The Roaring Twenties
A Booming Economy
The Automobile Drives Prosperity
Automobiles allowed for urban sprawl. In the late 1920s,
80% of cars were in the United States. Think of everything
associated with cars. What does this mean for our economy?
Decline of
railroads
Growth of
suburbs
Interstate
highway system
Higher wages for
auto workers
Rise of the
automobile
Growth in related
industries
Greater
Freedom
Mass production;
lower prices
A Bustling Economy
40% of the world’s money was in the U.S. Electricity was more common which allowed
for refrigerators, ranges, washing machines…
Danger Signs of the 1920s
 Everything was growing too fast.
o Farms making too much food.
o Businesses expanding too fast.
 People buying on margin.
o Installment Plan – “A dollar down, a dollar forever”
 People getting deeper and deeper into debt.
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The Roaring Twenties
The Business of Government
The Harding Administration
Warren Harding was not especially intelligent and it showed during his
administration. Harding did not learn the complexities of his job, so he
trusted others to make the tough decisions for him.
Harding’s cabinet included the so-called Ohio Gang, the president’s
poker-playing cronies.
Teapot Dome Scandal
Sec. of Interior, Albert Falls, transferred oil reserves in Elk Hills,
CA & Teapot Dome, WY, from the navy to the
Interior Department. Then Fall, secretly leased the land to two
private oil companies in exchange for bribes.
Coolidge Prosperity
Calvin Coolidge, a respected man of integrity, helped to restore
people’s faith in their government. Coolidge reduced the national debt, trimmed the
federal budget, and lowered taxes to give incentives to
businesses. The economy soared, generating industrial profits,
and a spectacular growth in the stock market.
Coolidge remained silent on many social issues:
1. Falling prices for farmers.
2. Jim Crow Laws in the South.
3. Labor union demands for better working conditions.
America’s Role in the World
Under both Harding and Coolidge, America continued to play a
major role in international affairs…
Goal
U.S. Action
League of
Nations
World
Court
To prevent war and settle disputes
between nations.
To make judgments in international
disputes voluntarily submitted by
nations.
Washington
Naval
Conference
To reduce arms race and size of
navies of major problems.
KelloggBriand Pact
To “outlaw war…as an instrument
of national policy”
U.S. membership favored by Wilson;
Rejected by Senate.
U.S. participation favored by Harding;
Rejected by Senate.
U.S. agreed with leading naval
powers to limit construction of
warships.
U.S. agreed with many other nations
to renounce war as a means of
settling international disputes.
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The Roaring Twenties
Social & Cultural Tensions
Education & Popular Culture
1914 = 1 million people in school
1926 = 4 million people in school
The Need for
Teachers!!
Taxes needed to be increased to help pay for schools across America. More and more
people became educated, so going to college became more common than ever before.
Traditionalism & Modernism Clash
Fundamentalism – The belief that every word
in the Bible was the literal truth. (If it was
written in the Bible, then it must be true.
The growing trend of emphasizing science over
traditional ideas about religion became known as
modernism.
Scopes
Trial
Tennessee made it illegal to teach evolution. John Scopes taught it
anyways and was brought to trial. Clarence Darrow hired by ACLU and
William Jennings Bryan for the government.
Result: Each side still believed in the truth of its own position. The conflict over
evolution continues to rage on today.
Postwar Trends
Many Americans responded to the stressful conditions of WWI by becoming fearful of
outsiders. A wave of nativism and isolationism swept through the nation.
Isolationism – A policy of pulling away from involvement in world affairs.
Fear of Communism
One perceived threat to American life was the spread of communism.
The Red
Vladimir Lenin and the Bolsheviks overthrew the Russian government,
Scare
establishing a new communist state.
The Communists cried out for a worldwide revolution that would abolish
capitalism everywhere. 70,000 radicals joined the newly formed
Communist Party in the U.S., which mailed dozens of bombs to the government.
The
Palmer
raids
U.S. Attorney General Palmer and
J. Edgar Hoover hunted down
suspected communists, socialists,
and anarchists.
Communism – An economic
and political system based on a
single-party government ruled
by a dictatorship.
They trampled people’s civil rights, invading
homes and offices and jailing suspects without
allowing them legal counsel.
