Chapter 20The Roaring Twenties

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A booming EconomySection 1

• U.S. was a world economic powerhouse following the war.

• Americans would experience a boom in industry and the way of life

A. The Automobile Industry

• Henry Ford: brought mass production to the auto industry

• Assembly line: Got idea from Meat packing– Made production more efficient- 12 hours to 90

minutes • Model T: First affordable car for average

American- would cost $290 in 1927– Slow, ugly, only came in black, but cheap– Car ownership- 10% in 1919- 56% in 1927

• Ford improved the lives of his workers• Gave them decent wages• Gave them Saturday and Sunday off• Reduced working week to 40 hours

• Auto Industry also fueled the economy– Steel, glass, rubber, asphalt, wood, gasoline, ect.

All became more important – Roads building skyrockets– Service industries- gas stations, diners, ect.

• Also affected the American culture?

B. Bustling Economy

• New consumer luxury goods flood the market– Washing machines, vacuum cleaners, irons

• Keeping up with the Jones• Began buying goods using Installment Plans • Many American would be in debt for the first

time

C. Stock Market• Market Bullish- stock prices skyrocketing • More and more American putting money in

stocks- not saving- get rich- more payoff• Buying on Margin- buying stocks using

payment plans- upfront payment and then pay off rest later

• Stock was security or collateral for the loan– What does that mean??

• Many hoped to sell stock at profit before loan came due.

D. Cities

• In the 1920’s, even more people flock to cities as industry grows– Farmers, AA’s. Mexican-Americans

• Cities expand out and up- skyscrapers • Suburbs- middle class want to get out of inner

city, move to outskirts

E. Problems ahead

• Wealth is poorly distributed– Corporate profits rise much faster than wages– Farmers facing hard times- don’t benefit from

roaring twenties– Much gambling in the stock market– Urban lower class stuck in poverty

The Business of Gov’tSection 2

• Warren G. Harding promised a return to normalcy

• What did this mean?

• Country would become very conservative• Opposite of the Progressive Movement

A. Harding and Big Business

• Andrew Mellon- secretary of the Treasury• Herbert Hoover- Secretary of Commerce• With these two advisors, would shrink the

federal gov’t and reduce spening• 18 billion during the wary• 3 billion after• Actually had a surplus

• Harding favored business• Would not legislate against monopolies and

big business• Rose tariffs by 25% to protect American goods• Foreign countries would retaliate- halt world

trade- weakened world economy

B. The Ohio Gang

• Harding “I listen to one side and they seem right. I talk to the other side and they seem just as right. What a job.”

• Hmmm?• Was a likeable trusting man, but relied on

advisors and friends to make decisions

C. Corruption

• His friends from Ohio would prove to be corrupt- called Ohio Gang

• Charles Forbes??• Purchased $70,000 floor cleaner- last 100

years and paid 24 times the fair price• Harry Daugherty??• Attorney General- took money from crooks

D: Teapot Dome Scandal

• Secretary of Interior Albert Fall- leased gov’t land to private companies for kickbacks.

• Deal became public• Harding dies on way home from Alaska• News broke after his death, tarnishing his

presidency

E. Coolidge• Coolidge becomes prez in 1923• Coolidge believed the “Business of America is

Business”• Passed legislation that favored business• However, almost silent on everything else– Jim crow laws, anti lynching laws, women’s rights

• Was not the gov’ts job to promote social change

• Took many naps, vacations and worked less then 4 hours a day

F: America’s Role in the World

• Washington Naval Disarmament?– Where was it held, what was the goal, 5:5:3

ration?

• Kellogg-Briand Pack?

• Dawes Plan- U.S. loans money to Germany, who pays war reparations to allies, who pay us back for money loaned during WWI.

Section 3Social and Cultural Tensions

• A: Traditionalism vs. Modernism• Modernism- emphasize science and secular

values• Traditionalism- focus on religion and traditions

B. Scopes Trial 1925

• Fundamentalism- belief that bible is literal truth

• Should social Darwinism and evolution be taught in schools

• Many states, especially rural, across country banned evolution

• John Scopes- science teacher in Tenn. • Teachers evolution• Goes to court over issue• Clarence Darrow: Big time Ohio lawyer-

defends scops• William Jennings Bryan: defended rural values

and prosecuted John Scopes• Scopes loses and fined $100 dollars• However, Darrow, on the stand, got Bryan to

admit he did not interpret all of bible literally • Bryan would die shortly later

• Thousands converged on Dayton Tennessee

• Why was the there such a large deal made of the Scopes Monkey Trial??

