Transcript Chapter 12 POLITICS OF THE ROARING TWENTIES & Chapter …

Chapter 12
POLITICS OF THE
ROARING TWENTIES
&
Chapter 13
THE ROARING LIFE OF
THE 1920’S
World War I left much of the
American public divided. The end of
the war hurt the economy. Returning
soldiers took jobs away from many
women and minorities, or faced
unemployment themselves. A wave
of nativism and isolationism swept
over Ameria as people became
suspicious of foreigners and wanted
to pull away from world affairs.
Favoring the interests of nativeborn people over foreign-born
people.
Ans--Nativism
Opposition to political and
economic entanglements with other
countries.
Ans--Isolationism
Americans saw communism as a threat to their way
of life. Communism is an economic and political
system that supports government control over
property to create equality. Communists came to
power in Russia through violent revolution.
Communist leaders wanted workers to seize political
and economic power. They wanted to overthrow
capitalism. In the United States, about 70,000 people
joined the Communist Party. Still, the ideas of the
communists, or “Reds,” frightened many people. A
fear of communism, known as the “Red Scare,”
swept the nation. Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer
set up an agency in the Justice Department to arrest
communists, socialists, and anarchists, who opposed
all forms of government. (The agency later became
the Federal Bureau of Investigation, or FBI.)
Concern that the communist
party in the Us might lead to
violent, radical change.
Ans—Red Scare
People who proposed an
economic and political system
based on one-party government
and state ownership of property.
Ans--Communists
A person who opposes all
forms of government.
Ans--Anarchist
Palmer’s agents trampled on people’s
civil rights. Many suffered because of
abuses of power during the Red Scare.
One case involved two Italian
immigrants, Nicola Sacco and
Bartolomeo Vanzetti. Sacco and Vanzetti
were arrested for robbery and murder in
Massachusetts. They admitted they were
anarchists. But they denied committing
any crime. The case against them was
weak. But they were convicted anyway.
Sacco and Vanzetti were executed in
Two Italian immigrants executed
for armed robbery.
Ans—Sacco & Vanzetti
As a result of nativism, or anti-immigrant
feelings, Congress passed the Emergency Quota
Act of 1921. It established a quota system. This
set a limit on how many immigrants from each
country could enter the United States every year.
Also, the 1920s was a bad time for unions. Union
membership declined from 5 million to 3.5
million for the following reasons:
(1) immigrants were willing to work in poor
conditions,
(2) language barriers made organizing
people difficult;
(3) farmers who had migrated to
cities were used to relying on themselves, and
(4) most unions excluded African Americans.
In 1921, President Warren G. Harding invited several major
world powers to the Washington Naval Conference. For the
first time, nations agreed to disarm or reduce their weapons.
Americans wanted to stay out of world affairs. But the United
States still wanted France and Britain to repay the money they
had borrowed during World War I. Those two nations had
suffered during the war. Their economies were too weak for
them to repay the loans. To make matters worse, Congress
passed the Fordney-McCumber Tariff in 1922. This tariff
protected American business from foreign competition. But the
tariff made it impossible for Britain and France to sell their
goods in the United States. As a result, France and Britain put
pressure on Germany to pay its promised reparations. But
Germany’s economy had been destroyed. To avoid another
war, American banker Charles Dawes negotiated a settlement
to end the loan crisis. Under the Dawes Plan, as the solution
was called, the U.S. loaned money to Germany to pay back
Britain and France which then repaid their American loan.
Thus, the U.S. ended up getting paid with its own money.
Some of Harding’s cabinet appointments were excellent. Other
cabinet appointments caused problems. Some were part of the
so-called Ohio gang. These were the president’s poker-playing
buddies from back home. They caused the president a great
deal of embarrassment. It became apparent to some that the
president’s main problem was that he didn’t understand many
of the country’s financial issues. This left him in the dark about
practices going on in his own cabinet. He had to comply with
whatever his advisers told him. Many of these people took
advantage of the situation. One of the worst cases of
corruption was known as the Teapot Dome scandal. It involved
pieces of land called Teapot Dome and Elk Hills. This land was
owned by the government and held large reserves of oil. Albert
B. Fall, Harding’s secretary of the interior, secretly leased the
land to two oil companies. He received money and property in
return. Harding was not charged with corruption himself. He
suddenly died in 1923,of a heart attack and Calvin Coolidge
became president.
President who wanted to “return to
normalcy”. Friends in corrupt
cabinet drove this president to a
heart attack.
