Chapter 20

Postwar Social Change

(1920–1929)

Society in the 1920s• How were women’s roles changing during

the 1920s?• How were the nation’s cities and suburbs

affected by Americans on the move from rural areas?

• Who were some American heroes of the 1920s? What made them popular with the American public?

Women’s Changing Roles

The Flapper Image• The flapper, a type of bold, fun-loving young

woman, came to symbolize a revolution in manners and morals that took place in the 1920s.

• Flappers challenged conventions of dress, hairstyle, and behavior.

• Many Americans disapproved of flappers’ free manners as well as the departure from traditional morals that they represented.

Women’s Changing Roles

Women Working and Voting• Although many women held jobs in the 1920s,

businesses remained prejudiced against women seeking professional positions.

• The Nineteenth Amendment gave women the right to vote in all elections beginning in 1920. At first, many women did not exercise their right to vote. It took time for women’s votes to make an impact.

Americans on the Move

Rural-Urban Split• Although the economy in the cities expanded in the

1920s, many farmers found themselves economically stressed. This resulted in a migration from rural to urban areas.

• Rural and urban Americans were also split over cultural issues. While many in the cities were abandoning some traditional values, rural populations generally wanted to preserve these values.

Americans on the Move

Growth of the Suburbs• While cities continued to grow, many Americans

moved from cities to suburbs.• Improvements in transportation made travel

between the cities and suburbs increasingly easy.• This shift in population was one example of

changing demographics, or statistics that describe a group of people, during the 1920s.

Waves of Migration• During the Great Migration, which lasted through

World War I, many African Americans had moved from the rural South to take jobs in northern cities. Industrial expansion during the 1920s also encouraged African American migration to the North. However, they often faced discrimination in both the North and the South.

• After World War I, masses of refugees applied for entry into the United States. Immigration from China, Japan, and southern and eastern Europe was limited; however, many immigrants from Mexico and Canada filled low-paying jobs in the United States.

Waves of Migration

• Certain areas became magnets for immigrants. A barrio, or Spanish-speaking neighborhood, developed in Los Angeles, California; New York also attracted numerous Spanish-speaking immigrants.

American Heroes

• Charles Lindbergh• As the first to fly nonstop from New York to Paris,

aviator Charles Lindbergh was hailed as an American hero and a champion of traditional values.

• Amelia Earhart• Amelia Earhart set records as the first woman to

fly solo across the Atlantic and the first person to fly solo from Hawaii to California. She and her navigator mysteriously disappeared while attempting to fly around the world in 1937.

American Heroes

• Sports Heroes• Champions in wrestling, football, baseball, and

swimming became American heroes. Perhaps the most famous sports figure was baseball’s George Herman “Babe” Ruth, whose record number of home runs remained unbroken for 40 years.

Mass Media and the Jazz Age

• How did the mass media help create common cultural experiences?

• Why are the 1920s called the Jazz Age, and how did the jazz spirit affect the arts?

• How did the writers of the Lost Generation respond to the popular culture?

• What subjects did the Harlem Renaissance writers explore?

The Jazz Age• Jazz, a style of music that grew out of the African

American music of the South, became highly popular during the 1920s. Characterized by improvisation and syncopation, jazz became so strongly linked to the culture of the 1920s that the decade came to be known as the Jazz Age.

• Harlem, a district in Manhattan, New York, became a center of jazz music. Flappers and others heard jazz in clubs and dance halls; the Charleston, considered by some to be a wild and reckless dance, embodied the Jazz Age.

• Jazz pioneers Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong made important contributions to jazz music.

The Jazz Spirit• Painting

• Like jazz musicians, painters in the 1920s took the pulse of American life. Painters such as Edward Hopper and Rockwell Kent showed the nation’s rougher side; Georgia O’Keeffe’s paintings of natural objects suggested something larger than themselves.

• Literature• Novelist Sinclair Lewis attacked American society

with savage irony; playwright Eugene O’Neill proved that American plays could hold their own against those from Europe.

The Jazz Spirit

• The Lost Generation• Gertrude Stein remarked to Ernest Hemingway

that he and other American writers were all a “Lost Generation,” a group of people disconnected from their country and its values. Soon, this term was taken up by the flappers as well.

The Harlem Renaissance

• In addition to being a center of jazz, Harlem emerged as an overall cultural center for African Americans. A literary awakening took place in Harlem in the 1920s that was known as the Harlem Renaissance.

• Expressing the joys and challenges of being African American, writers such as James Weldon Johnson, Zora Neale Hurston, and Langston Hughes enriched African American culture as well as American culture as a whole.

Cultural Conflicts

• What were the effects of Prohibition on society?• What issues of religion were at the core of the

Scopes trial?• How did racial tensions change after World War I?

Prohibition

• The Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which took effect on January 16, 1920, made the manufacture, sale, and transport of liquor, beer, and wine illegal.

• As a result, many Americans turned to bootleggers, or suppliers of illegal alcohol. Bars that operated illegally, known as speakeasies, were either disguised as legitimate businesses or hidden in some way, often behind heavy gates.

