Era 5 - 1920s: Affluence,
Anxiety, and Achievement
I. Postwar Problems
The Red Scare
 RED SCARE = A TIME PERIOD OF FEAR
OF COMMUNISM
 COMMUNISM = A POLITICAL SYSTEM
IN WHICH AN AUHTORITARIAN
GOVERNMENT CONTROLS THE
MEANS OF PRODUCTION (FACTORIES)
AND DISTRIBUTES WEALTH EQUALLY.
 Philosopher Karl Marx thought that a
worker revolution would overthrow
capitalism and result in communism.
Red Scare (con’t.)
 As a result of the Russian Revolution,
Americans imagined Communists as the
worst possible threat to their way of life
 The ideals of Socialism and Communism
were tied, often erroneously, to the
American labor movement
 Strikes increased and the government
responded with a series of raids by a
young J. Edgar Hoover to round up
suspected subversives and radicals
Labor
troubles
worried
Americans,
who thought
that
Communism
would soon
follow
Americans thought “Reds” or
Communists would sneak
into the USA
1919 –
Philadelphia
Inquirer, Morgan
“Put them out
and keep them
out.”
The Sacco & Vanzetti Case
 1920 Massachusetts Robbery
 Two Anarchist, Pro-Labor, Italian immigrants,
Sacco and Vanzetti, picked up for the crime
 Trial did not prove guilt, but found guilty
anyway (because of anarchist political beliefs)
 Police and legal system thought to have been
corrupt
 Executed 1927, after many failed appeals,
workers all over the world demonstrated on
their behalf.
Bartolomeo Vanzetti and
Nicola Sacco
Nativism
 Hand-in-hand with the Red Scare was
Nativism – favoring people born in the USA
and discriminating against immigrants
 This led to the Immigration Act of 1921
which set quotas for how many people
could immigrate to the USA from a certain
country
 These quotas were based upon first-wave
immigration and discriminated against
South and East Europeans
Would immigrants bring
communism with them?
The labor and
communist
troubles of the
era began to
influence those
who favored
restriction upon
new immigrants,
many of which
were
sympathetic to
the views of
unions and
communists.
The Ku Klux Klan
 Reemerged in 1919, after its hibernation
since Grant’s Reconstruction crack-down
 Reconstruction Klan accepted almost
anyone, 1920s Klan was thoroughly antiforeign, anti-Semitic, and anti-Catholic as
well as racist
 Endorsed immigration restrictions and
prohibition, Opposed flappers and evolution
 Especially motivated to keep black
Americans “in their place”
1920s KKK in West
Virginia
KKK March in D.C.
II. A Prospering Economy
The Rising Standard
of Living
 Americans are now the wealthiest people in the
world and engaged in CONSUMERISM – A
GREATER CONSUMPTION OF GOODS
 Americans of the post-war years had more
leisure time and a shorter work week (thanks to
unions)
 Educational opportunities expanded for some
people
 Corporate mergers began to increase again,
with an emphasis on professional management
and employee care
The Automobile Culture
 By the 1920s, one in four people had a
car
 The manufacture of the automobile
underwent enormous growth in the
postwar years, stimulating the rubber,
steel, and petroleum industries
 The growing affordability of the auto
forced governments to pave more streets
with federal assistance
 The auto contributed to the creation of
city suburbs and rampant pollution
A Sunday Drive…
A Communications
Revolution
 During the 1920s, the number of homes
with telephones increased from 9 to 13
million
 Radio and motion pictures began to
solidify a shared identity of Americans
through entertainment, news, and sports

Cities Also Grew in the 1920s as More and
More People Left the Farm and Moved to the
City
III. Hopes Raised,
Promises Deferred
Women
 Women were joining the workforce in
larger numbers (about 1 in 4 women
worked)
 Women had just earned the right to vote
 Young women were challenging
traditional roles by:




Working & living on own
Wearing short (knee-length) flapper dresses
Cutting hair short
Wearing make-up
Flapper –
Called “flapper”
because beads
on dress flapped
around while
dancing the
“Charleston”
Religious Fundamentalism
 Many of the religious faithful saw a major
spiritual crisis in the sweeping changes of the
1920s
 CHRISTIAN FUNDAMENTALISM – THE
BELIEF THAT THE BIBLE IS LITERALLY TRUE
AND MUST BE OBEYED, socially conservative
 survived the era of sophistication,
modernization, and change
 Radio spread the message of the fundamentalist
preachers and attracted numerous converts to
those ministers who could readily adapt to the
new communications technology
Scopes Monkey Trial
 One example of religious fundamentalism was
the Scopes Monkey Trial – a court case that
put a Tennessee teacher on trial for teaching
Darwin’s new theories of evolution (against the
law in many southern states)
 Two great lawyers of the time argued the case:
 William Jennings Bryan (3-time Pres. Candidate,
Sec of State under Wilson)
 Clarence Darrow – great criminal lawyer – wanted
to “put Bryan in his place as a bigot”
 Judge ruled in favor of the school district and
said teachers could not teach evolution
 However, Darrow won the public’s favor
Football coach, biology teacher,
John Scopes, agree to be
arrested in order to put the law
to the test
Lawyers
Bryan and Darrow
Court case attracted tons
of attention
Rhea County
Courthouse,
Tennessee,
July 1925
Rural America in the 1920s
 American farmers, as a rule, did not share in the
prosperity of the 1920s.
 When WWI ended, Europe started growing own
food again – Americans were now
overproducing
 A vicious cycle of overproduction to meet
demands continually lowered market prices of
produce, forcing many farmers into the
poorhouse
 Advancements in agriculture (pesticides and
advanced fertilizers) increased yield per acre
and put many farmers out of business
 Poor conditions for farmers was another reason
why urbanization increased in the 1920s
IV. The Business of
Politics
Global Expansion
 The 1920s was a decade of dramatic
expansion in business, finance, and trade for
the United States
 Continued involvement in the affairs of Central
and South America to protect American
investments and bring allies into leadership
positions
 But USA was also trying to be a better
neighbor and improve relationships with
Mexico and other Latin American countries
(remove Roosevelt Corollary to Monroe
Doctrine)
 USA was isolationist after WWI
Booming Business
 President Calvin Coolidge declares that
“America’s Business is Business!”
 Consumerism Increased – More people
could afford to buy products, so more
people were employed to make products
 People even had money to invest in the
Stock Market – they’d buy on MARGIN
(pay 10% of the price in cash, then pay
the rest later, after the stock value
increased)
President Calvin Coolidge
1923 – 1929
(took over when
President
Harding died on
his way home
from Alaska)
Stock Market Crash
 The prosperity of the decade came to a
screeching halt in 1929 with the collapse
of the nation’s stock market
 Many investors had responded to the
booming economy by buying stocks on
margin (borrowing to invest).
 An overextension of the market caused a
crash with a represented loss of over $26
million on paper
Dow Jones Value
Value had been at 100 in 1926, Maxed out at 381 Sept. 3,
1926, Crashed Oct. 24, 1929 and eventually fell down to 145
by November 1929 (-62%).
Chaos of Oct. 24, 1929 Stock
Market Crash,
Outside NY Stock Exchange
V. 1920s Culture
Literature of 1920s
Provides Social
Commentary
 F. Scott Fitzgerald
questions consumerism
and high society in “The
Great Gatsby.” It is a good
characterization of the
1920s.
 Ernest Hemingway writes
about WWI experiences in
“A Farewell to Arms.”
African-American Authors Also
Critique Society: Part of Harlem
Renaissance
 Harlem Renaissance – blossoming of
African-American social thought and
culture centered in Harlem, NYC in the
1920s
 Authors, Artists, Musicians, Historians,
Political Thinkers, Dancers, Actors, and
Playwrights
 African American Culture Became More
Mainstream and Influenced American
Society Greatly
Harlem Renaissance
Authors
 Langston Hughes – Poet
 Celebrated African American culture as well
as pointed out how African Americans were
not sharing in the prosperity of the 1920s,
most famous: Dream Deferred
 Zora Neale Hurston – Writer
 Focused on African American folktales and
wrote in southern dialect - most famous:
Their Eyes Were Watching God (not
published until 1937)
Langston Hughes and
Zora Neale Hurston
Jazz = The Music of the
1920s
 JAZZ: a lively style of music
characterized by a strong but flexible
rhythm with improvisations on basic
tunes and chord patterns
 Jazz reflected positive spirit of the 1920s
 Inspired new dances, like the Charleston
 Louis Armstrong – amazing trumpeter
 Bessie Smith – talented singer
 George Gershwin – wrote musical scores
for Broadway as well as songs
Louis Armstrong, Bessie Smith,
George Gershwin
VI. Prohibition & Criminal
Gangs
Prohibition



PROHIBITION = made transporting and
consuming alcohol illegal (18th
Amendment, 1919)
Why? Progressives wanted to combat
crime, family violence, and poverty
Results?


Bootlegging = Making, selling, or
transporting alcoholic liquor for sale
illegally.
Organized Crime = Controls Illegal Liquor
Sales, Has Gang Wars over Territory
Trying to Enforce
Prohibition
Al Capone
 Ran a criminal gang in Chicago
 Made about $60 million from illegal liquor
sales, $25 million from illegal gambling, and
$20,000,000 elsewhere
 Bribed police to keep in business
 Responsible for St. Valentine’s Day Massacre
of Six Members of the Bugs Moran Gang
(1929)
 Gov’t Finally Convicted Him of Tax Fraud in
1931 – 11 years sentence
Al Capone
Prohibition Results
 Positives:
 Decrease in alcoholism and alcohol-related
deaths
 Negatives:
 Criminal Gangs, Violence
 Gov’t Can’t Enforce It
 21st Amendment – Ends Prohibition
(1933)
VII. Achievements
Charles Lindbergh
 May 20-21,1927: First solo-flight across
the Atlantic Ocean (from Long Island, NY
to Paris, France)
 Became VERY popular
Charles Lindbergh and his
Plane: The Spirit of St. Louis
Babe Ruth
 Tremendous
baseball hitter in
the 1920s –
played for the
dominating NY
Yankees
Henry Ford
 First person to
mass-produce cars
 Made cars
affordable to the
middle class
 Paid his workers
well ($5 day), so
they could afford to
buy the cars (but
was also very
opposed to unions)