• Rural values vs. Urban big city immorality • Rural Backwardness vs. Urban progress

C. Restricting Immigration

• Nativists and the Red Scare convince representatives to tighten immigration

• During War: Immigrants that can’t read or write turned away

• Emergency Quota Act of 1921 and National Origins Act of 1924- set up a quota system

• Used census from 1890- why??

D: Ku Klux Klan

• 1915: Klan would rise again• Equal opportunity haters- blacks, catholics,

jews, immigrants, and any other non white protestant people

• Invisible empire had 4-5 million• Used scare tactics and actually marched on

Washington • Birth of a Nation??

E: Prohibition and Crime

• 1919: 18th Amendment passed: Prohibition• Rural vote and women supported. • Volstead Act: enforce 18th amendment• Dry’s supported• Wets against

F: Culture of Crimehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2md-mYfZic

• Much crime centered around Alcohol• Bootleggers sold illegal alcohol to consumers• Most American ignored the law as policemen

and politician often took bribes to look the other way

• Al Capone and other mobsters made millions of the illegal sale of alcohol

A revolution in Styles and Manners Section 4

• Shorter working hours and higher wages gives many Americans leisure time- Average Work Week?

• Radio, movies, and sports would flourish• By 1929, 40% of families have a radio• KDKA first radio station out of Pittsburg• Nickelodeons- silent movies shown in picture

palaces- admission only a nickel• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79i84xYelZI

Movies and Radio

• American begin visiting movie theaters 60 to million times a week

• Charlie Chaplin- popular silent film star• 1927- Jazz Singer- first movie with sound

• Guglielmo Marconi- developed first wireless radio

• 1920’s everyone had a radio- families sat around and listened

Sports • Americans fall in love with sports as events are

announced play by play on the radio• Football, baseball, and boxing turn into huge

money making ventures• Jack Dempsey• Babe Ruth• Bobby Jones• Red Grange• Helen Wills and Gertrude Ederle• Why were there so many sports heroes??

Lucky Lindyhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTwiu6wnpqw

• Charles Lindberg- first person to fly solo non-stop across Atlantic

• May 1927• 33 hours flight from Roosevelt Field New York

to Paris• Flew the Spirit of St. Louis• Made people excited about the possibilities of

air travel

Literature

-Writers like Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald begin writing about hypocrisy in lifehttp://www.biography.com/people/f-scott-fitzgerald-9296261#synopsis

– Lost generation? The Great Gatsby?

– Black writers- The Harlem Renaissance- Began celebrating African American heritage

Music and Dancing

• Jazz new genre of music in 1920’s• Begun in New Orleans in African American

community- spread throughout the U.S.• Louis Armstrong• Duke Ellington• Played in cotton club in Harlem• Flappers would dance the Charleston

Section 5 Harlem Renaissance

• During 1920’s, mass movement of AA’s to Northern cities helped create a flowering of African American Music and literature

• Jazz and Harlem Renaissance had a lasting impact on American culture

A. New “Black Consciousness”

• African moving North where they could make more money than as sharecroppers

• However, lived in the poorest places in the bigger cities

• Harlem- best example, inner city New York• 200,000 AA’s

B. Marcus Garvey

• Believed AA’s and whites could not live together

• Encouraged settlement of Africa in colony of Liberia

• Back to Africa Movement• Went to prison on Mail Fraud and Universal

Negro Improvement Association and Back to Africa movement fell apart

C. Jazz

• Jazz- musical form on improvisation, mixing musical genres

• Blues and ragtime versions of Jazz• Spoke to the cultural hardships AA’s faced• Originated in New Orleans• Soon, New York clubs best know Jazz spots• Louis Armstrong• Bessie Smith• Became a popular across the world and races

D. Literature

• “New Negro” – no longer quite to their suffering

• Also stressed black pride• Writers- Langston Hughes, Claude McKay, Jean

Toomer’s Cane, Zora Neale Hurston- wrote about the average life and hardships of AA’s