The Roaring 20’s

The Roaring Twenties

Economic Government & Foreign Affairs Social Life in Postwar America Technology & Industry

The Roaring Twenties

 Effects of the War – U.S.

 Becomes world’s industrial leader  Military & Gov’t stronger  Accelerated changes for women & African Americans  AA move north  1 million women join workforce

The Roaring Twenties

 Effects of the War – Europe  Massive destruction of property & loss of life  Creates instability in social & political systems  Violence for decades afterwards  Russia turns to Communism  Fascist groups take over in Germany, Italy, and Spain

European Debts to U.S.

Hyper-Inflation in Germany: 1923

Dawes Plan

(1924)

Kellogg-Briand Pact

(1928)  15 nations dedicated to outlawing aggression and war as tools of foreign policy.

 62 nations signed.

 Problems  no means of actual enforcement and gave Americans a false sense of security.

The Roaring Twenties

 Effects of the War – Europe  Adolph Hitler writes “It cannot be that 2 million Germans should have fallen in vain …. We demand vengeance!”  20 years later - WWII

Adolph Hitler Mussolini & Hitler

The Roaring Twenties

 Nativism & Isolationism grew  Fear of “outsiders,” “troublemakers”  Fear of Communism

 Huge influx of immigrants from Southern & Eastern Europe

Nativism

 New religions appeared: Jewish, Orthodox Catholic  North European immigrants felt it would undermine Protestant values

Immigration Quota

• People pushed Congress to restrict immigration • Led to quota system reducing number of immigrants from Southern & Eastern Europe • Fears also led to “Red Scare” (fear of communism) after the Bolshevik Revolution

The Roaring Twenties

Red Scare - Russian Communism  Vladimir Lenin – Bolsheviks  Red flag – nickname “Reds” • Economic & political system • • No private ownership of property Gov’t owns factories, railroads, utilities, all businesses, farms  Sought worldwide revolution  Abolish capitalism  Believed capitalism root of all problems  Workers take over production & political power Vladimir Lenin Soviet Union

The Roaring Twenties

 “Red Scare” seizes U.S.

 Gov’t witch hunt for communists or anyone whose political ideas differed  Trampled civil rights  Invaded private homes, offices  Jailed people w/o attorney  Deported foreigners  Sacco & Vanzetti – executed for robbery, murder

Palmer Raids

 Wilson was gravely ill following a stroke  Attorney General, A. Mitchell Palmer , wanted shot at presidency - he used fears of immigrants & communism to promote himself  Palmer had J. Edgar Hoover round up suspected radicals, many were deported

The Ku Klux Klan

Great increase in power Anti-black Anti-immigrant Anti-Semitic Anti-Catholic

Age of Prosperity

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Economic expansion Mass Production Assembly Line Age of the Automobile

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Except … Ailing agriculture industry, mining, railroads & minorities

Agricultural Problems

 U.S. farmers lost markets in postwar Europe  Farming efficiency increased  more food produced = lower prices and fewer workers  Farming no longer prosperous  Bankers called in their loans  American farmers enter the Depression in advance of the rest of society

Minorities

 Black Americans continued to live in poverty  Sharecropping them in de facto slavery kept  1915 wiped out the cotton crop boll weevil  White landowners went bankrupt & forced blacks off their land

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Minorities & Great Migration

Blacks moved north for booming wartime industry Ghettos began to form, i.e. Harlem, & Black Bottom, Paradise Valley in Detroit  Within these ghettos distinct Black culture flourished  But both blacks and whites wanted cultural interchange restricted

The Roaring Twenties-Business

 Business Mergers  Created wealth  More efficient businesses  Bankers got wealthy off large fees charged for the mergers & buyouts

The Roaring Twenties-Business

 Airline industry  New means of transportation  Used mostly to move mail  More freedom to travel  Created jobs  Business expansion

The Roaring Twenties-Business

 Alternating Electric Current  Distribute electricity over larger area  Electricity in homes/appliances  Freed up housewives for other things  Created jobs  Helped economy boom

The Roaring Twenties-Business

 Modern Advertising Methods  Created demand for consumer goods  Increased sales & profits  Turned “luxuries” into “necessities”  Created jobs

Ford Model T advertising

The Roaring Twenties-Business

 Automobiles  Building paved roads  Gas (service) stations  Garages  Freedom to travel  Urban sprawl  New status symbol  Demand for rubber, oil, steel, textiles, glass – new jobs

Get your kicks on Route 66!

The Roaring Twenties-Business

 Installment Plan  People could buy more goods  Felt more prosperous  False sense of prosperity & optimism  Little warning of economic pain to come

The Roaring Twenties-Business

 Signs of trouble ahead  Growing income gap  Lack of true prosperity in RR and iron industries  Farmers & Mining companies – losses  Buying stocks on margin – pay part now, rest later  Installment buying out of hand  “Give up food for car”

Republican Power

  Elected 1920  President Harding Legacy of Scandals  “Teapot Dome”  Died in office

P

resident Coolidge

“The business of America is business.”  Fordney McCumber Tariff  Smoot-Hawley Tariff  No help for farmers

The Roaring Twenties-Prohibition  Prohibition  banned the manufacture, transport & sale of alcohol  Adopted in 1919 – 18 th Amendment

The Roaring Twenties-Prohibition Causes •Religious groups thought sinful •Favored by rural people – “small town values” •Reformers: Gov’t should protect public health •Reformers: Alcohol leads to crime, wife & child abuse, job accidents •Hostility towards German American brewers & other immigrants who used alcohol .

