The%20Twenties

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The Twenties

• 1920-1929

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A Booming Economy

• Decade after war America experienced growth
• Changed the way Americans lived
• Rising wages, shorter work weeks
• More free time more disposable income
• Created modern consumer economy
• Technology, leisure activities broke down
  barriers and helped form a common American
  culture
• At the same time cultural issues divided
  Americans
• Consumer Revolution- advertising, buying on
  credit, electricity made new products available
  to people
• Availability of electric power washing
  machines, vacuum cleaners made housekeeping
  easier
• Advertisers- used new methods to sell more
  products (focused on desires and fears of
  consumers)
• Buying on credit allowed people to buy products
  they would have needed to save years for, many
  Americans went deeply into debt
• By the end of the decade economy became
  increasingly venerable to disruptions of the
  credit structure

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Automobile Drives Prosperity

• Recession that followed war ended quickly
• Factories produced more goods, wages rose
• Most growth sparked by auto industry
• Henry Ford pioneers changes (wages, production,
  working conditions, daily life)

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Automobile Drives Prosperity

• Scientific management techniques- reduce time,
  effort, cost to produce cars
• Idea of mass production used for automobiles
• Model T- only car Ford sold ( 850)
• People could afford it and they had more leisure
  time
• Cars put on assembly line- inspired by
  meatpacking industry
• Located plant in Detroit on Great Lakes (access
  to materials)
• Doubled wages of workers, weekends off, 8 hour
  workdays

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Automobile Changes America

• Automobile industry created new jobs, helped
  national prosperity
• Steel, glass, rubber, asphalt, gasoline,
  insurance, road construction industries all
  benefitted
• Service stations, motels
• Oil discoveries in Southwest
• 1926 highway system first appeared

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Automobile Changes America

• Gave people more freedom
• Go where they wanted, not tied to tracks or
  train schedule
• Altered residential patterns
• Suburbs grew, people could live farther from jobs
• Communities linked by highways to cities

7
Stock Market

• 1920s period of rising stock prices (bull
  market)
• Investors take risks, buy on margin (pay small
  amount up front, pay rest back over time)
• Stock was collateral for loan
• Thinking of time- boom and bust economy would
  end, always prosperity

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City, Suburbs and Country

• 1920s people move to cities
• Immigrants, farmers, African Americans
• Improved mass transportation, car led to
  development of suburbs
• Suburbs drain resources from cities, more wealth
  left the cities
• Wealth poorly distributed
• Industrial wages, farm incomes did not rise
• Farmers caught in boom-bust cycle more than
  industry
• Peace brought an end to guaranteed prices by
  government and overseas purchases
• Wartime boom encouraged them to cultivate new
  land
• Farmers produced surpluses that led to price
  dampening depression
• In 1920s 25 of all farms were sold to repay
  debt
• These groups were left out of the economic
  boom

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The Business of Government

• 1920 Warren G. Harding- return to normalcy
• More conservative, policies to promote growth of
  business
• Sec. of Treasury Andrew Mellon, favored low taxes
  on individuals and corporations
• US raised tariffs, European countries response
  was to raise tariffs, weakened world economy
• Herbert Hoover- Commerce Sec. used business and
  labor leaders to change society, not legislation

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Ohio Gang and Teapot Dome Scandal

• Close circle of advisers called Ohio Gang
• Saw government service as a way to get rich at
  expense of others
• Teapot Dome Scandal- (1921) Sec. of Interior
  arranged sale of government oil reserves in Wyo.
  to private investors for loans
• Harding signed deal, senate investigated
• 1924- Sec. of Interior sentenced to prison
• Harding died before he could finish his term or
  answer for his role in this and other scandals

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Business of American People Is Business

• Replaced by VP Calvin Coolidge
• Silent Cal quiet, honest, frugal
• Pro- business, creation of wealth was good for
  all America
• Followed same economic policies as Harding
• American economy grew, general prosperity for all
  Americans over next six years

