Chapter 21: A Unique, Prosperous, and Discontented Time
1) The Prelude- The Red Summer of 1919
a. WWI ended Nov 11, 1918
b. AA
i. Fought in the war
ii. Risked lives for democracy
iii. Saw different cultures
1. US offered rigid segregation
iv. Moved N to take war-time jobs
1. No intention of returning to S
c. Workers wanted to regain prosperity
i. Gain money lost from wartime inflation
d. Political chaos
i. Strikes arcoss the nation
ii. Influenza epidemic
1. Began in 1918
2. Had greatest impact in 1919
3. More died from flu than in war
iii. Created sense that something was wrong after war
iv. Some believed this was due to link between labor unions, socialists, and
Bolsheviks
v. Communism war spreading
1. Some believed it would come to US
2. People were frightened
a. Gov’t attempted to respond
b. Extended the Lever Fuel Act
c. “Palmer Raids”
i. Find dangerous radicals
ii. Led to many arrests
iii. Eventually questioned
1. Lack of evidence of conspiracy
2) The 1920s- The Exuberance of Prosperity
a. Harding Normalcy
i. Republican nominee: Warren Harding
ii. Return to “normal” era
iii. plea to give reforming spirit of past a rest
iv. many wanted to relax and enjoy themselves
v. keep reformers and gov’t out of lives
b. Prohibition- The Campaign for Moral Conformity
i. Nearly defined the 1920s for many
ii. America was fond of alcohol
iii. Some worried about nation’s drinking habits
iv. Many groups were created to voice for Temperance
1. WCTU
2. Anti-Saloon Legaue
a. Banish alcohol by law
b. Relied on professionals
c. Financed by J.D. Rockefeller
v. Religious revivals also tried to stop it
vi. Part of native born Protestant effort
vii. Retake control of a national culture
1. Highly influenced by immigrants
viii. Saloons made up of immigrant people
1. Germans
2. Italian
3. Irish
ix. Prohibition was attack on freedom and acceptance of immigrants
1. Also an attack on cultures
x. Prohibition as a test of patriotism
xi. 18th Amendment
1. December 1917
2. Prohibited manufacture, transport, and sale of liquor
xii. Volstead Act
1. Banned hard liquor
2. Wine and beer
3. Anything w/ more than ½ of 1% alcohol
xiii. Did not ban possession
1. Allowed for loopholes
xiv. Effects
1. People bought up alcohol to preserve it
c. A Scandalous Age-Bootleg, Ponzi, and Teapot Dome
i. Murder of Colosimo
1. Former owner of liquor shops/brothels
2. Start of violence over alcohol
3. Powerful gangs took hold of liquor
4. Mass organized crime
a. Expanded operations and networks
5. St. Valentine’s Day massacre
ii. after all of the violence
1. people began to question Prohibition
2. criminals controlled police force
a. capone used influence on politicians
iii. capone eventually imprisoned
1. for tax evasion in 1931
iv. trade still continued
v. Ponzi
1. Paid old investors w/ new investors’ money
2. Never invested
3. Only lived off of profits
4. Police realized it was fraud
vi. Teapot Dome
1. Scandal
2. Trail of oil and money
3. Fraud in the U.S. gov’t
4. Related to oil reserves
d. The Vote for Women
i. 1920 August
ii. Women participated in 1920 elections
iii. Brought new role to women
iv. Spurred by WCTU
v. “war measure”
vi. If US was spreading democracy, then women in US also needed democracy
e. A revolution in Culture-Manners, Morals, and Automobiles
i. New lifestyle for young women
1. “flappers”
a. Short hair
b. Exposed more skin
i. Necks
ii. Arms
iii. Legs
c. Embraced sexual freedom
d. Drank/smoke
e. Wanted equal freedom as men
2. Sheppard Towner Act
a. 1921
b. Federal fuds for prenatal and infant care
3. Cable Act
a. 1922
b. Protected citizenship of women who married noncitizens
4. 1923
a. 3 women were in house of reps
5. Birth control
a. Margaret Sanger
b. 1942
i. American Birth Control League became
ii. Planned Parenthood
1. Supported research of birth control pill
ii. Technology changes
1. Radio
2. Motion pictures
3. Brought news of national and international events
4. Shaped unified and fast-changing culture
5. Lower-cost of automobiles
a. Allowed more americans to drive
6. Closed sedans
a. Allowed more privacy for younger americans
7. Washing machines
8. Vacuum cleaners
9. Toasters
a. Resaped housework for women
10. New forms of financing
a. Installment plans
b. Increased consumer debt
c. Made new inventions avainable to more people
11. Radio Act
a. 1927
b. Plan to license radio stations
c. Regulate wavelengths they broadcast
12. New cars
a. Fords
b. Chryslers
c. Chevys
d. Cadillacs
e. Lexingotns
f. Maxwells
g. Hudsons
13. Auto-related industries boomed
a. Steel
b. Paint
c. Textile
d. Tire
e. Highway construction\
f. Rise of dealerships, gas stations, repair shops, road restaurants
g. Hotels
14. Expansion of suberubs
15. Silent-movie films
a. Offered fun,escape, and entertainment
f.
