Whenever a dominate culture believes it is under
attack, it will respond with measures it hopes will
protect its fundamental values. The America of the
1920 was no exception to this rule.
The Roaring 1920s—Swingin’!!!!!
 First shopping mall built
 First fast food chain, A&W Root




Beer
Appliances all the rage—radios,
washing machines, telephones,
cars
Companies spend $1.5 billion on
advertising in 1927
Ford built his automobile empire
People began to buy things on
credit
What was the character of the United States
during the first two decades of the 20th century?
 The “New Immigration” caused




great concerns and conflict.
In 1882 Chinese were barred
from entering the US
In 1908, under the “Gentlemen’s
Agreement,” Japanese
immigration was restricted.
In 1917 a literacy test was
established for immigrants
Between 1921 and 1924 quota
systems were established
favoring immigrants from
northern and western Europe
The Jazz Age



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
The 1920s was the Jazz Age and one of the
most popular past-times for flappers was
dancing.
Dances such as the Charleston, Black Bottom,
and the Shimmy were considered "wild" by
older generations.
For the first time since the train and the
bicycle, a new form of faster transportation
was becoming popular.
Henry Ford’s innovations were making the
automobile an accessible commodity to the
people.
Cars were fast and risky - perfect for the
flapper attitude.
Flappers not only insisted on riding in them;
they drove them.
Breaking the Victorian Image of
Womanhood!
 In the 1920s, flappers broke away from
the Victorian image of womanhood.
 They dropped the corset, chopped their
hair, dropped layers of clothing to
increase ease of movement, wore makeup, created the concept of dating, and
became a sexual person.
 They created what many consider the
"new" or "modern" woman
.
Contrast the women in these two drawings.
 Victorian Woman
Jazz Age Woman
Roaring Twenties Slang
 Bee's Knees - An extraordinary person, thing, idea
 Berries - is attractive or pleasing; similar to bee's knees, As in "It's the berries."
 Big Cheese - The most important or influential person.
 Carry a Torch - To have a crush on someone
 Cat's Meow - Something splendid or stylish
 Cheaters - Eyeglasses
 Crush - An infatuation
 Dogs - feet
 Drugstore Cowboy - a guy that hangs around on a street corner trying to pick up girls
 Flat Tire - A dull insipid, disappointing date. Same as pill, pickle, drag, rag, oilcan
 Take for a Ride -To drive off with someone in order to bump them off
 Torpedo - A hired gun
The Ford Motorcar

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In 1913, the 50-year-old Ford had revolutionized
American manufacturing by introducing the automated
assembly line.
By using conveyor belts to bring automobile parts to
workers, he reduced the assembly time for a Ford car
from 12 ½ hours in 1912 to just 1 ½ hours in 1914.
Declining production costs allowed Ford to cut
automobile prices--six times between 1921 and 1925.
The cost of a new Ford was reduced to just $290.
This amount was less than three months wages for an
average American worker; it made cars affordable for the
average family.
To lower employee turnover and raise productivity, Ford
introduced a minimum wage of $5 in 1914--twice what
most workers earned--and shortened the workday from
nine hours to eight hours.
Twelve years later, Ford reduced his work week from six
days to five days.
Resurfacing of KKK
 After the Civil War, the Ku Klux Klan, led
by former Confederate General Nathaniel
Bedford Forrest, used terrorist tactics to
intimidate former slaves.
 A new version of the Ku Klux Klan arose
during the early 1920s.
 Roman Catholics, Jews, African Americans,
and foreigners were only the most obvious
targets of the Klan's fear-mongering.
 Bootleggers and divorcees were also
targets. The Klan efforts were directed
against African Americans, Jews, Catholics,
and immigrants.
The Birth of a Nation
 During the early 1920s, the Klan
helped elect 16 U.S. Senators and
many Representatives and local
officials.
 By 1924, when the Klan had
reached its peak in numbers and
influence, it claimed to control
24 of the nation's 48 state
legislatures.
 That year it succeeded in
blocking the nomination of Al
Smith, a New York Catholic, at
the Democratic National
Convention.
Woodrow Wilson’s Connection

