American Life in the Roaring 20’s

Warren G. Harding

• Chosen by political bosses for his easiness to control

• Promoted laissez-faire and ignored antitrust laws

Return to Normalcy

• Harding’s idea of returning the U.S. to the period of peace and prosperity prior to World War I

Teapot Dome Scandal

• Secretary of Interior Albert B. Fall secretly leases oil-rich public land to private companies for drilling

• In return he received money and land

• Caused public to lose trust in the Harding administration

Calvin Coolidge

• Supported big business and laissez-faire economics

• The economy did very well

Purchasing Stocks

• Speculation: making high risk investments in hopes of making high returns on their money

• Buying on Margin: buying stocks for only a portion of what they cost and borrowing the difference

Mechanization

• Increase in use of machinery for production allowed manufacturers to produce more and charge less

Consumerism

• Advertisers convinced Americans that they not only wanted, but needed certain products

• Installment Plan: allowed consumers to pay a little at a time– Meant people could purchase more

expensive items

Economic Boom

• People began to purchase more cars, clothes, appliances, and other goods…….on credit

• Easy credit allowed the economy to boom in the 1920’s

Farmers

• During WWI farmers did well because of a high demand for their products

• After WWI overproduction caused prices to fall

• Many farmers could not repay their loans and many lost their homes and land

The Red Scare

• After WWI, the Russian Revolution brought a Communist government to power in Russia

• Americans feared the spread of communist ideas to the U.S.

Palmer Raids

• A. Mitchell Palmer and his agents hunted down communists, socialists, and anarchists

• Deported and/or jailed suspects without trial

Sacco and Vanzetti

• Italian born immigrants

• Convicted of murder based on circumstantial evidence

• Became the symbol of nativist distrust of foreigners during the 1920’s

Sacco and Vanzetti

Ku Klux Klan

• Originally targeted African Americans

• In 1920’s they began to attack Jews, Catholics, and immigrants

Ku Klux Klan

Schenk v. U.S.

• Schenk was arrested for urging draftees not to report for duty during WWI

• Supreme Court said government could silent free speech when “clear and present danger” was involved

Emergency Quota Act of 1921

• Passed to curb the number of immigrants from Eastern and Southern Europe

• Restricted newcomers to 3% of the population for that nationality

Immigration Act of 1924

• Dropped the immigration number down to 2% and based it on the population in 1890

• Old Immigrants vs. New Immigrants

Prohibition

• 1920, 18th Amendment passed that forbade the manufacturing and sale of alcohol in the U.S.

• Law was controversial and was in place until 1933

Speakeasies

• Places where alcohol could be purchased and consumed illegally during prohibition

Bootleggers

• A person who smuggled alcoholic beverages into the U.S. during Prohibition

Al Capone

• Chicago gang leader who made millions off bootlegging alcohol and running speakeasies

Fundamentalism

• The belief that everything in The Bible is true

• Many people saw advances in technology and science as an attack on Christianity

Scopes Trial• 1925 court case pitting the teaching of

evolution against fundamentalism

• John T. Scopes was tried for breaking Tennessee law against teaching evolution

• Defended by Clarence Darrow

• Prosecuted by William Jennings Bryan

• Drew national attention and controversy

Henry Ford’s Innovations

• Saw his workers as consumers and potential customers

Henry Ford’s Innovations

• $5/Day: $5/Day: Paying employee’s this wage was a way for them to buy his automobiles

• Assembly Line: Assembly Line: Increased efficiency and production of the automobile

• Model T: Model T: First mass produced car; offered in “any color, as long as it was black”

The Automobile

• Provided freedom for Americans

• Brought new job opportunities in road building, mechanics, gas stations, motels, etc..

Consumer Society

• Americans began purchasing through credit or installment plans

• This plunged Americans into deep consumer debt

George Eastman

• Developed the Kodak Camera

• Amateur photographers emerged

• Leads to the development of photojournalism

Jack Dempsey

• Became the heavy weight boxing champion and a U.S. hero

Babe Ruth

• Baseball star who captured America with his massive home runs

• Helped make baseball America’s game

Orville and Wilbur Wright

• First to achieve successful flight

• Airplanes would be used for military and commercial travel

Charles Lindbergh

• Became an American hero when he flew a solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean

Radio

• New form of entertainment and communication

Motion Pictures

• The Great Train Robbery, the first motion picture

• Soon, every city had movie theaters

Talkies

• Motion pictures with sound became popular

• The Jazz Singer was the first motion picture with sound

Margaret Sanger

• Spread information about the controversial birth control pill

• Started the American Birth Control League

Changes Surrounding Women

• An increase in women entering the workforce during the 1920’s

• Women started wearing shorter hair and shorter skirts

Changes Surrounding Women

• Flappers:Flappers: challenged traditional gender roles, would have men visit their homes, changed the way women dressed and looked

Sigmund Freud

• Argued that humans were sexually repressed and the cause of societies problems

Harlem Renaissance

• A literary and artistic movement celebrating African-American culture

• Saw the rise of African-American poets, writers, artists, singers, and the birth of jazz

Langston Hughes

• Harlem Renaissance's best known poet who wrote about the difficult lives of working class African-Americans

Louis Armstrong

• Jazz musician who was perhaps the most important and influential musician in the history of jazz

“Lost Generation”

• Disenchanted writers from the 1920’s

• Many were disillusioned by WWI

• Wrote about the pitfalls of materialism and greed of the 1920’s

Sinclair Lewis

• Became the first American to win the Nobel Prize for literature

• Criticized middle America

F. Scott Fitzgerald

• Writer who revealed the negative side of the 1920’s excess

• Most famous book, The Great Gatsby

Ernest Hemingway

• Former WWI veteran

• Wrote books that criticized the glorification of war

• The Sun Also Rises