Post WWI Issues
• Over production
• Increase unemployment
• Racism and fear of
outsiders
• League of Nations
divided the country
• Deal with issues at
home
Post WWI America
• Nativism – prejudice
against foreign-born
people
• Isolationism – staying
out of world issues
• Communism –
economic and political
system based on a
single-party gov ruled
by a dictatorship
• Anarchist – opposition
to any form of gov
Fear of Communism
The “Red Scare”
• 1919
• Red = Communism
• 70,000 ppl
• Laborers
• Spread wealth to everyone
Palmer Raids
• Hunted down communists,
socialists, and anarchists
• Violated rights
• Didn’t work
Nativism
“Keep America for
Americans”
Sacco and Vanzetti
• Italian Immigrants
• Anarchists
• Sentenced to death for
“robbery and murder”
• Little proof
Nativism
• Ku Klux Klan
– 4.5 million people by 1924
– Drive out immigrants
• Quota System
–
–
–
–
1921
Max. # of immigrants
150,000 per year
No Japanese
Isolationism
• G.B. & France had to pay
back U.S. for WWI
• Fordney-McCumber Tariff
– 60% on imports
– G.B. and France couldn’t
sell anything to U.S.
• Dawes Plan – Help
Europe get out of debt.
1. U.S. loaned Germany
$2.5 billion
2. Germany paid G.B. &
France
3. G.B. & France paid U.S.
Prohibition
• Alcohol Caused:
–
–
–
–
–
Corruption
Crime
Abuse
Accidents
Social Problems
• 18th Amendment
– Outlawed the manufacture,
sale, and transportation of
alcoholic beverages
– 1919
• Gov couldn’t enforce it
Elliot Ness- Head
Agent of the
Untouchables.
Incorruptible
Federal Agents.
Enforce
Prohibition.
Prohibition
• Speakeasies (quietly)
– Underground
– Hidden saloons/nightclubs
• Bootleggers
– Smuggler’s carrying liquor in
boots
– Canada, Cuba, West Indies
• Organized Crime
– Chicago: Al Capone
– $60 mil a year
• 21st Amendment
– Repealed Prohibition
– 1933
Science v. Religion
• Fundamentalism
– Protestant extremists
– Literal interpretation of
the Bible
– Skeptical of science
• Darwinism/Evolution
• Illegal to teach evolution
in Tennessee
– Biology teacher (Scopes)
did anyway
– Arrested
Science v. Religion
Scopes “Monkey” Trial
• Clarence Darrow
– Defense attorney
• William Jennings Bryan
– Prosecutor
• Should science or religion
be taught in school?
• July 10, 1925
• Scopes was found guilty
and fined $100
Women’s Suffrage
•
•
•
•
•
•
Organized
Local, State, Federal
Wide base of supporters
Cautious lobbying
Ladylike behavior
19th Amendment
– 1920
– Women’s right to vote
Women
• Flapper
– Emancipated young
woman
– New fashions
– Bobbed hair
• Double Standard
– Greater sexual freedom to
men than women
• Work and Leisure time
• Fewer children
• More equality
The “Roaring” 20s!
“The business of America is business”
Automobile
• Assembly Line
– One person does same
task over and over
• Opened up America
• Gas Stations, motels,
interstate system, etc
• Urban Sprawl
– Spreading cities
– Easier to travel
Airplane
• Charles Lindbergh
• Amelia Earhart
• Travel, Transportation
(goods/people)
Day to Day Life
• Average income
– Increased from $522 to $705
• Appliances
– Irons, Refrigerators, Cooking
ranges, Toasters
• Installment Plan
– Buying on credit
– Spent money they didn’t have
• Advertisement
– Billboards, Magazines
– Play on emotions
Cities
• “The” place to be!
• 2-5 mil people
– NYC largest
• Fast paced
• Became impersonal and
dangerous
Mass Communication
• More newspapers
– Literacy
• Reader’s Digest
• Radio
– Wider world
Art and Entertainment
• George Gershwin
– Composer
• Georgia O’Keeffe
– Painter
• Sinclair Lewis
– Writer
– Criticized materialism
• F. Scott Fitzgerald
– Writer
– “Jazz Age”
– Negative side of 1920s
• Ernest Hemingway
– Writer
– Criticized glorification of war
Harlem Renaissance
• Literary and artistic
movement
• Celebrate A.A.
• Harlem, NYC, NY
• “Black is beautiful”
Harlem Renaissance
• Great Migration
– 100s of 1,000s A.A.
moved North
“Thinkers”
• James Weldon Johnson
– NAACP
– A.A. rights
• Marcus Garvey
– Jamaican immigrant
– Build a separate society
Harlem Renaissance
Writers
• Claude McKay
– Jamaican immigrant
– Resist prejudice and
discrimination
– Black ghetto life
• Langston Hughes
– Poet
– Lives of working-class
A.A.
