Transcript Document 7178578

Unit 10 – The 1920s
The Roaring Twenties
1
1920s Presidents

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Woodrow Wilson
Warren G. Harding
Calvin Coolidge
Herbert C. Hoover
2
The West Between the Wars
3
The West Between the Wars
4
Charles G. Dawes
5
What led to U.S. prosperity

Effects of World War I

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Industrialization
Increased production and
encouragement of big business
 Three limited involvement presidents.
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Warren G. Harding
Calvin Coolidge
Herbert Hoover
6
What led to U.S. prosperity

New technology

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War encouraged and produced new
technology
Automobile
 Automobile society

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Big growth in automobile purchases as
they became cheaper from faster more
efficient manufacturing.
Highway Construction-Federal Highway
Road Act of 1916.
7
U.S. Prosperity – other changes

Other technology

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Airplanes
Chemicals
New technology and automobile
society created a society of leisure
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Family vacations
Road trips
8
Growth of Industry

After the war, industrialization goes
from military mode to domestic

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Increases in supply of new products
Growth is made possible through:

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Credit → never really before used on
consumer goods
Advertising
Belief that gap between rich and middle
class is narrowing because of concept
of wealth.
9
The Jazz Age
Nicknamed “The Roaring Twenties”
10
A Time of Extreme Optimism
and a lot of Changes!

Americans move to the cities


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Between 1922 and 1929 almost
2 million people moved to the cities
each year.
Instead of getting away from the cities,
people were flocking to them.
Cities were the place to be.
They grew more crowded everyday.
11
Urban changes


Small-town people
moving to the city had
to change their
thinking and everyday
living.
The city exposed them
to new ideas, change,
and competition.

Movies, museums, art,
immigrants, night clubs,
sports, newspapers,
drinking, gambling,
smoking, and casual
dating.
12
Urban changes

Urbanization created a
new way of life that
usually clashed with
the values of
traditional rural
society.
13
The Great Clash


The clash between rural and city
values is just one example.
The 1920’s is characterized by a
clash between traditional morals
and values and more liberal money
and fun seekers.
14
Cultural Changes!

Prohibition
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The Flapper
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The Jazz Age
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Harlem
Renaissance
15
Prohibition

Passage of the 18th Amendment in 1919
 Outlawed making, selling, transporting,
importing, or exporting alcohol-not
drinking it
 The “Noble Experiment”
 Fought for years by temperance groups


War helped the situation

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They saw it as a way of bettering society
Many saw it as a way of hurting German
American producers and so grain could go
towards war effort.
Result: Speakeasies, bootlegging, and
organized crime
16
17
So Why didn’t it Work?

The Volstead Act set
up the
Prohibition Bureau.


It was underfunded.
Only 1,550 federal
agents and local police
to enforce the laws
 with 18,700 miles of
coastline, inland
borders, highways,
illegal stills, and
industries to watch.
18
Bootleggers and Speakeasies
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By the mid-1920’s only 19% of Americans
supported Prohibition.
Alcohol was made illegally and sold
illegally at bars called speakeasies
People blatantly broke the law

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Bath tub gin
Sales for medicinal or sacramental alcohol
soar.
Selling stills in hardware stores
Magazines and books told how to make alcohol
from fruit and even potato peelings.
Bootleggers provided access to alcohol
19
Organized Crime develops

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Bootlegging was a profitable
business
Prohibition inspired the
development of organized crime
Almost every city had gangs that
profited from selling alcohol.
Chicago had one of the most
famous criminals - Al Capone
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Causing too many problems

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Prohibition caused more problems
than it fixed.
Organized crime and lawlessness
grew
It caused a want to disobey the law
Alcohol use grew and more people
died.
Prohibition was repealed with the
21st Amendment in 1933.
21
Science and Religion Clash
22
Let’s get back to Religion

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Fundamentalism - Protestant movement that
advocated the literal for the Bible
Push for going back to church and having
traditional morals.
Revivals were held with charismatic preachers.
Also rejected the notion of Darwin and evolution.
Thought that this meant denying scripture and
blaspheming God.
23
The Fight Begins
The Scopes “Monkey” Trial - 1925


Conflict occurs when
John T. Scopes teaches
evolution.
Tennessee had passed a law
banning the teaching of
evolution.
Scopes read a passage about
evolution in his classroom and
was arrested.
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The Trial

