Decade notable for obsessive interest in celebrities

Consumer Culture Eat, drink & be merry, for tomorrow

we die Return to normalcy US turned inward---isolationism Jazz Age first modern era in the U.S. Break with Progressivism?

The Second Industrial Revolution

U.S. develops the highest standard of living in the world

The twenties and the second revolution– electricity replaces steam – Henry Ford’s modern assembly line

introduced Rise of the airline industry Modern appliances and conveniences

begin to change American society

The Automobile Industry Auto makers stimulate sales

through model changes, advertising Auto industry fostered the growth

of other businesses Autos encourage movement and

more individual freedom. By 1929 auto industry most

productive in US.

•Radio sets, parts and accessories brought in $60 $60

millionmillion in 1922…

• $136 million$136 million in 1923

•$852 million$852 million in 1929

•Commercial Broadcasting

•Listening audience was 50,000,000 by 1925

Patterns of Economic Growth

Structural change (F.W. Taylor)– professional managers replace individual

entrepreneurs– corporations become the dominant

business form Uniformity

– Big business weakens regionalism Government Policy

– Corporate tax cuts

Economic Weaknesses

Labor Problems?– Welfare Capitalism

Coal displaced by petroleum Farmer Problems

– decline in prices and exports Growing income disparity Middle class speculates with idle money

“Flappers” sought individual freedom

Ongoing crusade for equal rights

Teenaged children no longer needed to work and indulged their craving for

excitement

most women remain in the “cult of domesticity”

sphere

Rural Americans identify urban culture with Communism, crime, immorality

Sex becomes an all-consuming topic of interest in popular entertainmentCommunities of home, church, and school are absent in the cities

Conflict: Traditional values vs new ideas found in the cities.

Rural Americans identify urban culture with Communism, crime, immorality

Sex becomes an all-consuming topic of interest in popular entertainmentCommunities of home, church, and school are absent in the cities

Conflict: Traditional values vs new ideas found in the cities.

Reemergence of the KKK was a response to the

cultural changes taking place in America.

1925: Membership of 5 million (Hiram Evans)

Attack on urban culture and defends Christian/Protestant and rural valuesAgainst immigrants from Southern

Europe, European Jews, Catholics and American Blacks

Sought to win U.S. by persuasion and gaining control in local/state government.Violence, internal corruption result in

Klan’s virtual disappearance by 1930 but will reappear in the 1950s and 1960s.

•Red Scare, 1919 to 1921, was a time of great

upheaval…U.S. “scared out of their wits".

•"Reds”"Reds” as they were called, "Anarchists” or "Outside

Foreign-Born Radical Agitators” (Communists).(Communists). •Anti-red hysteria came about after WWI

and the Russian Revolution. •6,000 immigrants the government

suspected of being Communists were arrested (Palmer Raids) and 600 were

deported or expelled from the U.S. •No due process was followed

Attorney General Mitchell Palmer

•The U.S. Government began to restrict certain “undesirable”“undesirable” immigrants from entering the U.S.

•Congress passed the Immigration Act of Immigration Act of 19211921, in which newcomers from Europe were

restricted at any year to a quota, which was set at 3% of the people of their nationality who lived

in the U.S. in 1910.

•Johnson-Reed Immigration Act of 1924Johnson-Reed Immigration Act of 1924, the quota now 2% and the origins base was shifted to that of 1890, when fewer southeastern Europeans

lived in America.

•Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti

were Italian Italian immigrantsimmigrants charged

with two murdersmurders and robbing a shoe factory

in Braintree, Mass.

•The trial and appeals lasted 1920-1927. Convicted on circumstantial evidence, many believed they had

been framed for the crime because of their anarchist and pro-union activities.

•In this time period, anti-foreignismanti-foreignism was high as well.

•Liberals and radicals rallied around the two men, but they would be executed.

•Goal: was to reduce crime and was to reduce crime and poverty and improve the quality of lifepoverty and improve the quality of life by making it impossible for people to

get their hands on alcohol. •This "Noble Experiment""Noble Experiment" was a

failure. •Midnight, January 16th, 1920, US

went dry. •The 18th Amendment18th Amendment, known as the

Volstead Act,Volstead Act, prohibited the manufacture, sale and possession of

alcohol in America. Prohibition lasted for thirteen years.

•So was born the industry of bootlegging, speakeasies and Bathtub bootlegging, speakeasies and Bathtub

GinGin..

•People drankdrank more than ever during Prohibition, and there were more deaths

related to alcohol.

•No other law in America has been violated so flagrantlyflagrantly by so many "decent law-decent law-

abidingabiding" people.

•Overnight, many became criminalscriminals.

•Mobsters controlled liquor created a booming black market economy.

•Gangsters owned speakeasies and by 1925 there were over 100,000 speakeasies in

New York City alone.

Detroit police inspecting equipment

found in a hidden underground brewery during the prohibition

era.

Agent with the U.S. Treasury Department's

Prohibition Bureau during a time when

bootlegging was rampant throughout the

nation.

Chicago gangster during Prohibition who controlled the

“bootlegging” industry.

Al CaponeAl Capone Elliot Ness, part of the

Untouchables

Elliot Ness, part of the

Untouchables

1925

The first conflict between religion vs.vs. science being

taught in school was in 1925 in Dayton, Tennessee.

John T. Scopes

Respected high school biology

teacher arrested in Dayton,

Tennessee for teaching

Darwin’s Theory of Evolution.

