TRANSITION TO MODERN AMERICA:

Chapter 25

The Roaring Twenties (1919-1929)

Why “’Roaring’”?

“With the advent of the new consumer goods industries, the American people by the 1920s enjoyed the highest standard

of living of any nation on earth. . . . The key to the new affluence lay in technology.” The 1920s is often perceived as

“a time of escape and frivolity before the onset of the Depression. . . . There was solid growth of new consumer-

based industries. Automobiles and appliances were not passing fancies. Their production and use became a part of

the modern American way of life, creating a high standard of living that roused the envy of the rest of the world. The future

pattern of American culture—cars and suburbs, shopping centers and skyscrapers—was determined by the end of the

1920s.”

LIFE IN THE 1920S

• Bolshevik—a.k.a., “Reds”—communist revolutionaries who took over the Russian government in 1917

– The success of the Bolsheviks in Russia made Americans uneasy, particularly with foreign born immigrants who seemed positively disposed toward socialism.

• A. Mitchell Palmer & the “Red Scare”

Unity Even at the Expense of Ethnic Diversity--the Nationalist Spirit** 23-E1

Palmer was the U.S. Attorney General who, in 1920, organized the infamous “Palmer Raids.” They came after Palmer—among many other prominent Americans (including John D. Rockefeller)—were sent letter bombs.

These raids led to the arrest of suspected communists and foreign-born radicals. Over 6,000 people in 33 cities were arrested and

some 550 deported—almost none were guilty of any crime. The deportations were done

without regard for due process of law. When the revolution that Palmer predicted for May

1, 1920 failed to materialize, the Red Scare died a natural death.

Nichola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti—24-D2

The legacy of the Red Scare was that the foreign born in America “lived in uneasy realization that they were viewed with hostility and suspicion.” The Sacco and Vanzetti case demonstrated the truth of this reality. They were tried in1921 and found guilty for a double murder committed during a payroll robbery in South Braintree, Massachusetts. The trial was unfair and prejudiced because of the pair’s Italian ethnicity and anarchist political beliefs. Both men died in the electric chair on August 23, 1927**

The Strikes of 1919—23-E2

• General Strike in Seattle– A “general “strike” is a strike by members of

all unions• Police Strike in Boston• Strike in iron and steel industry

Why did Labor unrest follow World War I?After the war, rising prices led to worker

demands for higher wages; simultaneously, a large pool of workers helped to keep wages low; many unions responded with strikes.

An Expanding Flood of Immigration—23-E1

• Europeans seeking to escape war-ravaged countries hoped to come to the U.S.

– How did the “Red Scare” of the early-1920s influence immigration laws?

– Many Americans feared the immigrants would spread radical ideas and demand limits to immigration

• Quota System– limitation on the number of immigrants who

could enter the U.S. from any given nation

Racism as a Motivating Factor—Racial Purity vs. Melting Pot—24-D2

• This involved a fear of the Anglo-Saxon stock being overwhelmed by immigrants perceived as lesser breeds with inferior genetic codes and barbaric habits

• It blamed national problems on the growing phenomenon of intermingled and mongrelized people

Emergency Quota Act of 1921**

• Limited to 3% of the people of that nationality already living in the U.S. in 1910; was driven by fear of things foreign

• Limited immigration from Europe to 150,000 a year with most slots allocated to immigrants of Northwestern Europe

National Origins Quota Act of 1924**

Follow the Money

“The large corporation no longer dependent on armies of unskilled

immigrant workers, did not object to the 1924 Law; the machine had

replaced the immigrant on the assembly line.”

Why were Many Blacks Disappointed after the War?**

There was increasing competition for jobs and Blacks often suffered discrimination; they saw that racial attitudes in America had not changed that much after the war. Those Blacks who left depressed Southern farms for the North continued to find work

primarily in areas of menial service.

Politics in an Era of Business—The Scorecard

“Middle-and upper-class Americans were the groups who thrived in the 1920s. The

rewards of this second Industrial Revolution went to the managers—the engineers,

bankers, and executives—who directed the new industrial economy. . . .

Their conspicuous consumption helped fuel the prosperity of the

1920s, but their disposable income eventually became greater than their material wants. The result

was speculation, as those with idle money began to invest heavily in the stock market to reap gains

from industrial growth.”

