TRANSITION
TO MODERN
AMERICA:
The Roaring Twenties (19191929)
Chapter 25
Why “’Roaring’”?
“With the advent of the new consumer goods industries, the
American people by the 1920s enjoyed the highest standard
of living of any nation on earth. . . . The key to the new
affluence lay in technology.” The 1920s is often perceived as
“a time of escape and frivolity before the onset of the
Depression. . . . There was solid growth of new consumerbased industries. Automobiles and appliances were not
passing fancies. Their production and use became a part of
the modern American way of life, creating a high standard of
living that roused the envy of the rest of the world. The future
pattern of American culture—cars and suburbs, shopping
centers and skyscrapers—was determined by the end of the
1920s.”
LIFE IN THE
1920S
Unity Even at the Expense of Ethnic
Diversity--the Nationalist Spirit** 23-E1
•
Bolshevik—a.k.a., “Reds”—communist
revolutionaries who took over the Russian
government in 1917
– The success of the Bolsheviks in Russia made
Americans uneasy, particularly with foreign
born immigrants who seemed positively
disposed toward socialism.
• A. Mitchell Palmer & the “Red Scare”
Palmer was the U.S. Attorney
General who, in 1920,
organized the infamous
“Palmer Raids.” They came
after Palmer—among many
other prominent Americans
(including John D.
Rockefeller)—were sent letter
bombs.
These raids led to the arrest of suspected
communists and foreign-born radicals. Over
6,000 people in 33 cities were arrested and
some 550 deported—almost none were guilty
of any crime. The deportations were done
without regard for due process of law. When
the revolution that Palmer predicted for May
1, 1920 failed to materialize, the Red Scare
died a natural death.
Nichola Sacco and
Bartolomeo Vanzetti—
24-D2
The legacy of the Red Scare was that the foreign born in America
“lived in uneasy realization that they were viewed with hostility
and suspicion.” The Sacco and Vanzetti case demonstrated the
truth of this reality. They were tried in1921 and found guilty for a
double murder committed during a payroll robbery in South
Braintree, Massachusetts. The trial was unfair and prejudiced
because of the pair’s Italian ethnicity and anarchist political
beliefs. Both men died in the electric chair on August 23, 1927**
The Strikes of
1919—23-E2
Why did Labor unrest follow World War I?
After the war, rising prices led to worker
demands for higher wages; simultaneously, a
large pool of workers helped to keep wages
low; many unions responded with strikes.
•
General Strike in Seattle
– A “general “strike” is a strike by members of
all unions
• Police Strike in Boston
• Strike in iron and steel industry
An Expanding Flood of
Immigration—23-E1
•
Europeans seeking to escape war-ravaged
countries hoped to come to the U.S.
– How did the “Red Scare” of the early-1920s
influence immigration laws?
– Many Americans feared the immigrants
would spread radical ideas and demand limits
to immigration
• Quota System
– limitation on the number of immigrants who
could enter the U.S. from any given nation
Racism as a Motivating
Factor—Racial Purity vs.
Melting Pot—24-D2
• This involved a fear of the Anglo-Saxon
stock being overwhelmed by immigrants
perceived as lesser breeds with inferior
genetic codes and barbaric habits
• It blamed national problems on the growing
phenomenon of intermingled and
mongrelized people
Emergency Quota
Act of 1921**
•
Limited to 3% of the people of that
nationality already living in the U.S. in
1910; was driven by fear of things foreign
National Origins
Quota Act of
1924**
•
Limited immigration from Europe to
150,000 a year with most slots allocated to
immigrants of Northwestern Europe
Follow the
Money
“The large corporation no longer
dependent on armies of unskilled
immigrant workers, did not object
to the 1924 Law; the machine had
replaced the immigrant on the
assembly line.”
Why were Many
Blacks Disappointed
after the War?**
There was increasing competition for jobs
and Blacks often suffered discrimination;
they saw that racial attitudes in America
had not changed that much after the war.
Those Blacks who left depressed Southern
farms for the North continued to find work
primarily in areas of menial service.