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
The leader of Indiana's Klan was David Curtis
Stephenson, a Texan
Given control of the Klan in Indiana in 1922
and the right to organize in 20 other states, he
soon became a millionaire from the sale of
robes and hoods.
A public defender of Prohibition and
womanhood, Stephenson was, in private, a
heavy drinker and a womanizer.
In 1925 he was tried, convicted, and sentenced
to life in prison for kidnapping and sexually
assaulting 28-year-old Madge Oberholtzer,
who ran a state program to combat illiteracy.
Stephenson's downfall was followed by the
indictment and prosecution of many Klansupported politicians on corruption charges,
led members to abandon the organization in
droves.
Within a year, the number of Klansmen in
Indiana fell from 350,000 to 15,000.
This Red Scare foreshadowed the Red Scare of the 1950s and
illustrates the fear of Communism that permeated America
 The success of the 1917




Communist revolution in
Russia,
increased immigration,
the desire to use the fear of
radicals to gain political power
by some politicians (especially
Attorney General A. Mitchell
Palmer)
and post World War I labor
unrest
all helped cause the Red Scare
The economic and political policies of the
Republican party in the 1920s illustrate the
cultural conflicts of the decade.
1920
 Bubonic Plague in India
 First Commercial Radio
Broadcast Aired
 League of Nations Established
 Prohibition Begins in US
 Women Granted the Right to
Vote in U.S.
"Americans can have any kind of car they want, and any color
they want, as long as it's a Ford, and as long as it's black."
 Alongside the automobile, the
telephone and electricity also
became emblems of the consumer
economy.
 By 1930, two-thirds of all American
households had electricity, and
half of American households had
telephones.
 As more and more of America's
homes received electricity, new
appliances followed: refrigerators,
washing machines, vacuum
cleaners, and toasters quickly took
hold.
Assembly line production of Ford cars at the Ford "Rouge Plant"
Copyright 1997 State Historical Society of Wisconsin
The Consumer Economy
 Advertisers claimed that "labor saving"
appliances would ease the sheer physical
drudgery of housework, but they did not
shorten the average housewife's work
week.
 Women had to do more because
standards of cleanliness kept rising.
 Sheets had to be changed weekly; the
house had to be vacuumed daily.

In short, social pressure expanded
household chores to keep pace with the
new technology. Far from liberating
women, appliances imposed new
standards of cleanliness.
 Herbert Cecil Bush, a British
engineer, received a British patent
for a vacuum cleaner on August 30th
1901 and took the form of a large,
horse-drawn, petrol-driven unit
which was parked outside the
building to be cleaned with long
hoses being fed through the
windows.
President Harding’s pjs
Mrs. Coolidge’s ball gown
 Ready-to-wear clothing was another
important innovation in America's
expanding consumer economy
 . During World War I, the federal
government defined standard
clothing sizes to help the nation's
garment industry meet the demand
for military uniforms.
 Standard sizes meant that it was
now possible to mass produce
ready-to-wear clothing.
 Since there was no copyright on
clothing designs until the 1950s,
garment manufacturers could pirate
European fashions and reproduce
them using less expensive fabrics.
Eating Habits also Changed
 Even the public's eating habits underwent




far-reaching shifts.
The most striking development was the
shift toward processed foods.
Instead of preparing food from scratch at
home (plucking chickens, roasting nuts, or
grinding coffee beans), an increasing
number of Americans purchased foods that
were ready-to-cook.
Processed foods saved homemakers
enormous amounts of time in peeling,
grinding, and cutting.
To stimulate sales and increase profits,
businesses expanded advertising, offered
installment credit, and created the nation's
first regional and national chains.
The Chain Store
Movement
 During the 1920s, the chain store
movement revolutionized retailing.

