speakeasy”-people could drink and enjoy
entertainment
Law enforcement was bribed
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Prohibition led to organized crime
Smaller operations gave way to larger more
complex combinations
Al Capone-Chicago-”called himself a
businessman”
21st amendment-repealed Prohibition
Organized crime was a permanent feature in life
Excitement associated with speakeasies and lawbreaking contributed to increased drinking during
prohibition
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“New Immigrants” –southern and eastern
Europe
Between 1891 and 1920 roughly 10.5 million
immigrants arrived from southern and eastern
Europe
2x as many arrived in the same years from
northern and western Europe
“New immigrants” mostly catholic and jewish
They were darker skinned and generally poor
and more exotic-less willing to assimilate
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Anti-Catholic American protective association
Supported restriction on immigration
Postwar depression coincided with massive
immigrations
Immigration Act of 1921-set a maximum of
357,00 new immigrants each year
Limited immigration from any European
country to 3 percent
Immigration Act of 1924 maximum immigrants
was cut to 124,000
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100% Americanism
White Supremacy
Supporter enforcement of prohibition
Attacked birth control and Darwinism
Righteous defender of embattled traditional
values
Native, White, Protestant Supremacy
Violence-whippings, arson, lynching (African
Americans, Catholics, Jews)
Popular social movement
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Fundamentalists emphasized a literal reading of
the bible
Rejected the tenets of modern science as
inconsistent with the revealed word of god
Theory of Evolution: Charles Darwin (fossil
evidence) directly contradict the fixed creation in
the Book of Genesis (Religious theory)
John T Scopes-broke Tennessee law in 1925 to
challenge it in court
Scopes defense team: American Civil Liberties
Union and Clarence Darrow (most famous trial
lawyer in America)
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Nicknamed the “monkey” trial
The prosecution led by William Jennings Bryan
(fundamentalist and anti-evolutionist)
Scopes found guilty but later overturned on a
technicality
Struggle over the teaching of evolution
continues today
“Fundamentalism” a religious creed and
cultural defense against the uncertainties of
modern life
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Prosperity was unevenly distributed
Unfulfilled promises in American Life
Feminists sought to redefine movement
Mexican immigration to the US shot up
African Americans disappointed in their
treatment during and after the war
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Mexican immigration increased
Economic and social conditions were difficult
African Americans disappointed at their
treatment
FEMINISM
Women's movement split into two:
Should they stress differences in men or
emphasize the ways women were like men
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Should they stress differences in men?
Vulnerability?
Double burden of work and home
Should they emphasize the ways that women were
like men-sharing similar aspirations and push for
full legal and civil equality?
Women has a special role to play in society
National Women Suffrage Association-League of
Women voters

Improve working conditions, abolish child labor,
humanize prisons and mental facilities, serve the urban
poor
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League of Women voters
Represented mainstream of the women’s
movement
Women had a special role to play bettering
society, improving conditions, abolishing child
labor, humanizing prisons and serving the
urban poor
More militant group: National Woman’s Party
(Alice Paul)
Did not believe in “protecting women”
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“Men and Women should have equal rights…”
What does that mean?
Equal protection under the law but also…
No protection from exploitation
 Drafted into military
 No child care or maternity leave

FAILED TO PASS
1921 Sheppard-Towner Act-established the first federally
funded healthcare (prenatal and child health centers)
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Mexican immigration was not included in the
immigration laws of 1921 and 1924
Agricultural expansion=more jobs
More Mexican Immigrants stayed and settled
in cities
Housing conditions generally poor
Disease and infant mortality rates were high
Long struggle to bring economic, social and
racial equality to Mexican Americans
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Migration to northern cities grew rapidly
New York City=Harlem
Demographic and cultural capital of black
America
Overcrowded and unsanitary
What were the causes and
results of the Great Migration
of African Americans to
Northern cities in the early
1900’s?
 What was the prolific African –
American artistic activity of the
Harlem Renaissance?

NYC’s Harlem was a cultural center for
African Americans.
 The Renaissance is known as a cultural
and literary awakening as well as a
time of black pride.
 Authors:
 Alan Locke - The New Negro (1925)
 Zora Nele Hurston -Their Eyes are
Watching God (1937)

 Famous
Poets:
Claude McCay – Harlem
Shadows (1922)
Countee Cullen – Color
Langston Hughes – The
Weary Blues, I Too (1926)

Paul Robeson –
Major Dramatic
Actor
Ex. Othello
Ethal Waters –
Africana
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Jelly Roll Morton
Benny Goodman
Louis Armstrong
Duke Ellington
Ma Rainey
Bessy Smith
Cab Calloway
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The Great Migration saw 500,000
African Americans move North
NAACP -1909 – WEB Du Bois
Du Bois wrote The Crisis an NAACP
magazine to highlight racial violence
and to form a platform in the civil rights
fight
1920’s – Executive Secretary of the
NAACP James Weldon Johnson fought
for anti-lynching laws
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Marcus Garvey an immigrant from
Jamaica believed African Americans
should build a separate society.
In 1918 the UNIA was moved to Harlem
It promoted black owned businesses
He founded the “Black Star” Shipping
Line
He inspired Black Pride
Proposed “Back to Motherland Africa”
Movement
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Famous Artists: Edward Hopper, Rockwell
Kent, Georgia O’Keeffe.
Famous Authors:
 Sinclair Lewis -Babbit
 F. Scott Fitzgerald –”JAZZ AGE”
 Earnest Hemingway
 Edna St. Vincent Millay - Youth
 “The Lost Generation” –authors
disconnected from the US and its values.
(Critical of US Culture)
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Election represented tensions in society:
Protestant vs catholic
Prohibition vs legal drinking
Small town life vs cosmopolitan life
Fundamentalism vs modernism
Traditional vs new mass media
Al Smith (Democratic) vs Herbert Hoover
(Republican)
Hoover won easily-sucessfull and looking
forward America