CHAPTER 25: TRANSITION TO MODERN AMERICA, 1920-1928 (#1)
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moving assembly line marked only the first step toward full mass production and the beginning of
America’s worldwide industrial supremacy
o Ford – had a vision of a vast industrial tract where machines, moving through a sequence of
carefully arranged manufacturing operations, would transform raw materials into finished cars,
trucks, and tractors
 key was control over the flow of goods at each step along the way
 “Everything must move.” – Henry Ford
- visitors came to his factory setup at River Rouge
o industrial experts recognized that the arrangement led to incredible productivity because “the
work moves and the men stand still”
- May 1927 – Ford closed the assembly line at Highland Park and his engineers worked on designing a
more compact and efficient assembly line
- mass production – was born in Highland Park in 1913 and perfected at River Rouge in the 1920s
- would become the hallmark of American industry
o Ford’s emphasis on the flow of parts moving past stationary workers became the standard in
nearly every American factory
 moving assembly line – emphasis on uniformity, speed, precision, and coordination
 led to amazing efficiency
- mass production led to a consumer goods revolution
o creation of a new America – individualism was sacrificed to conformity as part of the price to be
paid for a new era of abundance
o it is in the 1920s that we can find the roots of modern America – the America we know today
The Second Industrial Revolution
- American people by the 1920s enjoyed the highest standard of living of any nation on earth
o 1922 – beginning of a great boom that peaked in 1927 – and lasted until – 1929
- explosive growth took place in industries producing consumer goods – automobiles, appliances,
furniture, and clothing
- American workers became the highest paid in history
o were able to buy the flood of new goods they were turning out on the assembly lines
- key to the new affluence was in technology
o moving assembly line pioneered by Ford was a standard feature in nearly all American plants
 electric motors were replacing steam engines
- The Automobile Industry
o automobile industry became the nation’s largest in the 1920s
o automobile boom – at its peak from 1922 to 1927 and showed the insatiable appetite of the
American people for cars
 market became saturated
o marketing – became as crucial as production
 automobile makers began to rely heavily on advertising and annual model changes
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o revealed a basic weakness in the consumer goods economy – once people had bought an item
with a long life, they would be out of the market for a few years
 few noticed the emerging economic instability
o contemporary observers focused on the stimulating effect the automobile had on the rest of
the economy
o mass production – required huge quantities of steel and new rolling mills had to be built to
supply sheet steel for car bodies
 rubber factories, paint and glass suppliers
o auto changed the pattern of city life, leading to a suburban explosion
 filling stations and the first shopping centers also appeared
Patterns of Economic Growth
o electrical industry grew almost as quickly
 2/3 of American families enjoyed electricity by the end of the decade
 spent money on washing machines, vacuum cleaners, refrigerators, and ranges
o eased the burden of housework and ushered in an age of leisure
o radio broadcasting and motion picture production
 early success of KDKA in Pittsburgh
 1929 – NBC had formed the first successful radio network
 film industry thrived in Hollywood – with the advent of the “talkies” by 1929
o production of light metals such as aluminum and magnesium grew into a major business
 chemical engineering – invention of synthetics, ranging from rayon for clothing to
cellophane for packaging
o whole new spectrum of products to buy – cigarette lighters, wristwatches, heat-resistant glass
cooking dishes, and rayon stockings
o corporation continued to be the dominant economic unit
 enormous profits generated by the corporations enabled their managers to finance
growth and expansion internally, thus freeing companies from their earlier dependence
on investment bankers like J.P. Morgan
o wave of mergers – more and more small firms proved unable to compete effectively with the
new giants
o emphasis on marketing
 identifying the good life with the possession of the latest product of American industry
o chain stores advanced rapidly at the expense of smalls retail shops
 A&P dominated the retail food industry
 Woolworth’s “five-and-tens” spread almost as rapidly
 drugstore chains like Rexall and Liggetts
o uniformity and standardization – the characteristics of mass production prevailed
 sectional differences in dress, food, and furniture began to disappear
 regional accents that distinguished Americans in different parts of the country
were threatened with extinction by the advent of radio and films – promoted a
standard national dialect devoid of any local flavor
Economic Weaknesses
o New Era – as labeled by business leaders of the decade, was not as prosperous as it first
appeared
 revolution in consumer goods disguised the decline of many traditional industries in the
1920s
 railroads, the coal industry, and the use of cotton textiles declined
o hardest hit of all was agriculture
 sharp cutback of exports in 1919 caused a rapid decline in prices
 farmers’ share of the national income dropped
 by 1929 the per capita farm income was only $273 – compared to the national
average of $681
o workers were better off than famers in the 1920s
 did not share fully in the decade’s affluence
