The Roaring 20’s Part 2

1920’s Culture and Business Practices under Calvin Coolidge

1. 1920’s -Republican Decade Republican

Administrations Pro-business Laissez-faire Anti-Labor Economy is weak

at first but later booms

A. Warren G. Harding 1920

B. Calvin Coolidge 1924

C. Herbert Hoover 1928

2. Calvin Coolidge- “Silent Cal” Main ideas:

PRO-BUSINESS Believed in Laissez-Faire High Tariffs – leads to better American

businesses (for now!)

3. Coolidge believed that “the chief business of the American people is business.”

• Coolidge continued Mellon’s policies to reduce the national debt, trim the budget, and lower taxes.

• The country saw huge industrial profits and spectacular growth in the stock market.

• The middle and upper classes prospered, especially in cities.

The 1920s were a time of rapid economic growth in the United States.

Much of this boom can be traced to the

Automobile!

4. By applying innovative manufacturing techniques, Henry Ford changed that.

His affordable Model T became a car for the people.

Before 1920, only wealthy people could afford cars.

5. Ford made the Model T affordable by applying mass production techniques to making cars.

• A moving assembly line brought cars to workers, who each added one part.

• Ford consulted scientific management experts to make his manufacturing process more efficient.

• The time to assemble a Model T dropped from -12 hours to just 90 minutes!

6. Ford also raised his workers’ pay and shortened their hours. With more money and more

leisure time, his employees would be potential customers.

By 1927, 56% of American families owned a car.

7. How the Automobile Changed America• Road construction boomed, and new businesses

opened along the routes.• Other car-related industries included steel,

glass, rubber, asphalt, gasoline, and insurance.• Workers could live farther away from their jobs-

urban sprawl.• Families used cars for leisure trips and vacations.• Fewer people traveled on trolleys or trains.

8. 1920-1929 “Roaring Twenties” Why ROARING????

VERY PROSPEROUS / CHANGE!!!!!

People’s income rose more than 35%...more money…buy a bunch of junk!

Businesses boomed! 1920’s = Superficial prosperity will

“catch up” to America Superficial Prosperity causes the

Stock Market Crash of 1929 and Great Depression of (1930s)

9. Buying Goods on EASY Credit “Installment Plan” allows people to buy goods on

“credit”, without putting a large amount of money down

(superficial prosperity) Banks: low interest rates Economists: got worried!

Americans didn’t listen: Remember: War is over, we won…

life is good…let’s spend money!!!!

Consumer Economy

10. Prohibition 18th Amendment Reminder: Prohibition – the

manufacturing, sale, and transportation of alcohol was illegal

Mainly supported by: Rural Protestants-Women

People still want alcohol! SO….as a result = Speakeasies and

Bootleggers, Organized Crime 18th Amendment lasted until 1933, when

it was repealed by the 21st Amendment (taxed alcohol)

PROHIBITION CAUSES THE CREATION OF

(1) Speakeasies (2) Bootlegging (3) Gangsters

Speakeasies & Bootleggers11. Speakeasies: To obtain liquor illegally, drinkers went to thesesecret underground bars Speak quietly…password

12. Bootleggers: liquor smugglers

– got liquor from Cuba and Canada and sneaked it into the U.S. (Origins of NASCARRacing!-fast cars to get away!)

13. Prohibition leads to Rise of Organized Crime Prohibition generated a total “disrespect”

for law = Organized Crime Al Capone -original scarface!

Chicago gangster & bootlegger Literally killed his competition

(522 people)

St. Valentines Day Massacre!

14. Science vs. Religion (Traditional vs. Modern lifestyles) American Fundamentalism: Protestants

that believed in EVERY SINGLE WORD of the Bible; denoted scientific findings of the 1920s (rejection of Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution)

Biggest clash between Science and Religion = The Scopes Trial

15. Scopes Trial / Monkey Trial (1925) Tennessee passed a state law = if you

teach evolution = CRIME!American Civil Liberties Union *ACLU* -

claims they will defend teachers that teach evolution in Tenn.

Story: John T. Scopes – teacher that teaches evolution in Dayton, Tenn.

Scopes was caught teaching evolution and arrested

Clarence Darrow vs. William Jennings Bryan16. ACLU hired Clarence Darrow to serve as the defense lawyer William Jennings Bryan (fundamentalist) served as the

prosecutor –remember him? Trial: July 10, 1925 Verdict: Butler Act until 1967 / Scopes is guilty and fined $100 Most Important: The two groups that clashed over the

Scopes Trial (1925) would be(1) Science

(2) Religion

17. THE “FLAPPER”-The TwentiesWoman

an emancipated woman in the 1920s that embraced the new fashions

of the 1920s / * a challenge to traditional roles/values of women-short hair, knee high dresses, outspoken urban women

If it is too much above the knees you can’t go on the beach!

THE CHARLESTON

Josephine Baker American-born French dancer, singer and actress. Began her career in the US but was to risqué

and kicked out/left for Paris where she could dance like she wanted too.

Famous for her “Banana Dance” The History of Twerking???

Hero of the1920’s 18. Charles Lindbergh

Small-town pilot who made the first nonstop flight over the Atlantic Ocean (from New York to Paris)

Paid $25,000 Plane: Spirit of the St. Louis

CelebritiesBabe Ruth &Ty Cobb

Jack Dempsey

Charles Lindbergh The Spirit of St. Louis

19. Entertainment and the Arts The Jazz Singer – 1st

movie with “sound”(ended the silent film era)

– “TALKIES” Steamboat Willie – 1st

animated film with “sound”

Georgia O’Keefe – painted landscapes of New York

Culture of the Roaring 20’s Radio

KDKA Pittsburgh

GE, Westinghouse,& RCA form

NBCSilent MoviesCharlie Chaplin

“Talkies”The Jazz SingerStarring Al Jolson

Gloria Swanson

Mary Pickford“America’s Sweetheart”

• The war’s devastation left many questioning the optimistic Victorian attitude of progress.

• Modernism expressed a skeptical, pessimistic view of the world.

• Writers and artists explored the ideas of psychologist Sigmund Freud, who suggested that human behavior was driven by unconscious desires.

20. World War I strongly affected the art and literature of the 1920s.

21. Writers of the 1920s*These writers are important because they are writing about

what is going on in America at the “TIME THEY ARE WRITING”

Sinclair Lewis: 1st American to win the Nobel Prize Famous Novel: Babbit – ridiculed Americans for their

conformity! F. Scott Fitzgerald: coined the phrase “JAZZ AGE” to describe the 1920s Famous Novel: The Great Gatsby – revealed the

negative side of the 1920s period of freedom

Writers of the 1920s

22. Ernest Hemingway Novel: A Sun Also Rises - criticized the

glorification of war The Old Man and the Sea Introduced the term “Lost Generation” – defines

a sense of moral loss or aimlessness apparent in literary figures during the 1920s.

Fight…return….lost

T.Q. The passage of the 18th Amendment was a victory for which group?A. Rural ProtestantsB. Catholic immigrantsC. Urban residentsD. Career criminals