Prohibition

• Prohibition sharpened the contrast between rural and urban areas, since urban areas were more likely to ignore the law. Additionally, it increased the number of liquor-serving establishments in some major cities to far above pre-Prohibition levels.

Organized Crime

• The tremendous profit resulting from the sale of illegal liquor, as well as the complex organization involved, helped lead to the development of organized crime.

• Successful bootlegging organizations often moved into other illegal activities as well, including gambling, prostitution, and racketeering. As rival groups fought for control in some American cities, gang wars and murders became commonplace.

Organized Crime

• One of the most notorious criminals of this time was Al Capone, nicknamed “Scarface,” a gangster who rose to the top of Chicago’s organized crime network. Capone proved talented at avoiding jail but was finally imprisoned in 1931.

Issues of Religion

Fundamentalism• As science, technology, modern social issues, and

new Biblical scholarship challenged traditional religious beliefs, a religious movement called fundamentalism gained popularity.

• Fundamentalism supported traditional Christian ideas and argued for a literal interpretation of the Bible.

• Billy Sunday and other famous fundamentalist preachers drew large audiences.

Issues of Religion

Evolution and the Scopes Trail• Fundamentalists worked to pass laws against

teaching the theory of evolution in public schools. A science teacher named John T. Scopes agreed to challenge such a law in Tennessee. His arrest led to what was called the Scopes trial.

• The Scopes trial became the first trial to be broadcast over American radio.

• The case became a public debate between fundamentalists and modernists.

Racial Tensions

Violence Against African Americans• Mob violence between white and black Americans

erupted in about 25 cities during the summer of 1919.

• The worst of these race riots occurred in Chicago, where the African American population had doubled since 1910. A white man threw a rock at a black teenager swimming in Lake Michigan, and the boy drowned. The incident touched off riots that lasted several days, destroyed many homes, killed several people and wounded many more.

Racial Tensions

Revival of the Klan• Although it had been largely eliminated during

Reconstruction, the Ku Klux Klan regained power during the 1920s and greatly increased its membership outside the South.

• The Klan’s focus shifted to include terrorizing not just African Americans but also Catholics, Jews, immigrants, and others.

• After the arrest of a major Klan leader in 1925, Klan membership diminished once again.

Fighting Discrimination

• During the 1920s, the NAACP fought for anti-lynching laws and worked to promote the voting rights of African Americans. These efforts, however, met with limited success.

• A movement led by Marcus Garvey, an immigrant from Jamaica, became popular with many African Americans. Garvey, who created the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA), sought to build up African Americans’ self-respect and economic power, encouraging them to buy shares in his Negro Factories Corporation.

Fighting Discrimination

• Garvey also encouraged his followers to return to Africa and create a self-governing nation there. Although corruption and mismanagement resulted in the collapse of the UNIA, Garvey’s ideas of racial pride and independence would affect future “black pride” movements.

Chapter 21

Politics and Prosperity

(1920–1929)

A Republican Decade

• What events fueled the Red Scare of the early 1920s?

• What conflicts led to the major labor strikes of 1919?

• How did Republican leadership during the Harding and Coolidge presidencies shape the 1920s?

• What issues influenced the presidential election of 1928?

The Red Scare

• Issues of concern in the presidential election of 1920: • Emerging from the shadow of World War I• Putting the economy back on track

• Republican Warren G. Harding called for a return to “normalcy.”

• Many Americans hoped that Harding’s “normalcy” would protect them from the spread of Russia’s communism, an ideology openly hostile to capitalism and First Amendment freedoms.

The Red Scare

• Some Americans were concerned that the European immigrants entering the United States were Communists or other radicals.

• Events at home and abroad brought about a Red Scare, an intense fear of communism and other radical ideas.

Red Scare Events

• Schenck v. U.S.• Charles Schenck mailed letters urging men to

avoid military service. Schenck was convicted of breaking the Espionage Act. In his appeals, Schenck said he was exercising his freedom of speech. The Supreme Court said that the government is justified in silencing free speech when there is a “clear and present danger.”

Red Scare Events• Gitlow v. New York

• Socialist Bernard Gitlow published calls for the violent overthrow of the government. He was convicted of criminal anarchy. The Supreme Court upheld his conviction, stating that he had urged people to engage in violent revolution.

• The Palmer Raids• Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer ordered the

arrest of thousands of suspected “subversives” (people trying to overthrow the government) without evidence. Many were innocent, yet more than 500 were deported.

Red Scare Events

• Sacco and Vanzetti• Two anarchists were accused of a robbery and

murder. Many people believed that they were singled out because they were both radicals and immigrants. After a trial that many believed was unfair, the jury found them guilty and sentenced them to death.

Labor Strikes

The Harding Presidency

• Foreign Policy• Harding and many Americans wanted a policy of

isolationism, avoiding political or economic alliances with foreign countries. Harding called for international disarmament, a program in which nations voluntarily give up their weapons. He promoted the expansion of trade and acted to protect business at home.

The Harding Presidency

• Domestic Issues• As Americans became more isolationist during

the Red Scare, they also became more nativist. Nativism is a movement favoring native-born Americans over immigrants.

