The 1920s (“Jazz Age”, “Roaring
20s”) and The Great Depression
McFarland
I. Life in the 1920s:
A. Changing Role of Women:
 19th Amendment (1920) – granted women
suffrage (right to vote)
 New jobs opened up during WWI and the
women didn’t want to give their jobs up
when the men came back home –
so…more women began to go to college
I. Life in the 1920s:
 Jeanette Rankin – first woman elected to
Congress (1916) – served throughout the
1920s
 Flappers – modern women of the 1920s –
young, rebellious, fun-loving, and bold –
short hair, short dresses (to the knees), more
makeup (esp. lipstick) – attitudes changes –
ex: began to smoke and drink in public
I. Life in the 1920s:
B. Prohibition Era (1919-1933):
 18th Amendment (1919) – prohibited the
making, selling, or transportation of
alcohol
 Volstead Act – law passed by Congress to
enforce prohibition – ignored by most of
the cities on the east coast
I. Life in the 1920s:
 Success of prohibition:
-consumption of alcohol decreased
-arrest for drunkenness decreased
 Why did Prohibition eventually fail?
1) Not enforced – some police depts. were
corrupt, just didn’t care, or were scared of
the gangsters
2) Most people didn’t take prohibition
seriously – drank anyway
I. Life in the 1920s:
3) The crime wave that began made most
people think that the amendment should
be repealed
-organized crime got involved in
bootlegging (the illegal selling of alcohol)
-the most famous gangster of the 1920s
was Al Capone from Chicago
I. Life in the 1920s:
 Al Capone – nicknamed “Scarface”
-had a talent for avoiding jail by buying off
policemen, city officials, and politicians
-made up to $60 million a year from
bootlegging
-convicted of tax evasion in 1931 and sent
to prison
-released in 1939 after becoming ill with
syphilis – died in 1947
I. Life in the 1920s:
 21st Amendment (1933) – repealed the 18th
Amend. and allowed local communities to
decide whether or not to legalize alcohol
 Slang Words from prohibition era:
-bathtub gin
-moonshine (made at night)
-white lightning
-speakeasy – secret club or bar – usually in a
basement – needed a password to get in
I. Life in the 1920s:
C. Entertainment in the 1920s:
 Shorter working hours and higher wages
gave Americans more spare time and more
money for entertainment
1) Radio – first radio station in Pittsburgh, PA
in Nov. 1920 – only news at first –
baseball and music broadcasted later
I. Life in the 1920s:
2) Moving Picture Shows (“movies”) – all
movies were silent films at first (had
music but no talking)
-Charlie Chaplin was the most famous
silent film star
-first “talking” movie was The Jazz Singer
(1927) staring Al Jolston
-famous movie stars of the 20s:
-Rudolph Valentino, Clara Bow, Mary
Pickford, Lillian Gish, Charlie Chaplin
I. Life in the 1920s:
3) Sports – the 1920s is often called the
“Golden Age of Sports” – radio made sports
more popular – baseball became “America’s
Favorite Pastime” – famous athletes
included:
I. Life in the 1920s:
a) Babe Ruth – nicknamed “The Sultan of
Swat” or “The Great Bambino”
-most famous baseball player of the 20s
-played most of his career with the NY
Yankees
-hit 60 homeruns in 1927 (remained a
record until 1961)
-hit 714 career homeruns (remained a
record nearly 40 years)
I. Life in the 1920s:
b) Harold “Red” Grange – famous football
player
-nicknamed “The Galloping Ghost”
-played for Illinois Univ. and Chicago
Bears
-made Pro football very popular
I. Life in the 1920s:
c) Jack Dempsey – famous heavyweight
boxer
-over 100,000 attended his 2nd match with
Gene Tunney, which Dempsey lost
I. Life in the 1920s:
d) Man “o” War – famous race horse
-named horse of the century
-lost only 1 time in 21 races
-the horse that beat him was named…
Upset
I. Life in the 1920s:
e) Gertrude Ederle – 1st woman to swim
across the 35 mile wide English Channel
-her time beat the men’s record by nearly
2 hours
I. Life in the 1920s:
4) Music / Dance – the radio made music
more popular
-Jazz was the most popular music of the
20s – started in New Orleans
-Louis Armstrong was the most popular
jazz musician of the 20s
-George Gershwin was a popular
composer – wrote “Rhapsody in Blue”
-popular dances included: Charleston,
Fox-trot, and Tango
I. Life in the 1920s:
5) Literature – famous authors included:
-F. Scott Fitzgerald – The Great Gatsby
