Transcript Document

The Roaring 20’s
An era of prosperity,
Republican power,
and conflict
End of WWI & Victory Parade
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WWI ends
November, 1918
US Celebrates the
victory with
parades in NYC.
4+ million
soldiers return
home from being
mobilized in the
war
• 1920's collectively known as the "Roaring 20's", or the
"Jazz Age"
• in sum, a period of great change in American Society modern America is born at this time
• for first time the census reflected an urban society people had moved into cities to enjoy a higher standard
of living
Age of Prosperity
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Economic expansion
Mass Production
Assembly Line
Age of the Automobile
• Ailing Agriculture…
• an agri. depression in early
1920's contributed to this
urban migration
• U.S. farmers lost agri. markets
in postwar Europe
• at same time agri. efficiency
increased so more food
produced (more food = lower
prices) and fewer labourers
needed
• so farming was no longer as
prosperous, and bankers called
in their loans (farms
repossessed)
• so American farmers enter the
Depression in advance of the
rest of society
US - Life in the 1920s
–Lifestyles of the 1920s
–Post - WWI Tensions
–Republican Leadership
during the 1920s
• Women won the right to
vote:
– 19th Amendment, 1920
• Change in fashion
– “Flappers”
– Short Skirts, short hairdos
– Lipstick
• Change in the work place
and leisure.
Role of Women
Prohibition
• 1917 - Congress passed
the 18th Amendment
– Ratified in 1919
• “Bootlegging” Liquor
• “Speak-Easies”
• 1933 - Congress passed
21st Amendment
– Ending Prohibition.
• Becomes a big
Business/Entertainment
• “Heros”
– Baseball: Babe Ruth & Ty
Cobb
– College Football
– Boxing: Joe Dempsey
Sports
• Industrial improvements of the 1920s
focused on consumer goods:
– Ice boxes, Autos, & radios
• Supermarkets were introduced:
– Invention of cellophane
Douglas Fairbanks
Lillian Gish
Movies & Film
• Motion Picture was a
popular past time
• Movie stars as
celebrities grew.
– Movie studios began to
market films to
public’s choice
Clara Bow
Mary Pickford
• Miss America pageant
– Atlantic City, 1921
“The Jazz Singer”
• 1927 musical film. 1st full
length feature motion
picture, using
synchronized dialogue.
• “Talkies” film.
New
Transportation
• 1920 - 9 million registered
autos
• 1930 - 27 million
registered autos
– Tripled
• 1920 - 387,000 miles of
roads
• 1929 - 662,000 miles of
roads
– Doubled
• 2009 - 6.1 Million miles
• Henry Ford & the
assembly line production
• Auto industry employed
3.7 million people in 1929.
Air Travel
• 1927, First TransAtlantic Air Flight.
• Within 1 year, air
travel grew 4x.
Charles Lindbergh, 25 years old
• May 12, 1927. Flew from San Diego, CA
to Long Island, NY (22 hours)
• May 20, 1927 Flew from Long Island,
NY USA to Paris, France. (38 hours)
US - Life in the 1920s
–Lifestyles of the 1920s
–Post- WWI Tensions
–Republican Leadership during
the 1920s
Strikes & Labor Unrest
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Strikes - workers refusal to work unless their demands are met.
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Prices rose quickly, wages much more slowly
Unsafe, unfair business practices
1919 - 4 million workers went on strike.
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Famous strikes:
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Boston Police Strike, 1919
No. Indiana Steelworkers, 1919
United Mine Workers Coal Mine
Strike, 1919
“Red Summer”
of 1919
• 1920, Car bombing, Wall Street,
NYC
• Strikers were subject to hysteria,
prone to begin riots.
• Fearful of pro socialist/communist
actions against the American
capitalist market system.
• Fearful of south & eastern
European immigrants.
Attorney General
A. Mitchell Palmer
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Appointed by President Woodrow Wilson.
Responsible for the US’ 1st “Red Scare”.
“Palmer raids” - rounded up Soviet
immigrants, deported or detained them. Acts
of government repression.
ACLU founded by U. Sinclair & Jane Adams.
– Provided legal assistance to victims of Palmer’s
tactics.
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Patriotic Americans saw a Red agitator behind
union organizers and every labor protest.
Anti Immigrant feelings were at an all time high.
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April 1920 - a robbery at a factory in So. Braintree, MA,
– Resulted in two deaths
3 weeks later, these 2 Italian immigrants were arrested.
– Known Anarchists and protesters of the “Palmer Raids”.
Convicted based upon contradictory evidence and testimony.
Honorable W. Thayer sentenced the accused to death.
– Mass American and foreign protest did not change the verdict.
Executed on Aug. 23, 1927
Claim - innocent victims of the “Red Scare”.