Politics in an Era
of Business—The
Scorecard
“Middle-and upper-class
Americans were the groups
who thrived in the 1920s. The
rewards of this second
Industrial Revolution went to
the managers—the engineers,
bankers, and executives—who
directed the new industrial
economy. . . .
Their conspicuous consumption
helped fuel the prosperity of the
1920s, but their disposable income
eventually became greater than
their material wants. The result
was speculation, as those with idle
money began to invest heavily in
the stock market to reap gains
from industrial growth.”
Election of 1920
Warren G.
Harding
• Harding was a “dark
horse” contender for the
Republican nomination
who became a compromise
choice for the GOP
nomination
 He appeared the
embodiment of middle class
American values
 Handsome
 Dignified
 Genial
Harding
Continued




•
•
Conventional in outlook
Lieutenant Governor of
Ohio
Ohio Republican Senator
Lacked the capacity to
govern
Broadly delegated power
Promised a “return to
normalcy”**
His administration marks the
beginning of a period in which a
close relationship between
government and private business
flourishes
However. . . the
administration
was
distinguished
by numerous
scandals**
Central
Figures in the
Harding
Administration
Andrew Mellon
Harding’s
Secretary of the
Treasury (and
head of Alcon
Aluminum
Corporation). He
was a key adviser
to Harding;
favored
protection of
American
business through
policy of high
tariffs.
Charles Evans
Hughes
One of Harding’s more
effective cabinet choices
was Charles Evans
Hughes (left), Secretary
of State. Hughes had a
long and distinguished
career in public life.
Herbert Hoover
Future president Herbert
Hoover served in the
Harding Cabinet as
Secretary of Commerce.
A self-made man from
humble origins, Hoover
graduated from Stanford
University and became a
millionaire using his
training as a mining
engineer. He gained
celebrity by
administering a domestic
food program and a
foreign aid undertaking
to dispense aid to Europe
following the First World
War.
FordneyMcCumber Act of
1922
• This protectionist measure raised
tariffs to new highs to protect
American Business (supported by
Mellon)
• This new tariff increased taxes from
the levels imposed by the Underwood
Tariff passed during Wilson’s
administration
McNary-Haugen
Bill
•
•
Sought to keep farmers’ purchasing power
strong, even if market prices dropped
Sought to achieve parity
“Normalcy”—goal of the
Harding Administration; to
return to the way things were
before the war
Parity—equality between
standard of living that farmers
enjoyed in good years and one
that developed in bad years
Scandals That
Tarnished the Harding
Administration
• Attorney General Harry
Daugherty and a friend sold
government favors
• Charles Forbes, head of the
Veterans Bureau, sold bandages,
drugs, and bedding making
personal profits from the sales
The
Daugherty
Scandal
Teapot Dome
Edward
Doheny
Albert Fall
Harry Sinclair
Coolidge
Administration’s
Measures to Help the
Business Community
Upon the unexpected
death of President
Harding, VicePresident Calvin
Coolidge assumed the
presidency. He was
nationally known not
only for his firm
gubernatorial dealing
to end the Boston
Police Strike of 1919
but for his honesty
and integrity.
Reserved and
reticent, “Coolidge
became famous for
his epigrams, which
contemporaries
mistook for wisdom.”
Election of 1924
Republican Positions
in 1924
Democratic
Positions in 1924
Returned to
traditional party
choices, neither
reactionary nor
completely progressive
The party
appeared split and
destined for selfdestruction**
Split Within the Democratic
Party**
Traditional
Democratic
Position
• Prohibition
• Fundamentalism
• The Klan
New Democratic
Position
• Emerged from Northern and Midwestern
cosmopolitan acres
• Immigrants or descendants of immigrants
The Split became
dramatically apparent in
the election of 1924
The Democratic
division was
often cast
pejoratively as
the rubes or
hicks from the
sticks versus
unconscionable
city slickers
In spite of the fact that
the 1924 election was
the poorest showing for
the Democrats in the
20th century, “the large
cities were swinging
clearly into the
Democratic column; all
the party needed was a
charismatic leader who
could fuse the older
rural elements with the
new urban voters.”