Election of 1920

Warren G. Harding

• Harding was a “dark horse” contender for the Republican nomination who became a compromise choice for the GOP nomination

He appeared the embodiment of middle class American values

Handsome Dignified Genial

Harding Continued

Conventional in outlook Lieutenant Governor of

Ohio Ohio Republican Senator Lacked the capacity to

govern• Broadly delegated power • Promised a “return to

normalcy”**His administration marks the beginning of a period in

which a close relationship between government and private business flourishes

However. . . the administration was

distinguished by numerous scandals**

Central Figures in the

Harding Administra-

tion

Andrew Mellon Harding’s Secretary of

the Treasury (and head of Alcon Aluminum

Corporation). He was a key adviser to Harding; favored protection of American business

through policy of high tariffs.

Charles Evans Hughes

One of Harding’s more effective cabinet choices was Charles Evans Hughes (left), Secretary of State. Hughes had a long and distinguished career in public life.

Herbert HooverFuture president Herbert Hoover served in the Harding Cabinet as Secretary of Commerce. A self-made man from humble origins, Hoover graduated from Stanford University and became a millionaire using his training as a mining engineer. He gained celebrity by administering a domestic food program and a foreign aid undertaking to dispense aid to Europe following the First World War.

Fordney-McCumber Act of 1922

• This protectionist measure raised tariffs to new highs to protect American Business (supported by Mellon)

• This new tariff increased taxes from the levels imposed by the Underwood Tariff passed during Wilson’s administration

McNary-Haugen Bill

• Sought to keep farmers’ purchasing power strong, even if market prices dropped

• Sought to achieve parity

“Normalcy”—goal of the Harding Administration; to return to the way things

were before the war

Parity—equality between standard of living that farmers enjoyed in good years and one

that developed in bad years

Scandals That Tarnished the Harding Administration

• Attorney General Harry Daugherty and a friend sold government favors

• Charles Forbes, head of the Veterans Bureau, sold bandages, drugs, and bedding making personal profits from the sales

The Daugherty Scandal

Teapot Dome

Albert Fall

Harry Sinclair

Edward Doheny

Coolidge Administration’s Measures to Help the Business

Community

Upon the unexpected death of President Harding, Vice-President Calvin Coolidge assumed the presidency. He was nationally known not only for his firm gubernatorial dealing to end the Boston Police Strike of 1919 but for his honesty and integrity. Reserved and reticent, “Coolidge became famous for his epigrams, which contemporaries mistook for wisdom.”

Election of 1924Republican Positions in 1924

Returned to traditional party choices, neither reactionary nor completely progressive

Democratic Positions in 1924

The party appeared split and destined for self-destruction**

Split Within the Democratic Party**

Traditional Democratic Position

• Prohibition

• Fundamentalism

• The Klan

New Democratic Position

• Emerged from Northern and Midwestern cosmopolitan acres

• Immigrants or descendants of immigrants

The Split became dramatically apparent in the election of 1924

The Democratic division was

often cast pejoratively as

the rubes or hicks from the sticks versus

unconscionable city slickers

In spite of the fact that the 1924 election was the poorest showing

for the Democrats in the 20th century, “the large cities were

swinging clearly into the Democratic column; all the party needed was a charismatic leader

who could fuse the older rural elements with the new urban

voters.”

Coolidge Epigrams and Administrative Style

• “The business of America is ‘business.’”**• “The man who builds a factory builds a temple. The man

who works there worships there.”**• “You lose.” Coolidge’s response to a person who bet that

he could prompt the president to say more than three words.

• “I choose not to run.” Coolidge’s enigmatic declaration and sole explanation for withdrawing his name as a candidate for the presidential election of 1928.

• He perceived his duty not to govern the nation but to benignly preside over it

• He sought to be the “least” president in American history

Upon hearing the

announcement that “Silent Cal”

had died, American humorist

Dorothy Parker (left) retorted,

“How could they tell?”

Common Points Between White Farmers and Ethnic Minorities

During the 1920s

Both suffered severe economic problems—neither enjoyed the

general prosperity of the period.

“The city replaced the countryside as the focal point of American life in the 1920s. The 1920 census revealed that for the first time, slightly more than half of the population lived in cities

(defined broadly to included all places of more than 2,500 people)**. . . . The

skyscraper came to symbolize the new mass culture.”

Prosperity and Innovation

Ford’s “emphasis on the flow of parts moving past stationary workers became the standard in nearly every American factory. The moving

assembly line—with its emphasis on uniformity, speed, precision, and

coordination—took away the last vestiges of craftsmanship and turned workers into near

robots.**

It led to amazing efficiency that produced both high profits for

manufacturers and low prices for buyers. . . . Mass production led to a

consumer revolution. . . that made life easier and more pleasant for the vast majority of the American people. . .

