The Roaring 20s
(Notes from the Movie)
1) Early 1920s – President Harding “Return to Normalcy”
An end to crusades in America. An end of the Great War (WWI) and an end to Progressivism. Americans just want to have a good time and to make some money.
Foreign Policy: Isolationism.
i) US does not ratify Treaty of Versailles
ii) US does not join World court.
Kellogg-Briand Pact 1928 (outlaw war). No enforcement provision.
2) Economy Booming Big Time
A) Ford Assembly Line (Cars affordable for the common man)
- Cars change America from an urban to a suburban country. People are less dependent on public transportation and can live in the suburbs.
B) Highest Standard of Living in the World. (recall WWI destroyed Europe)
C) Corporate Mergers (kind of like now)
- Anti-trust laws are not being enforced. Laissez faire economics rule.
D) Wages of Workers up.
E) People buying on credit. (Buy now, Pay later).
F) Bull Market - Stock prices dramatically rise. $ being made. (overspeculation).
3) Role of Women
A) More liberated – symbolized in fashion (flappers), looser clothes, shorter skirts, increased drinking by women
B) 19th Amendment – Women’s suffrage.
4) Increased Advertising
A) Electricity, Appliances.
B) Radio – news and Ads. Like today with the TV, people gathered around the radio.
C) Target of ads – Women for cosmetics and appliances.
5) Movies (Silent) -- Big thing.
A) Celebrities with huge influence. Assault on family values (sound familiar)
B) Stars
i) Harry Chaplin - comic
ii) Clara Bo - heroine
iii) Rudolph Valentino -heart throb
6) African Americans
A) Jazz – Uninhibited, fast music symbolized the age. Duke Ellington.
-Bessie Smith - "Empress of the Blues"
B) Harlem Renaissance – Rebirth of creativity for African Americans, increased wealth and education.
i) Marcus Garvey – Universal Negro Improvement (1/2 million)
focused on racial pride, self rule, economic independence.
ii) Langston Hughes – African American author. Rights and plight of African American.
iii) WEB DuBois – “Niagara Movement” later to become the NAACP
-"Talented Tenth" - See Reading
- More militant than Booker T. Washington. Protested the treatment of African Americans.
7) Prohibition -- (18th Amendment). No drinking. Law breaking.
-Regents Theme: "You cannot legislate morality."
8) Nativism
A) Ku Klux Klan (Big increase in 1920s)
1) Nativist (Anti-immigrant), Anti-catholic. Anti-African American.
Anti-Semitic - claimed Jews controlled banking and movie industry.
2) Political Power (5 million members) and controlled 3 State legislatures.
B) Anti-immigration laws passed. Sets limits on # of immigrants per country .
1) Quota Acts of 1921 & 23
2) Quota Act of 1924 (Johnson-Reed Immigration Act)
3) 1929 National Origins Act
Note: did not stop Mexican immigration.
C) Sacco & Vanzetti - Two Italian immigrants. Anarchists. Accused of murder. Convicted & executed w/ little evidence. Shows the rise of nativism.
9) Evolution v. Creation (Rise of Church Groups)
Evolutionists: Scientists, Modernists, Darwinists
Creationists: Traditionalists, Fundamentalists
A) Scopes Trial (a/k/a the Monkey Case) Note: Not a Supreme Court Case.
Clarence Darrow – Represented a teacher who was fired for teaching evolution.
William Jennings Bryan (former populist president) represented creationism.
Bryan won the case, but public opinion turned to favor Darrow.
10) Rise of Sports
A) Boxing. Symbolic fight of tradition vs. modernist. Clash
Jack Dempsey (Protestant Fundamentalist) v. Gene Tuney (Irish Cathlolic).
B) Others:
i) Bobby Jones - golf
ii) Bill Tilden -tennis
iii) Galloping Ghost (Red Grange) - football
iv) Babe Ruth - baseball
11) Charles "Lucky Lindy" Linberg - 1st solo non-stop flight across the Atlantic. Becomes a celebrity/hero
12) Calvin Coolidge (R) Laissez Faire
"The chief business of America is business. The man who builds a factory, builds a temple. The man who works there, worships there."
13) Red Scare of the 1920s (fear of Communism)
A) Similar to the 1950s and McCarthyism
B) Palmer Raids - USAG Mitchell A. Palmer (a/k/a the Fighting Quaker - do not confuse w/ Nathaniel Greene of Rev. War) searches homes w/o warrants and arrests 6K people he believes are Communists.
14) Herbert Hoover (R) Laissez Faire
A) "Rugged Individualism"
15) Stock Market Crash (October 1929) - Black Tuesday.
Seeds of the Great Depression;
A) Money in concentrated hands of the few (rich). Large gap between rich and poor.
B) Buying stock on margin (credit). Unable to pay causes prices to drop. Banks that loaned money to stock buyers go bankrupt. Bank runs.
C) Underconsumption/overproduction. Therefore, loss of jobs.
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