Daily Lecture and Discussion Notes
Chapter 24, Section 1
I.
Fear of Radicalism (Pages 700–702)
A. During World War I, the government tried to silence dissenters within the United States. After the war,
however, an atmosphere of distrust and suspicion remained.
B. Americans feared that turmoil in other nations would affect the United States. The Russian Revolution
of 1917, in which the Bolsheviks took control of the government, worried Americans. The revolutionaries
set up a communist state. Americans felt threatened when the Bolsheviks promised to destroy capitalism–
–the economic system of the United States––wherever it existed.
C. Americans also began to fear the actions of anarchists, or people who believe there should be no
government. Anarchist terrorists sent bombs to public officials. Because many of the anarchists were born
outside the United States, their actions spread fear of foreigners.
D. The growing fear of foreigners and radicals led to the Red Scare, a period when the government took
extreme action against communists and others with radical views. As a result of the Red Scare in late
1919 and early 1920, the United States government ordered a series of arrests of people associated with
suspicious groups. Homes and offices were ransacked, records were seized, and a few thousand people
were taken into custody. The government deported hundreds of arrested aliens, but had to release many
others for lack of evidence. The Red Scare passed as people realized that the threat of outright revolution
was exaggerated. However, the fear that the scare had created remained.
E. Fear of immigrants and radical ideas came to a head in the 1920 case of Sacco and Vanzetti. Two men
robbed a shoe factory in Massachusetts, shooting and killing two people in the process. Despite having
little evidence, police arrested two Italian immigrants, Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti. Neither
man had a criminal record, but both were anarchists, and Sacco owned a pistol similar to the murder
weapon. Sacco and Vanzetti were tried, convicted, and sentenced to death. The men proclaimed their
innocence to the end, and the arrest and execution of the two men became a symbol of deep-seated
feelings against foreigners and radicals in the United States.
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Labor Unrest (Pages 702–703)
A. During World War I, workers and management put aside their differences to work together. But
conflict arose when the war ended. More than 3,600 strikes were staged in 1919 alone as workers pushed
for improvements such as higher wages. Many Americans feared that radicals, eager to disrupt American
society, were behind the strikes.
B. A huge strike involving 350,000 steelworkers occurred in 1919. The strikers were asking for higher
wages and an eight-hour workday. The strike turned violent, with several strikers losing their lives. Some
Americans thought there was communist influence behind the labor unrest, which cost the strikers public
support and forced them to return to work without reaching their goals.
C. In 1920 the Boston police force went on strike. The police officers demanded the right to form a union.
Massachusetts governor Calvin Coolidge took a strong stand against the strikers, saying no one had the
right to strike against safety. After the strike collapsed, officials fired
the entire Boston police force. Most of the public approved.
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D. Although workers plunged deeper into debt because of rising prices and unchanging wages, labor
unions failed to receive public support. Unions were thought by many people to be radical organizations.
E. During the period of union decline of the 1920s, A. Philip Randolph founded the Brotherhood of
Sleeping Car Porters, a union of mostly African American railroad workers. Randolph became a leader of
the civil rights movement decades later in the 1950s.
Chapter 24, Section 2
I. The Harding Presidency (Pages 704–707)
A. In 1920 the Republican Party nominated Warren G. Harding to run for the presidency. After years of
war and progressive activism, Harding thought Americans wanted a time to heal. He promised a return to
normalcy. This was attractive to many Americans who thought Harding would bring an end to foreign
involvement and domestic unrest.
B. Harding won the 1920 election in a landslide. The Republicans also won control of Congress.
C. Harding held personal doubts about his qualifications to run the country, so he tried to appoint talented
people to his cabinet. He also gave many important jobs to friends and political supporters. Many of this
latter group proved to be incompetent or corrupt. By 1922 Washington was full of rumors about the
corruption in the Harding administration.
1. Charles Forbes, a personal friend of Harding who had been appointed head of the Veterans Bureau,
was convicted of stealing funds from the bureau. Forbes fled to avoid imprisonment.