[The American people] decided (wisely or not) to center their existence on the

automobile.”

Henry Ford Ford used electric power and

scientific management to make the automobile affordable

“The moving assembly line that Henry Ford [left] perfected in 1913

for manufacture of the Model T [right] marked only the first step toward full mass production and

the beginning of America’s worldwide industrial supremacy.”

Ford’s River Rouge plant (right) became a model for assembly line productivity. Mass

production “became the hallmark of American industry.”

Assembly-Line—production methods in which workers stand at their respective stations while unfinished

products moved past them on a conveyor belt with each

worker performing one simple task

Ways the Automobile Changed American Life

• Led to improved highways

• Led to growth of the suburbs

• Gave young couples an easy way to escape parental supervision

“The nature of the consumer goods revolution can be best seen in the automobile industry. . . . growth was

its hallmark. . . . The automobile boom, at its peak from 1922 to 1927, depended on the apparently insatiable

appetite of the American people for cars. . . . The auto changed the pattern of city life, leading to a suburban

explosion. . . . The car ruled.”

“The automobile boom, at its peak from 1922 to 1927,

depended on the apparently insatiable appetite of the

American people for cars. . . . The auto changed the pattern

of city life, leading to a suburban explosion. . . . The car

ruled.”

American Culture in the Jazz Age

The “Roaring” Twenties

“Frivolity and excitement ran high in the cities as both crime waves and highly publicized sports events flourished.

Prohibition ushered in such distinctive features of the decade as speakeasies,

bootleggers, and bathtub gin. Sports became a national mania in the 1920s as people

found more leisure time. . . . It was a time of pleasure seeking, when people sought to

escape from the increasingly drab world of the assembly line by worshipping heroic

individuals.”

Changing Times—The Scorecard

Harlem Renaissance**

This was the flowering of creativity among African-

American—musicians, writers, artists, and performers—living in Harlem, the Black cultural

capital of the U. S.

Harlem became “the Negro Capital of the world.” From Harlem radiated “the new African American cultural awareness [that] spared to other cities. . . . Although blacks were still an oppressed minority in the America of the 1920s, they had taken major strides toward achieving cultural and intellectual fulfillment.”

Langston Hughes

Hughes was a popular Black poet. He probably became the best known figure of the Harlem Renaissance. In moving language, he reminded his people of their cultural heritage.

Claude McKay—prominent Black poet who encouraged growth of

Black pride

McKay’s Shadows (right) captured in verse an indignation against

racial injustice in America as well as a distinct pride in his racial

heritage.

Countee Cullen

Cullen’s poetry, like that of Langston Hughes, was both beautiful and eloquent in the portrayal of the tragedy of the Black people in America.

Marcus Garvey

As a Black leader hailing from Jamaica, Garvey called for Black pride, racial redemption and solidarity, and self-reliance. In a militant tone, he encouraged a new self-awareness among African-Americans. Moved by a spirit of Black separatism, he urged them to return to Africa and set up their own nation there. Indeed, Garvey envisioned an independent Black Africa governed by the world’s 400 million Blacks.**

“Garvey’s support of the Ku Klux Klan—an organization he admired for its honesty—alienated him from many fellow Blacks. Garvey’s “movement inspired Blacks disgusted by the hypocrisy of American democracy and frustrated by the failure of gradualism to improve their lot. He gave them an alternative to litigation and legislation, the approach of the more conservative Black establishment.”

W. E. B. DuBois

W.E.B. DuBois edited the newspaper Crisis, “the intellectual voice of the

black community developing in New York City’s Harlem.”

James Weldon Johnson

Along with Du Bois, James Weldon Johnson (above right) became the leader of the Harlem Renaissance. Johnson was a professor of literature at Fisk University. His Fifty Years and Other Poems was a commentary on the suffering of African-Americans in those decades from the Emancipation Proclamation to his own day.

Armory Show

Regiment Armory in New York City; was 1st display of this

kind ever

Gertrude Stein & the “Lost Generation”**

“The greatest cultural advance of the 1920s was visible in the outpouring of literature. The city gave rise to a new class of intellectuals—writers who commented on the new industrial society. Most had been uprooted by World War I. They were

bewildered by the rapidly changing social patterns of the 1920s and appalled by the materialism of American culture. Some fled to Europe to live as expatriates, congregating in Paris cafes to

bemoan the loss of American innocence and purity. Others stayed at home, observing and condemning the excesses of a business civilization. All shared a sense of disillusionment and

wrote pessimistically of the flawed promise of American life. Yet ironically, their body of writing revealed a profound creativity

that suggested America was coming of age intellectually.”

