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AP U.S. History, Chapter 24 “A New Era,” STUDY GUIDE
Where are we at, circa 1920? After World War I, what is the condition of the United States?
that to the U.S. in 1784, 1817, 1866: economic slump … and then, then what?
Compare
The Roaring Economy
____ - ____ average incomes
climb nearly $150
____ - ____ the cost of a tire and
inner tube falls 50%
____ - Oregon, N. Mexico,
Colorado tax gasoline
____- Ford Model Ts roll off
assembly line every 10 seconds
(no date) Ford institutes “Five Dollar Day”
(what is it?)
(workers’ reactions)
____ - _____ 8,000 firms disappeared into larger
firm
(three results)
____ The “American Plan” is
launched
____ The Gastonia Strike
The Consumer Culture (what is it?)
(impact on use of Credit)
For discussion: who enjoyed the roaring economy: capital, labor, farming, consumers … none of them?
All of them?
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A Mass Society
Cause: World War I spurs the “new
woman”
(how?)
Results for
Labor force:
Women’s careers:
Women’s politics:
(during the decade)
American Birth Control
League
Social outcomes:
Sheppard-Towner Federal Maternity & Infancy Act: (Date and define)
Equal Rights Amendment: (Date and Define, even though it didn’t pass)
For discussion: How do these developments support Davidson’s subtitle of “A New Woman”? What was so
new?
By ____ more than 20,000 movie
houses offered lavish
entertainment
____ “The air is your theater,
your college, your newspaper,
your library…”
The social outcomes / significance of this
technology were:
1)
2)
3)
By ______ 55 giant newspaper
chains reached a circulation of 13
million.
For discussion: What do these developments tell us about U.S. “mass media” in the 1920s?
Date, Author, Title, description
____ T.S. Eliot The Waste Land:
____ Ernest Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises and ___ A Farewell to
Arms:
____ Sinclair Lewis, Main Street and Babbit:
____ F. Scott Fitzgerald This Side of Paradise:
For discussion: Davidson says that ‘young writers had begun to rebel against Victorianism” and that “the
savagery of the war drove them away from reason or progress.” Choose two of these and tell me how
they show this trend.
_____ Universal Negro
Improvement Association formed
Harlem becomes a cultural
capital of Black America
This ‘movement’ was called the: ______________________________
Examples:
1) Claude McKay:
2) Aaron Douglas:
3) Langston Hughes:
4) Zora Neale Hurston:
For discussion: Race, gender, literature: how would you characterize Davidson’s “A Mass Society”?
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Defenders of the Faith
“Foul pictures, corrupt
literature, leprous shows,
gambling slot machines,
saloons, and Sabbath
breaking … we are trying
to raise saints in hell.”
“a hybrid race of people as
worthless and futile as the
good-for-nothing mongrels
of Central America and
Southeastern Europe”
Who said that?
What point is Davidson making here?
Who said that?
What point is Davidson making by quoting this?
How are Socco and Vanzetti – and their trial - an example of this?
_______First National
Origins Act
_______Second National
Origins Act
For discussion: Nativism and restriction. Again. When before have seen a problem with immigration /
restriction?
_____ 18th
Amendment went
into effect.
Pay attention to the social class nature of prohibition.
Discussion: What was so noble about prohibition?
_______ John Scopes
teaches evolution in
TN
Modern KKK is very
active and growing
during the 1920s
For discussion: what “faith” is being defended here? It’s not necessarily religious faith.
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Republicans Ascendant
Note that when Harding was elected, the post-war economy looked like this:
“In 1920, 155 banks failed, and in 1921, 506 banks went
under … Export markets also abruptly disappeared as
financially strapped European counties were no longer
able to buy American products with the proceeds of
American government loans, and American earnings
from the carrying trade evaporated as the worldwide
shipping shortage eased and freight rates declined.”
- Attack & Passel. A New Economic View of American History
“By the middle of 1920 the downturn in production had
become severe, falling 21% over the following 12
months. Conditions were worse than they would be in
the first year of the Great Depression. Yet scarcely any
American even knows that such a slowdown
occurred … likely because it was so short-lived.”
-
Woods, Thomas. Meltdown. 2009.
Pay attention to Harding’s attitude about executive leadership and notice the good and bad appointments he made;
notice how they reflect his approach to the presidency. Consider also this evidence: “The government is not an
insurer of its citizens against the hazards of the elements.”
