Chapter 23: The Twenties

AP United States HistoryWest Blocton High School

Mr. Logan Greene

Chapter Objectives• Why were the 1920s referred to as the “Roaring

Twenties?”• How did big business shape the economy of the

1920s?• What was the Great Migration, and how did it

affect social life in the 1920s?• How did new systems of distributing,

marketing, and communication create culture?• What conflicts divided social groups in the

1920s?• What were the reasons for U.S. involvement

overseas in the 1920s?

The Economy• The 1920’s saw the single greatest decade for

American economic expansion• Wartime profits, mass production techniques,

standardized parts, assembly lines, and the lack of international competition created a new behemoth industrial America

• The new automobile industry, anchored by Henry Ford’s new assembly lines, drove the increasing economy

• Aviation, chemicals, and the new media of radio and film also bolstered the growing economic boom

Corporations• During the 1920’s thousands of small

firms were taken over by a few major corporations

• A new style of control in business emerged with the oligopoly, where a few large firms control almost all of a particular industry

• There was little opposition as Americans saw this new system as increasing efficiency and production

Open Shops and Welfare Capitalism

• As the oligopolies took over without public outcry management began to attack labor

• Open shop campaigns emerged where factory owners refused to hire known union workers in attempt to break union control

• As well, citing “anti-communism” factory owners forced workers to sigh yellow dog contracts disallowing union participation

• At the same time welfare capitalism, or the idea of the business taking care of its workers began to flourish

Open Shops and Welfare Capitalism

• All of these measures led to a decrease in labor union membership

• With smaller unions and more mechanization workers suffered from low pay and a serious lack of job security

• The sadly the gap between rich and poor skyrocketed due to this new system of capitalism

• Consumer credit increased drastically as the average American used credit to stabilize their personal economy

The “Sick” Industries• As the economy boomed several

industries lagged behind• Coal mining, textiles, and railroads all

lagged from to much production for the market

• Saddest of all the American agricultural sector never recovered from the post war malaise and many small farmers suffered

Government: Republican Ascendancy

• After Woodrow Wilson Republicans took control of both Congress and the Presidency with Warren G. Harding

• Harding was kinder and more accessible than Wilson had been

• Under Harding the government lowered taxes on wealthy Americans and corporations, raised tariff rates, and hired big business supporters for government jobs

• Harding even placed judges on the Supreme Court who supported big business

Harding’s Corruption• Several of Harding’s cabinet (his poker

and drinking buddies who became known as the Ohio Gang) caused major corruption to happen

• The greatest of these was the Teapot Dome Scandal in which his Secretary of the Interior Albert Fall leased naval reserve oil fields in exchange for cash and cattle

• Several other scandals came out leading Harding to severe stress

Coolidge• Harding unexpectedly died in August of

1923• (some say due to stress, others that his

wife poisoned him)• His VP Calvin Coolidge took over as

President with the idea of traditional American values

• Coolidge believed the government should do the bare minimum, especially with the economy

Coolidge• Coolidge allowed influential Andrew

Mellon to continue his program of lowered taxes on the wealthy and corporations

• Coolidge prosperity swept the nation as “Silent Cal” gave the people confidence in their presidency

• In the 1924 election Keep Cool with Coolidge swept the nation as Coolidge was re-elected on the back of economic prosperity

Reform• Sadly after the passage of the 19th

Amendment granting women the right to vote women’s reform movements died off

• This was partially due to the fact that women did vote together as a political “bloc” but on their own socio-economic lines

Cities and Suburbs• 1920 saw a watershed moment for

America: more people lived in urban areas than rural

• Cities grew at an unbelievable rate and a new American invention became commonplace: the steel skyscraper

• Skyscrapers flourished as urban land rates skyrocketed, cities built up instead of out

• However, living conditions remained very poor for many of the urban dwellers

The Great Migration• As Americans moved from rural areas to

urban ones millions of African-Americans moved from the mostly rural South to the urban North

• Black ghettos began appearing in several Northern cities due to racial restrictions

• Racial pride led to the Harlem Renaissance, a great outpouring of African American art, writing, and culture in the New York City neighborhood of Harlem