12
America and International Affairs

• 1920s U.S. role in world affairs grew
• 1921, 1922- Washington Naval Conference- limit
  construction of navies, reduce arms race
• 1928- Kellogg- Briand Pact- treaty to outlaw war
  as an instrument of national policy world
  leaders knew this was useless
• 1920s U.S. thought best policy was to keep rest
  of world at arms length and return to isolationism

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America and International Affairs

• Collecting War Debts
• US wanted Britain, France to pay back money
  borrowed for war
• They needed Germany to pay reparations
• Financial issue threatened world economy
• 1924 Dawes Plan arranged US loans to Germany to
  pay Britain and France
• Damaged US reputation- saw US as heartless
  demanding payment after human costs of war

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Social and Cultural Tensions

• Growing division between urban and rural
  Americans
• Standard of living, science, religion,
  immigration
• Traditional vs. Modern

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Traditionalism and Modernism Clash

• 1920 Census first time more American lived in
  urban areas than rural areas
• Urban
• enjoyed new consumer products
• Open to social change, science, secular values
  important
• Formal education more important
• Rural
• more traditional view of science, religion,
  culture
• Most new consumer products unavailable
• Many people, in rural areas, felt threatened by
  the changing values of society
• Religious fundamentalism grew during the 1920s
• One reaction to changing world
• World changing in ways people don't understand
  and can't control
• Children move to cities, reject the values that
  the parents have lived with all their life

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Religious Fundamentalism

• One way this fundamentalism manifested itself
  came in the laws of a few southern states which
  mandated creationism, not evolution, be taught in
  classrooms
• Many Americans upset over growing secularism
• Fundamentalism grew
• Took Bible as literal truth
• Bible could answer important questions
• Movement strong in rural America
• 1925 Scopes Trial illustrated split between
  urban/ rural areas. (Theory of Evolution vs.
  Creationism)

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Restricting Immigration

• Clash over immigration
• Many felt that immigrants threatened religious,
  political, cultural traditions
• Immigration Act of 1924- end of open immigration
• Government created a quota system to restrict
  immigration
• Geared to keep out southern and eastern
  Europeans, Japanese immigrants

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The New KU Klux Klan

• Membership in KKK began to expand
• Manifestation of intolerance and prejudice from
  anxiety of changing times
• Uprising against forces of modernism and forces
  of diversity shaping American culture
• Resembled nativist movement of 1850s
• Anti- anything except Anglo, native American
• Movement concentrated in Midwest and South
• At its peak had about 5 million members
• Collapsed in late 20s after political corruption
  was exposed

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Prohibition and Crime

• Prohibition divisive issue
• War increased support for temperance movement
• 1919 -18th Amendment passed, Volstead Act
  endorsed amendment
• Prohibited sale, manufacture, distribution of
  alcohol

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Prohibition and Crime

• People still wanted alcohol- supplied by
  bootleggers, organized crime
• Government tried to stop flow of liquor
• Organized crime developed around sale of liquor
  and reached into other areas- prostitution,
  drugs, gambling
• Too much money to be made
• Criminals involved in sale of liquor, police took
  bribes
• Mid 1920s many politicians in cities wanted
  repeal of 18th Amendment
• Rural Americans saw liquor, crime tied together
• 1933- 21st Amendment repealed prohibition

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Science, Social Thought and Modernism

• Rational, mechanical ideas of how world worked
  changed
• Einsteins Theory of Relativity, Heisenberg's
  Theory of Uncertainty showed absolute values of
  how things worked were not true
• Freud explored subconscious
• Subconscious regions seen as more potent than
  reason
• Art, Literature expressed how reality is created,
  and expressed

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• Urban or Rural?

