1920sNew Attitudes vs. Fundamentalists

3/28/11

Nativism resurges

• Immigrants and demobilized military men and women competed for the same jobs during high unemployment and an increased cost of living.

• Sacco and Vanzetti case• The idea of eugenics-

inequalities were inherited.

Nativism Resurges

• The Ku Klux Klan (KKK) led the movement to restrict immigration. – African Americans– Catholics– Jews– Immigrants

• By 1924, the KKK had almost 4 million members• Eventually scandals led to the decline of the Klan

by the late 1920s

Controlling Immigration

• Harding signed the Emergency Quota Act– Limited immigration to 3% of the pop. already living in the

US– Heavy discrimination against southern and eastern Euros.

• The National Origins Act of 1924– Made immigration restriction permanent. – Lowered to 2%

• Immigration acts of 1921 and 1924 reduced the labor pool in the US.– Mexican immigrants began pouring into the US between

1914 and the end of the 1920s after the Mex. Revolution.

The New Morality

• Challenged traditional ideas• Glorified youth• Glorified personal freedom• Marriage, work, and pleasure affected the

way people lived

The New Morality- Women• Women broke

from families• Entered the

workforce• Earned their

own living• Attended

college• Advances in

science, law, medicine, and literature.

The New Morality- Women

• Fashion drastically changed

• The Flapper– Young– Dramatic– Stylish– unconventional

The Fundamentalist Movement

• Some feared the new morality– From rural towns– Religious movement called Fundamentalism– Feared social decline

The Fundamentalist Movement

• Rejected Darwin’s theory of evolution

• 1925 Tennessee passed the Butler Act made it illegal to teach evolution instead of creation.

The Fundamentalist Movement• Came to a head at the

Scopes Trial– Biology teacher tested

Butler– Arrested, put on trial– Found guilty, later

overturned– Many fundamentalists

retired from activism– http://

www.youtube.com/watch?v=hV840sEiqYY

Prohibition• Which amendment? • 18th- ratified in 1919• Volstead Act made the

enforcement of Pro. The responsibility of the US Treasury Dept.

• Speakeasies- secret bars• Crime became big

business• 1933- 21st brought an end

to pro.

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLulkV8ZWIo

Arts and Literature

• began challenging traditional ideas

• began to search for meaning in the world.

• The artistic and unconventional, or Bohemian, lifestyle of Manhattan’s Greenwich Village and Chicago’s South Side attracted artists and writers.

Art and Literature

• European influence• Artist chose to express themselves in very

diverse way– Art deco, precisionism, surrealism, expressionism

Art and Literature

• Writing styles changed– Poet Carl Sandburg used common speech to

glorify the Midwest– Playwright Eugene O’Neill’s work focused on a

search for meaning

Popular Culture

• The economic prosperity of the 1920s allowed many Americans leisure time

• Radio, movies, and newspapers gave rise to a new interest in sports. – Babe Ruth– Jack Dempsey

• First “talking” picture – The Jazz Singer• Mass media helped unify the nation and

spread new ideas and attitudes

The Harlem Renaissance

• “The Great Migration” occurred when hundreds of thousands of A.A. moved from the rural South to the industrial cities of the North.

• NYC’s Harlem- A.A. created environments that stimulated artistic development, racial pride, a sense of community, and political organization which led to a massive creative outpouring of arts.

The Harlem Renaissance

• Claude McKay- 1st important writer • Langston Hughes- became the leading voice of

the A.A. experience in the US• Louis Armstrong- jazz • Cotton Club- nightspot– Duke Ellington- musician

• Bessie Smith- singer

The Rise of New Industries

• Mass production increased the supply of goods and decreased costs.

• Assembly line- $850 > $490 > $295• Charles Lindbergh made the first transatlantic

flight which gained support for commercial flight.

• NBC and CBS established permanent radio stations.

The Consumer Society

• New roles as consumers• More people bought on credit or installment

plans• More professional managers and engineers.

Expanded the middle class

The Farm Crisis

• Farmers did not share in the prosperity of the 1920s.

• Prices and demand dropped while farmers’ costs increased.

• President Coolidge vetoed a bill to aid farmers twice.

• Farmers remained in recession throughout the 1920s.