-Sinclair Lewis – Main Street
-Ernest Hemingway – A Farewell to Arms
I. Life in the 1920s:
D. Transportation
*Henry Ford – “made the 20s happen”
-responsible for changing the automobile
industry by using the assembly line – each
worker had a specific job
-1920 – 8 million cars on the road
-1929 – 23 million
-developed the Model T car (every one was
exactly the same
I. Life in the 1920s:
-before the assembly line it took approx. 12
hrs to build a car
-after assembly line it took approx. 28 minutes
to build a car
I. Life in the 1920s:
 Charles Lindbergh – nicknamed “Lucky
Lindy” or the “Lone Eagle”
-the first to fly solo, non-stop across the
Atlantic
-flew from NYC to Paris May 20th and 21st of
1927
-no parachute, no radio, no heat, no sleep
-name of the airplane was “Spirit of St. Louis”
-son was kidnapped and killed in the early
1930s (great mystery)
I. Life in the 1920s:
 Amelia Earhart – the 1st woman to fly
across the Atlantic without stopping (1932)
– disappeared while trying to fly around the
world
I. Life in the 1920s:
E. Return of the Ku Klux Klan
 From the Greek word kyklos which means
“circle”
 Revived in the 1920s
 Membership:
-1916- 100,000 -1924- 2 million
-1928- 4 million -today- approx. 6,000
 Attacked African Am.’s, Jews, Catholics,
and immigrants
I. Life in the 1920s:
F. Scopes / “Monkey” Trial
 The state of TN passed a law in 1925 that
made it illegal to teach evolution (Charles
Darwin theory) in public schools
 John Scopes, a teacher from Dayton, TN,
was chosen by the ACLU to challenge the
law
I. Life in the 1920s:
 He was arrested and charged – defense
attorney was Clarence Darrow
 William Jennings Bryan was the prosecutor
 The judge refused to allow scientists to
testify for the defense since “they were not
around during creation”
 Scopes was found guilty and fined $100,
however the law was later changed
I. Life in the 1920s:
G. The Red Scare
 The fear of radicals (esp. communists and
socialists)
 Causes:
1) the communist revolution in Russia
(1917) scared many Americans – “If it can
happen there, it can happen here.”
2) terroristic violence in the U.S. – mail
bombs were sent to local, state, and
national leaders
I. Life in the 1920s:
 Because of the Red Scare and the power of
the KKK, limits were placed on
immigration
 Sacco and Vanzetti Case – two Italian
immigrants, who were anarchists, were
accused of killing 2 men during a robbery in
MA – convicted without a fair trial – both
were executed in 1927
I. Life in the 1920s:
H. Republican Presidents
1) Warren G. Harding – won the election of
1920 by promising a “return to normalcy”
- remembered for scandals
-his advisors, called the Ohio Gang, were
corrupt (sold gov’t offices, took bribes,
etc.)
-died in 1923
I. Life in the 1920s:
2) Calvin Coolidge – became Pres. after the
death of Harding
-nicknamed “Silent Cal” because he was a
very quite man
-also won the election of 1924
I. Life in the 1920s:
3) Herbert Hoover – won the election of
1928 because people were pleased with
the economy and didn’t want a lot of
change
-promised “a chicken in every pot, and a
car in every garage”
-also said, “I have no fears for the future
of our country, it is bright with hope.”
II. The Great Depression:
A. Hidden Causes:
1) Unequal distribution of wealth:
-people were very rich or very poor
-20% of the nation lived in poverty (late
1920s)
II. The Great Depression:
2) Installment buying:
-the buyer pays a certain amount down,
and then pays the rest in installments
(payments) with interest -easy credit
-some people created huge debts
II. The Great Depression:
3) Bank failures:
-banks were poorly managed
-people lost money (sometimes their life
savings) when their bank closed
-7,000 banks closed in the 1920s
II. The Great Depression:
4) Increase in unemployment:
-new factory machinery required fewer
workers
5) High tariffs (tax on imports) on foreign
goods:
-decreased competition, which increased
prices of certain goods
II. The Great Depression:
6) Huge farm surpluses:
-led to a drop in farm prices
-many farmers lost their farms because no
one needed their food
II. The Great Depression:
B. Immediate Cause – the Stock Market
Crash:
 Prices of stock rose throughout the 20s
 By Sept. 1929, the Dow Jones average
reached 381
-Dow Jones – the price of stocks from 30
of the largest companies in the U.S.