o most new jobs appeared in the lower-paying service industry
o organized labor proved unable to advance the interests of workers in the 1920s
o aggressive management weakened the appeal of unions by portraying them as radical
organizations after a series of strikes in 1919
 businesses used injunctions and “yellow-dog contracts” – forbade employees to join
unions – to establish open shops and deny workers the benefits of collective bargaining
o employers used welfare capitalism – spending money to improve plant conditions and winning
employee loyalty with pensions, paid vacations, and company cafeterias
o black workers remained on the bottom, both economically and socially
 some found jobs in northern industries, but many more worked in menial service areas
– collecting garbage, washing dishes, and sweeping floors
 even these jobs offered them a better life
 the migration continued and the black ghettos in northern cities grew rapidly
o middle-and upper-class Americans were groups who thrived in the 1920s
 rewards of the Second Industrial Revolution went to the managers – the engineers,
bankers, and executives – who directed the new industrial economy
 their disposable income eventually became greater than their material wants
o result was speculation – those with idle money began to invest heavily in the stock market to
reap the gains from industrial growth
o economic trends of the decade had both positive and negative implications for the future
 automobiles and appliances – production and use became a part of the modern
American way of life
 future pattern of American culture – cars and suburbs, shopping centers, and
skyscrapers – was determined by the end of the 1920s
 ominous signs of danger – unequal distribution of wealth, saturation of the market for
consumer goods, and the growing speculation all created economic instability
The New Urban Culture
- city replaced the countryside as the focal point of American life in the 1920s
o metropolitan areas grew rapidly as both whites and blacks from rural areas came seeking jobs
in the new consumer industries
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skyscraper soon became the most visible feature of the city
o builders turned upward – developing a distinctively American architectural style in the process
New York – began with the Woolworth Building and continued with the 102-story Empire State
Building
o by 1929 there were 377 buildings more than 20 stories tall across the nation
 skyscraper came to symbolize the new mass culture
in the metropolis, life was different
o old community ties of home, church, and school were absent
 there were important gains to replace them – new ideas, new creativity, new
perspectives
Women and the Family
o important changes in the American family
 vital institution began to break down under the impact of economic and social change
 new freedom for women and children seemed to be emerging in its wake
o women had already begun to leave the home
 in the 1920s there was no great permanent gain in the number of working women
o most women workers had low-paying jobs, ranging from stenographers to maids
 number of women doctors actually decreased
o professions were reserved for men, with women relegated to such fields as teaching and
nursing
o Nineteenth Amendment – proved to have less impact than its proponents had hoped
 robbed women of a unifying cause
 exercise of the franchise itself did little to change prevailing sex roles
o men remained the principal breadwinners
 women cooked, cleaned, and reared the children
o feminist movement, still showed signs of vitality in the 1920s
 Sheppard-Towner Act of 1921 – provided for federal aid to establish state programs for
maternal and infant health care
 women's groups continued to work for good-government measures, for the
inclusion of women on juries, and for consumer legislation
 led by Alice Paul’s National Woman’s Party (NWP) – lobbied for full equality for women
under the law
 1923 – succeeded in having an Equal Rights Amendment introduced in Congress
o League of Women Voters – opposed the amendment because it
threatened gender-specific legislation such as the Sheppard-Towner Act
that women had fought so hard to enact
 drive for the ERA in the 1920s failed
o young women concentrated on individual self-expression by rebelling against Victorian
restraints
 flapper image – cutting their hair short and raising their skirts above the knee
 set out to compete on equal terms with men on the golf course and in the speakeasy
 rouged their cheeks and danced the Charleston
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women smoked cigarettes and drank alcohol in public
o led to a sharp rise in the divorce rate
o sense of women’s emancipation was shown in the continuing drop in the birthrate and the
abundance of consumer goods
 fewer children to care for and with washing machines and vacuum cleaners to ease their
household labor
 women of the 1920s would have more leisure time
o wives exercised purchasing power only as delegated by their husbands
 flappers fell victim to the sex-role conditioning of their parents
 “marriage was the only approved state for women”
o family, however, did change
 became smaller as new techniques of birth control enabled couples to limit the number
of their offspring
o married women took their jobs outside the home, bringing in an income and gaining a measure
of independence
o adolescence as a stage of life – high school education was no longer uncommon, and college
attendance increased
 youthful revolt – youths in the 1920s went on a great spree
 heavy drinking, and a constant search for excitement
 theme of rebellion against parental authority was at the heart of the youth
movement
