The Roaring 20s An era of prosperity, Republican power, Republican - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

The Roaring 20’s

An era of prosperity, Republican power,

Republican Power

 President Harding  Elected 1920  Legacy of

corruption like the “Teapot Dome” bribery scandal and reduced taxes on businesses

 Died in office, 1923

By the 1920s, the U.S. had become the leading industrial power in the world. This boom was due to several factors:

• A. a wealth of natural resources
• B. government support for business
• C. a growing urban population for cheap

labor and markets for new products.

16th Amendment passes in 1913: begins Individual and Corporate Income Taxes Today we pay our taxes to the Federal and State governments no later than April 15th

Taxes are reduced under Presidents Harding and Coolidge

World War I left much of the American public divided. The end of the war hurt the economy. Returning soldiers took jobs away from many women and minorities, or faced unemployment

• themselves. Many Americans wanted to

reduce the number of immigrants arriving in the US.

The 19 The 1921 21 Quota Act Quota Act and and the 1 the 192 924 4 Im Immigr migration ation Act Act ref reflec lecte ted d US nati US nativi vism. sm. The They g y greatl reatly y redu reduce ced the n d the numbers of ne umbers of new Ame w Americans as icans as peop people b le became ecame su susp spiciou icious s of

• f foreig

foreigner ners s an and d wanted to pull anted to pull away y from from worl

• rld

d aff affair airs.

President Coolidge

“The business of America is business. The man who builds a factory builds a temple. The man who works in it worships there.”

1923-29

 The political genius of President Coolidge,

Walter Lippmann pointed out in 1926, was his talent for effectively doing nothing: "This active inactivity suits the mood and certain of the needs of the country

• admirably. It suits all the business interests

which want to be let alone....

Presidents Harding and Coolidge reduce the Progressives’ regulations of businesses. America switches from war goods to consumer goods and advertising to sell products. Instalment Buying: Get it now and pay later Credit: pay a small amount each month until an item is paid for Interest: financial charge for borrowing $ Demand for US goods greatly increases but so does American debt. “If we want anything, all we have to do is go and buy it

• n credit. So that leaves us without any economic problems

whatever, except some day to have to pay for it. But we are certainly not thinking about it this early” Comedian Will Rogers, 1928

1920s Soaring Stock Market

 Companies sell stocks to gain the money they

need to expand their business. Investors buy the stocks and hope the value of them will increase

 The 1920s were a Bull Market where stock

prices rose rapidly. Often the price rose not because the company was improving but simply because investors expected the price to

• rise. Investors became rich overnight, buying

stocks and selling them for more not long

• afterwards. As long as prices continued to rise

all was well.

 The 1920s is a period of great change in American Society -

modern America is born at this time, with many people enjoying a much higher standard of living.



For first time the census (population count every 10 years) reflected an urban society – over 50% of the US population lived in cities.

1920's Great Changes for Women...

 1920 - 19th Amendment

gave them the federal vote

 The League of Women

Voters worked to educate women on voting and to ensure women could serve

• n juries

 During WWI many women

worked in factories

 After the war, many women

kept working outside the home

 More women went to college

and wanted to join the professions

 Women didn't want to sacrifice their

wartime gains in income and life

• utside of the home - amounted to a

social revolt

 the FLAPPER became the name for

"new woman” who wore skirts that

• nly went to the knee, smoke

cigarettes and drank alcohol in public, drove cars fast, and cut their hair short

 With income from working, women

bought appliances like vacuum cleaners, refrigerators, and radios

 Some women had to work and also

run their homes. It was hard for them to combine these roles. While many women worked, most remained homemakers.

Consumer Economy

Age of Prosperity

 Employment and wages/salaries

are strong in the 1920s as the economy expands

 Henry Ford introduces the

assembly line to factories – reduces costs and increases supply so the price goes down and more Americans can afford a car

 Assembly lines and mass

production spread throughout the US economy

 In 1919 there are 7 million cars in

the US but by 1929 there are 23 million on the road; creating an estimated 4 million new jobs

Age of Prosperity

 The car transforms the US economy  Competition increases as General Motors manufactures cars and

Ford does not have a monopoly

 New jobs are needed to keep up with the demand for refining oil

into gasoline, gas stations, building roads, restaurants, and shopping centers.

 People move from the crowded cities to the suburbs further

away from work because they can drive there

Culture of the Roaring 20’s

<<< Radio: GE, Westinghouse,& RCA form NBC Silent nt Movi vies es >>>> >>>> Charl rlie e Chapl plin in

“Talkies” The e Jaz azz z Singer ger Starrin rring g Al Jolson lson Mary Pickford “America’s Sweetheart”

The 20’s is The Jazz Age

The Flappers

make up cigarettes short skirts

Musicians

Louis Armstrong Duke Ellington

Writers

• F. Scott Fitzgerald

Ernest Hemingway

Th The J e Jazz azz Ag Age Jazz b azz began egan in Ne in New Or w Orleans leans, based based

• n
• n West

est Afr African ican rh rhythms ythms, Black Black spi spirituals ituals and and work songs

• rk songs, and

and Eu Euro ropean pean ha harmoni monies

• es. Greats

Greats inclu included L ded Loui

• uis Ar

s Armst mstron rong and g and Duk Duke Elling e Ellington.