Expatriate—a person who leaves his/her country and lives in another for some purpose.

The Writers of the “Lost Generation” showed disillusionment of the postwar era. They presented the world as an uncertain

meaningless place.** “Nearly all the writers, black as well as white, cried out against the conformity and materialism of the contemporary scene. They were critical of mass production and

reliance on the machine; they wrote wistfully of the disappearance of the artisan and of the more relaxed way of life. Few took any interest in politics or in social reform. They retreated instead into individualism, seeking an escape into their art from the prevailing civilization. . . . [They] turned

inward to avoid being swept up in the consumer goods revolution**. . . [and] produced an astonishingly rich and varied body of work. . . . American writers, despite their alienation had

placed their country in the forefront of world literature.”

Ernest Hemingway

The author of expatriate novels—he wrote about expatriates living for momentary pleasures

As a member of an ambulance corps, Hemingway had practical experience with war itself

Hemingway wrote insightfully about war in For Whom the Bell Tolls

He was devoted to the vigorous, rugged life

Themes of man versus nature. . .

Hemingway sought redemption from the modern plight in the romantic

individualism of his heroes. Preoccupied with violence, he wrote of men alienated

from society who found a sense of identity in their own courage and quest for

personal honor. . . . His greatest impact on other writers, however, came from his sparse, direct, and clean prose style.”

F. Scott Fitzgerald

Fitzgerald published Great Gatsby in 1925. It has been the subject of several movie versions.

Fitzgerald was disdainful of the emptiness and lack of human concern in

contemporary American life

Sinclair Lewis 1st American to win Nobel Peace Prize in literature; often

mocked small-town gossips and smug business leaders

Main Street, published in 1920, satirized small-town American values. In it, Lewis

condemned dull, complacent, narrow-mindedness. His book Babbitt (1922) “poked

fun at the commercialism of the 1920s” through use of his central character, George Babbitt—“the stereotype of the lazy, smug,

middleclass businessman.”

T. S. Eliot A brilliant poet who wrote about complex problems of modern society as fragmented and empty

Eliot’s writing reflects a profound sense of despair. The Waste Land (1922, right) evokes “images of fragmentation and sterility that had a powerful impact on the other disillusioned writers of the decade.

A later volume—Hollow Man, 1925—was “a biting description of the emptiness of modern man.”

Eugene O’Neill

A playwright who won 3 Pulitzer Prizes during the 1920s; used experimental methods to expose inner torments of his modern characters

Ezra Pound Pound abandoned conventional rhyme and meter in a search for cold, clear, realistic images. He work reflects a common reaction of the period against the waste of war and the failure of civilization.

John Dos PassosDos Passos’ U.S. A. Trilogy

Sherwood Anderson

Both Dos Passos (above) and Anderson “described the way the new machine age undermined such traditional American values as craftsmanship and a sense of community.”

H. L. Mencken

H. L. Mencken is generally considered the most savage of all the period’s critics. He “mocked everything he found distasteful in America from the Rotary Club to the Ku Klux Klan. . . . A born cynic, he served as a zealous guardian of public rationality in an era of excessive boosterism.”

Edith Wharton

Wharton’s books, including The Age of

Innocence (1921, right) focused on the lives of aristocratic women who lived in

the East.

Willa Cather

Willa Cather described the plight of American women from the Midwest.

To right is Cather’s One of Ours. Her

heroines were cast in traditional roles like

that of wife or mother.

How Jazz Differed from Traditional Music

• The style was constantly changing

• It was not written out in detail but largely innovative

• It was expressive of the suffering of African-Americans

The most significant contribution to music of the period came from African-Americans migrating to the North. It came in

the form of “Jazz.”

The Origins of Jazz

• West African rhythms

• Black work songs

• Spirituals

• European harmonies

• Blues

• Ragtime

Ways African-Americans Contributed to U. S. Culture

in the 1920s

• They developed jazz**

• They created the “Harlem Renaissance”

Changing Times—The Scorecard

The Jazz Singer—first talking movie (1927)**

Gertrude Ederle—1st Woman to Swim the English

Channel (1926)

Charles A. Lindbergh

1st aviator to fly from New York to Paris (1926); he demonstrated the qualities of

courage, modesty, and individuality

Rise of Spectator Sports

BaseballIn 1927, Babe Ruth became immortal

when he hammered out 60 home runs in a

single season—a record that would endure until Roger Maris, also for the

New York Yankees, hit 61 in the season of

1961.