Coolidge Epigrams and
Administrative Style
• “The business of America is ‘business.’”**
• “The man who builds a factory builds a temple. The man
who works there worships there.”**
• “You lose.” Coolidge’s response to a person who bet that
he could prompt the president to say more than three
words.
• “I choose not to run.” Coolidge’s enigmatic declaration
and sole explanation for withdrawing his name as a
candidate for the presidential election of 1928.
• He perceived his duty not to govern the nation but to
benignly preside over it
• He sought to be the “least” president in American history
Upon
hearing
the
announce
ment that
“Silent
Cal” had
died,
American
humorist
Dorothy
Parker
(left)
retorted,
“How
could they
tell?”
Common Points Between
White Farmers and
Ethnic Minorities
During the 1920s
Both suffered
severe economic
problems—
neither enjoyed
the general
prosperity of the
period.
“The city replaced the
countryside as the focal
point of American life in
the 1920s. The 1920
census revealed that for
the first time, slightly
more than half of the
population lived in cities
(defined broadly to
included all places of
more than 2,500
people)**. . . . The
skyscraper came to
symbolize the new mass
culture.”
Prosperity and
Innovation
Ford’s “emphasis on the flow
of parts moving past stationary
workers became the standard
in nearly every American
factory. The moving assembly
line—with its emphasis on
uniformity, speed, precision,
and coordination—took away
the last vestiges of
craftsmanship and turned
workers into near robots.**
It led to amazing efficiency that
produced both high profits for
manufacturers and low prices for
buyers. . . . Mass production led to a
consumer revolution. . . that made life
easier and more pleasant for the vast
majority of the American people. . .
[The American people] decided (wisely
or not) to center their existence on the
automobile.”
Henry Ford
Ford used electric
power and scientific
management to make
the automobile
affordable
“The moving assembly
line that Henry Ford
[left] perfected in 1913
for manufacture of the
Model T [right] marked
only the first step
toward full mass
production and the
beginning of America’s
worldwide industrial
supremacy.”
Ford’s River Rouge plant (right) became a
model for assembly line productivity. Mass
production “became the hallmark of American
industry.”
Assembly-Line—
production methods
in which workers
stand at their
respective stations
while unfinished
products moved past
them on a conveyor
belt with each
worker performing
one simple task
Ways the Automobile
Changed American Life
•
•
•
Led to improved highways
Led to growth of the suburbs
Gave young couples an easy way to escape
parental supervision
“The nature of the consumer goods
revolution can be best seen in the
automobile industry. . . . growth was
its hallmark. . . . The automobile boom,
at its peak from 1922 to 1927,
depended on the apparently insatiable
appetite of the American people for
cars. . . . The auto changed the pattern
of city life, leading to a suburban
explosion. . . . The car ruled.”
“The automobile
boom, at its peak
from 1922 to 1927,
depended on the
apparently insatiable
appetite of the
American people for
cars. . . . The auto
changed the pattern
of city life, leading to
a suburban
explosion. . . . The car
ruled.”
American Culture
in the Jazz Age
The
“Roaring”
Twenties
“Frivolity and excitement ran
high in the cities as both crime
waves and highly publicized
sports events flourished.
Prohibition ushered in such
distinctive features of the
decade as speakeasies,
bootleggers, and bathtub gin.
Sports became a national
mania in the 1920s as people
found more leisure time. . . . It
was a time of pleasure seeking,
when people sought to escape
from the increasingly drab
world of the assembly line by
worshipping heroic
individuals.”
Changing Times—
The Scorecard
Harlem
Renaissance**
This was the
flowering of
creativity among
African-American—
musicians, writers,
artists, and
performers—living
in Harlem, the Black
cultural capital of
the U. S.
Harlem became “the
Negro Capital of the
world.” From Harlem
radiated “the new
African American
cultural awareness
[that] spared to other
cities. . . . Although
blacks were still an
oppressed minority in
the America of the
1920s, they had taken
major strides toward
achieving cultural and
intellectual
fulfillment.”