Chains of stores multiplied across
the country, like Woolworth's, the
five-and-dime chain.
 The largest grocery chain, A&P, had
17,500 stores by 1928.
 Alongside drugstore and cigar store
chains, there were also interlocking
networks of banks and utility
companies.
Harlem Renaissance Begins
 African-American literature, art, music, dance,
and social commentary began to flourish in
Harlem, a section of New York City.
 This African-American cultural movement
became known as "The New Negro Movement"
and later as the Harlem Renaissance.
 African-Americans were encouraged to celebrate
their heritage.
 The main factors contributing to the
development of the Harlem Renaissance were
African-American urban migration, trends
toward experimentation throughout the country,
and the rise of radical African-American
intellectuals.
 The Harlem Renaissance transformed AfricanAmerican identity and history, but it also
transformed American culture in general. Never
before had so many Americans read the
thoughts of African-Americans and embraced
the African-American community's productions,
expressions, and style.
Dream Deferred
Dream Deferred
What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore-and then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over-like a syrupy sweet?
Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.
Or does it explode?
1921-1922 - 1923
 Extreme Inflation in Germany
 Mussolini Marches on Rome
 Charleston Dance becomes popular

While it developed in African-American
communities in the USA, the Charleston
became a popular dance craze in the wider
international community in the 1920s. Despite
its black history, Charleston is most frequently
associated with white flappers and the
speakeasy. Here, these young women would
dance alone or together as a way of mocking
the "drys," or citizens who supported the
Prohibition amendment, as Charleston was
then considered quite immoral and
provocative.
 Hitler Jailed After Failed Coup
 Talking Movies Invented
 Time Magazine Founded
Teapot Dome Scandal
 In 1922, Albert Fall, Secretary in the
Department of the Interior leased
the rights to the oil to Sinclair Oil.
 Fall also leased the Naval oil
reserves at Elk Hills, California, to
Pan American Petroleum in
exchange for personal loans at no
interest.
 In return for leasing these oil fields
to the respective oil magnates, Fall
received gifts from the oilmen
totaling about $404,000.
Albert Fall first cabinet member to
go to prison
 It was this money changing
hands that was illegal—not the
leasing. Fall attempted to keep
his actions secret, but the
sudden improvement in his
standard of living prompted
speculation.
 Albert Fall was found guilty of
bribery in 1929, fined $100,000
and sentenced to one year in
prison, making him the first
Presidential cabinet member to
go to prison for his actions in
office.
1924
J. Edgar Hoover
 First Olympic Winter
Games
 J. Edgar Hoover
Appointed FBI Director
 Leopold and Loeb
Murder a Neighbor Out
of Boredom
 V.I. Lenin Dies
Became special assistant to Attorney
General A. Mitchell Palmer
He oversaw the mass roundups and
deportations of suspected Bolsheviks
(communists) after World War I.
Director of FBI
1924-1978
The Truth About Hoover?
 Hoover's hatred of radicals of every kind led him
to aggressively investigate both the Ku Klux Klan
and Martin Luther King, Jr., and other black
activists in the 1960s.