Palmer’s raids failed to turn up evidence of a
revolutionary conspiracy. Soon, the public decided
that Palmer didn’t know what he was talking about.
Sacco & Vanzetti
The Red Scare fueled people’s suspicions of foreigners and
immigrants. Sacco and Vanzetti were both Italian immigrants that
were arrested and charged with robbery and murder.
Witnesses had said that the criminals appeared to be Italians.
Both men claimed their innocence and provided alibis;
the evidence against them was circumstantial.
The jury still found them guilty and sentenced them to death.
Protests rang out throughout the U.S., Europe, and Latin America
because many believed that they were mistreated.
Limiting Immigration
During the wave of nativist sentiment, “Keep America for
Americans” became the prevailing attitude. Anti-immigrant
attitudes had been growing ever since immigrants began arriving
from southern and eastern Europe. The Emergency Quota Act of
1921 setup a quota system for immigrants.
Quota System – System established the maximum number of
people who could enter the U.S. from each foreign country.
Historical Significance: The Quota System discriminated against people from
eastern and southern Europe (Roman Catholics & Jews); Japanese immigration was
prohibited.
The Klan Rises Again
The KKK used the Red Scare and anti-immigrant feelings as
an execuse to harass any group unlike themselves.
By 1924, KKK membership reached 4.5 million.
The KKK targeted: 1. African Americans
2. Foreign-Born
3. Roman Catholics & Jews
Cities & Urban Life Continue to Increase
By 1920, 51.2% of Americans lived in cities.
New York City = 5.6 million
Philadelphia = 2 million
Prohibition & Crime
Temperance reformers finally get prohibition passed in January
1920 (18th Amendment). Congress then passed the Volstead Act, a
law that officially enforced the amendment. The biggest problem
was that there are only 1,500 men to enforce this new law.
Bootleggers – People who sold illegal alcohol to consumers.
Speakeasies – Secret drinking establishments in cities that attracted new customers.
The lack of law enforcement for prohibition brought rise to both
organized and unorganized crime. Al Capone was the biggest bootlegger
in Chicago. He made $60 million a year.
By the mid 1920s only 19% of Americans supported the law. In 1933 the
21st Amendment was passed, which repealed the 18th Amendment.
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The Roaring Twenties
A New Mass Culture
New Trends in Popular Culture
American’s now had more spending money, but the question
that remained was what to do with all the money. During the
1920s Americans started to spend money on games, the arts,
and watching sports.
This famous dance is known
as the…
CHARELSTON!
Lindbergh made the first solo non-stop flight across the
Atlantic Ocean. The trip took 33 hours. People had parties
upon his return to the states.
Women Assume New Roles
In the 1920s, people were eating and
drinking like there was no tomorrow.
Women who
Flappers influenced styles and
challenged the
attitudes, but relatively few women were
social norms. (Short
full-fledged flappers. Not all women
skirts, roughed
wanted to be flappers, but many wanted
cheeks, and a short
more control over their lives –
hair style.)
and got it.
Women started to get jobs in traditional roles (teachers, nurses, musicians,
librarians, secretaries, etc.) Women began living longer, marrying later &
having fewer children, freeing their time to pursue other interests.
Flappers –
The Roaring Twenties
The Harlem Renaissance
A New “Black Consciousness”
Marcus Garvey was an immigrant from Jamaica, who believed in a
“Back to Africa” movement. Garvey advocated for separation of the
races as the only means to improvement life for African Americans.
In 1914 he founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association.
The Association claimed to have 2.5 million followers that advocated
for black pride and black support of black-run businesses.
The Jazz Age
The 1920s is also referred to as “The Jazz Age.”
African Americans, such as, Louis Armstrong,
Duke Ellington, and Bessie Smith were the
unofficial ambassadors of the jazz.
The Harlem Renaissance
The Great Migration of African Americans
from the South to the North during WWI, meant that over
40% of all African Americans lived in cities. There were
riots due to the unfair practices in cities regarding African
Americans.
A.A. were moving to the Upper West Side.
Harlem became known as the “Black Capital,” which had
many problems, but the people overcame them.
The Harlem Renaissance was:
 Literary and Artistic movement
that celebrated African American culture.

Well-educated African Americans who
focused on black pride and wrote about
the trials of being black in America.