Barrios• Barrios were Hispanic neighborhoods in

1920s cities• Hispanics built up their own unique urban

societies to maintain their Hispanic roots

Suburbia• As the cities quickly grew the suburbs

grew even faster• The idea of owning a home in the suburbs

became the goal and dream of every middle class family in America

• The automobile made all of this possible as commuting became possible

Advertising and the Consumer• Advertising took on a new monstrous

level in the 1920s consumer society• Advertising focused upon the new

growing middle and upper classes and their desire for things like appliances

• Consumption began to overtake thrift, prudence, and avoiding debt

• By the end of the decade almost all major items were bought on credit

Leisure and Entertainment• During the 1920s Americans began

spending a marked amount of money on leisure

• Americans began piling into new “movie houses,” listening to radio programs, and listening to a new style of music on their phonographs known as Jazz

• Jazz came from African-American traditions and was fast and furious

• Professional sports, especially baseball with Babe Ruth, also flourished

The New Morality• As the country changed so did morals• The New Morality was defined by more

open morals, a more open approach to sexuality, risqué dancing, illegal drinking, and women flaunting new freedoms like smoking and becoming “flappers”

• However, most Americans still stuck to traditional values and beliefs

The Searching Twenties• As many Americans spent money and put

tons of items on credit a group of artists and intellectuals rejected the growing materialism

• Writers such as F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, and Gertrude Stein defined this generation by examining American culture and growing doubts

• Artists like Edward Hopper showed the growing isolation of American life

Nativism and Immigration• As America immerged from World War I a new

isolationism gripped America and this emboldened a return of nativism

• The government acted on these feelings by passing the Emergency Quota Act of 1921 reducing immigration and establishing quotas

• The National Origins Act of 1924 restricted immigration based on nation of origin

• In the west Japanese immigration was harshly restricted

The Ku Klux Klan• The Ku Klux Klan revived itself in the

1920’s behind the nativist sentiment• The new Klan was truly national, although

its main power was still in the South, and attracted white protestants

• The Klan ventured into politics and virtually all Southern politicians had to be Klan members

• Criminal behavior and corruption destroyed the new Klan by 1930

Prohibition and Crime• Prohibition was a polarizing subject in

America• The Volstead Act defined the illegal drinks

and doled out punishment through the Prohibition bureau

• However, Prohibition pushed massive crime and the birth of organized crime and mobsters such as Al Capone running illegal booze into illegal bars known as speak easies

The Scopes Trial• Traditionalists and fundamentalists did not

simply attack the new morality• In Tennessee a man named John T. Scopes

began teaching evolution in his classroom• He was arrested for breaking the law• In the Scopes Monkey Trial as it became

known the ACLU defended scopes with attorney Clarence Darrow while the William Jennings Bryan prosecuted

• Scopes was found guilty but later released

War Debts and Economic Expansion

• America’s insistence on being paid back by their European debtors caused issues for foreign relations

• As well, many American corporations became multinational corporations with overseas interests

End to War?• President Harding sponsored the

Washington Naval Conference in 1921• The conference was designed to halt new

ship construction for 10 years and halt the current balance of naval power

• Later in 1928 the U.S. took a more drastic turn with the Kellogg-Briand Pact which renounced aggression and made war illegal but lacked any way for enforcement

The Hemisphere• The U.S. continued to dominate Latin

America• Although America did withdraw some

troops during the decade American hatred in Latin America was widespread

• In response in 1930 the U.S. drafted the Clark Memorandum which called for a gradual backing away from the Roosevelt Corollary and a more friendly approach to Latin America

Hoover• As the economy continued to rise the

1928 election loomed• The Republicans nominated Herbert

Hoover, an experienced well prepared candidate

• Hoover, quietly progressive, won the election; however, it would be the last triumph for the Republicans for a long time as the roaring twenties were about to come crashing down

Chapter Objectives• Why were the 1920s referred to as the “Roaring

Twenties?”• How did big business shape the economy of the

1920s?• What was the Great Migration, and how did it

affect social life in the 1920s?• How did new systems of distributing,

marketing, and communication create culture?• What conflicts divided social groups in the

1920s?• What were the reasons for U.S. involvement

overseas in the 1920s?