At the same time, he maintained a hands-off
policy toward the Mafia, which was allowed to
conduct its operations nationwide practically free
of FBI scrutiny or interference.
 Hoover habitually used the FBI's enormous
surveillance and information-gathering powers to
collect damaging information on politicians
throughout the country, and he kept the most
scurrilous data under his own personal control.
 He used his possession of these secret files to
maintain himself as the FBI's director and was
apparently able to intimidate even sitting
presidents by threatening to leak damaging
disclosures about them.
http://concise.britannica.com/new-multimedia/wmv/hoovej002.wmv
The murder was the first "Crime of the Century."
 In 1924, two teenagers with every social
advantage kidnapped, killed, and
mutilated a 14-year-old neighbor.
 Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb came
from highly privileged Chicago families.
 At age 19, Leopold was already a
University of Chicago graduate and
spoke 14 languages.
 Richard, just 18 years old, was the
youngest graduate in the history of the
University of Michigan.
 Leopold would describe the two as evil
geniuses who were above ordinary
standards of morality.
 Theirs was a thrill killing, which
included various sexual perversions with
their victim's body; they even mutilated
the boy's genitals with acid.
 Yet Leopold and Loeb were not executed.
Clarence Darrow, Defense Attorney
 Their defender, attorney
Clarence Darrow, introduced
the psychiatric defense into the
legal system.
 He claimed that the youths had
been sexually abused by their
governess and scarred by
feelings of physical inferiority.
 He maintained that Leopold
had been traumatized by his
mother's death, and that Loeb
had been pushed into extreme
academic overachievement.
 In addition, Leopold and Loeb
had indulged in extreme sexual
fantasies.
 Darrow also succeeded in
putting the morality of the
death penalty on trial.
 He acknowledged his clients'
guilt and admonished the
audience to hate the sin but not
the sinner. He succeeded in
persuading the judge to give the
two murderers life sentences.
 After the sentence Richard Loeb
and Nathan Leopold were
moved to the Joliet penitentiary.
 In 1936, Loeb was killed with a
razor in a fight with another
inmate who was later acquitted
of the murder.
 Nathan Leopold died of a heart
attack at the age of 66 on August
30, 1971.
Questioned
Morality of Death
Penalty
1925-1926
 Flapper Dresses in Style
 Hitler Publishes Mein Kampf
 The Scopes (Monkey) Trial
 1926 A.A. Milne Publishes Winniethe-Pooh
 Houdini Dies After Being Punched
 Robert Goddard Fires His First
Liquid-Fuel Rocket
 A Woman Swims the English
Channel
Scopes Monkey Trial
 In a Dayton,
Tennessee courtroom
in the summer of
1925 a jury was to
decide the fate of
John Scopes, a high
school biology
teacher charged with
illegally teaching the
theory of evolution.
1927
 Babe Ruth Makes Home-Run

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
Record
BBC Founded
The First Talking Movie, The
Jazz Singer
Lindbergh Flies Solo Across the
Atlantic
Sacco and Venzetti Executed
 The case of Nicola Sacco, a 32-year-old

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
shoemaker, and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, a
29-year-old fish peddler, who were
accused of double murder.
On April 15, 1920, a paymaster and a
payroll guard carrying a factory payroll
of $15,776 were shot to death during a
robbery in Braintree, Massachusetts,
near Boston.
About three weeks later, Sacco and
Vanzetti were charged with the crime.
Their trial aroused intense controversy
because it was widely believed that the
evidence against the men was flimsy,
and that they were being prosecuted
for their immigrant background and
their radical political beliefs.
Sacco and Vanzetti were Italian
immigrants and avowed anarchists who
advocated the violent overthrow of
capitalism.
Nicola Sacco
and
Bartolomeo Vanzetti
Anarchists and Immigrants

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

No witnesses had gotten a good look
at the perpetrators of the murder and
robbery.
Sacco and Vanzetti were followers of
Luigi Galleani, a radical Italian
anarchist who had instigated a wave
of bombings against public officials
just after World War I.
Carlo Valdinoci, a close associate of
Galleani, had blown himself up while
trying to plant a bomb at Attorney
General Palmer's house.
Palmer's house was largely destroyed;
the powerful blast hurled several
neighbors from their beds in nearby
homes.
Though not injured, Palmer and his
family were thoroughly shaken by the
blast.

The Trial Was a Sham

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After the incident Sacco and Vanzetti
acted nervously, and the arresting officer
testified that Sacco and Vanzetti were
reaching for weapons when they were
apprehended. But neither man had a
criminal record. Plus, a criminal gang
had been carrying out a string of armed
robberies in Massachusetts and Rhode
Island.
In 1921, Sacco and Vanzetti were
convicted in a trial that was marred by
prejudice against Italians, immigrants,
and radical beliefs.
The trial was a sham.
The men were kept in an iron cage
during the trial.
The jury foreman muttered unflattering
stereotypes about Italians. In his
instructions to the jury, the presiding
judge urged the jury to remember their
"true American citizenship."
The pair was electrocuted in 1927.
1928
 1928 Bubble Gum Invented
 First Mickey Mouse Cartoon
 First Oxford English Dictionary
Published
 Kellogg-Briand Treaty Outlaws War

