The 1920s

Prosperity

WWI good for U.S. economy Why?

1922-1929: American economy was booming GNP (Gross National Product) rose at 5.5%

annual rate From $149 billion to $227 billion

Unemployment never exceeded 5% Real wages rose 15%

A Consumer Society

1920’s growth Cars, tractors, washing machines, electric irons, radios,

vacuum cleaners “Consumer durable”: last a long time Canned fruits and vegetables

Number of cars purchased in the U.S. increased Paved roads extended beyond the city Gas stations, hot dog stands, motels

Greater number of Americans bought into the stock market (“on-margin”), especially middle class

Growth of Six Leading Grocery Chains

The Rise of Advertising and Mass Marketing General Motors introduced annual model

change Advertising appealed to consumer desires

Professional advertising firms Beauty products, cigarettes, fashion

Advertisers believed they were helping Americans achieve self-improvement and personal pleasure

Advertising aimed at middle class

Advertising Expenditures

Expenditures on Advertising, 1915-1929

Changing Attitudes Toward Marriage and Sexuality

More open-mindedness “Flappers” : independent-minded young, single

females

An Age of Celebrity

Mega-events and mass marketing

George Herman “Babe” Ruth

Charles Chaplin Rudolph Valentino Charles A. Lindbergh

Spirit of St. Louis Role of media hype in

celebrity

Industrial Workers

Skilled workers higher wages, more benefits Semiskilled and unskilled industrial workers

contended with labor surplus New machines sometimes replaced workers 40% of workers remained in poverty Coal and textile workers suffered the most

through the 1920s Unions lost significant ground in the 1920s

Women and Work

Women were excluded from skilled craftsmen

Women were often relegated to areas of “women’s work” within an industry

Received less pay for equal work of a man

Opportunities grew for white-collar work (secretaries, typists, file and dept. store clerks)

Social services and teaching Amelia Earhart

The Women’s Movement Adrift Expected changes from women’s voting did

not occur Some success

League of Women Voters Internal division

Equal Rights Amendment Protective labor legislation

The Politics of Business

1921-1933: Republican presidents governed the country

“Laissez-Faire”

Harding and the Politics of Personal Gain Warren G. Harding

(1921-1923) "Ohio Gang“: Harding’s

drinking and womanizing cohorts

Albert Fall Teapot Dome

Charles R. Forbes Veterans’ Bureau

Harding dies in 1923

Coolidge and the Politics of Laissez-Faire Calvin Coolidge (1923-

1929) Revenue Act (1926) Curtailed FTC’s (Federal

Trade Commission) ability to regulate industry

The Politics of Business Abroad Hoover wanted Commerce

Dept. to control U.S. international economic relations

Kellogg-Briand pact (1928) Continued intervention in

Latin America

Farmers, Small-Town Protestants, and Moral Traditionalists Not all Americans enjoyed prosperity of the

1920s Farmers suffered due to overproduction Moral-traditionalist white Protestants in small

towns Fear and suspicion of foreigners

Agricultural Depression

Slump for farmers after the wartime boom Tractor enabled over-production

Produce market flooded Prices fell dramatically

Many farmers lost, sold, or abandoned their farms

Price of Major Crops, 1914-1929

Cultural Dislocation

Majority of farmers saw themselves as ‘backbone of the nation’ White, Protestant, Northern-European, hard-working,

honest, God-fearing 1920 Census: urban areas vs. rural areas Fears of rural whites manifested in their support of

Prohibition The Ku Klux Klan Immigration restrictions Religious fundamentalism

Urbanization, 1920

Prohibition Eighteenth Amendment: prohibited manufacture and sale of alcohol

January 1920 Difficulty of enforcing the law Speakeasies and bootleggers

Prohibition effect: encouraged law-breaking more than abstinence Al Capone

Liquor trafficking and violence Chicago

Urban supporters rethink Prohibition

The Ku Klux Klan

William Simmons D.W. Griffith’s Birth of a Nation Hiram Evans Hatred of members extended beyond Blacks to

include Jews, Catholics, foreigners 1924: 4 million Americans were members of the

KKK, many outside the South Women’s Auxiliary group: Women of the KKK

In many ways, Klan was also typical fraternal organization

Klan hate speech often sexually themed, reaction against changed attitudes toward sexuality

Immigration Restriction

Many white Protestants responded to Klan style nativist arguments

Johnson-Reed Act (1924) Limits and quotas on immigration Western hemisphere exempt

Border Patrol Limitation quotas spread to other areas

Ivy League colleges

Fundamentalism vs. Liberal Protestantism Protestant fundamentalism

Bible as God’s word Bible as the source of all “fundamental” truths Took opposition to liberal Protestantism and the

discoveries of science Fundmentalists anti-urban Liberal Protestants believe that religion had

to adapt to modernism, including skepticism and scientific discoveries

The Scopes Trial Fundamentalists pass law prohibiting

teaching of Theory of Evolution in Tennessee (1925)

ALCU and other worried it could be start of new wave of restrictions of Free Speech

John T. Scopes William Jennings Bryan vs. Clarence

Darrow Bryan’s rejection of Darwin partly

reaction of Populist defender against Social Darwinism

Publishers, afraid of Fundamentalist backlash, remove Darwin from textbooks until the 1960s

The Ethnic and Racial Communities Government policy discouraged “new

immigrants” Continued migration within the United States

African Americans moved from the South to the North

Mexicans crossed the Rio Grande into the Southwest

Creation of vibrant subcultures Surge in religious

European Americans

“Americanization campaigns” Many Americans responded by strengthening their

ethnic and religious identities and cultures through organizations and associations

Use of the vote: Democrats Split in the Democratic Party between

Urban-ethnic forces: Smith Rural-Southern forces: McAdoo

Election of 1928 Alfred Smith First Catholic nominated to presidency

African Americans

African-Americans continue to migrate north

Harlem: the “Negro Capital” A Black ghetto

Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters A. Philip Randolph

Jazz Willie Smith Count Basie Duke Ellington Louis Armstrong

Duke Ellington

The Harlem Renaissance

Harlem Renaissance: create works in rooted in African culture not imitations of white culture

"New Negro“ White owned Harlem Jazz

Clubs refused to admit African-Americans

Charlotte Mason Langston Hughes and Zora

Neale Hurston

Mexican Americans

Johnson-Reed Act, 1924 Mexican-Americans became primary source of immigrant

labor 500,000 Mexicans came to U.S. in 1920s Most settled in Southwestern, U.S.

Texas, California Dominated agriculture and construction jobs Exploited and discriminated against

Californios Los Angeles to Mexican-Americans what Harlem

was to African Americans corridos

The “Lost Generation” and Disillusioned Intellectuals Alienated White artists Sinclair Lewis

Main Street (1920) Babbit (1922)

T.S. Eliot-- The Waste Land (1922)

F. Scott Fitzgerald-- The Great Gatsby (1925)

Eugene O'Neill’s plays Ernest Hemingway-- A

Farewell to Arms (1929)

F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald

Democracy on the Defensive

Alienated intellectuals begin to distrust democracy

H.L. Mencken: democracy “the worship of jackals by jackasses”

Walter Lippmann John Dewey: Faith in

democracy

H. L. Mencken

Conclusion

Consumerism and mass production Society seemed somewhat more egalitarian

However, many groups did not benefit from economic prosperity of the 1920s: Working-class, rural Americans

Democratic party Tensions between traditionalists and new

populations Alienated intellectuals Republicans take credit for prosperity