Mr. McCormack
American History II
Central Dauphin High School
Chapter 13 – Postwar Social Change
I. Society in the 1920’s
A. The Roaring Twenties
1. A time of rapid change in America
2. Industrialization and immigration make for more complex urban nation
3. Lasting impact of World War I
a. Many returning soldiers are scarred and disillusioned
b. People put less faith in the old order and traditional ways
4. New ways led to a revolution in manners and morals
5. The 1920’s were not enjoyed by all, but the decade was more prosperous and care-free than the periods before (World War I) and after (the Great Depression)
B. The Changing Role of Women
1. Political Role
a. Women achieve the federal right to vote in 1920
i. Suffrage – the right to vote, also called the franchise
ii. Suffragists, Suffragettes – men and women campaigning for the right to vote
iii. Some women (i.e. Abigail Adams) had sought the right to vote as early as the Revolutionary War
iv. The “modern” suffrage movement is traced to the 1848 convention in Seneca Falls, New York
v. Susan B. Anthony was an important suffragist; she was prosecuted for voting in the 1872 presidential election (she hoped to convince the Supreme Court to give women the right to vote)
vi. 1878 – the first Women’s Suffrage Amendment is introduced in Congress but fails; it will be reintroduced every year thereafter
vii. 1890 – Wyoming becomes the first state to give women the right to vote
viii. 1912 – the Bull Moose Party of former Republican President Theodore Roosevelt becomes the first national political party to endorse women’s suffrage
ix. June 4, 1919 – Congress passes the Women’s Suffrage Amendment
x. August 18, 1920 – Tennessee, by one vote, becomes the last state to ratify the 19th Amendment
b. Women’s voting had little immediate effect
i. Women vote much like men
ii. Relatively few women vote (35% in 1920)
iii. In 1920, many women are uninterested (33%) or believe that it’s wrong for women to vote (11%)
iv. Many women feel pressure from their families (husbands) or are too busy to vote
c. Women successfully ran for political office
i. Jeanette Rankin from Montana is the first woman elected to Congress, in 1916
ii. Miriam A. Ferguson from Texas and Nellie Tayloe Ross of Wyoming, both wives of former governors, are elected governors in 1924
iii. By 1928, there are 145 women in 38 state legislatures
d. The Equal Rights Amendment is first introduced in 1923
2. Working Role
a. Many women (400,000) took industrial jobs during WWI and enjoyed the independence that came with working
b. Only slightly more than 20% of women worked during the 1920s
c. Of the women who worked, 15% were professional (teachers, nurses), 20% held clerical jobs (secretaries), and the rest held jobs in factories, as cleaners, laundresses, etc.
d. Most working women were single and white, though the percentage of working women who were married increased from 23% in 1920 to 29% in 1929
e. Women faced a lot of discrimination in the workplace
i. Almost impossible to be promoted to management
ii. Professionals (doctors, lawyers) were often underemployed (nurses, secretaries)
iii. Salaries were lower and pregnancy usually ended your career
3. Style
a. The Flapper Image
i. More revealing clothing
ii. Shorter haircuts
iii. More make-up
b. Drinking and smoking became very popular despite laws against them
C. Americans on the Move
1. Demographics – statistics that describe a population
2. Migration to the cities
a. Farmers faced economic stress
i. Food prices fell after WWI finished
ii. More jobs became available in the cities
b. Nearly 6 million people moved from rural areas to urban ones
c. The school population doubled from 2.2 million in 1920 to 4.4 million in 1930
d. Country-dwellers were more traditional than their city counterparts, resulting in a culture clash
3. African-Americans move north
a. African-Americans had few economic opportunities in the south and hoped for better working conditions in the factories of the north