2. Harry Daugherty, Harding’s attorney general, was accused of receiving bribes.
3. Teapot Dome was the biggest scandal of the Harding presidency. Albert Fall, Harding’s secretary of
the interior, secretly leased government oil reserves in Teapot Dome, Wyoming, to the owners of two oil
companies in 1922. In exchange Fall received more than $400,000. When the scandal became public, Fall
was convicted of bribery and imprisoned. He was the first cabinet officer ever to go to jail. Although
Harding was not personally involved in any of the scandals, the Teapot Dome scandal became a symbol
of corruption in his administration.
D. The scandals weighed on Harding. In the summer of 1923, he took a trip to the West to relax. During
the trip, he had a heart attack and died. Harding’s vice president, Calvin Coolidge became president.
E. Coolidge brought honesty back to the executive branch of government. He allowed the investigations
of officials in the Harding administration to go forward without interference. He replaced the corrupt
officeholders who had been appointed by Harding with honest officials.
F. Although Harding and Coolidge were different in style, they had many of the same policies. Both
believed that government should do as little as possible. Still, the Coolidge administration did take an
active role in supporting business and the rich. The government lowered income tax rates on the
wealthiest Americans and on corporate profits. Coolidge also cut government spending. His
administration raised tariffs to protect American businesses and overturned laws regulating child
labor and wages for women.
G. Coolidge easily won reelection in 1924.
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II. Foreign Policy (Page 707)
A. Coolidge favored a limited role for the United States in world affairs and led the nation in a policy of
isolationism. As part of this policy, Coolidge kept the United States out of the League of Nations.
B. The United States signed important arms-control treaties in both the Harding and Coolidge
administrations. In 1922 the United States, France, Italy, Japan, and Great Britain signed the Five-Power
Treaty, which limited the size of each nation’s navy. It was the first time in modern history that world
powers agreed to disarm. In 1928 the United States joined 14 other nations in signing the Kellogg-Briand
Pact, which called for outlawing war. Within a few years, 48 other nations had also signed. However,
there was no real way to enforce such a treaty.
C. During the 1920s, relations with Latin America became less tense, and tensions with
Mexico also eased.
1. American troops were stationed in Haiti, the Dominican Republic, and Nicaragua when Harding took
office. The troops had intervened in these countries to support American business interests. After the
Dominican Republic and Nicaragua held elections in the mid-1920s, the United States withdrew its
troops.
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2. Relations with Mexico improved when Coolidge negotiated a settlement with Mexico instead of
sending in troops––as business interests urged––after Mexico threatened to take over foreign-owned
mining and oil companies.
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Chapter 24, Section 3
I. Growth in the 1920s (Pages 709–711)
A. After World War I, the American economy experienced a two-year recession. Many soldiers came
back to the United States looking for jobs, creating an overabundance of workers competing for too few
jobs. Government orders for wartime goods stopped, forcing many companies to lay off workers. Other
companies went bankrupt. At the same time, prices rose, causing hardship for many families.
B. After this short downturn, the economy began a period of steady growth that lasted for most of the
1920s.
C. Technology made rapid industrial growth possible. The spread of electricity to most factories by 1929
cut business costs because it was cheaper than steam power.
D. The use of scientific management, a new way of managing operations, also contributed to economic
growth. Companies hired experts to study how goods could be produced faster. By adopting new
production methods, businesses lowered costs and increased productivity.
E. Many businesses adopted mass production methods, using the assembly line. Mass production also
increased productivity and cut the cost of production.
F. Businesses tried to build better management-worker relations by setting up safety programs and
offering health and accident insurance. Many companies also encouraged workers to buy company stock.
This “welfare capitalism” was designed to link workers more closely to the company and discourage the
growth of unions.
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G. The demand for consumer goods also grew. As electricity became more widely available, there was a
growth in the demand for electric appliances, such as radios, fans, refrigerators, and stoves. As more of
these products were produced, production costs and prices dropped. Many of the appliances made
housework easier and gave Americans more leisure time.
H. Ads for consumer goods flooded newspapers, magazines, and radio broadcasts. As consumers were
encouraged to buy more goods, installment buying became common. Consumers could buy products even
if they did not have all of the money to purchase an item. Instead they could promise to make small,
regular payments over a period of time. Installment buying boosted consumer spending.
