The Roaring 20’s
WWI changed many things in society
- a revolution in production occurred
- Manufacturing up 64%
- Output per worker up 40%
- Sale of electricity doubled
- Consumption of fuel oil doubled
- Economy grew by 7% - largest ever for peace time
- Industry grew big time
- People got paid more and worked less hours
Automobile
- Model T before assembly line $845 after $290
- A car came off the line every 10 seconds
- Ford paid high wages – double the rate
- He had too, horrible work
- Car is now affordable for people
Car on society
- prostitution on wheels
- caused a sexual revolution
Women
- before the war it was illegal for a lady to smoke openly, to use profanity, appear on public beaches without stockings, drive w/o a man present
- after the war people were more accepting so some pushed the new limits
- Flappers - most wore makeup, wear close fitting felt hats, long-waisted dresses, strings of beads, and unbuckled galoshes
- once these women were married they generally gave up this lifestyle
- in 1930 60% of female workers were African-Americans or foreign born
- “labor-saving” devices raised the standard of in home cleanliness, electric washing machines, vacuums etc…
Youth
- education increased, majority went to high school
- college enrollment jumped 7%
- leads to a formation of a “peer culture” teens spent more time out of the home with their friends rather than family
- why- athletics, clubs, sororities and frats, dating, proms, “bull sessions” and movies
- premarital sex increased, but didn’t become casual
- necking and petting parties
- car led to unsupervised dating and a rise in sex crimes
Jazz
- was born at this time and it took off like wild fire
- the folk music of the machine age
Radio
- the first radio stations went on the air in 1920, by 1929 there were +800 stations that reached +10 million homes
- leads to NBC and CBS
- people would sit at home as a group and stare at this talking box
Movies
- nickelodeons – nickel movie houses – silent movies
- theater anything but silent – kid interpreters, cracking Indian nuts, young cowboys would shot off cap guns
- first feature length silent movie – The Great Train Robbery in 1903
- drawing 100 million people a week – roughly equal to the national pop.
- 20’s lead to lavish theaters – ushers, drapes, plush carpet, organs
- first talkie the Jazz Singer was in 1927 – changed Hollywood – silent stars out of work
Sports
- college football is in its heyday
- huge stadiums built – 64,000 at Ohio State
- national pastime – baseball had a lot to overcome – 1919 Blacksocks
- one man brought it back to the national spotlight – George Herman Ruth
- 1927 – 60 home runs
- best athlete of the day unquestionably was Jim Thorpe
- graduate of the Carlisle Indian school
- wins both the pentathlon and decathlon in the 1912 Olympics in Stockholm
- later has his gold stripped away because he accepted money before this for playing semi-pro baseball
- also played professional football and mlb
- Lindbergh May 27 wins $25,000 for the first solo nonstop flight from NY to Paris aboard the Spirit of St. Louis
- Amelia Earhart did it the next year
Prohibition
- in cities it lead to speakeasies, bootlegged alcohol or smuggled it in
- Gangs shot up – Al Capone and others made millions
- Gangs lead to gambling, prostitution, and dance halls, and “protection” for local businesses
- Leads to the 21st Am. In 1933
Fundamentalism
- Christianity - word for word the truth with a literal translation of the Bible.
- biggest issue was Darwinism
- Convinces the Tennessee Legislature to make it a crime to teach “that man has descended from a lower form of animals.”
Scopes Monkey Trial – July 1925
- With the support of the ACLU, John T. Scopes tested Tennessee’s law.
- Trial gets the press of a championship-boxing match.
- Clarence Darrow (defense) vs. William Jennings Bryan (prosecution) in “a duel to the death” between education and Christianity.
- The judge says the claim of scientists was “hearsay” as they weren’t present at the time of creation.
- Darrow puts Bryan on the stand as the resident expert on the Bible. Darrow gets Bryan to admit the 6 days of creation may not have been 24 hour days = he loses all credibility.
- Jury presides for…8 minutes…Scopes fined $100…trial had turned in to a joke…however, Bryan’s reputation is ruined
KKK
- Reborn on Thanksgiving night in 1915 on Stone Mountain, GA with a cross burning ceremony
- Why – immigrants, uppity women, and blacks that didn’t know their place.
- The new clan would only accept the W.A.S.P.
- 1920’s capital moved to Indianapolis – was very patriotic and gave lots of money to charity…although could still be violent when needed.
- Klan promised security, status, and a promise for a better tomorrow.
- 3 million members in 1920 however corruption and scandal led to it’s downfall.
The Crash of 1929
American History
Get Rich Quick
* Hoover, “nearer to the final triumph over poverty than ever before in the history of any land.”
* Key to getting rich quick – play the stock market
Stock Market
* Bull vs Bear Markets
l Bull – things going very strong – horns up
l Bear – things going slow – claws down
Buy low, sell high; buy high, sell higher
You couldn’t lose at this game
Why was it so easy?
* Lots of money in circulation
* 1920-29 +$900 million worth of gold came into the U.S.
* Profits for everyone on the rise
* Margin buying
l Place 10%-50% down to place order
l You bought with paper/fictional money
Black Thursday
* Oct. 24, 1929 – PANIC – prices drop
* 13 million shares traded (record)
* Losses reach $3 billion (record)
* Wall Street says “the worst has passed”
Black Tuesday
* Oct. 29, 1929
* 16 million shares dumped at a loss of $10 billion
* All loans were called in = people had to sell their fictional stocks
Effects of the Black Days
* Within a month most stocks lost half their value
* Ex. 1929 – stocks worth $87 billion by 1933 their value drops to $13 billion
* Wages cut in half
* 85,000 businesses failed
* Banks closed
* Margin buying means people can not repay loans
* No FDIC
Did the Crash cause the Great Depression?
