Modern America
Developments and Contradictions
in the Early 20th Century
Links
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Louis Armstrong
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Duke Ellington
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Jelly Roll Morton
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Strand & Sheeler, ‘Manhatta,’ 1921
Main Ideas
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Contradictory period
Progress and hope
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Problems, conflicts, failures, repression
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Reform and Radical movements
Changing gender roles
New technologies and forms of leisure
War to end all wars
The Labor Question
Repression and Red Scare
Realities of War
Changing role of federal government
Reform Tradition
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Long tradition of American reform movements
(abolition, temperance, labor, women)
Tradition of association to achieve common ends
(Tocqueville)
Populists – Progressives – New Deal…
“Reform” not always progressive, sometimes
regressive
Tradition of Radicalism: worker/labor, abolition,
anarchism, socialism, communism
Reform and radical traditions often overlapped and
influenced one another
The Progressives, 1900s-1920s
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Many diff. varieties of reform, hard to lump
together
Ranged across political spectrum from left to
right, socialist to nativist
Sometimes overlapping in same individuals
or groups
Tackled some of the biggest problems in
American life: the Labor Question, Big
Business, Immigration, Racial Inequality,
Women’s Rights, Urban problems
Varieties of Reform
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Anti-monopoly: anti-trust laws, T.Roosevelt,
muckraker journalism to expose trusts
Pro-labor: support for unions, workman’s comp.,
safety in workplace
Pro-immigrant: Hull House, unions, pro-citizenship
Anti-immigrant: Immigration Restriction, 1924
Women’s rights: suffrage (19th Amend.), higher
wages for women workers, protecting women
workers – arguments for equality and difference,
deserved protection b/c diff. than men)
Varieties of Reform
(continued)
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African American Civil Rights
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Anti-lynching: Ida B. Wells, journalism, political
pressure
W.E.B. DuBois: talented tenth will lead way, prove
equality
NAACP founded in 1909 – political equality
Booker T. Washington: start with lower-skilled
trades and jobs to earn a living, gain respect,
before fighting for political rights or equality
Varieties of Reform
(continued)
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Political and government reform
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democratic – referendum, initiative, direct election
of Senators (17th Amend., 1912)
undemocratic – usually based on distrust of
people or racism
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Plessy vs. Ferguson, 1896, upheld Jim Crow,
separate and unequal public accommodations
Successful efforts to take away black vote: poll tax,
literacy tests, grandfather clauses
city managers – experts should run cities (unelected)
Varieties of Reform
(continued)
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Conservation Movement: against waste of natural
resources; national parks; preservation of wild areas
for production of masculine males
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Gifford Pinchot, conservationist: management of federal
lands for “the greatest good of the greatest number in the
long run” – managed use
John Muir, preservationist: preserve wild areas
T.Roosevelt, tended towards conservation, but also added
National Parks and wild areas to fed. lands
All of them were opposed by those who believed that
unused lands were wasted and that fed. govt. shouldn’t
control lands
Similarities between Populists
and Progressives
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Overlap: individuals, groups, some ideals
Part of long reform tradition, built on each other
Calls for increased government role in economy –
Why?
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Redistribute wealth = social/econ. Equality
Regulation or ownership of industry
Social programs
Racial equality
Women’s Rights, suffrage
Labor Question = min. wage; 8-hour day; right to join
unions
Many of these goals were NOT achieved during
Progressive Era, but continued to be on reform agenda
Modern America, Era of Hope?
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Progressive reformers – to believe in reform,
one has to have hope for change
New technologies = raised hopes for better
life, power and status of U.S.