Langston Hughes
Hughes was a popular
Black poet. He probably
became the best known
figure of the Harlem
Renaissance. In moving
language, he reminded
his people of their
cultural heritage.
Claude McKay—
prominent Black poet
who encouraged
growth of Black pride
McKay’s Shadows (right) captured
in verse an indignation against
racial injustice in America as well
as a distinct pride in his racial
heritage.
Countee Cullen
Cullen’s poetry, like
that of Langston
Hughes, was both
beautiful and eloquent
in the portrayal of the
tragedy of the Black
people in America.
Marcus Garvey
As a Black leader hailing from
Jamaica, Garvey called for Black
pride, racial redemption and
solidarity, and self-reliance. In a
militant tone, he encouraged a new
self-awareness among AfricanAmericans. Moved by a spirit of
Black separatism, he urged them to
return to Africa and set up their
own nation there. Indeed, Garvey
envisioned an independent Black
Africa governed by the world’s 400
million Blacks.**
“Garvey’s support of the Ku
Klux Klan—an organization
he admired for its honesty—
alienated him from many
fellow Blacks. Garvey’s
“movement inspired Blacks
disgusted by the hypocrisy of
American democracy and
frustrated by the failure of
gradualism to improve their
lot. He gave them an
alternative to litigation and
legislation, the approach of
the more conservative Black
establishment.”
W. E. B. DuBois
W.E.B. DuBois edited the newspaper
Crisis, “the intellectual voice of the
black community developing in New
York City’s Harlem.”
James Weldon
Johnson
Along with Du Bois, James Weldon Johnson
(above right) became the leader of the
Harlem Renaissance. Johnson was a professor
of literature at Fisk University. His Fifty Years
and Other Poems was a commentary on the
suffering of African-Americans in those
decades from the Emancipation Proclamation
to his own day.
Armory
Show
Regiment
Armory in
New York
City; was 1st
display of this
kind ever
Gertrude Stein & the “Lost
Generation”**
“The greatest cultural advance of the 1920s
was visible in the outpouring of literature.
The city gave rise to a new class of
intellectuals—writers who commented on
the new industrial society. Most had been
uprooted by World War I. They were
bewildered by the rapidly changing social
patterns of the 1920s and appalled by the
materialism of American culture. Some fled
to Europe to live as expatriates,
congregating in Paris cafes to bemoan the
loss of American innocence and purity.
Others stayed at home, observing and
condemning the excesses of a business
civilization. All shared a sense of
disillusionment and wrote pessimistically
of the flawed promise of American life. Yet
ironically, their body of writing revealed a
profound creativity that suggested America
was coming of age intellectually.”
Expatriate—a person who leaves
his/her country and lives in another
for some purpose.
The Writers of the “Lost Generation”
showed disillusionment of the postwar era.
They presented the world as an uncertain
meaningless place.** “Nearly all the writers,
black as well as white, cried out against the
conformity and materialism of the
contemporary scene. They were critical of
mass production and reliance on the
machine; they wrote wistfully of the
disappearance of the artisan and of the
more relaxed way of life. Few took any
interest in politics or in social reform. They
retreated instead into individualism,
seeking an escape into their art from the
prevailing civilization. . . . [They] turned
inward to avoid being swept up in the
consumer goods revolution**. . . [and]
produced an astonishingly rich and varied
body of work. . . . American writers, despite
their alienation had placed their country in
the forefront of world literature.”
Ernest
Hemingway
The author of
expatriate novels—he
wrote about
expatriates living for
momentary
pleasures
As a
member
of an
ambulanc
e corps,
Hemingw
ay had
practical
experienc
e with war
itself
Hemingway wrote
insightfully about
war in For Whom
the Bell Tolls
He was devoted to the
vigorous, rugged life
Themes of
man versus
nature. . .
Hemingway sought
redemption from the modern
plight in the romantic
individualism of his heroes.