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Clarence Darrow defended John T. Scopes
William Jennings Bryan is on the
fundamentalist side.
Trial becomes a national sensation.
Bryan takes the stand and admits that the
Bible can be interpreted in different ways.
Scopes is still found guilty and fined $100.
This trial is another example of the clashes
and conflicts in the Roaring Twenties.
25
Women in 1920s

Effects of World War I on women’s rights
 19th Amendment granted suffrage in
1920.
26
19th Amendment


Ratified in 1920
Gave women the right to vote


Women proved themselves when they filled the jobs
of men during WWI
 After WWI, many were forced to give up their
jobs
Women went to polls for first time in
November 1920

Helped elect Pres. Warren G. Harding
27
The Flapper
Changes for women
 Hair, clothing, makeup, and dancing
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Women’s fashions prior to 1920s
29
1910 Versus 1920’s
30
1920s Fashions
31
1920s Fashions
32
So What’s a Flapper?

Flapper


Nickname from a popular picture of a
woman with her boots unlaced and
flapping as she is dancing.
Despite new social freedoms women were
still limited and most did not rebel against
social and religious standards.
 There was a double standard
33
Work Opportunities


After World War I, women still are
entering the work force.
Many attend college and enter the
“women’s professions”


Teaching, nursing, librarians, social workers
Big businesses also needed clerical
workers

secretaries, typists, office machine operators
34
Not that many opportunities though

Even though women were in the work
force, opportunities were limited.

Earned less than men

Number of women doctor’s drops with the
quota in medical schools.

Belief that women working was temporary
and they would leave with marriage.

Their “real” job was at home.
35
The Changing Family

Birthrate declines

Technology makes housework easier

Children are products of the home not
producers.

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
They go to school instead of work and spend
time with children their own age.
Peers became more important.
Marriage came to be seen as more of an
equal partnership
36
Fads

Styles or fashions that become
popular for a short time.
37
Fads in the 1920’s-Flagpole sitting
‘Shipwreck' Kelly stayed on the pole for
100 hours in '28
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Other Fads

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PEZ candy becomes popular (not in
the head dispensers yet)
Mahjong
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Dance Marathons

Jazz

Dancing all night, all week long.
Charleston, fox trot
 Longest lasted for 3
weeks!
Outlawed in some
places because of
the dangers

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The Charleston
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
1. Loosen up! Point your toes in and your elbows out.
2. To the beat of the music, point your toes out and your elbows in. Repeat several times.
3. Start by throwing your right foot diagnally back and right arm across your body
forward. Repeat with your left leg and arm.
4. Bring right foot forward and place it just in front of your left. Right arm follows.
5. Bring your left foot up and give a good high kick. Follow with left arm.
6. Bring your left foot back and give two quick kicks diagonally back.
7. Once you've kicked twice, put the left leg down diagonally in back of you. Repeat
steps 1-7 three times then move on to 8.
8. Bend forward and place your hands on your knees.
9. Bring your knees in and switch hands with your knees.
10. Repeat steps 8-10 three times and then return to step 1.
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Slang
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All wet
Bump off
Coffin varnish
Gams
Hooch
Juice joint
Wet blanket
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Incorrect
Kill
Illegal Poisonous
alcohol
Legs
Alcohol
Speakeasy
Person who
doesn’t have any
fun
42
Baseball - the National pastime!


Baseball is extremely popular and produces
heroes for the whole nation to follow!
Babe Ruth


New York Yankees
Record 60 home runs
in 1927
Not broken until 1961
 Lifetime batting
average .342
 72 games hit 2 or
more home runs

43
The Flight heard round the world

Charles Lindbergh makes
the first transatlantic flight


Greatest hero of 1920s
Flying from New York to Paris
in 33 hours and 29 minutes
44
A Renaissance in the Arts

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Not all agreed with the life seen in
entertainment and popular culture
Some thought this to be superficial and
shallow
These include artists, writers, theater, and
music
They wanted to expose the negative side of
the Roaring Twenties, the silliness, and fun
45
Edna St. Vincent Millay
Popular poet
•She expressed the
frantic pace of the 1920s
"My Candle Burns At Both Ends"
My candle burns at both ends;
it will not last the night,
But--ah, my foes! and oh, my friends!
It gives a lovely light
46
The Lost Generation


