Ch. 12 & 13
American Society, Economy, &
Politics
in the
Roaring Twenties
U.S. History

Fear of Communism (Red Scare 1919-1920)
– “The Red Scare” began in U.S. in 1919 as
Communists in Russia called for a world-wide
revolution. Thousands of Americans panicked.
– Attorney General Mitchell Palmer sent agents to
hunt down Communists in U.S.
– “Palmer Raids” violated
people’s civil rights.
Invaded homes,
jailed w/out lawyers,
deported immigrants.
Red Scare Political Cartoon
1919

Trial of Sacco &
Vanzetti
– 1920, Italian immigrants
Sacco & Vanzetti
arrested for robbery &
murder. Both men were
radical anarchists –
people who opposed any
form of govnt.
– Evidence against men
was weak. Sacco &
Vanzetti found guilty and
executed.
– Trial was famous in U.S..
Thousands of Americans
protested as country
realized Red Scare had
gone too far…

Ku Klux Klan
– Resurgence of the Klan began
in the South but also spread
heavily into Southwest and the
Midwest: IL, IN, OH
– Resurgence spawned by 1915
movie Birth of a Nation, by D.W. Griffith.
 First blockbuster epic (3 hours)
 Based on 1905 book The Clansman: An
Historical Romance of the KKK, by Thomas
Dixon
 Opposed immigration, Catholics, blacks,
Jews, Communists, bootleggers, gambling,
adultery, and discussion of birth control
 Pro-WASP (White Anglo Saxon Protestant)
 Extremist and ultraconservative uprising
against forces of diversity and modernity
transforming American culture: nationalist,
racist, narrow minded.

Nativism: Anti – Immigration Laws:
– Anti-immigrant attitudes grew in U.S. during
1920s, especially toward immigrants from
southern & eastern Europe (where
Communism began).
– Immigrants competed for jobs, worked for low
wages, might spread radical ideas (communism,
anarchism, etc.)
– Emergency Quota Act (1921)
& National Origins Act (1924)
Cut immigration to U.S. from
southern & eastern Europe.
Asians banned completely. Era
of large-scale immigration to
U.S. (1880s – 1920) ended!
 Congress abolished national
origins quota system in 1965.


Eugenics

Popular movement in the
1920s - eugenic “science”
promoted childbearing by
"fit" classes & advocated
birth control or sterilization of
“inferior” people.
– Racial minorities, ethnic immigrant groups, and
handicapped were typically classified as unfit.
– Movement became popular due to large influx of
southern & eastern European immigrants from
1870s-1920s.
– Eugenics was later discredited following WWII &
the Holocaust when it became associated with
racist ideas of Hitler & the Nazis (who also used
eugenics to promote plans for a “master race”).

John Scopes “Monkey
Trial” (1925)
– High school biology teacher in
Tennessee arrested for teaching
Charles Darwin’s theory of
evolution in class (violated
Tennessee’s Butler Law of
1924– “Divine Creation theory”).
– Scopes defended by ACLU
lawyer Clarence Darrow, most
famous trial lawyer in the nation.
– William Jennings Bryan
prosecutor; Presbyterian
Fundamentalist
– Although Scopes found guilty,
millions of American felt law had
gone too far.
– Issues of “monkey trial” – First
Amendment rights (free
speech), Modern America vs.
Traditional Values.

18th Amendment – Prohibition
(one of the last Progressive Era
reforms)
– Volstead Act of 1919
implemented the amendment banned all alcohol in the U.S.
– Difficult to enforce. Lack of
respect for law, not enough
agents, alcohol could be made
at home, etc.
– “Speakeasies” - night clubs that
served illegal booze to patrons
who knew the password to enter
the establishments.
– “Bootleggers” smuggled illegal
alcohol into U.S.. Rise in
organized crime as gangsters
fought over territory and
distribution rights.

Radios & Movies
– Became a favorite pastime
for many Americans.
– Radio invented in
Guglielmo Marconi, an
Italian, in the 1890s.
(Technology used for longrange communication
during WWI)
– Motion pictures inexpensive
& fun to watch.
– By 1929 radios were in
many American homes.
Families would gather after
dinner to listen to popular
radio programs together.
– Radios & Movies helped
unite Americans and create
a new, popular culture.

Women in the 1920s
– “Flappers” term for “new women” of
1920s. Young, restless, eager to
experiment. Shocked her elders w/
short skirts, bobbed hair, bright makeup.
– Flappers refused to follow traditional
rules. Used slang, smoked, drank
liquor in public, etc.
– As women became more
independent, they continued to
organize
– National Women’s Party began in
1923 to agitate for an Equal Rights
Amendment to the Constitution
(ERA) -- Alice Paul


Idea shocked traditionalists
Amendment finally defeated in early
1980s.

Changes for Women in the 1920s
– 19th amendment granted all women the right to
vote.
– Flappers expressed changes in social values.
– New electric appliances made lives of
homemakers easier.

Glenn Curtiss
– Motorcycle racer turned
aviator. A founder of the U.S.
aircraft industry.
– Considered the “Father of
Naval Aviation” - responsible
for the first aircraft to take off
from and land on the decks of
ships at sea.
– Built many civil and military
aircraft during WWI, 1920s,
1930s, WWII.

