The Roaring 1920s

1
The Roaring 1920s

• Chapter 24

2
Post-WWI America

• Growth of American economy finance
• - From 1922-29, GNP rose from 149 to 227
  billion

3
A Consumer Society

• Rise in automobiles
• - model T sales in 1920 reached 8 million
• - by 1929 sales reached 27 million

4
Body styles at General Motors
GM becomes worlds largest car manufacturer by
1930
5
New Products on the market

• tractors, washing machines, refrigerators, radios
  vacuum cleaners
• influx to cities to shop, visit parks etc

6
Children listening to radio, 1923
7
Rise of mass advertising

• Advertising firms
• - newspapers, billboards, magazines
• - desire to attractive, powerful or cool
• Virtual advertising

8
A Decade of Celebrities

• Charles Lindbergh (1927)
• - 1st individual to cross Atlantic nonstop
• - NY to Paris (34 hrs) (p 615)
• 1st female to accomplish same flight?
• Sporting events
• - most famous baseball player of 1920s?
• - Sultan of Swat (60 hr in 27)

9
Rudolph Valentino
10
Republican Dominance of the White House

• 1921-1933
• Warren G. Harding
• Calvin Coolidge
• Herbert Hoover
• In many ways, this period reflected the Gilded
  Age

11
The Harding Administration

• Elected in 1920/ Senator (Ohio)
• return to normalcy
• Hardings Ohio Gang
• 2 Harding appointees serve jail time 2
  committed suicide
• Lost control of presidency / heart attack in 1923
• Calvin Coolidge takes presidency

12
The Coolidge administration

• Governor of Massachusetts
• - reputation of quite, honest, firm
• - What was Coolidges nickname?
• Beliefs
• Laissez-Faire Politics
• Best govt was the govt the governed the least
• Took pride in reducing govt control of economy
  (keep govt small)

13
Coolidge (continue)

• Foreign Policy
• Promoted international peace
• Kellogg-Briand pact (1928)
• - outlawed war as tool of foreign policy
• Did not seek reelection in 28

14
The Hoover administration

• Campaign slogan a chicken in every pot, car in
  every garage
• Like Coolidge, did not want govt to control
  industry
• Presidency hit by Great Depression
• - nation blamed Hoover for depression

15
Inefficiency of the 20s (continue)

• 18th amendment- Prohibition of alcohol (1920)
• Impossible to enforce (110 million)
• - bootleggers speakeasies
• Organized crime
• - smuggled alcohol (high profits)

16
Government agents breaking up an illegal bar
during Prohibition
17
Al Capone

• Chicago crime boss
• - most feared gangster
• - estimated fortune- 60 million
• tommy gun
• never arrested for a single murder
• Convicted for tax evasion

18
African Americans (1920s)

• Nearly a million African Americans traveled north
  in the 1920s
• Largest areas of influx N.Y. Chicago
• - roughly 300k each
• - intriguing society
• - Jazz age Louie Armstrong

19
African Americans (continue)

• Negro baseball leagues

• Josh Gibson of the Homestead Greys

20
Josh Gibson
21
Conclusion

• The Roaring 1920s
• Consumer society/ rise of advertising
• Republican political dominance in White House
• Age of celebrities
• Prohibition establishes Gangsters