Boxing—Dempsey vs. Tuney

The Flapper

The “new woman” of the 1920s was restless, on the move, eager to try something different and distinguished by a growing assertiveness. She rebelled against Victorian standards an put a premium on individual self-expression. She often shocked her elders with her clothes, slang, dancing, and refusal to follow traditional rules (e.g., she smoke and drank in public).

The flapper cut her hair short, raised her skirt length above the knee, and sought to

compete on equal terms with her male counterpart. Generally speaking, “the old

Victorian prudishness was a clear casualty of the 1920s. Sex was no longer a taboo

subject, at least in the urban areas; men and women now could discuss it openly and many

of them did.”

Influence of Radio and Movies on American Culture

Rudolph Valentino, a heartthrob of the period; Clara Bow (above right) a popular leading lady and Theda Bara

(right).

“Sectional differences in dress, food, and furniture began to disappear. Even the regional

accents that distinguished America in different parts of the country were threatened

with extinction by the advent of radio and films which promoted

a standard national dialect devoid of any local flavor.”

Changes Women Experienced During the 1920s

• They received the vote and became more active in politics

• More women began to work outside the home

• Women experienced more social freedom

Agitation for the women’s vote found expression on both sides of

the Atlantic Ocean

While the 19th Amendment obtained the4 vote for American women in 1920, in more general terms the drive for a full-blown Equal Rights Amendment failed to be realized in the decade of the 1920s. Meanwhile, the League of Women

Voters was founded to encourage informed voting (not advancement of women’s rights).

During the 1920s, the institution of the American family “began to

break down under the impact of economic and social change.”

Women increasingly began to work outside the home. The income they earned gave them a greater degree

of independence. Thanks to the growing acceptability of birth

control, family size diminished

Why Some Americans Were Disturbed by the Rapid Changes of the 1920s

• Prostitution• Saloons• Ethnic enclaves

The shift from rural to urban American heightened these anxieties

Evils associated with the cities: • Socialism and

communism• Collapse of

traditional morality• Atheism

Countryside Counterattack

• Insistence on both political and cultural uniformity

• Restriction of immigration into the U. S.

• Revival of the Ku Klux Klan

“The movements [that] aimed at preserving the values of an earlier America succeeded only in

complicating life in an already difficult period of cultural transition.”

The Ku Klux Klan**

• Revived by William J. Simmons and 34 others in 1915**

• Demonstrated their hatred against Blacks, aliens, Catholics and Jews

• Employed beating, flogging, burning with acid, and murder

Prohibition—The Volstead Act**

• The 18th Amendment prohibited the manufacture, sale or transportation of alcoholic beverages

• The act received strong support from the Baptist and Methodist clergy as well as the rural Anti-Saloon League

• The act prompted deep resentment among members of certain ethnic communities, particularly the hard-drinking Germans and Irish

• Prohibition drove up the price of bootlegged liquor and made possible the creation of criminal empires like that of Al Capone in Chicago

The Noble Exper-iment

Prohibition Continued

• It failed to stem the tide of alcohol consumption of middle and upper class Americans

• As such, it did profound damage to American society by breeding disrespect for the law

The Scopes Monkey Trial**

A young biology teacher-coach from Dayton, Tennessee who purposely taught Evolution to precipitate the renowned “Scopes Monkey Trial”

Clarence Darrow vs. William Jennings Bryan

Darrow argues his case in the Dayton, Tennessee courthouse. While Bryan technically got the guilty verdict he sought, Scopes received only a token fine and Darrow had made Bryan and his fundamentalist position appear ridiculous. In the long run, Darrow won the victory.

“Traditional rural religious beliefs were stronger than ever. As middle-and upper-

class Americans drifted into a genteel Christianity that stressed good works and respectability, the Baptists and Methodists

churches continued to hold on to the old faith. . . . Far from dying out. . . biblical fundamentalism retained ‘remarkable

grass-roots strength amount the organization men and the industrialized

mass society of the 20th century.”

While the 1920s as a period of frantic growth and excitement, “there were ominous signs of

danger. The unequal distribution of wealth, the saturation of the market for consumer goods, and

the growing speculation all created economic instability.”