The Roaring Twenties

Chapters 20, 21

1920s Life for Most Americans

Three Trends1. Renewed isolationism2. Resurgence of nativism3. Political conservatism

weak govt (not like during Progressive Era)

President W.G. Harding

Encouraged a return to “normalcy” Kellogg-Briand Pact: signed to say war is not

an instrument of national policy Immigration limits

Quota system: there is a maximum # of people who can enter the U.S. from any one foreign country (passed ’21, amended ’24)

President W.G. Harding

Government Scandals Teapot Dome Scandal:

Oil lands set aside in Wyoming during conservation era for navy

Albert Fall (govt official) leased lands to oil companies for a profit

Communism

Was a threat to normalcy

Bolshevik Revolution (1917): Bolshevik party takes control of Russia Advocated the overthrow of capitalism,

free enterprise, and private property

Communism

“red scare”: fear of communism in the U.S.

Palmer Raids: hunt down and detain suspected anarchists and communists

Business in America

Standard of living went through the roof

Automobiles

PARTICIPATION

What other things will be invented/created in order for the automobile industry to continue?

Business in America

Automobiles Paved roads, garages, gas stations,

motels, traffic lights Urban sprawl: cities spread out because

workers could live miles from their jobs

Business in America

Airplane Travel (p. 630)

Business in America

Electrical conveniences (p. 631)

Business in America

Avg. Income

Modern advertising Psychologists hired to

help appeal to buyers (page 631)

Business in America

Buying on credit Installment plan: buy goods over a

period of time with interest layaway

1920s City Life

City Life

Cities seen as more lenient than small towns Allow gambling, alcohol, casual dating Fast-paced lifestyle, competition

City Life

Prohibition Era 18th Amendment passed in 1920

City Life

People resisted Prohib. b/c they wanted to enjoy life after WWI Speakeasies: hidden saloons where

alcohol was illegally sold

City Life

Bootleggers: smuggled in alcohol from countries where it was legal

City Life

Prohibition Era Growth of organized crime

City Life

18th Amendment repealed in 1933

Mass Media Shapes Mass Culture

Newspapers, magazines, radio Radio was the most powerful form of

communication in the 20s

Mass Media Shapes Mass Culture

Movies Charlie Chaplin: comic actor

Rudolph Valentino: romantic leading man

Al Jolson: starred in the first major film with sound, The Jazz Singer

Mickey Mouse

Mass Media Shapes Mass Culture

Other Entertainment Celebrities Babe Ruth: hit a record 60 home runs

for the NY Yankees Charles Lindbergh: made the first

nonstop solo flight across the Atlantic

Religion vs. Science

Fundamentalism: Protestant movement grounded in the literal interpretation of the Bible

Initiated the evolution vs. creation debate

Religion vs. Science

The Scopes Trial: Is it okay to make a law forbidding

schools to teach evolution? John Scopes, biology teacher, arrested for

teaching evolution Scopes found guilty, law stayed on the

books

Women in the Twenties

Flappers: emancipated young women who embraced the new fashions and urban attitudes of the day

Women were more assertive Casual dating Began working as typesetters and

secretaries

Harlem Renaissance

“Great Migration” Between 1910 and 1920 African

Americans moved in large numbers to northern cities

Harlem Renaissance: literary and artistic movement that celebrated African American culture

Harlem Renaissance

Poet, Langston Hughes

Louis Armstrong

Duke Ellington

Bessie Smith

“Scat”/jazz became widely popular with all Americans

Political Cartoons

Controversies of the 1920shttp://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/historyonline/us33.cfm