Penicillin
Discovered
Steamboat Willie
1929
 Byrd and Bennett Fly Over South Pole
 Car Radio Invented
 New York Stock Market Crashes
 St. Valentine's Day Massacre
One February evening in North Chicago, seven welldressed men were found riddled with bullets inside the
S.M.C Cartage Co. garage.
 They had been lined up against a wall, with their backs
to their executioners and shot to death.
 With the exception of Dr. Reinhardt H. Schwimmer
these men were mobsters working under the leadership
of gangster and bootlegger, "Bugs" Moran.
 Within a few seconds, while staring at a bare brick wall,
these seven men had become a part of Valentine's Day
history: the St. Valentine's Day Massacre.

Spirit of St. Louis
 Lindbergh comes home!
President Calvin Coolidge delivers a
speech to honor him and his
achievement.
 Up until May 1927, no human being
had ever crossed the great divide
that separates the North American
and European continents in an
airplane non-stop.
 Charles Lindbergh was the first to
do it!
 Though today the span is traversed
countless times every day,
Lindbergh stands tall as one of the
heroes of aviation!
The Roaring 1920s—
Swingin’!!!!!
 Business Booms
 First shopping mall built
 First fast food chain, A&W Root

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
Beer
Appliances all the rage—radios,
washing machines, telephones,
cars
Companies spend $1.5 billion on
advertising in 1927
Ford built his automobile
empire
People began to buy things on
credit
The Economy of the Late 1920s
Income Distribution, 1929
 “Everybody ought to be

1
5

29
65
$10,000 and Over
$5,000-$9,999

$2,000-$4,999
$1,999 and under 
rich”
200 large companies
controlled 49% of all
American industry
Too many goods, not
enough demand
Farm prices fell after
WWI
Farmers not able to
repay their debts
The Stock Market Crash
 Stocks hit all-time highs in September of 1929
 In October, stocks began to fall
 Ex. General Electric stocks bought for $400 sold for
$283
 Black Tuesday—16.4 million shares sold, compared to
average of 4 million
 This collapse of the stock market is known as the
Great Crash
Why did the market crash?
 Many people bought stocks on margin—like a loan
 Companies lied about their profits—remember Enron?
 Economies like ours go through natural “boom” and “bust” cycles
 Republican Presidents believed in laissez faire—no control on
businesses
 Stock market was not regulated by government
Laissez-Faire
 You might be wondering at this point, why didn't
they do anything about it if they knew a collapse
was imminent?
 There was a policy which many world governments
followed, including the Coolidge administration,
known as laissez-faire.
 Laissez-faire roughly translated means 'let things
be'. It is an old economic term to describe a
government policy of non-intervention.
 It was this policy that allowed the speculation
bubble to grow unchecked.
“I’m in The Market for You”
 Here is a song by George Olsen and his
Music called
 "I'm In The Market For You"
 I'll have to see my broker
 Find out what he can do.
 'Cause I'm in the market for you.
 There won't be any joker,
 With margin I'm all through.
 'Cause I want you outright it's true.
 You're going up, up ,up in my estimation.
 I want a thousand shares of your caresses
too.
 We'll count the hugs and kisses,
 When dividends are due,
 'Cause I'm in the market for you.
 George Olsen and His Music
 I'm In The Market For You
So how can you lose on this?
 What made the market popular was the fact that you could go to a

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




broker and purchase stock on margin.
What this means is that instead of buying your stocks with the money
you have, you could purchase them with cash down and the rest on
credit.
Not a bad deal, especially when the collateral is your ownership of the
stock.
For example, let's say you want 100 shares of Red Wagon stock.
The cost for 100 shares is say $15000. You put down 10% and make
monthly payments. Jones down the street is doing the same thing, as is
Johnson, Wilson, and Douglas.
All this purchase of stock is pushing up the price.
Now 100 shares of Red Wagon co. is worth $20000. In essence, you are
paying off what you owe on the stock by its increase in value.
So how can you lose on this?
The
Stock
Market
Crash
Stocks hit all-time highs in