II. The Automobile Age (Pages 711–712)
A. Automobile purchases climbed during the 1920s as an increasing number of Americans used the
installment plan to buy cars.
B. The popularity of cars boosted the American economy. Almost four million Americans worked for
automakers or in businesses related to auto manufacturing.
C. Henry Ford pioneered the manufacture of affordable automobiles.
1. The Model T, built using assembly line methods, was sturdy, reliable, and inexpensive.
2. Ford stunned the business world in 1914 by announcing he would pay his workers the high wage of
$5.00 per day. Ford’s gesture was good for business. His workers were content, and by paying them high
salaries, he created many new potential buyers for his cars. As the price of the Model T dropped, its sales
continued to rise.
3. By the mid-1920s, other car models challenged the Model T. Out of this competition came the practice
of introducing new car models each year.
D. The popularity of the automobile affected other industries.
1. New roads and highways were built.
2. Gas stations and rest stops had to be built along these roads.
3. Businesses along major roads profited from the millions of people who began to travel around the
country by car.
4. The car boom also boosted industries that made materials used to build cars, such as steel, rubber, and
glass.
5. The oil industry benefited from the increase in demand for gasoline.
E. Cars contributed to the spread of suburbs. Because people could drive to work from a distance, they
could live in a suburb but still hold a job in the city.
F. Some groups of Americans, such as farmers, did not share in the economic boom of the 1920s. After
World War I, the government stopped buying crops such as wheat and corn, and American farmers had to
compete with European farmers. Farm income fell as a result, and many farmers lost their land.
G. The economic boom also left some industries behind. Workers in the coal and railroad industries
suffered, as electricity replaced coal as a power source and as trucks took business away from railroads.
H. Wages rose slightly for most workers, but the cost of living rose more. As a result, by 1929 nearly
three-fourths of families had incomes below the accepted level necessary for a comfortable life.
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Chapter 24, Section 4
1. New Directions (Pages 713–714)
A. The 1920s brought great changes for women. For example, the Nineteenth Amendment to the United
States Constitution was ratified that year. The amendment gave women the right to vote nationally.
B. Although the majority of married women remained at home as mothers and homemakers, an
increasing number of women joined the workforce in the 1920s. Most women occupied traditionally
female jobs, such as teaching and clerical work, but an increasing number of women attended college,
embarked on traditionally male careers, and continued to work after marriage.
C. The flapper––with heavy makeup, short skirts, and a short boyish haircut––symbolized the new, freer
woman of the 1920s.
II. Entertainment (Pages 714–715)
A. Labor-saving devices gave people more leisure time in the 1920s, allowing them to enjoy
entertainment such as tabloid-style newspapers, large-circulation magazines, phonograph records, radios,
and movies.
B. During the 1920s, the motion-picture industry in Hollywood became one of the country’s leading
businesses.
C. Radio brought entertainment right into people’s homes, including news, concerts, sporting events, and
comedies. When businesses realized that radio offered a tremendous opportunity to advertise their
products to a wide audience, they started to finance radio programs. This was the beginning of
commercials.
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D. Radio broadcasts of sporting events were very popular in the 1920s. Sports figures such as Babe Ruth
became larger-than-life heroes.
E. Americans took up new activities that turned into fads. Such fads included the Chinese board game
mah-jongg, crossword puzzles, flagpole-sitting contests, and dance marathons.
III. The Jazz Age (Pages 715–716)
A. During the 1920s, Americans danced to a new type of music called jazz. Jazz grew out of African
American work songs and African music and became one of America’s most distinctive art forms.
Interest in jazz spread through radio and phonograph records.
B. In the 1920s, an African American section of New York City called Harlem experienced a burst of
cultural creativity called the Harlem Renaissance. Many African American writers in Harlem wrote
novels, short stories, and poems about the African American experience.
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C. While the Harlem Renaissance peaked, another group of writers questioned American ideals.
Disillusioned with American society, these writers, called expatriates, moved to Paris for inspiration.
