Key Terms (page 642-657)
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 The New Economy
 Technology and Economic Growth
 After the first few years of the recession the economy began to grow in
exports which brought in more income for the U.S.; this growth was a result of
the European declining industries and economy after World War 1
 Development of communication, transportation and electronic/appliances like
the radio and early computers
 The radio was invented in 1920 when Reginald Fessenden discovered the
theory of modulation which is also how the transmission of video signals and
radar became possible.
 The first analog computer which was considered capable of performing a
variety of complicated tasks was designed by researchers at MIT in the 1930s
led by Vannevar Bush
 Economic Organization
 Industries like the steel company were still very prosperous and also
continued to improve their corporate management style
 Industrialists greatly feared the possibility of over-production and were afraid
that there would be a result of inflation leading to recessions like ones in
1893, 1907 and 1920
 Labor in the New Era
 “Welfare capitalism”: gave workers more rights, improved their safety and
liability for injuries, increased wages to prevent having to deal with labor
unrest and growth of unions. This system would work if the industry was
continuously making money but it failed in 1929. Although the conditions and
wages improved due to welfare capitalism it only helped few employees,
many were still living in poverty and had little power/rights
 Women and Minorities in the Work Force
 “pink collar” jobs were usually given to women because they were paid very
little money and were rarely recognized by unions
 most of the unskilled workers in the west and southwest were Hispanics and
Mexicans
 after the great migration in 1814 many of the African Americans in the
northern cities were excluded from labor unions
 A. Philip Randolph founded the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters which
was a union for all black laborers where they could receive increased wages
and benefits that others had in typical unions, however African Americans
were often excluded from others so they started their own
 The American Plan
 The idea of open shop was that workers did not have to join the unions (also
known as the “American Plan”)
 Agricultural Technology and the Plight of the Farmer
 Mechanized farming: the amount of tractors, combustion engines, and steam
engines had quadrupled during the 1920s which meant more crops were
produced with less workers needed so there was overproduction of crops and
a decrease in food prices
 Farmers encourages “parity” which was when the government would step in
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to regulate the prices of crops and would ensure that farmers are reimbursed
if the goods are sold for less than its value
McNary – Haugen Bill was introduced by Congress but vetoed by Coolidge
which proposed that there would be tariffs on foreign goods and government
commitment of purchasing goods at parity
 The New Culture
 Consumerism
 The population of consumers greatly increased due to the growth of industries
leaving more people, typically those in the middle/working class, to have more
money for buy other things like appliances and fashion
 The invention of the automobile had a great impact on society. It allowed
many people living in the crowded urban areas to escape into the less
populated cities as well as increasing the rate of traveling
 Advertising
 Most successful book in the 1920s was The Man Nobody Knows by advertising
executive Bruce Barton which described Jesus as a salesman
 The increase in the advertising industry quickly boomed because of the
techniques of advertisers and publicists as well as the help of newspaper and
mass-circulating magazines
 Movies and Broadcasting
 Watching films became a more popular activity amongst American in the
1920s rather than the 1930s where the numbers jumped from 40 million to
100 million
 conflict came up about the content that was shown which led to the creation
of the Motion Picture Association, a trade association led by Will Hays, where
they would review all movies to make sure it will not offend viewers
 the first commercial broadcasting radio network KDKA formed in Pittsburgh
leading to the first national network, the National Broadcasting Company
 Modernist Religion
 With the new emphasis on changes in culture for consumers there were lots
of influences for abandoning the old traditions and instead doing new and
what was then considered more popular activities for example many people
used to be very faithful to religion and with the surge of new cultures religion
had become a secondary role for some people
 A liberal Protestantism spokesman, Harry Emerson Fosdick, wrote a book
called Abundant Religion arguing that religion is the main part of a person’s
life and that people should be faithful to the traditional messages
 Professional Women
 Due to the struggle between having a career and taking care of the family, of
the women that did work many were middle class workers who often had
careers in the more “feminine” fields of profession like education, fashion,
nursing, and social work
 Changing Ideas of Motherhood
 The idea that maternal affection was not adequate in preparing for child
rearing but instead it should be up to doctors, nurses, and educators
 “Companionate marriages”: where middle class women would focus more on
clothing, cosmetics, devoting more time to their husband’s social life and also
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becoming less willing to take care of children
 Birth control: the American birth control movement was led by Margaret
Sanger who had been influenced by a Russian radical named Emma Goldman
who also protested that it could be a solution for working class women with
the belief that large families were the main cause of poverty
The Flapper: Image and Reality
 Women were starting to believe that they did not have to uphold the Victorian
female role and that it was okay to express themselves through behavior and
dress
Pressing for Women’s Rights
 League of Women Voters was created with the help of female dominated
consumer groups that had helped to increase the efforts
 Resulted in Congress passing the Sheppard-Towner Act in 1921 which would
keep alive the traditional goal of female “protective” legislation
Education and Youth
 With the growing emphasis on training and expertise the rates of Americans
attending high school and college were exceedingly high
 The increase in the importance of education also sprung a new idea that was
widely accepted in to culture which was youth/adolescence, a period of time
In your life that had become a distinct period of time
The Decline of the “Self-Made Man”
 The idea of the self-made man had decline when the concept that without
education and training you would not be successful had become popular, it
quickly overpowered the traditional concept that all you needed was hard
work and natural talent
 heroes of the New Era: Thomas Edison, invented the light bulb, Heny Ford,
invented the first car, and Charles Lindbergh, invented the first aviator to fly
across the Atlantic Ocean
The Disenchanted
 Ernest Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms critiqued the contempt of the end of
the war; other critics included H.L. Mencken and Sinclair Lewis
 At the end of World War 1 many had been shattered by the experience of the
war, whether they had fought or not, because the emphasis of Wilsonian
idealism was “business as usual” and growing emphasis of materialism and
consumerism had influenced many to believe that there was nothing gained
from the war
The Harlem Renaissance
 “Harlem Renaissance” was the spread of night clubs where many jazz
musicians like duke Ellington, Jelly Roll Morton, Fletcher Henderson and many
others had become famous. This also included the spread of theatres for
musical comedies and vaudeville acts