b. Southern states had “Jim Crow” laws (legally requiring segregation) that many African-Americans wished to escape
c. From 1910 to 1930 the percentage of African-Americans living in the south declined from 89% to 80%
d. Many whites in the north resented the African-Americans because it was thought that they were unfairly competing with them for jobs
e. Most African-Americans find themselves living in the least desirable areas of the cities
f. This is known as the “Great Migration”
4. Other migration
a. Fearing a flood of immigrants from the devastated regions of Europe, Congress passes a law restricting the number of immigrants
b. Congress also limits the number of immigrants from China and Japan
c. Many Canadians and Mexicans, unaffected by the new laws, move to the USA in search of work
d. The new immigrants take many jobs in agriculture and forestry
e. The new immigrants that stay develop ethnic neighborhoods (barrios for Spanish speakers)
5. Growth of Suburbs
a. Suburbs grow mainly as a result of improvements in transportation
b. Buses replace trolley cars as a superior form of public transport
c. Private automobiles grow more common
d. The populations of some cities (e.g. Manhattan) shrink while the suburbs (Queens) grow
D. American Heroes
1. Aviators
a. Charles Lindbergh
i. “Lucky Lindy”
ii. First person to fly solo over the Atlantic
iii. Flew from New York to Paris on May 20, 1927
iv. Flew in his plane “The Spirit of St. Louis”
v. Flight took 33 ½ hours
vi. Accepted a $25,000 prize for his flight
vii. Came home on a navy destroyer to a hero’s welcome
viii. Awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross
ix. Celebrity leads to grief when his son is kidnapped and killed
b. Amelia Earhart
i. First woman to cross the Atlantic in a plane (1928)
ii. First female pilot to fly across the Atlantic (1932)
iii. First pilot to fly from Hawaii to California
iv. Disappeared in 1937 while trying to fly around the world
2. Sports Heroes
a. Sports become heavily commercialized for the first time in the 1920s
b. Jack Dempsey
i. Heavyweight Boxing Champion
ii. Bout with Georges Carpentier in 1921 broke the record for ticket sales and made $1 million
c. Jim Thorpe
i. Native American educated at the Carlisle Indian School
ii. Olympic gold medalist in the pentathlon and decathlon
iii. Played professional baseball
iv. Played professional football
v. Became the first president of what would become the NFL
vi. Regarded as one of the best all-around athletes in history
vii. Buried in Mauch Chunk, PA, then renamed in his honor
d. George Herman Ruth
i. “The Babe”, the “Sultan of Swat,” the “Great Bambino”
ii. Home run hitter (714 career home runs, 60 in the 1927 season)
e. Hazel Wightman and Helen Wills were tennis stars
f. Gertrude Ederle
i. Gold medalist swimmer in the 1924 Olympics
ii. First woman to swim across the English Channel (35 miles) in 1926
iii. Beat the best men’s time by over two hours
g. Many Americans are inspired to take up sports for themselves (golf, tennis and others)
II. The Mass Media
A. Mass media (communicating with many people at the same time) helps to spread ideas and styles across the nation, helping to develop the first nation-wide, common culture
B. Motion Pictures
1. Movies
a. First movies appear in 1890s
b. Audiences grow dramatically in the early 20th Century
i.1910 – 5,000 theatres
ii.1930 – 22,500 theatres
iii. 1929 – 80 million tickets sold each week (US Population: 125 million)
iv. Moviemaking was the fourth largest business in the country
c. Silent Film era ends in 1927
i. First “talkie” – The Jazz Singer, with Al Jolson
ii. Many thought talkies were a passing fad
iii. Talkies were more expensive to make
iv. Talkies in English couldn’t be shown everywhere overseas
v. Many silent film stars had European accents and wouldn’t work
d. D.W. Griffith and Cecil B. DeMille – major directors of the era
e. Famous movie stars
i. Greta Garbo
ii. Lillian Gish
iii. Lon Chaney
iv. Charlie Chaplin
2. Hollywood
a. Hollywoodland was originally supposed to be a quiet suburb of L.A.