Preoccupied with violence,
he wrote of men alienated
from society who found a
sense of identity in their own
courage and quest for
personal honor. . . . His
greatest impact on other
writers, however, came from
his sparse, direct, and clean
prose style.”
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Fitzgerald was disdainful of
the emptiness and lack of
human concern in
contemporary American
life
Fitzgerald published
Great Gatsby in
1925. It has been the
subject of several
movie versions.
Sinclair Lewis
1st American to win Nobel Peace Prize in literature; often
mocked small-town gossips and smug business leaders
Main Street, published in 1920, satirized
small-town American values. In it, Lewis
condemned dull, complacent, narrowmindedness. His book Babbitt (1922) “poked
fun at the commercialism of the 1920s”
through use of his central character, George
Babbitt—“the stereotype of the lazy, smug,
middleclass businessman.”
T. S. Eliot
A brilliant poet who
wrote about complex
problems of modern
society as fragmented
and empty
A later volume—
Hollow Man,
1925—was “a
biting description
of the emptiness of
modern man.”
Eliot’s writing reflects a profound sense
of despair. The Waste Land (1922,
right) evokes “images of fragmentation
and sterility that had a powerful
impact on the other disillusioned
writers of the decade.
Eugene O’Neill
A playwright who won 3 Pulitzer
Prizes during the 1920s; used
experimental methods to expose inner
torments of his modern characters
Ezra Pound
Pound abandoned
conventional
rhyme and meter
in a search for
cold, clear,
realistic images.
He work reflects
a common
reaction of the
period against the
waste of war and
the failure of
civilization.
John Dos Passos
Dos Passos’ U.S. A.
Trilogy
Sherwood
Anderson
Both Dos Passos (above) and Anderson
“described the way the new machine age
undermined such traditional American
values as craftsmanship and a sense of
community.”
H. L. Mencken
H. L. Mencken is generally
considered the most savage of
all the period’s critics. He
“mocked everything he found
distasteful in America from the
Rotary Club to the Ku Klux
Klan. . . . A born cynic, he
served as a zealous guardian of
public rationality in an era of
excessive boosterism.”
Edith Wharton
Wharton’s books,
including The Age of
Innocence (1921,
right) focused on the
lives of aristocratic
women who lived in
the East.
Willa Cather
Willa Cather
described the plight
of American women
from the Midwest.
To right is Cather’s
One of Ours. Her
heroines were cast in
traditional roles like
that of wife or
mother.
How Jazz
Differed from
Traditional Music
•
•
•
The style was constantly changing
It was not written out in detail but largely
innovative
It was expressive of the suffering of
African-Americans
The most significant contribution to music of the period came
from African-Americans migrating to the North. It came in
the form of “Jazz.”
The Origins of
Jazz
•
•
•
•
•
•
West African rhythms
Black work songs
Spirituals
European harmonies
Blues
Ragtime
Ways AfricanAmericans
Contributed to U.
S. Culture in the
1920s
• They developed jazz**
• They created the “Harlem
Renaissance”
Changing Times—
The Scorecard
The Jazz Singer—first
talking movie (1927)**
Gertrude Ederle—1st
Woman to Swim
the English
Channel (1926)
Charles A.
Lindbergh
1st aviator to fly from New
York to Paris (1926); he
demonstrated the qualities of
courage, modesty, and
individuality
Rise of Spectator
Sports
Baseball
In 1927, Babe
Ruth became
immortal
when he
hammered out
60 home runs
in a single
season—a
record that
would endure
until Roger
Maris, also for
the New York
Yankees, hit 61
in the season of
1961.
Boxing—Dempsey
vs. Tuney
The
Flapper
The “new woman” of the
1920s was restless, on the
move, eager to try
something different and
distinguished by a growing
assertiveness. She rebelled
against Victorian
standards an put a
premium on individual
self-expression. She often
shocked her elders with
her clothes, slang, dancing,
and refusal to follow
traditional rules (e.g., she
smoke and drank in
public).
The flapper cut her hair short,
raised her skirt length above
the knee, and sought to
compete on equal terms with
her male counterpart.