U.S. involvement in WWI – Wilson’s ideals:
“to make world safe for democracy”
Radical hopes spurred by Russian
Revolution, then wartime economic controls
Freedom: women, leisure, increase in
consumer goods
World War I: Hope, Power, and
Despair
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Hopes – war would create better world and
nation
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War to spread democracy
Calls for Economic Democracy at home
Unity and Inclusion of women, blacks, and immigrants
(employment, service, war effort)
Calls for political and social democracy at home
 Women’s Suffrage
 African American Civil Rights
Increased government role in economy
 Nationalization of railroads
 Control of economy
 Guarantees to labor movement: fairness, conditions, pay
Hope: Unity & Inclusion during War
Hope: Unity & Inclusion
during War
Hope: Effect of War on Women
Hope: Effect of War on Women
The Home Front: Women’s
Suffrage
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Women used war to gain suffrage
National American Woman Suffrage Association
put 2 million members behind Wilson’s war effort
Alice Paul and National Womens Party picketed
White House to push for vote
Wilson started suffrage vote as a “war measure”
Start worldwide democracy movement at home
Aug. 26, 1920, TN was last vote in favor of
amendment
Hope: War Impact on Workers
Hope: Impact of War on Workers
WWI, The Home Front: Labor
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Labor’s position improved during war, although got less
than owners
Gompers participated in National Defense Advisory
Commission - official recognition for labor, place at table
National War Labor Board dictated 8-hour day, pay for
overtime, equal pay for women
One million growth of AFL during war, growth in stature
and respect for labor movement
Black, Mexican, and women workers gained industrial
positions, but lost them when war ended
Great Migration of black workers to the north and
industry
The Home Front:
Economic Democracy
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Efforts to use war and war rhetoric to fight for
progressive and labor causes
War should spread real democracy at home as
well as abroad
Democracy not just political; there should be
economic democracy too
Use expanded power of state to benefit workers
Keep controls on industry after war to ensure
good wages, employment, economic equality,
prevent depressions
Problems and Contradictions during
War and Modern Era
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Despite hopes of era and wartime, there were
continued problems and conflicts, even exacerbated
by war
Labor Question – strikes during and after war, part
of fight for economic democracy, but ultimately
unsuccessful
Forced Consensus
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Attacks on immigrants, radicals, labor
Woman Problem – contradictory expectations for
women
Mechanized Death – the role of
machines/industry/the system in control and
oppression
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American industrial might led to mass slaughter in Europe,
industrial accidents, control, and conflict within U.S.
The Home Front: AntiDemocratic Measures
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Question: How to get popular support for war? –
many opponents to war
Question: Does war effort require unanimous
support? Conformity?
Attempts to shape national unity
George Creel and wartime propaganda
1917 Wilson formed Committee on Public
Information to mold public opinion on war,
promote nationalizing ideology
Patriotic literature, 4-minute men to give
speeches
The Home Front:
Forced Consensus
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Creel & expectation of cultural conformity –
Get on board the war effort
Single definition of patriotism = Support for
War
American Protective League, a vigilante
group: 250,000 self-appointed agents to
weed out draft evaders and traitors
Attacks on leftists, pacifists, and immigrants
Problem: Forced Consensus/
100% Americanism
Problem: Forced Consensus/
100% Americanism
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Unity through conformity; fear of nonconformity
Ostracism or repression of feared immigrants: Germans
during war
Expectation of complete assimilation for immigrants
Espionage Act of 1917, Sedition Act of 1918: outlawed
disloyal speech, writing, and behavior
Crackdown on antiwar, socialists, leftists, Eugene Debs
Conviction of over one thousand people
Sept. 1917 arrest of 113 IWW leaders
Postwar Red Scare b/c of Russian Revolution, wartime
expectations of conformity, and postwar strike wave
The Home Front: Debs in Jail
Contradictory Expectations
for Women
Different and Contradictory
Expectations for the Modern Woman
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Different Roles or Symbols in Posters: women need
to be protected, women as symbol of liberty, women
as workers, women as patriots, women as
suspected spies, women as seductive/sexual
objects
Contradictory; tendency to stereotype
Fear of Women’s Changing Roles
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Fear of Women Spies
 Posters intended to set women’s roles in society
 Women=bad
 Women should contribute to war by being quiet
The Modern Woman
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Betty Boop as Symbol
of Modern Woman
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Fears:
Fear of Modern Woman
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Betty Boop as Symbol
of Modern Woman
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Fears: if Victorian roles
end, modern women
will become oversexed,
immoral; unintelligent
Realities: very few
flappers or women who
dressed or acted like
Betty Boop; many
women already worked
outside of home
(Victorian model
already untrue for many
women)
Fear and Anxiety of War and
Machine
WWI highlights fears of the
Machine Age/modernity
The German War Machine:
symbol of machine/
rationality, lack of human
emotion or values – robot
controlling people
Despair caused by WWI:
Mechanized/Industrial
Warfare = mass killing; War
was failure of humanity and
human values
Power and Control in the Machine
Age
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Fears of Industrial Society, the City, and
Machine Age: machines will control humans
Brooklyn Bridge in Manhatta, symbol of technology, urban life,
hopefulness of modern era
Skyscrapers in Manhatta, symbol of modern power, industrial
greatness, hope that American technology and power would result
in a better country and world
Conclusions
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Modern Age is contradictory age
Hopes and Fears of Modern Age
Hopes associated with reform and radical
movements, use of technology and/or state
power for social and economic good
Fears and Despair caused by change
Repression of immigrants and radicals –
forced to assimilate and conform
Despair caused by war and machines