• Black Americans in
this period continued
to live in poverty
• sharecropping kept
them in de facto
slavery
• 1915 - boll weevil
wiped out the cotton
crop
• white landowners
went bankrupt &
forced blacks off their
land
• Blacks moved north to take
advantage of booming wartime
industry (= Great Migration) - Black
ghettoes began to form, i.e. Harlem
• within these ghettoes a distinct Black
culture flourished
• But both blacks and whites wanted
cultural interchange restricted
Marcus Garvey
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Leader of African Americans in 1920s.
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“Struggle for Black Identity”
Back to Africa movement: hoped to take blacks back to Africa &
return with imports/products to trade with in the US markets.
His leadership resulted in a growing spirit of race consciousness
and race pride.
• Marcus Garvey (Jamaican born
immigrant) established the
Universal Negro Improvement
Association
• believed in Black pride
• advocated racial segregation b/c of
Black superiority
• Garvey believed Blacks should
return to Africa
• he purchased a ship to start the
Black Star line
• attracted many investments: gov't
charged him with w/fraud
• he was found guilty and eventually
deported to Jamaica, but his
organization continued to exist
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1925 - KKK march down Pennsylvania Ave.
– 40,000 man in attendance
“Nativists - white Protestant men.
Intolerant, Spread hate, Anti- immigrant
(foreigners in general), black, Jew, Catholic.
1921 & 1924 - influenced Congress to pass
legislation limiting immigration into the US.
Scopes Trial
• July, 1925. Dayton, Tennessee
• John Scopes was arrested and tried for teaching the
theory of evolution.
– Scientific theory of C. Darwin, cited by
traditionalists as destroying faith in the Bible.
• ACLU hired C. Darrow, most famous attorney of
the day, to defend Scopes. Took the case without
pay.
• So called “monkey trial”
• Scopes was found guilty and fined $100, but the
verdict was overturned on a technicality
What is holy—inherit the wind
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECITwTY
SIsg
US - Life in the 1920s
– Lifestyles of the 1920s
– Postwar Tensions
– Republican Leadership
during the 1920s
Republican Leadership
in the White House
• With Warren G.
Harding’s
inauguration in 1920,
began 12 years of
Republican leadership
in the Capitol.
• Presidents Harding,
Coolidge & Hoover
• Examine their tenure
in office and the
issues the US faced
during this era.
Harding
Coolidige
Hoover
Albert B. Fall,
Secretary of Interior
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President Harding’s Cabinet was subjected to mismanagement & corruption.
Most infamous case :
– “Teapot Dome Scandal”
1921 - Albert B. Fall gained control of government oil fields & secretly leased them to private
oil companies
– Teapot Dome, Wyoming
$125k & Hundreds of cattle were give in the form of a bribe.
Conviction, 1 year in jail sentence.
Vice President Coolidge swearing in.
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Warren G. Harding died August 2nd, 1923.
– Harding was ill from eating tainted crabs while on a trip to Alaska & California.
– He was also suffering from bronchial pneumonia.
Calvin Coolidge, Harding’s VP was sworn into office on a farm in Vermont, by his
father, a notary public at 2:30 am, August 3, 1923.
– He was resworn the next day in Washington D.C. by a Supreme Court Justice.
– He was on vacation with family during the summer of 1923.
President Coolidge’s Cabinet
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President Coolidge kept most of the Harding
Cabinet once he sworn is as President.
– Secretary of Treasury: Andrew Mellon
– Secretary of State: Charles Evan Hughes
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Main New appointee: Attorney General
Harlan Fiske Stome.
– Stowe was tasked with weeding out the “Ohio
Gang”
• President Coolidge was
a devote family man.
– Enjoyed spending
time with family vs.
time with political
leaders from around
the country & the
world.
• Averaged a 4-hour
work day.
• He was one not to
indulge in the
extravagance of the
1920’s lifestyle.
• He was Pro business, as
the US economy
improved, Coolidge
advocated more &
more that government
should be guided by
business principles &
practices.
Coolidge, Mellon & Hoover
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Political cartoons like this
depicted Coolidge’s
opinion on running for
reelection in the 1928
election.
Coolidge refused the
Republican party’s
nomination for President.
– Opened the way for
Herbert Hoover.
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1924 - “Keep it Cool with Coolidge”
Election of Coolidge, here with Secretary of Treasury
Mellon & Secretary of Commerce, Hoover.
All 3 men were pro business.
– Industrial output DOUBLED during period 1921 - 1929
– Silent government/laissez-faire in its approach to US
business.
Herbert Hoover
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Hoover campaigning in NYC at
the Metropolis.
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“Rugged individualism” was his
philosophy.
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Self-made millionaire by 40
Standford University graduate.
Through Hard work & diligence,
the American Dream could be
possible.
Personified the Republican party
base.
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Midwestern, small-town Protestant
white American voters.
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Personal & Political views
included:
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Conservative
Pro-business
Advocate of small federal
government
Belief in the individual
1928: Herbert Hoover vs. Alfred E. Smith