Generally speaking, “the old
Victorian prudishness was a
clear casualty of the 1920s.
Sex was no longer a taboo
subject, at least in the urban
areas; men and women now
could discuss it openly and
many of them did.”
Influence of Radio and
Movies on American
Culture
Rudolph Valentino, a heartthrob of the
period; Clara Bow (above right) a
popular leading lady and Theda Bara
(right).
“Sectional differences in dress,
food, and furniture began to
disappear. Even the regional
accents that distinguished
America in different parts of
the country were threatened
with extinction by the advent of
radio and films which promoted
a standard national dialect
devoid of any local flavor.”
Changes Women
Experienced During
the 1920s
• They received the vote and became more
active in politics
• More women began to work outside the
home
• Women experienced more social freedom
Agitation for the
women’s vote found
expression on both
sides of the Atlantic
Ocean
While the 19th Amendment obtained the4 vote
for American women in 1920, in more general
terms the drive for a full-blown Equal Rights
Amendment failed to be realized in the decade
of the 1920s. Meanwhile, the League of Women
Voters was founded to encourage informed
voting (not advancement of women’s rights).
During the 1920s, the institution of
the American family “began to
break down under the impact of
economic and social change.”
Women increasingly began to work
outside the home. The income they
earned gave them a greater degree
of independence. Thanks to the
growing acceptability of birth
control, family size diminished
Why Some Americans
Were Disturbed by the
Rapid Changes of the
1920s
The shift from rural to urban American
heightened these anxieties
Evils associated with the cities:
•
•
•
Prostitution
Saloons
Ethnic
enclaves
•
•
•
Socialism
and
communism
Collapse of
traditional
morality
Atheism
Countryside
Counterattack
“The movements [that] aimed at preserving the
values of an earlier America succeeded only in
complicating life in an already difficult period of
cultural transition.”
•
•
•
Insistence on both political and cultural
uniformity
Restriction of immigration into the U. S.
Revival of the Ku Klux Klan
The Ku Klux
Klan**
•
•
•
Revived by William J.
Simmons and 34 others in
1915**
Demonstrated their hatred
against Blacks, aliens,
Catholics and Jews
Employed beating,
flogging, burning with
acid, and murder
Prohibition—The
Volstead Act**
•
•
•
•
The 18th Amendment prohibited the manufacture,
sale or transportation of alcoholic beverages
The act received strong support from the Baptist
and Methodist clergy as well as the rural AntiSaloon League
The act prompted deep resentment among
members of certain ethnic communities,
particularly the hard-drinking Germans and Irish
Prohibition drove up the price of bootlegged liquor
and made possible the creation of criminal empires
like that of Al Capone in Chicago
The
Noble
Experiment
Prohibition
Continued
• It failed to stem the tide of alcohol
consumption of middle and upper
class Americans
• As such, it did profound damage to
American society by breeding
disrespect for the law
The Scopes
Monkey Trial**
A young biology teacher-coach
from Dayton, Tennessee who
purposely taught Evolution to
precipitate the renowned
“Scopes Monkey Trial”
Clarence Darrow vs.
William Jennings
Bryan
Darrow argues his case in the Dayton,
Tennessee courthouse. While Bryan
technically got the guilty verdict he
sought, Scopes received only a token fine
and Darrow had made Bryan and his
fundamentalist position appear
ridiculous. In the long run, Darrow won
the victory.
“Traditional rural religious beliefs were
stronger than ever. As middle-and upperclass Americans drifted into a genteel
Christianity that stressed good works and
respectability, the Baptists and Methodists
churches continued to hold on to the old
faith. . . . Far from dying out. . . biblical
fundamentalism retained ‘remarkable
grass-roots strength amount the
organization men and the industrialized
mass society of the 20th century.”
While the 1920s as a
period of frantic
growth and
excitement, “there
were ominous signs of
danger. The unequal
distribution of wealth,
the saturation of the
market for consumer
goods, and the growing
speculation all created
economic instability.”