16. Movies,newspapers, magazines
a. Created age of new heros
i. “babe” ruth
1. Yankees
b. Time- 1923
17. Writers
a. Spoke to generation disillusioned w/ idealism of past
b. “lost generation”
The Harlem Renaissance and Marcus Garvey
i. Great Migration
1. Movement of AA from South to North
2. 1940s and 1950s
3. After WWI
4. Population shift and cultural flowering
ii. WWI
1. New opportunities for AA
2. Work expanded
3. Factories needed more workers
4. Railroads allowed AA to move from South
5. Black Newspaper
a. Chicago Defender
b. “The Great Northern Drive” – May 1917
c. Told sharecroppers about available jobs in N
iii. Black music
1. Reflected emotions of those who moved N
2. Blues
a. Born out of
i. Gospel
ii. Ragtime
iii. Jazz
b. Began on back porches, small town bars, dance halls
i. Prison cells
c. 1920s, moved N
iv. Cotton planters tried to stop Great Migration
1. Opposed more than basic education for blacks
a. Would have few skills to take N
2. Opposed klan
a. Would scare off blacks
v. N was not always welcoming
1. After WWI, whites came back to reclaim jobs
2. Had to take jobs no one wanted
vi. Harlem Renaissance
1. Alain Locke
2. “moving forward under the control largely of his own objectives
vii. Marcus Garvey
1. 1887-1940
2. Foster racial pride
3. Self-determination
4. UNIA in 1914
5. Rejected integration
6. Wanted segregation
7. African nationalism
8. Created a ship, Black Star Line
a. Carry passengers to Africa
b. Failed
3) The 1920s-The Conflicts about American Ideals
a. The Rise of the KKK in 1920s
i. KKK revived as defender of Prohibition
ii. Opponent of immigration
1. Rights for AA
2. Anything that undermined white dominance
iii. Also included women in separate KKK organization
iv. “one flag, one school, one bible”
1. 100% patriotism
2. Fire all catholic/jexish teachers
3. Gave out flags and bibles
v. Wanted to maintain rigid racial segregation
vi. Keep AA from voting
vii. Opposition from AUL
1. Publicized names of members of organization
b. Eugenics and I.Q. Tests- The Science of Discrimination
i. Eugenics movement
1. Used evolution loosely to “prove” that some ethnic groups are not as
evolved as others
2. Began in England
3. 1880s by francis galton
4. Social elite were higher on evolutionary scale than working class
5. Became popular in US quickly
6. Scientific “proof” against immigration
ii. IQ
1. Intelligence Quotient test
2. Educators can assign a mental age
3. Biased
a. Contained culturally specific questions
b. Specific to native born protestants
4. AA and Asians scored “lower” on the test
5. Once again proved their hypothesis
iii. Inspired Adolph Hitler in 1930s
c. Immigration Restriction, 1924
i. 1924, congress cut off all immigration
ii. Fear that immigrants would take jobs
iii. IRL
1. 1894
2. Immigration Restriction League
iv. Urban reps resented this
v. Restrictions created tensions between US and toher countries
d. The Farmers’ Depression
i. For many farmers, WWI brought prosperity
ii. Prices of wheat, cotton, and etc. went up
iii. Farmers extended production
iv. Expanded into new territories
v. War ended
vi. Europe became self-sufficient again
vii. No need for uniforms
viii. 1920-21, economic downturn
1. Reduced demand for everything
a. Wheat
b. Cotton
ix. However, dairy farmers prospered
1. New popularity of ice cream
2. Increased use of milk
3. Vegetable farmers
a. City people wanted vitamin rich veggies
x. Staple crops suffered most
xi. Farmers tried to produce more
1. Led to lower prices
xii. Big flood from lots of rain
1. Devastated farmers
e. The Scopes Trial
i. High school became popular
ii. New biology classes began to teach evolution
1. Emergence of humans from common ancestor
2. Natural selection
iii. Religious lash back
iv. Scopes trial
1. Challenged teaching evolution in schools
v. ACLU won
vi. Evolution was undermined
4) Harding, Coolidge, and Hoover- National Politics and Policies in 1920s
a. Election of 1920
i. Harding won
ii. Disenchantment of Wilsons policy, war, and Legua of Nations
iii. Promised “normalcy” of nation
b. Washingotn Conference
i. 1921
ii. End competition among US, Britain, and Japan
1. Navies
iii. Five Powers Treaty
1. 1922 February
2. Slowed navy buildup
3. Established limits on battleships
c. Harding died
i. 1923
ii. Coolidge takes presidency
1. “Coolidge prosperity”
2. Economic boom
3. Won again in 1924 election
d. Kellogg-Briand Pact
i. Outlawed war
ii. US-France alliance
iii. Eventually 62 nations
e. Election of 1928
i. Hoover won