Coolidge becomes president how:
His attitude:
It was a sign that:
____ Coolidge returned to
White House by voters
Consider what the following statements show you about Coolidges attitude about Business and Government.
“The men and women of this country who [work] are the ones who bear the cost of the Government. Every dollar that [the government] carelessly
[spends] means their life will be more meager. Every dollar that [the government] saves means their life will be more abundant.” – President Calvin
Coolidge; “The man who builds a factory builds a temple, that the man who works there worships there, and to each is due, not scorn and blame,
but reverence and praise.” –Calvin Coolidge
Discussion: How will this attitude determine his policies? Who will not like Coolidge’s approach?
Sec. of Treasury Andrew Mellon devoted himself to:
For discussion, consider: “High taxes cause the capitalist to no longer exert himself and the country will be deprived of his efforts on which
the greatness of the country depends.” --Andrew Mellon, Secretary of the Treasury, 1921-1929
Discussion: Think about why, then, he devoted himself to cutting taxes.
Please note: Mellon never used the term “trickle down” prosperity. No one ever has except critics of his policies.
Also consider: “Harding inherited one of the sharpest recessions in American history. By July 1921 it was all over and the economy was booming
again. Harding and Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon had done nothing except cut government spending by a huge 40 percent from Wilson’s
peacetime level … [and] allowing wages to fall to their natural level. … The cuts were part of a careful plan to bring the spending of the monster
state which had emerged under Wilson back under control. Source: Johnson, Paul. A history of the American People.
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Consider the image over there . A jazz player labeled “C.C.” plays
a sax labeled “praise” while a large, smiling flapper (yes, a woman)
labeled “Big Business” in short hair, beads, slim skin-revealing
dress with knee socks dances the Charleston* and says, “Yes sir,
He’s my baby!!**”.
For discussion: Was big business happy to dance to the tune that
“C.C.” played? Did “C.C.” “praise” business? What 2 or 3 cultural
trends show up in this editorial?
*Popular dance.
**Popular jazz tune.
Commerce Sec. Herbert Hoover was not _________; he promoted a ______________ brand of capitalism
called _______________.
Define it:
Through associationalism, Hoover:
Note the slobbering love-fest Davidson has for Hoover. Hmmm.
Distress Signals at Home …
Note how farmers as an economic class fared during the 1920s. Why did they have problems in the late
1800s? Is the 1920s any different?
Note how the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 led to changes in attitudes about Federal responsibility.
… and Abroad
The Dawes Plan: (date and define)
Washington Conference: (date and define)
Kellogg-Briand Pact: (date and define)
For discussion: Davidson says that these are distress signals abroad. What stress might it be showing?
For discussion: do these actions by the U.S. abroad jive with the Senate’s rejection of the Treaty of
Versailles?
Democrats
Candidate:
Platform:
Who voted for him?
Election of 1928
Republicans
Candidate:
Platform:
What new group voted for him?
This election demonstrated that no longer were voters:
Increasingly, what was impacting voters:
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The Great Bull Market
The Rampaging Bull (A “bull market” is when investors are rabidly optimistic about rising stock prices.)
What made this “bull” market go on a stock-buying “rampage”?
1) There was a speculative _______.
2) Money and credit _________; the money supply _________.
3) Corporate profits ________________ (this will attract investors even more).
4) Brokers’ loans ____________ (which made investors buy even more stock).
5) “margin requirements” allowed stock buyers to buy even more stock with less money down.
(Note what the Federal Reserve tries to do – it’s job, basically – but this will have adverse affects within
10 months.)
So the stock market crashes when investors figure out stock prices are too high and they try to get their
money back by selling their stock at prices that are rapidly falling below what investors paid for them,
after they had borrowed to pay for them, and now can’t get their money back to pay those loans. Oops.
Note how nearly the entire world is experiencing a “sickening slide” into economic depression.
Causes
Workers’ wages:
Consumer Debt:
Distribution of wealth:
Banking system:
Corporate structure: (why was Fed Reserve ineffective on them?)
The Great
Depression
“Sick” Industries:
Tariffs:
For discussion: The economy is again following a pattern we’ve seen 1819, 1837, 1857, 1873, 1892,
1907, 1920. What social changes come out of those panics / crashes and depressions? How long did they
generally last? What should we then expect about this panic, recession, depression?