The Roaring Twenties
o both crime waves and highly publicized sports events flourished
 prohibition – speakeasies, bootleggers, and bathtub gin
 middle- and upper-class Americans willingly broke the law to gain access to
alcoholic beverages
o violent shoot-outs between rival bootleggers
o sports became a national mania
 people found more leisure time
o golf boomed, spectator sports attracted even more attention
o boxing fighters such as Jack Dempsey and Gene Tunney
o baseball attendance soared – Babe Ruth
o on college campuses, football became more popular than ever
o vicarious thrills in all kinds of ways
 applauding Charles Lindbergh’s solo flight across the Atlantic
 cheering Gertrude Ederle’s swim across the English Channel
 flocking to such bizarre events as six-day bicycle races, dance marathons, and flagpole
sittings
 people sought to escape from the increasingly drab world of the assembly line
by worshipping heroic individuals
The Literary Flowering
o outpouring of literature
o new class of intellectuals – writers who commented on the new industrial society
 some fled to Europe to live as expatriates, congregating in Paris cafes to bemoan the
loss of American innocence and purity
 stayed at home, observing, and condemning the excesses of a business civilization
o sense of disillusionment and wrote pessimistically of the flawed promise of American life
o exiles included the poets T.S. Eliot and Ezra Pound as well as the novelist Ernest Hemingway
 Pound – reacted against World War I, expressing a deep regret for the tragic waste of a
whole generation in defense of a “botched civilization”
 Eliot in The Waste Land – evoked images of fragmentation and sterility
 The Hollow Man – description of the emptiness of modern man
 Ernest Hemingway – sought redemption from the modern plight in the romantic
individualism of his heroes
 wrote of men alienated from society who found a sense of identity in their own
courage and quest for personal honor
o sparse, direct, and clean prose style
o F. Scott Fitzgerald – chronicled American youth in This Side of Paradise and The Great Gatsby
 writing in a bittersweet prose about “the beautiful and the damned”
 haunting realization of emptiness and lack of human concern
o Sinclair Lewis – Main Street, satirized the values of small-town America as dull, complacent, and
narrow minded
 Babbitt – poked fun at the commercialism of the 1920s
o H.L. Mencken – founded American Mercury magazine in 1923
 declared war on “homo boobiens,” mocked everything he found distasteful in America –
from the Rotary Club to the Ku Klux Klan
 served as a zealous guardian of public rationality in an era of excessive boosterism
o cultural explosion included novelists such as Sherwood Anderson and John Dos Passos
o playwrights such as Eugene O’Neill, Maxwell Anderson, and Elmer Rice
o women writers were particularly effective in dealing with regional themes
 Edith Wharton – The House of Mirth, The Age of Innocence
o Willa Cather and Ellen Glasgow – showed the plight of women in the Midwest and the South
 portrayed their heroines in the traditional roles of wives and mothers
o playwright Zona Gale – Miss Lulu Gett, depicted the dilemmas facing an unmarried woman in
American society
o art and music lagged behind literature but still made significant advances
 Edward Hopper and Charles Burchfield – realistic paintings
o Aaron Copeland and George Gershwin – new vitality to American music
o African Americans migrating northward brought the most significant contribution: the spread of
jazz – first to St. Louis, Kansas City, and Chicago, and finally to New York
 form of jazz known as blues, so expressive of the suffering of African Americans, became
an authentic national folk music, and performs like Louis Armstrong enjoyed popularity
around the world
o cultural growth of the 1920s was the work of blacks as well as whites
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W.E.B. Du Bois – editor of the newspaper Crisis, became the intellectual voice of the
black community developing in New York City’s Harlem
James Weldon Johnson – Fifty Years and Other Poems, title poem commented on the half
century of suffering that had followed the Emancipation Proclamation
 Du Bois and Johnson became the leaders of the Harlem Renaissance
Opportunity – a magazine devoted to scholarly studies of racial issues
 African American literature blossomed rapidly
appearance of Claude McKay’s book of verses – White Shadows
Countee Cullen and Langston Hughes – beauty of their poems and the eloquence in their
portrayals of the black tragedy
art and music also flourished during Harlem’s golden age
rent parties where jazz musicians played to raise money to help writers, artists, and neighbors
pay their bills
 made Harlem “the Negro Capital of the World” in the 1920s
 new African American cultural awareness spread to other cities in the form of
poetry circles and theater groups
number of African Americans graduating from college rose
 they had taken major strides toward achieving cultural and intellectual fulfillment
nearly all the writers, black as well as white, cried out against the conformity and materialism of
the contemporary scene
 critical of mass production and reliance on the machine
 wrote wistfully of the disappearance of the artisan and of a more relaxed way of life
 few took any interest in politics or in social reform
individualism – seeking an escape into their art from the prevailing business civilization
 turned inward to avoid being swept up in the consumer goods revolution
produced an astonishingly rich and varied body of work
 American writing had a greater intensity and depth than in the past
 placed their country in the forefront of world literature