The Roaring Twenties
“The restlessness approached hysteria. The parties were bigger.
The pace was faster, the shows were broader, the buildings were
higher, the morals were looser, the liquor was cheaper.”
-F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby
A Booming Economy
• Factories more productive
• Henry Ford, automobile industry
• Brought mass production to new heights
• Put cars on moving assembly lines
• Manufacture time went from 12 hours to 90
minutes
• Made Model T more affordable
• Ford also increased wages, gave weekends
off, shorter work days
Automobile Changes
America
• Stimulated growth in
relevant industries
• Road construction boomed
• U.S. highway system
• Helped establish service
stations, diners, motels, etc.
• Altered residential patterns
• Move farther away from
city/work
• Family road trips
Consumer
Revolution
• New, affordable goods become
available to the public
• Advertising agencies hired
psychologists to help appeal to the
desires of the consumer
• Buy on credit or installment payments
• More Americans put money in stocks
• Bull market: period of rising stock
prices
• Many ignore financial risks
Cities, Suburbs, and THE
Country
• Immigrants, farmers, minorities
head to cities
• Skyscraper technology; cities
built “up”
• Mass transportation/cars =
growth of suburbs
• Drained cities of many upper- and
middle-class residents
• Farming income declined
• Did not participate in/couldn’t
afford consumerism
• Growing debt, falling farm prices
Politics of the
twenties
• Warren Harding and Calvin
Coolidge
• Return to normalcy, conservatism,
support business
• Harding’s Administration
• Raise protective tariff, encourage
American producers
• European response?
• Reduce government regulation on
business
• Laissez-faire: absence of government
control over private business
• Spending reduced from $18 bil to $3
bil
POLITICS OF THE
TWENTIES
• Harding: nice guy, not too bright
• Trusted others to make decisions
• Ohio Gang: close friends of Harding
• Ex: practiced graft, accepted money from
criminals
• Teapot Dome Scandal
• Sec. of the Interior Albert Fall arranged to
transfer oil reserves from Navy to Interior
Dept.
• Leased properties to private oilmen for bribes
• Harding died before scandal was made public
• Tarnished his legacy, burden inherited by
Coolidge
POLITICS IN THE
TWENTIES
• Calvin “Silent Cal” Coolidge
• “The chief business of the American people is business”
• To add to your notes: Chapter 20, Section 3 ,
Questions 1-4 (pg. 633)
#5: Look at this
political cartoon. What
does it criticize about
Coolidge’s presidency?
How can you tell?
Social and Cultural
Tensions
• Americans split between
urban/rural
• Urban: consumerism, leisure, open
to social change and science
• Education: mental ability, high levels
of math and language
• Modernism: prefer science/secular
values over religious ideas
• Rural: traditional view of
science/religion, no
consumerism/leisure
• Education: three “Rs”: “readin’,
‘ritin’, ‘rithmetic”
• Need to focus on farm work
Religion
• Many Christians thought
Christianity was under attack
• Fundamentalists: those who reaffirm
the basic truths of their religion;
Bible = literal truth
• Scopes Trial: Tennessee passed law
making it illegal to teach evolution
• John Scopes arrested for teaching it
in his class
• Lawyers Clarence Darrow vs.
William Jennings Bryan
• Scopes found guilty: pay $100 fine
Immigration
• Nativists: people who were antiimmigrant
• Said immigrants took jobs and
threatened American cultural
traditions
• Red Scare added to nativists’
argument
• Fear of the spread of
communism, socialism
• Quota systems, literacy tests,
exclusion for many Asians
• Rise in Mexican immigrants
• Major contributions but still
discriminated
Crime
• Revival of the Ku Klux Klan in rural America
• Targeted minorities and immigrants
• At its height: 4-5 million members
• Boycotted businesses, terrorized citizens
• Prohibition: passed in 1919
• Pros: improved individuals, families, societies; less
alcohol-related disease
• Cons: did not deter drinking, increased crime
• Homemade alcohol smuggled by bootleggers
• Organized crime to meet demand for alcohol
• Al Capone: gangster who also took part in
prostitution, drugs, robbery, murder
• Repeal in 1933
A New Mass Culture
• Changing technology and economy
allowed for more leisure time
• Motion pictures provide new form of
entertainment
• Silent movies: cheaper to attend, don’t
need to know English
• Stars like Charlie Chaplin
• Eventually movies with synchronized
sound (“talkies”)
• Radio and phonograph became popular
• Spread music, radio broadcasts, news
reports across the country
A new mass culture
• Newspapers and radios helped boost
popularity of sports
• Athletes portrayed as celebrities, idolized
• Charles Lindbergh: first to fly across the
Atlantic solo and nonstop
• “New Woman”: more liberated, more
equal than before
• Flapper image: short skirts, makeup, hairdo,
free spirit
• Newly won suffrage
• New jobs: sales, management, public office
• Women lived longer, married later, fewer
children
• New technology helps with caring for
household
Art and literature
• War changed literature/art in America:
pessimism, skepticism
• Reproduce real life, highlight abstract styles
• 1920s writers = “Lost Generation”
• Fitzgerald, Hemingway, Eliot
• Explore reality of American dream
• Harlem Renaissance: African-American cultural
expression
• Jazz Age: highly improvised indigenous American
music
• Began in South, became popular worldwide
• Demonstrate richness of African-American culture
• “New Negro”: artists/writers present pains and joys
of black identity in America