• In 1921, Congress passed a law restricting immigration. The law included a quota, or a numerical limit imposed on immigrants.

The Harding Presidency

• The Teapot Dome Scandal• In 1923, corruption scandals rocked Harding’s

administration. The worst was the Teapot Dome Scandal. Harding’s Secretary of the Interior secretly gave drilling rights on government land to two private oil companies in return for illegal payments. There was no evidence that Harding was involved in the scandals. He died while still in office.

The Coolidge Presidency

• Coolidge assumed the presidency after Harding died.

• He summed up a major theme of the Republican decade: “The chief business of the American people is business.”

• Coolidge supported a laissez-faire approach to business. His economic policies helped fuel the economic boom of the 1920s.

The Coolidge Presidency

• Coolidge wanted peace and stability without getting the United States too deeply involved in other nations.

• Secretary of State Frank B. Kellogg worked with the French foreign minister to create the Kellogg-Briand Pact. Under this pact more than 60 nations agreed not to threaten each other with war. Unfortunately, there were no provisions for enforcement, and many of the countries that had signed the pact would be at war with each other by 1941.

A Business Boom

• What role do businesses and consumers play in a consumer economy?

• How were Henry Ford and the automobile important to the 1920s?

• In what ways did industrial growth affect the economy of the 1920s?

• Why did the economic boom bypass some people and benefit others?

A Consumer Economy

• The 1920s saw the development of a consumer economy, one that depends on a large amount of spending by consumers.

• Until the 1920s, middle-class Americans generally paid cash for everything. Manufacturers developed installment plans and clever advertising to encourage consumers to buy on credit.

• Many new electric appliances created a surge in demand for electricity. Between 1913 and 1927, the number of electric power customers quadrupled.

A Consumer Economy

• By the 1920s, marketers developed a new approach to advertising. Advertisers used psychology to appeal to consumers’ emotions and insecurities to sell products.

• As consumption rose so did productivity. A measure of productivity is the Gross National Product (GNP). The GNP is the total value of goods and services a country produces annually.

• Productivity rose to meet consumer demand, but it also rose because the nation developed new resources, new management methods, and new technologies.

Ford and the Automobile

• In 1896, Henry Ford perfected his first version of a lightweight gas-powered car. He called it the “quadricycle.” The improved version was the Model T.

• Ford wanted to produce a large number of cars and sell them at prices ordinary people could afford.

• To sell less expensive cars, he adapted the assembly line for his factories. An assembly line is a process in which each worker does one specialized task in the construction of a final product.

Ford and the Automobile

• Ford’s success came partly from vertical consolidation—controlling the businesses that make up the phases of production.

• Ford was a complex businessman. His pay rate was very generous, but he used violence to fight unions.

Industrial Growth and Bypassed by the Boom

Industrial Growth• Automobile making became the nation’s largest

industry.• Thousands of new businesses arose to serve

automobile travel.• Other non-automobile-related industries grew as

well.• Limited government regulation (laissez-faire

policies) helped the value of businesses to soar.• Rapid business expansion opened up opportunities

for small companies.

Industrial Growth and Bypassed by the Boom

Bypassed by the Boom• Some Americans struggled to survive during the

1920s.• Many unskilled laborers remained poor, and their

wages and working conditions did not improve with the boom.

• Agricultural industries had expanded to meet wartime needs but later failed to uncover new markets.

• Railroads suffered from shrinking demand, mismanagement, competition from trucking firms, and labor unions that fought against layoffs and wage cuts.

The Economy in the Late 1920s

• Why did the economy of the late 1920s appear healthy to most Americans?

• What danger signs were present in the economy of the late 1920s?

Economy Appears Healthy

• Herbert Hoover won the 1928 election, benefiting from the years of prosperity under previous Republican presidents.

• Americans had unusually high confidence in the economy in the 1920s. People made risky investments based on the popular notion that everyone ought to be rich.

• Many employers believed that they could prevent strikes and keep their productivity high with benefits that would meet and exceed the demands of workers. This approach to labor relations is called welfare capitalism.

Economy Appears Healthy

• Under welfare capitalism employers raised wages, provided paid vacations, health plans, recreation programs, and English classes for recent immigrants. They even set up “company unions” to hear the concerns of their workers.

• As a result of welfare capitalism, organized labor lost members during the 1920s.

Economic Danger Signs

• Uneven Prosperity•The rich got richer•Huge corporations rather than small business dominated industry.

•Personal Debt•The rapid increase of stock prices encouraged:

•Speculation, the practice of making high-risk investments in hopes of getting a huge return, and

•Buying on margin, the practice of allowing investors to purchase a stock for only a fraction of its price and borrow the rest at high interest rates.

Economic Danger Signs

• Too Many Goods, Too Little Demand• Rising productivity had brought prosperity, but it

also created a surplus of goods. Manufacturers had more product than consumers could buy.

• Trouble for Farmers and Workers• Farmers unable to pay their debts defaulted on

bank loans, which caused rural banks to fail. Coolidge vetoed a farm relief bill.

•While companies grew wealthy, many factory workers remained poor, especially in distressed industries.

Personal Debt and Income Distribution in the 1920s