Many writers wanted to expose the
shallowness of the times
One of these writers was F. Scott Fitzgerald
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Fitzgerald and the Jazz Age

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He coined the term the
“Jazz Age” to describe the
1920’s.
He wrote books that
portrayed wealthy
people who attended
endless parties, but
could not find
happiness
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Writers
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Ernest Hemingway
One of the most popular
writers of the 1920s
Wrote A Farewell to Arms
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About his experiences as a
young ambulance driver on
the Italian front during WWI
Sinclair Lewis

Wrote books presenting
small-town Americans
as dull and narrowminded

Babbitt and Main Street
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The Movies


First movies had no sound
Clara Bow became a popular
movie star by playing restless,
fun-seeking young women.

Nicknamed the “It Girl”
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The Movies

Rudolph Valentino
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Women’s favorite
The Sheik
When he died in 1926 at age 31,
100,000 people lined up outside the
funeral home to mourn
51
The Movies

The Jazz Singer

The first “talkie” movie
52
Harlem Renaissance
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What was the Harlem Renaissance?


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Great growth and gains by African
Americans in literature and arts
Made great contributions in art, music,
and literature
Rebirth of
African
American
culture
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Going North

African-Americans move North to the cities

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Large numbers of musicians, artists, and writers
settled in Harlem in New York City
Believing there are more opportunities for
jobs
Left the South because of racial and
economic discrimination
The number of African Americans in
Northern cities doubles
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Where is Harlem?
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African-American goals

NAACP membership
doubles

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National Assoc. for the
Advancement of Colored People
Fight for lynching to stop
Marcus Garvey also offers
many hope and someone
to believe in

He promoted African
American business and set up
newspapers and stores
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Marcus Garvey

Garvey was a Jamaican immigrant

He inspired “Black Pride” movements
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Believed that African Americans should build a separate
society
He promoted African American business and set up
newspapers and stores
Encouraged followers to return to Africa
Back-to-Africa movement is big for a while and then
dies down
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African American
Contributions

Literature
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Langston Hughes
 Harlem Renaissance’s
best known poet
 Denounced violence
against African Americans
Zora Neale Hurston
 Most accomplished African American
woman writer in the 1920’s
 Traveled through the South collecting
folk tales, songs, and prayers of black
southerners to preserve culture
 Wrote Mules and Men
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Performers
More doors opened to African
Americans in theater and music
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Jazz comes from the South

African American migration to the North
brought also a new kind of music - Jazz.

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Black musicians from New Orleans and Chicago
created Jazz from ragtime and blues
Availability of records and phonographs
meant that people could play the music
whenever they wanted
Becomes extremely popular - that’s why
the 1920s is called The Jazz Age!
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Famous Jazz Musicians

Louis Armstrong

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Helped create Jazz
Trumpet player who
became the single most
influential musician in the
history of Jazz
Jazz spread from Chicago to
Kansas City, Los Angeles,
New York, and became the most
popular music for dancing.
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U.S. and Foreign Affairs
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After WWI, U.S. is world’s leading economic
and political power
Europe expected U.S. to take leading role
in world affairs


Dawes and Young Plan
Isolationism (stay out of world’s affairs)

Most Americans (including Harding & Coolidge)
didn’t want to commit U.S. to job of keeping
world peace
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Washington Conference – 1921

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U.S., Great Britain, and Japan
agree to limit size of navies
Disarmament

Reducing a nation’s armed forces and
weapons of war
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Warren G. Harding – 29th President of U.S.

1 term: 1921 - 1923
Republican Party

“Back to normalcy”

Teapot Dome Scandal

65
Teapot Dome Scandal

Albert Fall



Secretary of the Interior
under Pres. Harding
Secretly leased land in
Teapot Dome, WY to oil
companies
First cabinet official ever
sent to prison
66
Warren G. Harding Administration

Harding appointed
William H. Taft
to
Chief Justice of the
Supreme Court
67
Warren G. Harding – 29th President of U.S.