Harlem Renaissance
Performers
• Paul Robeson
– Son of a slave
– Actor
– Moved to Soviet Union
• Louis Armstrong
– Jazz singer
– “scat”
• “Duke” Ellington
– Jazz pianist
– “scat”
• Bessie Smith
– Female blues singer
Struggling Agriculture
During WWI
• High demand
– Increased price
After WWI
• Low demand
– Too much extra
– Decreased price
• Farmers were broke
Decrease in Spending
Late 1920s
• Buying Less
• Rising Prices
• Stagnant (unchanging)
Wages
• Overbuying on Credit
• Huge gap between
super wealthy and
average American
1928 Election
Herbert Hoover
• Keep the Prosperity!
• Did little to help the
economy
The Stock Market
• Stock – share “piece” of
a company
• Stock Market – buying
& selling stocks
• Buy low (cheap) and sell
high (expensive)
– Earn money
Stock Problems
• Speculation – buying A
LOT of stocks then
selling individually
– Hope for a quick profit
– Buy A LOT  increases
price
– Sell  make profit
• Buying on Margin –
buying stocks with small
% of personal $ and
borrowing $ from bank
to pay for remainder
– Pay back with $ earned
from stock
The Crash
“Black Tuesday”
• October 29, 1929
• Stock prices plummeted
– 16.4 million shares
(stocks) sold
• People lost $
• Margin buyers – didn’t
have $ to pay back
Panic!
After 1929 Crash
• Americans panicked
• Withdrew $ from banks
• Banks lost all the $ they
invested in the Stock
Market
– Didn’t have $ to give
people
• 1929 – 600 banks closed
• By 1933 – 11,000 of
25,000
Great Depression
Causes
• Tariffs & War Debt
• Low demand for goods
• Farm Crisis
• Credit
• Wealth Gap
Great Depression
• 1929-1940
• National production
decreased 50%
– $104-$59 billion
• 90,000 bankrupt
businesses
• Unemployment
increased
– 1929- 3%
– 1933- 25%
Great Depression
•
•
•
•
Homelessness
Hunger
Unemployment
Hoovervilles
–
–
–
–
Shantytowns
Shacks build out of scrap
100s-1,000s of people
Named after Pres. Hoover
• “Let it be”
• Did nothing
Great Depression
• Soup Kitchens
– Provided free or low cost
food
– Charity organizations
• Bread Lines
– Lines of people waiting for
food
• Hoboes
–
–
–
–
Poor drifters
Hitched rides on Railroads
Teenagers
Some fathers/husbands who
couldn’t provide for families
– 50,000 hurt or killed
Great Depression
Rural Life
• Some farmers grew
food for families
• ½ million lost their land
– Foreclosures
• Tenant farming
• Faced a devastating
drought
– Dust Bowl
Dust Bowl
• Early 1930s
• Great Plains area
– Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas,
New Mexico, Colorado
• Huge dust storms
– Dust traveled 100s of miles
– All the way to the East Coast
• Crops turned to dust = no
food
• Fields blown away
• Many farmers migrated to
California
Effects of Great Depression
•
•
•
•
•
Suicide increased 30%
Alcoholism
Mental hospitals
Kindness to strangers
Savings & Thriftiness
President Hoover
Boulder (Hoover) Dam
• $700 mil
• World’s tallest
• Electricity
• Flood Control
• Water
Federal Farm Board
• Farm aid
Federal Home Loan Bank Act
• Homes and Businesses
Few others
Bonus Army
• 1932
• 15,000 WWI veterans
• Demanded bonus pay
– NOW!
– Payable 1945
• Hoover –
– “communists and
criminals”
– “go home!”
FDR
• Franklin Delano
Roosevelt
– Elected 1932
• New Deal
– Relief for needy
– Economic recovery
– Financial reform
• FDR’s Fireside Chats
– Radio talks about issues
of public concern
– Clear, simple language
New Deal – 1st 100 Days!
• Glass-Steagall Act (1933)
– Federal Deposit Insurance
Corporation (FDIC)
• Federal insurance for bank
accounts
• Up to $5,000
• Federal Securities Act (1933)
– Held companies responsible for
all stocks sold
• Securities & Exchange
Commission (SEC) (1934)
– Regulated the stock market
– Prevented “rigging”
– Inside information
New Deal – 1st 100 Days!
• Agricultural Adjustment
Act (AAA)
– Raise prices
– Decrease production
• Tennessee Valley
Authority (TVA)
–
–
–
–
–
Fix 5 existing dams
Build 20 new
1,000s of jobs
Flood control
Power
New Deal
• Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC)
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
Men
18-25
Infrastructure
Parks/Planting trees
Environment protection
3 mil. men
$30 month
• National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA)
– Public Works Administration
– $ for schools
• Civil Works Administration (CWA)
– 4 mil jobs
– Schools (40,000)
– Roads (1/2 mil. Miles)
New Deal
• National Recovery
Administration (NRA)
– Standardized prices
– Lower unemployment
• Home Owners Loan
Corporation (HOLC)
– Gov’t loans for foreclosures
• National Housing Act
– Federal Housing
Administration (FHA)
• Loans for homes
– Federal Emergency Relief
Administration (FERA)
• $500 mil for direct relief
Criticism
• Deficit Spending
– Gov’t spending $ so
Americans can earn $
• Liberals – not enough
action
• Conservatives – too much
action
• NIRA and AAA were
repealed
• Huey Long
– Senator from L.A.
– Challenged New Deal
Programs