* No
l Unemployment was rising before the crash
l Warehouses were beginning to grow – economic slowdown
l Business expanded without a wage increase
l Prices outpaced wages = buy on credit
l The wealth of the wealthy (1%) increased 63% while the poor (93%) increased 4%
Basic Story of the Depression
* Government calculated that for a family of four it would cost $2000 for the necessities, which was more than 60% of what American families earned. By 1932 the average family annual income was $1348.
Hoover’s Response to the Great Depression
Hoover
n Quaker from IA
n Self made millionaire by the age of 40
n WWI made him famous
n As a republican President Hoover held the belief that the government can not affect the individual.
n Hoover felt private organizations should be in charge of the relief effort – like he did in WWI
n Rugged Individualism – success through individual effort and private enterprise.
n Plan would have worked if the problem was smaller
n Hoover Dam
n But people still didn’t have hope.
Bonus Army
n WWI Veterans want to receive their pensions early to help them now when they most need the money.
n The movement begins on the west coast and ends in D.C.
n They set up camp in the streets and parks of D.C. Every morning they do drills.
n Congress doesn’t pass the bonus bill, and an altercation breaks out leaving two vets and two policemen dead.
n Hoover orders the army to remove the bonus army peaceably. However, he places Gen Douglas MacArthur in charge.
n MacArthur moves against the veterans with the cavalry, tanks, tear gas, machine guns, water hoses, and swords. He used the gas, burned buildings etc…Hundreds were injured, and three died.
n The Great Depression was not Hoover’s fault…however he is the one that received all the blame.
n 1932 “All the money in the world couldn’t induce me to live over the last nine months.”
FDR
n New Deal (3 R’s) – Boosts public hope, aided unemployment etc…
n People didn’t vote rep. or dem. but rather for FDR.
n FDR was also very accessible to the people, unlike the distant Hoover.
n Fireside Chats
n Eleanor
n “My Day” Newspaper column
n Traveled +4000 miles a year…Secret Service nicknamed her Rover.
n In 1939 she was more popular than her husband.
n 5000-8000 letters a day for the President
First 100 Days
n FDR’s brain trust gets together and established the first 15 new programs.
n Declares a bank holiday for an audit. Only sound banks were allowed to reopen under the Emergency Banking Act.
n Then he follows with his Alphabet Agencies.
Hoover’s Response to the Great Depression
Hoover
n Quaker from IA
n Self made millionaire by the age of 40
n WWI made him famous
n As a republican President Hoover held the belief that the government can not affect the individual.
n Hoover felt private organizations should be in charge of the relief effort – like he did in WWI
n Rugged Individualism – success through individual effort and private enterprise.
n Plan would have worked if the problem was smaller
n Hoover Dam
n But people still didn’t have hope.
Bonus Army
n WWI Veterans want to receive their pensions early to help them now when they most need the money.
n The movement begins on the west coast and ends in D.C.
n They set up camp in the streets and parks of D.C. Every morning they do drills.
n Congress doesn’t pass the bonus bill, and an altercation breaks out leaving two vets and two policemen dead.
n Hoover orders the army to remove the bonus army peaceably. However, he places Gen Douglas MacArthur in charge.
n MacArthur moves against the veterans with the cavalry, tanks, tear gas, machine guns, water hoses, and swords. He used the gas, burned buildings etc…Hundreds were injured, and three died.
n The Great Depression was not Hoover’s fault…however he is the one that received all the blame.
n 1932 “All the money in the world couldn’t induce me to live over the last nine months.”
FDR
n New Deal (3 R’s) – Boosts public hope, aided unemployment etc…
n People didn’t vote rep. or dem. but rather for FDR.
n FDR was also very accessible to the people, unlike the distant Hoover.
n Fireside Chats
n Eleanor
n “My Day” Newspaper column
n Traveled +4000 miles a year…Secret Service nicknamed her Rover.
n In 1939 she was more popular than her husband.
n 5000-8000 letters a day for the President
First 100 Days
n FDR’s brain trust gets together and established the first 15 new programs.
n Declares a bank holiday for an audit. Only sound banks were allowed to reopen under the Emergency Banking Act.
n Then he follows with his Alphabet Agencies.
Great Depression
American History
Effects of the Great Depression
• 1929-1932 an average of 100,000 people lost their job a week
• Highest unemployment – 13 million
• In Chicago people waited in line at the city garbage dump to look for food
• In Kentucky people ate flowers and weeds thought fit only for cattle
• 1 in 5 kids were suffering from malnutrition
– Hoover’s response…
More Effects
• 1932 up to 2 million homeless and 25,000 nomadic families
• Emigration outpaces immigration
• Poor man’s divorce (desertion) becomes common
• No pride
• Shantyvilles and Hoovervilles become the norm
Farm Life
• Farming very difficult
• 1932-36 Dust Bowl
• In one day in Chicago, 1934, 12 million tons of dirt landed
• Many go to California
• Okies
Escapism
• Pinball, Monopoly, six-day bike races, dance marathons, and reading
• Radio and movies use imagination
• Lone Ranger and War of the Worlds
• Marx Brothers, Gangster movies, Bette Davis, Greta Garbo, Mae West, Mickey Mouse and Shirley Temple