Ohio Gang
 Political friends
 Charles Forbes



Head of Veterans
Bureau
Convicted of stealing
millions from Veterans
Bureau
Harding died of heart
attack in August 1923

Many blamed friends’
scandals
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Calvin Coolidge – 30th President of U.S.
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1 term: 1923 - 1929
Republican Party
“Silent Cal”
Forced officials involved
in scandals to resign
Helped restore people’s
faith in government
1924 election

“Keep Cool with Coolidge”
69
Signs of Trouble

Farmers suffer after WWI
Rebirth of Ku Klux Klan

Setbacks for Labor Unions

70
Signs of Trouble

Setbacks for Labor Unions

Helped win WWI
High production
 Wages did not keep up with prices during war


Wave of strikes turned public against labor
Workers demand higher wages
 Employers refuse


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Government did nothing
Management crushed strikes
71
Fear of Radicals

During WWI, Americans on alert for spies
and sabotage

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Growing fear of foreigners
Rise of communism in Soviet Union
 Lenin called on workers everywhere to
overthrow their governments
 Anarchists: People opposed to organized
government
Many Americans saw labor union strikes as
the start of a communist revolution

Red Scare
72
Fear of Radicals

Growing fear of foreigners

During the Red Scare

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Many foreigners were deported
Limits on immigration
 Emergency Quota Act of 1921
 Set up a quota system: allowed only a
certain number of people from each country
to enter U.S.
Sacco and Vanzetti trial
73
Fear of Radicals

Sacco and Vanzetti trial

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Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti
Two Italian immigrants
Arrested for robbery and murder in 1920
Both admitted they were anarchists, but not to
committing a crime
Prejudiced judge
Convicted



Many Americans felt the
trial was unfair
Appeals unsuccessful
Executed in 1927
74
Kellogg-Briand pact
1928
63 nations signed the
Kellogg-Briand Pact, a treaty
pledging “to renounce war as an
instrument of national policy”
(outlawed war)
Nothing was said about what would
be done if anyone violated the pact
(no way to enforce)
75
U.S. Secretary
of State
Frank B. Kellogg
French foreign
minister
Aristide Briand
76
Herbert C. Hoover – 31st President of U.S.

1 term: 1929 - 1933
Republican Party

1928 Election


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Won by a landslide
1929 Stock Market
Crash
77
New Goods for Sale

Americans wanted to buy things they
could not afford


Buy now, pay later → credit
Businesses allowed installment plans


Buying on credit
 Small down payment
 Monthly installments
 Plus interest
Increased demand for goods
78
Stocks Surge

Corporations sold stocks to investors



Shares of ownership
In 1920s, more people invested in
stock market than ever before
In late 1920s, stock prices rose so fast
that some people became rich almost
overnight by buying and selling stocks
79
Stocks Surge


The soaring market was called the
bull market
People bought stocks on margin




Similar to installment buying
A person could buy a stock for a 10%
down payment
The buyer held the stock until the price
rose, then sell the stock for a profit
The system worked as long as stock prices
kept rising
80
Stocks Surge



In 1928 & 1929, prices of many stocks
rose faster than the value of many
companies
A few experts warned that the
“Great Bull Market” would end
Most investors ignored the warnings
81
Stock Market Plunges



In August 1929, a few investors began
selling their stocks
In September 1929, more people
began selling
The rash of selling caused stock prices
to fall
82
Herbert C. Hoover – 31st President of U.S.

President Hoover
reassures nervous
investors


“The business of the
country is on a sound
and prosperous basis.”
But selling continued
and prices tumbled
83
Stock Market Plunges

Brokers asked investors who
purchased stock on margin to pay the
money they still owed for stock



Investors who could not pay had to sell
their stock
This caused prices to drop even more
October 24-29, desperate people tried
to unload millions of shares of stock
84
Stock Market Plunges

Tuesday,
October 29, 1929



A stampede of selling hit
the New York Stock
Exchange
Prices plummeted because
there were no buyers for
the stock
Previously valuable stocks
became worthless pieces
of paper
85
Stock Market Plunges

Tuesday,
October 29, 1929


Black Tuesday
Millions lost their
fortunes overnight
86
Severe Depression

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
Following the stock
market crash, the
economy slid into a
severe depression
The crash did not cause
the depression, but it did
shake confidence in the
economy
Many people who
invested their savings in
stocks suddenly had
little or nothing left
87