Transcript The 1920s - Plain Local Schools
The 1920s
Prosperity
WWI good for U.S. economy Why?
1922-1929: American economy was vigorous and prosperous GNP rose at 5.5% annual rate From $149 billion to $227 billion Unemployment never exceeded 5% Real wages rose 15%
A Consumer Society
1920s: growth of consumer goods Cars, tractors, washing machines, electric irons, radios, vacuum cleaners “Consumer durable” Fresh 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 and 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 Blend of Gilded Age mediocrity and Roosevelt style state building
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 ability to regulate industry
The Politics of Business Abroad
Hoover wanted Commerce Dept. to control U.S. international economic relations Washington Conference Charles Evans Hughes Five-Power Treaty Hoover shut out Dawes Plan Charles G. Dawes 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