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New Mass Culture

• Cultural issues divided Americans
• Technology, leisure activities broke down
  barriers
• Formed a common American culture

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Americans Enjoy More Leisure Time

• Rising wages, shorter work weeks
• More free time more disposable income
• Movies- local theaters became cultural classroom
  for Americans
• Americas democratic art
• First movie stars
• 1927 first talkie Jazz Singer
• Movies represent fantasies, desires, of Americans

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Americans Enjoy More Leisure Time

• Radio and Phonograph- result of technological
  advances, business enterprise
• Americans listened to same music, learned same
  dances- contributed to mass popular culture
• Radio- 1920 first commercial radio station (KDKA
  Pittsburg, PA)- within three years over 600
  stations
• Brought events into millions of homes- sporting
  events, news
• Phonograph- people could listen to music whenever
  they wanted
• Regional musical styles made national (jazz,
  blues, country)

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Golden Age of Sports Heroes

• Sports created nationally famous athletes
• Increased newspaper readers, radio audience
  boosted popularity
• Sportswriters captured excitement of events
• Sports feats showed people capable of great
  feats, idealized self
• Many people rooted for sports stars that shred
  their ethnicity, national origin

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Women Assume New Roles

• New Woman of 1920s more liberated, Victorian
  morality rejected
• Dresses shorter, wore makeup, danced, drank
• Flapper symbolized new , modern woman
• Wanted same political, social, economic rights as
  men
• National Womens party began a campaign for an
  Equal Rights Amendment to the Constitution
• Lived longer, had fewer children, freed time to
  pursue other interests
• Many entered professional workforce, although
  they went into low paying jobs (womens work)
• Elected as governors (TX, WY)
• Differences in material culture made life for
  urban and rural women distinct

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Modernism in Art and Literature

• Literature, arts were changed by WWI
• War killed millions, left many homeless
• Seen as action of irrational people
• Artists and writers began to question ideas of
  progress, left people pessimistic
• Writers and artists expressed lack of faith in a
  traditional worldview

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Modernism in Art and Literature

• Painters moved away from traditional
  representation
• Experimented with abstract styles, represented
  inner mood
• Saw artistic honesty in abstract paintings
• Architecture- Art Deco new style

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Postwar Literature

• Called Lost Generation
• Most were American expatriates living in Paris
  and London
• Searched for new truths, new ways to express
  truths
• Wrestled with meaning of war and life
• F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemmingway, T.S.
  Elliot, Sinclair Lewis, Gertrude Stein
• Greatest generation for American writers

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Post-War Writers

• Earnest Hemmingway- novels feature search for
  real life
• Hard living, athletic, masculine lifestyle
• About doomed life after the war
• Wrote in a concrete, stripped down style
• F. Scott Fitzgerald- first novel This Side of
  Paradise, age 24
• Wrote about excess of Jazz Age, bible for youth
  of the 20s
• Great Gatsby about American dream and tragedy
• William Faulkner- stories set in Mississippi,
  reflected southern world
• Literature- dying way of life vs. modern way of
  life
• Leader of Southern Renaissance of writers

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Harlem Renaissance

• African American migration continued through
  the1920s
• Many found a better life, jobs, political voice
• Did not escape oppression, had worst jobs,
  housing
• Harlem Renaissance was the development of a new
  black consciouness
• Center of it was Harlem, NY, blend of cultures,
  ideas
• Period of cultural expression in music and
  literature

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Marcus Garvey and Racial Pride

• Jamaican immigrant
• Promoted idea of black nationalism, Back to
  Africa Movement
• Called for black separatism- businesses,
  communities
• Founded Universal Negro Improvement Assn.
  promoted black pride
• Put in prison 1925 for mail fraud, deported
• Inspired Nation of Islam, Black Panther Movement
  later in century

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African American Literature

• Explored pains and joys of being African American
• Jean Toomer- Cane looked at rural life in the
  south and sophisticated urban life in Washington,
  D.C.
• Claude McKay- militant writer, wrote about
  struggle for dignity
• Langston Hughes- literary voice of HR, captured
  diversity of AA life
• Zora Neale Hurston- collected folktales of rural
  Florida, called for womens independence

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Jazz

• Emerged in South (New Orleans) where different
  traditions and cultures came together
• Based on improvisation, blues and European
  traditions
• Spread north with Great Migration
• Radio, phonograph spread influence
• Bridged races, inspired white songwriters and
  musicians