Clarence Darrow

Famous trial lawyer who represented

Scopes

William J. BryanSec. of State for

President Wilson, ran for president three times, turned evangelical

leader. Represented the

prosecution.

Dayton, Tennessee

Small town in the south became

protective against the

encroachment of modern times and secular teachings.

The trial is conducted in a carnival-like atmosphere. The

people of Dayton are seen as ‘backward’ by

the country.

The right to teach and protect Biblical

teachings in schools.

The acceptance of science and that all

species have evolved from lower forms of

beings over billions of years.

The 1920 ElectionThe 1920 Election

The 1920 ElectionThe 1920 Election

Wilson’s idealism and Treaty of Versailles led

many Americans to vote for the Republican, Warren

Harding…

US turned inward and feared anything that was

European…

Wilson’s idealism and Treaty of Versailles led

many Americans to vote for the Republican, Warren

Harding…

US turned inward and feared anything that was

European…

The 1924 Election

The 1924 ElectionCalvin Coolidge served as

President from 1923 to 1929.

“Silent Cal”.

Republican president

Calvin Coolidge served as President from 1923 to 1929.

“Silent Cal”.

Republican president

+ + = $$REPUBLICAN ECONOMY SUPPORTED LAISSEZ FAIRELAISSEZ FAIRE

AND BIG BUSINESS……….

Lower Taxes Less Federal Higher Strong Spending Tariffs National

Economy

Fordney-McCumber Tariff---1923Hawley-Smoot Tariff ---1930

raised the tariff to an unbelievable 60%!!!

Washington Naval Conference[1921-1922]

Washington Naval Conference[1921-1922]

U. S. Britain Japan France Italy 5 5 3 1.67 1.67U. S. Britain Japan France Italy 5 5 3 1.67 1.67

Four-Power Pact (December 13, 1921). Britain, France, Japan and the United States agreed to submit disputessubmit disputes among themselves over Pacific issues to a conference for resolution. Pledged mutual respect for the possessions and mandates of other signatories (participants) in the Pacific. Five-Power Naval Limitation Treaty (February 6, 1922). The leading naval powers, Britain, France, Italy, Japan and the United States pledged adherence to limitations on the tonnage of capital ships and accepted a moratorium on new naval construction. 5-3-1 ratio5-3-1 ratioBritain could only have 1 ship for every 3 ships in Japan, and Japan could only have 3 ships for every 5 ships in the U.S. Britain, U.S. and Japan agreed to dismantle some existing vessels to meet the ratio.

Five-Power Naval Limitation Treaty (February 6, 1922). Agreed on a series of rules for the use of submarines in future warfare and also outlawed the use of poisonous gases as a military weapon.

Nine-Power Treaty (February 6, 1922). Big Four, plus Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, Portugal and China endorsed the Open Door PolicyOpen Door Policy and pledged mutual respect for Chinese territorial integrity and independence.

In the following months, the U.S. Senate ratified all of the

treaties from the Washington Conference.

Afghanistan Finland Peru

Albania Guatemala Portugal

Austria Hungary Rumania

Bulgaria Iceland Russia

China Latvia Kingdom of the Serbs

Cuba Liberia Croats and Slovenes

Denmark Lithuania Siam

Dominican Republic Netherlands Spain

Egypt Nicaragua Sweden

Estonia Norway Turkey

Ethiopia Panama

Additional countries which join by July 24, 1929. Persia, July 2, 1929; Greece, August 3, 1929; Honduras, August 6, 1929; Chile, August 12, 1929; Luxemburg

August 14, 1929; Danzig, September 11, 1929; Costa Rica, October 1, 1929; Venezuela, October 24, 1929.

Kellogg-Briand Pact: 1928Kellogg-Briand Pact: 1928

15 nations committed to outlawing aggression and war for settling disputes.

Problem no way of enforcement.

15 nations committed to outlawing aggression and war for settling disputes.

Problem no way of enforcement.

The Kellogg-Briand Pact provided for outlawing waroutlawing war as an “an instrument of

national policy,” and was further notable for the following:

The pact was signed in August 1928 by 15 nations. In the following months, more than 60 countries joined in this renunciation of war.

The U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee studied the matter and issued a report that maintained that the pact did not impair the nation’s ability to act to protect the Monroe Doctrine. US Senate ratified this treaty.

The Kellogg-Briand Pact provided for outlawing war as an “an instrument of

national policy,” and was further notable for the following:

Major problems with this treatyMajor problems with this treaty 1. No enforcement mechanism was provided for changing the

behavior of warring signatories.

2. The agreement was interpreted by most of the signatories to permit “defensive” war.

3. No expiration date was provided.

4. No provision existed for amending the agreement was included.

In the 1930’s, the idealism of “ending all war”“ending all war” would be shattered when the Japanese, Italy, Germany

and Soviet Union began WWII. IdealismIdealism, is what it is: “ideas”“ideas”. Some can work and others can’t. In a realistic world,realistic world, countries

realized that they needed to protect themselves from aggressor nations.

It is still this way today but we have the United Nations to promote world

peace and “contain”“contain” aggressor nations.

Dawes Plan

•Presented in 1924 by the committee headed by Charles G. Dawes to the Reparations Commission of the Allied nations. It was accepted the same year by Germany and the Allied Nations.

•The Dawes Committee was entrusted with finding a solution for the collection of the German reparations debt, set at almost $54 billion.

•Germany had been lagging in payment of this obligation and the Dawes Plan provided a repayment schedule over 4 years to the Allies. The Germans would continue to lag behind in payments.