Ans—Warren G. Harding
Secretary of Interior Albert Fall’s
secret leasing of oil-rich public
land to private companies in
return for money and land.
Ans—Teapot Dome Scandal
The new president, Calvin Coolidge said, “The
chief business of the American people is
business.” Both Coolidge and his Republican
successor, Herbert Hoover, favored government
policies that promoted business and limited
government interference. The automobile
changed the American landscape. New roads
were built, and new businesses sprang up such
as gas stations, motels, and shopping centers.
Automobiles ended the isolation of rural families
and gave young people and women more
independence. Cars also made it possible for
people to live farther from their jobs. This led to
urban sprawl, as cities spread out in all
Favored conservative business
interests. “The business of
America is business”.
Ans—Calvin Coolidge
The unplanned and
uncontrolled spreading of
cities in rundown inner-city
neighborhoods.
Ans—Urban Sprawl
Another major change was the spread
of electricity. In the 1920s, electric
power stretched beyond big cities to
the suburbs. Americans began to use
all kinds of electrical appliances.
Radios, washing machines, and
vacuum cleaners became popular.
These appliances made housework
easier. One result was more leisure
time for families. Another effect was
to increase the number of women
More consumer goods appeared on
the market. Businesses used
advertising to sell these goods. Ads
didn’t just give information about the
product. Now, they used psychology.
They tried to use people’s desire for
youth, beauty, and popularity to sell
products. Things that once were
luxuries became necessities.
Most Americans had confidence in the prosperity of
the 1920s. The national income rose from $64
billion in 1921 to $87 billion in 1929. The stock market
reached new heights. However, business was not as
healthy as it seemed. As workers produced more
goods, businesses grew. But as businesses grew,
business managers made much more money than
workers did. Also, consumer debt rose to high levels.
Businesses needed to sell all the goods they were
now producing. So they encouraged customers to
buy on the installment plan. Customers could make
low payments over a period of time. That way people
could afford to buy more. Banks provided money at
low interest rates. Advertising also pushed the idea of
buying on credit. Average Americans were spending
more money than they actually had.
The 1920 census showed a change in America.
For the first time, more Americans lived in large
towns and cities than in small towns and on
farms. The values that most Americans had
grown up with were small-town values. They
included conservative social standards, hard
work, thriftiness, and close families. People knew
their neighbors and followed the teachings of
their churches. By the 1920s, urbanization, or the
movement of Americans from rural areas to the
cities, had increased. One clash between smalltown and city values led to an era known as
Prohibition. Prohibition was the ban on alcoholic
beverages set forth in the Eighteenth
Amendment. It took effect in 1920.
Most support for prohibition came from religious rural
white Protestants. In cities, even respectable middle-cla
people flocked to speakeasies. These were hidden
saloons and nightclubs that served liquor illegally. Peop
also bought liquor from bootleggers, or smugglers who
brought it in from Canada and the Caribbean. Bootlegge
created a chain of corruption by bribing police officers
and judges. Prohibition caused a general disrespect for
the law. It also caused a great deal of money to flow out
lawful businesses and into organized crime. Underworld
gangs took control of the illegal liquor business. The
most famous gang was headed by Chicago’s Al Capone
Chicago became known for bloody gang killings. This ri
in crime and violence led many people to demand the
repeal of prohibition. Prohibition was repealed by the
Twenty first Amendment in 1933.
The banning of the
manufacture, sale, and
possession of alcoholic
beverages.
Ans--Prohibition
During the 1920s, the nation saw the
rise of Christian fundamentalism.
This religious movement was based
on the belief that everything
written in the Bible was literally true.
Fundamentalists rejected the growing
trust in science that most Americans
had. They were also against the
religious faiths of other people,
especially immigrants.
A protestant religious movement
grounded in the belief that all the
stories and details in the Bible are
literally true.
Ans--Fundamentalism
These beliefs led fundamentalists to reject Charles Darwin’s
theory of evolution. Fundamentalists believed that the Bible was
correct in stating that the world and all its plants and animals wer
created by God in six days. They did not want evolution taught in
schools. In 1925, Tennessee passed a law making it a crime to
teach evolution. John Scopes, a young biology teacher from
challenged the law. He openly taught about evolution. He was
arrested, and his case went to trial. The ACLU hired Clarence
Darrow, the most famous trial lawyer in the nation, to defend
Scopes. William Jennings Bryan was the prosecutor. Scopes was
guilty because he broke the law. But the trial was really about
evolution and about religion in schools. Reporters came from all
over the world to cover the Scopes trial (Monkey Trial). The
highlight of the trial was when Bryan took the stand. Darrow
questioned Bryan until Bryan said that while the earth was made
in six days, they were “not six days of 24 hours.” Bryan was
admitting that the Bible could be interpreted in different ways.