b. Hollywood replaced New York as the center of the film industry in the early 1900s
i. Diverse geographical features (deserts, forests, beaches, mountains)
ii. Great weather (plenty of sunlight, little rain)
iii. Lots of open space for building sets
iv. Close to cheap labor in Los Angeles
C. Newspapers
1. Newspapers expand in size and scope
a. The average size of the New York Times increase from 14 pages in 1900 to more than 50 pages in the 1920s
b. Increased space allows for the coverage of more stories
c. Stories are frequently selected for popular appeal rather than newsworthiness (profits over quality)
d. The first tabloids (papers that rely on headlines, pictures, and sensational stories for sales) appear
e. The greatest publisher of the era, William Randolph Hearst, believed that papers should be 90% entertainment and 10% news
2. Newspapers expand their circulations
a. Independent newspapers merge or are purchased by national chains
b. The total number of newspapers fall even though readership increases
c. National chains, publishing the same stories with the same points of view, help to build the common culture
D. Magazines
1. Magazines become more popular in the 1920s
2. Popular titles include Saturday Evening Post, Time, Reader’s Digest, and Ladies’ Home Journal
3. In 1929 over 200 million copies of magazines were sold
4. Advertisers take advantage of the audience and help build a common culture
E. Radio
1. Technology developed in 1896 by Italian physicist Guiglielmo Marconi
2. Radio doesn’t become popular until the 1920s
3. Frank Conrad, an engineer for Westinghouse, sets up the first radio station in 1920
4. This station, KDKA, still broadcasts in Pittsburgh, PA
5. Programming consisted mostly of music and sports, but soon became a valuable form of advertising
6. National networks of radio stations (NBC) helps to give our country a common culture
7. Programming eventually includes comedies, news, religion, sports, and music
F. The Jazz Age
1. Jazz grew out of African American music in the south in the early 1900s
2. New Orleans is the early center for jazz
3. Jazz recordings are available in the 1910s, but become more popular through play on the radio in the 1920s
a. By 1929, 2/3 of all radio air time is dedicated to jazz
b. Jazz is especially popular among the young
4. Louis “Satchmo” Armstrong
5. Edward Kennedy “Duke” Ellington
6. Whites start playing and popularize jazz
a. Benny Goodman, “King of Swing”
b. George Gershwin uses jazz themes in “Rhapsody in Blue” in 1929
7. Flappers dance “The Charleston” to jazz music
G. Painters
1. Edward Hopper
2. Rockwell Kent
3. Georgia O’Keefe
H. Literature
1. Sinclair Lewis – first American to win Nobel Prize for Literature
2. Eugene O’Neill – dark, poetic, tragic plays
3. The Lost Generation
a. Writers troubled by American materialism, society, and culture
b. Became expatriates – lived outside the U.S., especially in France
c. F. Scott Fitzgerald (The Great Gatsby)
d. Ernest Hemingway (The Sun Also Rises)
e. e.e. cummings – poet
f. Edna St. Vincent Millay – poet
I. Harlem Renaissance
1. Rebirth of African American culture in the United States
2. Centered in Harlem, New York
3. Population of African Americans in Harlem grew from 50,000 in 1914 to 200,000 in 1930
4. James Weldon Johnson
a. Political Leader (NAACP)
b. Literary Leader
5. Alain Locke
6. Zora Neale Hurston (Their Eyes Were Watching God)
7. Langston Hughes (poet and advocate)
III. Cultural Conflicts
A. Prohibition
1. A ban on the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquor into any area under the control of the United States
2. Adopted by ratifying the 18th Amendment on January 16, 1920
3. Repealed by ratifying the 21st Amendment on December 5, 1933
4. Temperance Societies sought to ban alcohol for decades before Prohibition
a. Religious societies strongly supported the movement to combat vice
b. Women’s organizations supported the movement to stop abuse
5. Goals of Prohibition
a. Eliminate drunkenness and the resulting abuse
b. Close all saloons and stop prostitution and gambling
c. Prevent work-place accidents and absenteeism
6. Congress passes the Volstead Act in 1919 to enforce Prohibition, but does not allocate enough money to properly enforce the law
7. Prohibition is very popular at first, but less popular in some places
a. 1924 – 95% of Kansans are dry, only 5% of New Yorkers are
b. Deepens the divide between rural and urban areas
c. Even President Harding ignored the law
8. Prohibition leads to an increase in crime
a. Bootlegging – supplying alcohol illegally
i. “Bootlegger” derived from those who used to carry flasks hidden in their boot legs
ii. Smuggled alcohol from other countries (whiskey from Canada, rum from the Caribbean)
iii. Distilled their own alcohol (e.g. bath-tub gin)
b. Speakeasies – illegal saloons
i. Very private clubs, often disguised as other businesses
ii. In most places, speakeasies during Prohibition easily outnumbered the saloons that operated before Prohibition
9. Organized crime gains a great deal of power through Prohibition
a. Mob/mafia/gangs had large networks for distribution
b. Rival gangs often waged war for territory
c. Gangs usually bribed local law enforcement officials to ignore them
d. Operated many rackets – illegal businesses
i. Prostitution
ii. Protection
iii. Gambling
e. Most famous gangster was Al Capone (“Scarface”)
i. Crime boss of Chicago by 1925
ii. Estimated annual income of $100 million ($60 million from bootlegging)
iii. St. Valentine’s Day Massacre – 2/14/29
iv. First to establish soup kitchens after the stock market crash
v. Pursued by Treasury Officer Elliot Ness
vi. Convicted of income tax evasion in 1931
vii. Imprisoned from 1931 to 1939 in several places, including Alcatraz