They included F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway.
D. Some American artists chose to stay home and write about life in America. Sinclair Lewis presented a
critical view of American culture in books such as Babbitt and Main Street. Sherwood Anderson explored
small-town life in the Midwest in Winesburg, Ohio.
IV. Prohibition (Pages 716–717)
A. The temperance movement––the campaign against alcohol use––began in the 1800s, but it did not
achieve its goal until 1919. That is when the Eighteenth Amendment was ratified. It banned the
transportation, manufacture, and sale of liquor in the United States.
B. Prohibition succeeded in the South and Midwest, but it had little support in cities. C. Continued
demand for alcohol led to widespread lawbreaking. For example, some people made alcoholic beverages
in their homes, and illegal bars and clubs served alcohol. These clubs, called speakeasies, were hidden
from view and could be entered only by saying a password.
D. The Prohibition laws were hard to enforce because there were too few government agents to do so. By
the early 1920s, many eastern states stopped trying to enforce the law.
E. Prohibition contributed to the rise of organized crime. Realizing that making and selling alcohol
illegally could make a great deal of money, gangsters took over the business. They used the millions of
dollars they made to buy influence in government, business, and labor unions.
F. Over time, Prohibition was viewed as a failure. In 1933 the Twenty-first Amendment repealed the
Eighteenth Amendment, which had instituted Prohibition.
V. Nativism (Pages 717–718)
A. The anxieties that many native-born Americans felt about rapid changes in society spurred an upsurge
in nativism, or the belief that native-born Americans were better than foreigners.
B. There was a resurgence of the Ku Klux Klan at this time.
1. The new Klan targeted Catholics, Jews, and immigrants in addition to African
Americans.
2. In the 1920s, the new Klan spread beyond the South, gaining power in areas of the
country such as Indiana and Oregon, as well as in some large cities. The Klan used
scare tactics, pressure, whippings, and lynching to get its way.
3. The power and influence of the Klan began to decrease in the late 1920s, as the
result of internal power struggles and scandals. Membership shrank and politicians
who had supported the Klan were voted out of office.
C. The fears that had prompted the Red Scare in the early 1920s continued throughout the decade. Many
people feared foreigners or thought they would take away American jobs. This anti-immigrant prejudice
was directed primarily at southern and eastern Europeans and Asians. As a result, Congress passed the
National Origins Act in 1924. It set a quota on the number of immigrants from each country that could
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enter the United States. The quotas favored immigrants from northern and western Europe, which most
white, native-born Americans identified with at the time. The law excluded Japanese immigrants
completely. An earlier law had already excluded the Chinese.
VI. The Scopes Trial (Pages 718–719)
A. Religion in society provided another source of conflict. In 1925 the state of Tennessee passed a law
making it illegal to teach evolution. Christian fundamentalists saw evolution as a challenge to their values
and religious beliefs. A high school teacher named John Scopes deliberately broke the law so he could
challenge its legality in court.
B. The nation followed daily developments of the Scopes Trial in the summer of 1925. Two famous
lawyers, William Jennings Bryan and Clarence Darrow, faced each other. Bryan was a strong opponent of
evolution. Darrow had defended many radicals.
C. Scopes was convicted of breaking the law and paid a small fine. But the fundamentalists lost the larger
battle, as the Tennessee Supreme Court overturned the conviction. Other states decided not to prosecute
similar cases.
VII. The Election of 1928 (Page 719)
A. In 1927 Calvin Coolidge shocked the nation by announcing that he would not seek a second term as
president. The Republican Party nominated Herbert Hoover. Hoover had made millions of dollars in
private business and thought government-business cooperation was very important.
B. The Democratic Party chose Alfred E. Smith as their candidate. Unlike Hoover, Smith was a son of
immigrants and a champion of the poor and the working class.
C. Prejudice played a role in some Americans’ lack of acceptance of Smith. They found his heavy New
York accent jarring. As the first Roman Catholic nominee for president, he was also the target of antiCatholic feeling.
D. Hoover won the election by a landslide due to the prosperity of the 1920s and prejudice
against Smith.
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