II. The Great Depression:
 Thursday, October 24, 1929 – some
stockholders began to pull out of the market
– afraid of a crash
 Tuesday, October 29, 1929:
-“Black Tuesday” -the day the stock market
crashed
-investors panicked and started selling
before their stock became worthless
-Dow Jones fell to 261 (41 in 1932)
-between $6 and $9 billion was lost
III. Daily Life during the
Depression:
 Children were forced to work
 Many people became homeless
-many of the homeless lived in small
villages made of cardboard boxes and crates
nicknamed “hoovervilles” (named after
Pres. Hoover who was blamed for the
Depression)
III. Daily Life during the
Depression:
 Some men and families became hobos –
rode the rails looking for work and food
 Many farmers had more food than they
could sell
-people didn’t have the money to buy it
-some food was destroyed in an effort to
decrease the supply so prices could increase
III. Daily Life during the
Depression:
 Droughts occurred on the Great Plains
-this region became known as the Dust
Bowl because it was so dry
-many moved west to CA looking for work
because the dust storms destroyed their
crops
-these people were often called okies
because most were from OK
III. Daily Life during the
Depression:
 The Grapes of Wrath (1939) – novel written
by John Steinbeck about one family’s
struggle in moving to CA
 Pres. Hoover wasn’t willing to spend
enough money to provide relief to the
people
III. Daily Life during the
Depression:
 Bonus Army March:
-in 1924 Congress approved a bonus
payment to all who served during WWI
-the money was to be paid in 1945
-June 1932- 20,000 veterans marched into
Wash. D.C., set up camps, and said they
wouldn’t leave until they received their
bonus
III. Daily Life during the
Depression:
-Hoover ordered the police to remove the
protesters
-2 veterans were killed – made Hoover look
bad
IV. Franklin D. Roosevelt:




Defeated Hoover in the election of 1932
Cousin of Teddy Roosevelt
Became ill with polio in 1921 – forced
him to use a wheelchair
1st Pres. to use the radio regularly –
“Fireside Chats” – explained his plans
and programs to the people
IV. Franklin D. Roosevelt:
 Handled the press well – ex: pictures not
taken of him in his wheelchair (did not want
to appear weak)
 Famous quote – “All we have to fear, is fear
itself.”
 The “Brain Trust” was a group of advisors
that helped him – attorneys, economists,
political scientists, etc.
IV. Franklin D. Roosevelt:
 His wife, Eleanor Roosevelt, was his most
important advisor
-FDR said she was his “eyes and ears”
outside the White House
-she could travel and meet with people he
couldn’t because of his disability
IV. Franklin D. Roosevelt:
 Bank Holiday – 1st action as Pres.
-closed every bank in U.S. for 4 days
-sent people out to determine which ones
were strong and those were re-opened
-almost all were re-opened
-trying to restore confidence in banks –
people began to put their money back in
V. New Deal Programs:
 The “New Deal” was FDR’s response to the
Great Depression
 Created new agencies to help the people
-nicknamed “alphabet soup” because of all
the abbreviations that were used
 From 1933 to early 1935, the dominating
goals of FDR were…
“reform” “relief” “recovery”
V. New Deal Programs:
 This phase was called the First New Deal
-tried to get the economy moving again
and give help to those in need
V. New Deal Programs:
A. First New Deal Programs:
1) Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC):
-1933
-insured bank deposits up to $5,000
-prevented people from losing their money
when their bank closed
-reform
V. New Deal Programs:
2) Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA): 1933
-built dams, power plants
-provided cheap electricity, recreation, and
encouraged businesses to come to the
region
-employed up to 40,000 workers
-relief
V. New Deal Programs:
3) Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC): 1933
-offered outdoor work to unemployed
single men
-recruited young men (18-25) from the
cities
-set up camps - planted trees, fought forest
fires, built dams, etc. (environmental
work)
-relief
V. New Deal Programs:
4) Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA): 1933
-paid farmers not to produce certain crops
(cotton, wheat, tobacco, corn, etc.)
-trying to eliminate the surplus which
would increase prices of goods
-relief for farmers
V. New Deal Programs:
5) National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA):
-1933
-controlled business practices
-set minimum wage levels (usually .30 to
.40 cents an hour depending on job)
-shortened workers hours to create new
jobs
-created the National Recovery Adm.
(NRA) to enforce these new codes
-relief
V. New Deal Programs:
B. Second New Deal:
1) Works Progress Adm. (WPA): 1935
-employed writers, teachers, librarians,
actors, musicians, and artists
-also expanded the number of workers in
existing organizations (ex: CCC)
-created 100,000’s of jobs - relief
V. New Deal Programs:
2) Social Security Act (SSA): 1935
-required a social security tax to be taken
out of every workers’ paycheck
-gave money to those who were disabled
or to old to work
-relief
VI. Impact of the New Deal:
 Increased the power of the Pres.
 Conservation gains – dams built, trees
planted, etc.
 Created new federal social programs –
social security, welfare
 Deficit spending – the gov’t spends more
money than it brings in from taxes