Charles Lindbergh
– Most admired hero of
the 1920s. Symbolized
American values of
honesty and courage.
– Made first non-stop solo
flight across Atlantic
Ocean. Flew from NY
to Paris in his airplane,
“The Spirit of St. Louis”.

Harlem Renaissance
– Harlem section of New York City
became center of black cultural
movement in 1920s.
– Significance: Harlem produced a
wealth of African American
poetry, literature, art, and music,
expressing the pain, sorrow, and
discrimination blacks felt at this
time.
– Langston Hughes


Best known figure of Harlem
Renaissance.
African American poet, wrote
about black pride & heritage.
– Other poets and writers: Claude
McKay, Countee Cullen, Zora
Neale Hurston

Jazz – the American
Sound
– Began in New Orleans.
Blended African
rhythms w/ European
harmonies.
– Jazz unique –
musicians improvise as
they play & take “mood”
a step further.
– “Duke” Ellington
(pianist) & Louis
Armstrong (trunpet
player/singer) famous
black jazz musicians of
the time.
– Cotton Club in Harlem
famous for its jazz.

Tin Pan Alley
– Section of NYC with
many theaters &
publishing houses –
place where musicians
would play their music
for publishers &
producers.
– Would synthesize jazz,
ragtime, and popular
ballads into new sounds.

Marcus Garvey
– Leader of the United Negro Improvement
Association (UNIA)
– "Back to Africa Movement": Purpose was to
promote the resettlement of American
blacks in Africa. Advocated black racial
pride and separatism rather than integration.
– Urged blacks to buy only from blacks & founded chain of
businesses including grocery stores, restaurants, and
laundries.

Garvey a native of Jamaica and founded UNIA there.
– FBI director J. Edgar Hoover monitored Garvey and
eventually sought to have him arrested and imprisoned.

Garvey convicted of mail fraud in sale of his company's
stock, imprisoned, and then deported.
– Garvey instilled self-confidence and self-reliance among
blacks, and later became the basis for the Nation of Islam
(Black Muslim) movement in 1960s

Booming Economy
– 1920 – 1929 U.S. enjoyed extreme prosperity.
– U.S. came out of WWI the world’s largest creditor
nation.
– Republican Presidents Warren G. Harding, Calvin
Coolidge, and Herbert Hoover very pro-business & kept
taxes low - "trickle down" tax policies favored the
rapid expansion of capital investment. Americans
annual income rose more than 35%.
– Buying on credit (installment plan) became another
innovative feature of the postwar economy.
– Electricity became common in homes and
workplaces. Americans bought new appliances
like radios, vacuums, stoves, etc.

Harding’s Presidency
– Elected in 1920
– Harding spoke of returning America
to "Normalcy“
 Americans eager to turn inward
and evade international issues.
 Many Americans were tired of the
idealism, sacrifice and
overreaching reforms of the
Progressive Era and sought
respite.
– Conservative "Old Guard" wing of
the Republicans now dominated

Republican’s Conservative Economic
Agenda (Harding, Coolidge, Hoover)
– Conservatives believed role of gov’t was to make
business more profitable.
– Tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy: "trickle
down" economics
– Government’s role should be limited; stay out of
business (laissez faire)

Harding appointed people to regulate agencies that didn't
like regulation
– Government helped to facilitate monopolies and
consolidation of industries

Antitrust laws often ignored, circumvented, or
inadequately enforced
– Businessmen should run the government as they
had experience in management.
 Cabinet positions went to wealthy business leaders who
looked out for big business interests.
– Hostile to Unions

Membership in labor unions dropped nearly 30% between
1920 and 1930

Mass-Consumption Economy
– Glorification of business --Business
became almost a religion.
– The Man Nobody Knows by Bruce
Barton: top selling book in 1925-1926.
 Called Jesus the first modern
businessman
– "Picked up 12 men from the bottom of
society and forged an organization that
conquered the world."
– "Every advertising man ought to study
the parables of Jesus. They are
marvelously condensed, as all good
advertising should be.”
– Calvin Coolidge: "The man who builds a
factory builds a temple; The man who
works there worships there.“
– Businessmen were considered the
people that "ruled" the nation.

Henry Ford & the Auto Industry
– Detroit emerged as the automobile capital of the world
– Ford focused on producing a car most Americans could
afford.

Ford realized workers were also potential consumers of his cars
– In 1914, raised worker salaries from $2 a day to $5 if workers
adopted "thrifty habits" (e.g. learn English, no gambling, drinking,
etc.)
– Ford paid good benefits, hired handicapped, convicts, and
immigrants.
– Ford called a "traitor" to his class by many wealthy people.
– Model T car built using assembly line process. Became
first mass-produced automobile made quickly & cheaply.
Took only 1.5 hours to build a car (before assembly line: 14 hours)
– Ford’s use of the assembly line made him about $25,000 a day
during the 1920s
– Auto sales soared by late 1920s.

Impact of the Automobile
– Suburbs began to grow as drivers were able to live farther
away from jobs in cities.
– Auto production generated new jobs in steel, rubber, and
glass industries.
– Roadside gas stations, motels, restaurants grew to meet
needs of motorists.
– Automobile became backbone of American economy from
1920s until 1970s…