September of 1929
In October, stocks began to
fall
Ex. General Electric stocks
bought for $400 sold for $283
Black Tuesday—16.4 million
shares sold, compared to
average of 4 million
This collapse of the stock
market is known as the Great
Crash
When Did it Really Begin?
 It began on Thursday,
October 24, 1929.
12,894,650 shares
changed hands on the
New York Stock
Exchange-a record.
Why did the market crash?
 Many people bought stocks
on margin—like a loan
 Companies lied about their
profits—remember Enron?
 MARKET Economies go
through natural “boom”
and “bust” cycles
Who Were the Republican
Presidents?
 Republican Presidents
believed in laissez faire—
no control on businesses
 Stock market was not
regulated by government
The Stock Market Crash
From Riches to Ruin
 Many wealthy families lost
everything
 Some even committed suicide
 Millions of people who never
owned a single stock lost their
jobs, farms and homes
 The crash triggered a much wider,
long term crisis known as the
Great Depression
 The Depression lasted from 1929
to 1941 when America entered
WWII
 The Depression had a ripple effect
that hurt the economies of other
countries
Unemployed (in millions)
Unemployment 1925-1933
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932
Year
Year
1933
1932
1931
1930
1929
1928
1927
1926
1925
Price per Bushel (in
dollars)
Wheat Prices 1925-1933
2
1.5
1
0.5
0
Average Montly Value $
Stock Prices 1925-1933
Great Crash
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 1933
Year
Question 5: What was the average stock value in 1929? 1932?
Number of Suspensions (in
thousands)
Bank Suspensions 1925-1933
5
4
3
2
1
0
1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 1933
Year
The Dust Bowl
Where was it?
 The Great
Plains region—
N. & S. Dakota,
Nebraska,
Colorado,
Kansas
Oklahoma and
northern Texas
What Caused the Dust Bowl?
 Farmers plow the plains,




eliminating the
protective layer of grass
Wheat replaces grass—
tractors make it much
easier
Severe drought
High winds
Layers of top soil blown
away, leaving dunes of
grit and sand
A father and his two sons seek shelter
from a dust storm
Sand covering a farm after a
dust storm
An abandoned farm in Kansas.
A family in a “lean-to” tent
Another mother and her child
living in a lean-to tent
Unemployed (in millions)
Unemployment 1925-1933
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932
Year
Question 3: How many people were
unemployed in 1925? In 1929? In 1932?
2
1.5
1
0.5
1933
1932
1931
1930
1929
1928
1927
1926
0
1925
Price per Bushel (in
dollars)
Wheat Prices 1925-1933
Year
Question 4: How much did a bushel of wheat cost in 1925?1932?
Average Montly Value $
Stock Prices 1925-1933
Great Crash
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 1933
Year
Question 5: What was the average stock value in 1929? 1932?
Number of Suspensions (in
thousands)
Bank Suspensions 1925-1933
5
4
3
2
1
0
1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 1933
Year
Question 6:How many banks were suspended in 1925? In 1933?
A Dust Storm in Eastern Colorado
Another Dust Storm
A father and his two sons seek
shelter from a dust storm
Sand covering a farm
after a dust storm
An abandoned farm in
Kansas.
 The Great Plains





region—N. & S. Dakota,
Nebraska, Colorado,
Kansas Oklahoma and
northern Texas
Farmers plow the plains,
eliminating the
protective layer of grass
Wheat replaces grass—
tractors make it much
easier
Severe drought
High winds
Layers of top soil blown
away, leaving dunes of
grit and sand
The Dust Bowl
 Where was it?
 What Caused it?
A family in a “lean-to” tent
Another mother and her child
living in a lean-to tent