Effects •Consumption of alcohol declines •Disrespect for law develops •Increase in unlawful activities: distilling alcohol, smuggling, bootlegging, beating law becomes a “game” •New source of illegal funds •Organized crime grows in every major city

Speakeasies

The Roaring Twenties-Prohibition  Speakeasies  Hidden saloons – found everywhere and anywhere  ID card or password to enter  Middle-class and Upper-middle-class  Bootlegger  Smuggle in alcohol from Cuba, Canada, West Indies  Hide in legs of boots

The Roaring Twenties-Prohibition Al Capone – Chicago

The Roaring Twenties Organized Crime

 Al Capone – mob leader Chicago  By 26 heads a criminal empire  Uses bribery, violence  Bootlegs whiskey from Canada  Illegal breweries  10,000 speakeasies  Worth about $100 million  Convicted of tax evasion  Died at 48 years old  Public is fascinated with him

The Roaring Twenties-Prohibition “The cure is worse than the disease.”  By 1925 only 19% of people support Prohibition  1933 – Repealed with 21 st Amendment

1920s Flapper

The Roaring Twenties-Women  1920s Rebellious, pleasure-seeking atmosphere leads to women asserting more independence  Demand same freedoms as men  New fashions, dancing, drinking, smoking, more sexual freedom  Flappers, vamps  Casual dating begins

The Roaring Twenties-Women  What does “double-standard” mean?

 Despite new freedoms, women still had to live by stricter standards than men.

 Women feel pulled in different directions  19 th Amendment – 1920 – gives women federal right to vote

The Roaring Twenties-Families

 Marriage changes also  More of partnership  Women still in charge of housework, kids  Families have fewer children  Birth control info more available  More free time to pursue leisure, volunteer activities, work

The Roaring Twenties-Families

 Children no longer in factories  In school  Emergence of “teenager”  Peer pressure  Rebellion  Less time with family  Auto gives more freedom  Dating, “parking”

The Roaring Twenties-Education

The Roaring Twenties-Education

 How did high schools change?

 1914-1926: Rose by 3 million students  Teaching immigrants English  Courses added for vocational training  Industrial jobs, homemaking

The Roaring Twenties Popular Culture

 Growing mass media shapes culture    Higher literacy leads to More news, entertainment, ads Newspapers, magazines, radio    Radio Most powerful communication medium 1920 - KDKA Pittsburgh – 1 st commercial radio station – industry changes forever

Roaring Twenties Popular Culture

 More money + More leisure time =  Fads  Sporting events  Boxing, baseball, tennis  Flagpole sitting  Dance marathons

Roaring Twenties Popular Culture

 Heroes  Who was Babe Ruth?  Charles Lindbergh?

 Movies  “Jazz Singer” – 1 st talking movie  Arts  Many new writers, artists Charles Lindbergh

Roaring Twenties Pop Culture

 Many new writers, artists  Themes: Criticism of American lifestyle,  culture, values & war F. Scott Fitzgerald – writer, “Great Gatsby”  Edna St. Vincent Millay – poet  Ernest Hemingway – writer “A Farewell to Arms”  Walloon Lake, Michigan – Childhood summer vacations.

 Later in life returned to northern MI

Roaring Twenties

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Pop Culture

Edna St. Vincent Millay F. Scott Fitzgerald Ernest Hemingway

Harlem Renaissance

Roaring Twenties – Harlem Renaissance   Harlem – Upper West Side of New York’s Manhattan Island World’s largest black urban community  “Greatest Negro city in the world.”  Renaissance  Flowering of creativity  Literary & artistic movement celebrating African American culture

Harlem Renaissance

  Writers & Poets  Well-educated, middle-class   New pride in being African American “Black is beautiful”  Claude McKay  Langston Hughes-one of most famous poets Performers  Florence Mills  Josephine Baker  Paul Robeson - Othello

Harlem Renaissance

Langston Hughes Paul Robeson

Roaring Twenties – Harlem Renaissance   Jazz      Louis Armstrong Creole Jazz Band Fletcher Henderson’s Band in NYC Most important, influential musician in history of Jazz Duke Ellington – Cotton Club  One of America’s greatest composers   Cab Calloway Savoy Ballroom & Cotton Club Popularized “scat” – jazz improv

Louis Armstrong Duke Ellington

Roaring Twenties – Renaissance Harlem  Jazz  Bessie Smith  Blues singer  Most outstanding vocalist of the decade  Highest-paid black artist in the world

Scopes “Monkey” Trial Evolution vs. Creationism Science vs. Religion Famous Lawyers John Scopes High School Biology teacher

Scopes Trial

     Clash between science & religion Evolution vs Creationism  Fundamentalists believed Bible should be taken literally Tennessee 1 st state to outlaw teaching evolution in schools ACLU offers to defend teacher who would challenge law John T. Scopes takes the challenge

Scopes Trial

 Clarence Darrow defends him  Williams Jennings Bryan prosecutes him  Trial becomes national sensation  Darrow eventually gets Bryan to admit that the Bible can be interpreted different ways  Whole episode reflective of clashing of old culture and new culture