CONSERVATISM AND
CULTURAL DIVERSITY IN THE
1920S
Key Concepts
• 1920s were dominated by conservative Republican
presidents.
• Americans experienced consumer activity as new massproduced commodities were made available.
• Tensions prevailed between rural and urban America.
• The decade witnessed a rise in nativism and racism.
• The period was culturally vibrant as new forms of music
and art became popular.
• U.S. government persecuted radicals in the Red Scare.
1920’s Presidents
• Warren Harding
• Harding administration sought to cut taxes,
especially for the wealthy in the Mellon Tax Plan
which reduced government spending by passing
Fordney-McCumber Tarrif which was so high
other nations raised their tariffs which led to
depression.
• Widespread corruption, the most famous of
which was Teapot Dome Scandal when
secretary of interior Albert Fall was convicted of
bribery.
• He died suddenly.
Calvin Coolidge
• He adopted a strict laissez-faire attitude
toward business – “The business of
America is business.”
• Under his conservative leadership,
business sector flourished but farm prices
slumped in the post-war years.
Mass Consumerism
• Economy reached unprecedented heights as nation
engaged in consumer spending stimulated by the stockmarket “bubble”
• Americans began to buy on credit causing many to fall
into debt.
• Department-store catalogs made it easier to purchase
products.
• Radio provided Americans a new form of entertainment
and faster access to news and advertisers.
• Most notable consumer item was the automobile.
• Expansion of automobile led to highway construction,
increased suburbanization and growth of other
industries.
Divisions on the Domestic Scene
• Urban versus Rural – women and Prohibition
• Moderate versus radical unionism – moderate
unions such as American Federation of Labor
experienced a decline – radical unions had
growth
• Science versus religion: Scopes Monkey Trial –
teaching of evolution
• Modern versus traditional in art forms – Harlem
Renaissance by African Americans – Lost
Generation writers such as F. Scott Fitzgerald.
Nativism
• Reemergence of the Ku Klux Klan – targets now
included Jews, eastern Europeans, Catholics,
radicals and unions, as well as black Americans.
• Sacco and Vanzetti Trial – two Italian anarchists
convicted and executed for murder despite
insufficient evidence.
• “Hundred Percenters”
• Limits on immigration such as Literacy Test Act,
Emergency Quota Act, Immigration Act, and
Chinese Exclusion Act
Prohibition
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Eighteenth Amendment
Volstead Act – enforced 18th amendment
Speakeasies – illegal clubs
Charleston
Led to rise of organized crime – Al Capone
Flappers
Repealed by 21st Amendment under FDR.
Great Depression and New Deal –
Key Concepts
• Extent of economic collapse for U.S. and world
was unprecedented
• President Hoover failed to stem decline of the
economy.
• FDR instituted a vast array of relief, recovery,
and reform policies and agencies to address
collapse of the economy.
• Several New Deal programs were ruled
unconstitutional by Supreme Court.
Cause of Great Depression
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Unequal distribution of wealth.
Underconsumption
Overproduction
Rise of protectionism – Fordney-McCumber
Tariff – kept nations owing US money from
repaying debt
Inadequate capital investment
Fragile banking system – made numerous bad
loans
Borrowing on margin
Stock market crash in 1929.
Hoover’s Response
• Believed government intervention would undermine
character of hardworking, independent Americans and
would create a welfare system.
• Localism – responsibility of local and state governments
– not federal government
• Voluntarism – charitable organizations would provide
needs
• Rugged individualism
• “Too little, too late”
• Responded somewhat by moratorium on war reparations
and debts, Reconstruction Finance Corporation, and
Federal Home Loan Bank Act
Growing anger against Hoover
• “Hoovervilles”
• Bonus Army March – veterans camp in
Washington D.C. was destroyed by
General Douglas MacArthur
• Farmers organized Farmers’ Holliday
Association.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt
• “Brain Trust” – advisers – intellectuals and
university professors
• “New Deal” to address short- and longterm goals – Relief, Recovery, and Reform
• Maintain Americans’ loyalty to the
government and to the capitalist system as
a whole.
• Create conditions favorable to capital
accumulation.
First New Deal
• First Hundred Days
• National Bank Holiday (Emergency Banking Relief Act)
• Glass-Steagall Act (Banking Act of 1933) – established Federal
Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC)
• Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA)
• Federal Emergency Relief Act (FERA)
• Home Owners’ Refinancing Act
• Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) – dams in Tennessee River
Valley
• Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) – young men in conservation
work
• National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA)
• Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) – regulate stock
market
• Federal Housing Administration (FHA)
Growing Disillusionment
• Farmers and laborers
• Conservative business leaders
• Francis Townsend – wanted Old Age Revolving
Pension Plan - $200 monthly for citizens over 60
• Father Charles Coughlin – National Union for
Social Justice
• Governor Huey Long – “Share Our Wealth”
program – a home and $2,000 income for every
American family - assassinated
Second New Deal
• Fair Labor Standards Act – set maximum workweek at
40 hours, established minimum wage, and limited child
labor.
• Works Progress Administration (WPA)
• Resettlement Administration – brought assistance to
small farmers and sharecroppers.
• Rural Electrification Act (REA) – brought electricity to
rural areas
• National Labor Relations Act
• Tax restructuring – higher income tax placed on wealthy
and on capital gains
• Social Security Act – retirement plan, disabled,
unemployed, dependent mothers and children
Keynesian Economics
• Government should create additional demand by
becoming a major purchaser/consumer of goods
and services.
• Government should encourage investments by
private sector by lowering corporate tax rate.
• Government should facilitate the growth of
exports.
• Government should use deficit spending during
an economic downturn.
Court-Packing Scheme
• Supreme Court found some programs
unconstitutional.
• FDR responded with plan to increase
number of Supreme Court justices from 9
to 15.
• Even FDR supporters were against this
idea.
• Before he died, FDR would eventually
appoint 7 new justices
Women and Minorities Under the
New Deal
• End of black support for
Republican party
• FDR record does not reflect
great concern for black
population
• Some New Deal programs
segregated or excluded blacks
• Black tenants and
sharecroppers lost property
when forced from their land.
• Blacks tended to be hired last
and first fired.
• Eleanor Roosevelt greatest
supporter of blacks
• FDR’s record regarding
women is mixed
• More women entered
workplace but had lower
wages than men
• They were laid off first
• Rarely received promotions
• Denied access to certain jobs
so as not to compete with men
• Found opportunities in
government
• First woman to hold a cabinet
position, Frances Perkins, was
appointed secretary of labor by
FDR
Legacy of the New Deal
• FDR’s fiscal and monetary policies stimulated nation’s
economy
• Confidence in economy and government improved.
• Effects of depression continued until World War II
• Changed how Americans viewed the role of the federal
government.
• Federal government had increased role in people’s lives.
• Created division between those who view NEW Deal and
undermining states’ rights, the free-market system, and
social and cultural traditions and those who believe
government intervention is necessary for a stable
economy.
• Many of the New Deal programs still exist today.