• ton. Ev

Eventuall entually, rock rock and and rol roll l plu plus s hi hip p hop hop wil will l de develop elop from it. from it. Ame Americans bou icans bough ght t rad radios ios and and went t ent to

• the m

the movi vies

• es. P

Popu

• pular

lar fads ads grabbed the nation’s attention, lik like f e fla lag-pol pole sit e sitting ting (2 (21 1 da days ys was as the rec the record

• rd)

) and and then di then disa sapp ppeared eared . The Ch The Charl arlest eston dance bec

• n dance became

ame an another

• ther f

fad ad.

Celebrities

Babe Ruth &Ty Cobb

Jack Dempsey Charles Lindbergh

The Spirit of St. Louis

America was becoming more prosperous. Business and industry required a more educated work force. These two factors caused a huge increase in the number of students going to high school. The nation’s schools were successful in teaching large numbers of Americans and immigrants to

• read. As a result of increased literacy, more

people read newspapers than before.

Charles A. Lindbergh thrilled the nation by becoming the first person to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. Lindbergh took off from New York City in his plane, The Spirit of St. Louis. On May 20-21, 1927 he flew for 33 hours and landed outside of Paris, France. On his return to the United States, Lindbergh became the idol of America. In an age of sensationalism and excess, Lindbergh stood for the honesty and bravery the nation seemed to have lost.

Charles Lindbergh

The “Roaring Twenties”

"Old" Culture "New" Culture Emphasized Production Emphasized Consumption Character Personality Scarcity Abundunce Religion Science Idealized the Past Looked to the Future Local Culture Mass Culture Substance Image The above graph indicates in a general sense what historians mean when they refer to the "old" and the "new" cultures of the 1920s. This list is not meant to be definitive. Source: Culture as History: The Transformation of American Society in the Twentieth Century (New York: Pantheon Books, 1984).

The Ku Klux Klan: Great increase In power across the US, not just the South Anti-black Anti-immigrant Anti-women’s suffrage Anti-bootleggers Anti-Semitic Anti-Catholic

Scopes “Monkey” Trial

Evolution vs. Creationism

Dayton, Tennessee

Famous Lawyers

Science vs. Religion

John Scopes High School Biology teacher

During the 1920s, the nation saw the rise of Christian fundamentalism. This religious movement was based

• n the belief that everything written

in the Bible was literally true. Fundamentalists were concerned with the growing trust in science that most Americans had. These beliefs led fundamentalists to reject Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution (natural selection)

Fundamentalists did not want evolution taught in schools. In 1925, Tennessee passed a law making it a crime to teach it. John Scopes, a young biology teacher challenged the law and taught it. He was arrested, and his case went to trial. The ACLU hired Clarence Darrow, the most famous trial lawyer in the nation, to defend

• Scopes. William Jennings Bryan was the prosecutor. Scopes was

guilty because he broke the law. But the trial was really about evolution and about religion in schools. Reporters came from all

• ver the world to cover the Scopes trial (Monkey Trial). The

highlight of the trial was when Bryan took the stand. Darrow questioned Bryan until Bryan said that while the earth was made in six days, they were “not six days of 24 hours.” Bryan was admitting that the Bible could be interpreted in different ways. Even so, Scopes was found guilty. His conviction was later

• verturned by the Tennessee State Supreme Court. But the ban on

teaching evolution remained a law in Tennessee.

Prohibition

18 18th

th Ame

mendm ndment ent

Volstead Act

Gangsters

Al Capone

 PROHIBITION - on the

manufacture and sale of alcohol

 Ratified in 1919 as the 18th

AMENDMENT

 In WWI, temperance (anti-

alcohol) became a patriotic

• cause. Drunkenness caused

lower work productivity & inefficiency.

 Prohibition was a difficult law

to enforce. Organized crime made millions while millions of law-abiding Americans turned to bootleggers for their booze.

 Al Capone virtually controlled

Chicago in this period - capitalism at its zenith…

 Prohibition finally ended in

1933 with the 21st Amendment

 The 21st forced organized crime

to pursue other interests…

Farming Problemss

 an agricultural depression in

early 1920's contributed to this urban migration

 U.S. farmers lost agricultural

markets in postwar Europe

 at same time efficiency

increased so more food produced (more food = lower prices) and fewer labourers were needed

 so farming was no longer as

prosperous, and bankers called in their loans (farms were repossessed)

 so American farmers enter the

Depression in advance of the rest of society

 Black Americans in

this period continued to live in poverty

 sharecropping kept

them in de facto slavery

 white landowners

went bankrupt & forced blacks off their land

 African-Americans moved north to take advantage of booming

wartime industry (= Great Migration) - Black ghettoes began to form like Harlem in New York City

 A distinct Black culture flourished but most neighborhoods

and schools were not integrated in the North.

 Marcus Garvey (Jamaican born

immigrant) established the Universal Negro Improvement Association

 believed in Black pride  advocated racial segregation b/c of

Black superiority

 Garvey believed Blacks should

return to Africa

 he purchased a ship to start the

Black Star line

 attracted many investments: gov't

charged him with with fraud

 he was found guilty and eventually

deported to Jamaica, but his

• rganization continued to exist