Even so, Scopes was found guilty. His conviction was later
overturned by the state Supreme Court. But the ban on teaching
Most famous US trial lawyer.
Know for his defense of John
Scopes in the “Monkey Trial”.
Ans—Clarence Darrow
Court case in which the biology
teacher John T. Scopes was tried for
challenging a Tennessee law that
outlawed the teaching of evolution.
Ans—Scopes Trial
Young women also wanted to take part in the
rebellious, pleasure-loving life of the twenties. Many
of them demanded the same freedom as men. The new
urban culture also influenced many women. Their
symbol was the flapper. She was an emancipated
young woman. She held new independent attitudes
and liked the sophisticated new fashions of the day.
She wore make-up, short skirts, short hair, and more
jewelry than would have been proper only a few years
before. She often smoked cigarettes and drank alcoho
in public. She went dancing to new, exciting music. In
the twenties, patterns of discrimination against wome
in the business world continued. Most women
remained homemakers. Some women had to work and
also run their homes. It was hard for them to combine
these roles.
America was becoming more
prosperous. Business and industry
required a more educated work force.
These two factors caused a huge
increase in the number of students
going to high school. The nation’s
schools were successful in teaching
large numbers of Americans and
immigrants to read. As a result of
increased literacy, more people
read newspapers than before.
Charles A. Lindbergh thrilled the nation
by becoming the first person to fly solo
across the Atlantic Ocean. Lindbergh
took off from New York City in his plane,
The Spirit of St. Louis. After 33 hours,
Lindbergh landed outside of Paris,
France. On his return to the United States,
Lindbergh became the idol of America. In
an age of sensationalism and excess,
Lindbergh stood for the honesty and
bravery the nation seemed to have lost.
Flew the Spirit of St. Louis
solo, nonstop across the
Atlantic Ocean.
Ans—Charles Lindbergh
Between 1910 and 1920, hundreds of thousands of
African Americans had moved from the South to the
big cities of the North. This was called the Great
Migration. It was a response to racial violence and
economic discrimination against blacks in the South.
By 1929, 40 percent of African Americans lived in
cities. The National Association for the Advancement
of Colored People (NAACP) worked to end violence
against African Americans. W. E. B. Du Bois led a
peaceful protest against racial violence. Marcus
Garvey voiced a message of black pride that appealed
to many African Americans. Garvey thought that
African Americans should build a separate society.
Garvey promoted black-owned businesses. He also
urged African Americans to return to Africa to set up
an independent nation.
In the 1920s, many African Americans moved to
Harlem, a section of New York City. This
neighborhood was also the birthplace of the
Harlem Renaissance. The Harlem Renaissance
was a literary movement led by well-educated
middleclass blacks. They took pride in their
African heritage. They wrote about the problems
of being black in a white culture. Jazz became
more popular in the twenties. Musicians from New
Orleans traveled North, and they brought jazz with
them. The most important and influential jazz
musician was Louis Armstrong. Many whites
came to Harlem to hear jazz in night clubs.
Edward Kennedy “Duke” Ellington led an
orchestra there. He was a jazz pianist and one of
A flowering of African-American
artistic creativity during the 1920’s,
centered in this community of New
York City.
Ans—Harlem Renaissance.
The Roaring Life of the
1920’s
Visual Reflection
The “Roaring Twenties”
"Old" Culture
"New" Culture
Emphasized Production
Emphasized Consumption
Character
Personality
Scarcity
Abundunce
Religion
Science
Idealized the Past
Looked to the Future
Local Culture
Mass Culture
Substance
Image
The above graph indicates in a general sense what historians mean
when they refer to the "old" and the "new" cultures of the 1920s.
This list is not meant to be definitive. Source: Culture as History: The
Transformation of American Society in the Twentieth Century (New
York: Pantheon Books, 1984).
1. What is the message of these
propaganda posters?
2. What product are these posters
blaming as the enemy of the U.S.?
3. What action do you see in pictures?
What are they searching for?
4. What prior knowledge do you
have of this man below?
5. What could they be celebrating?
6. How do we see women of the 20’s
shedding the old image for women?
7. How do we see women of the 20’s
in the workplace?
8. What message is the artist
sending in these political cartoons?
9. What role did the KKK have in the 1920s?
10. We see the voice of African
Americans through what below?