Return to Normalcy: Business and Labor and Depression in 1920s

Module 6

The Great Influenza

also known as spanish flu, not because it originated there, but because spain was one of the first countries to start reporting it due to other countries being involved in WW1 and didn’t want to spread disheartening news

• similar covid requirements

Postwar Economic Turomoil

abruptly abandons wartime economic controls and canels war contracts

unemployment soars

inflation raises

1919 strike wave

response to postwar attacks on unions, wage cuts, and hour increases

Great Steel Strike

AFL calls strike due to new 12 hour work week for 20$/week

factory owners brand strikers as radicals and bolsheviks

the red scare

widespread fears of communist

palmer raids

in response to radical mail bombs including at Palmer’s house

palmer launches crusade to prosecute communist and extremist

government arrests and deports radicals and anarchists including Emma Goldman

Chicago Riot

during the red summer

a young black swimmer was killed for crossing into whites only water and black mods fight in streets

Calvin Coolidge

continues pro business and anti union policies

suggests that if you treat workers better they would be less likely to unionize

wants more business in government and less government in business

Ford Motor Company

perfected assembly line production

increase speed of productiona nd lower production cost

1 in 8 america workers worked in factory connected to automobile production

Middletown

a culture in which everything hinges on money

automobiles

changed culture and society

• rise of suburbs

• invention of road trip

• alters dating patterns and sexuality

consumer products within the home

changed labor in home

refrigerators, washing machines, toasters, vacuum cleaners, wrist watches, radio

Film and Celebrities

spike in movie attendance

birth of celebrity culture

advertising

roots in WW1 propaganda

consumer psychology to sell products - make yourself better by buying

Urbinization

growth of cities help to promote consumerism

reflects agriculture struggles, wartime opportunities, and the great migration of AA

Los Angeles

prohibition

18th amendment

thought to help with productivity and help families (did not work)

started speakeasy and high crime

speakeasy

illegal barroom

Organized Crime due to Prohibition

liquor trafficking was lucrative

Al Capone and the Valentines Day Massacre

The New Women

The Flapper Girl

feministic movement changed from political to economical after the 19th amendment

women became the target of ads due to women now having jobs and their own money

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People NAACP

sought federal anti-lynching legislation to counter southern violence

WEB DuBois

Universal Negro Improvement Association UNIA

Garvey sent to jail for mail fraud and sent back to Jamaica

back to africa movement advocated racial pride and separation

Black Star Line — fleet of steam ships to transport people back to africa

Harlem Renaissance

black artists, sculptors, authors, musicians, and poets working in Harlem

creates a distinctively AA form of cultural expression

Jazz

born in New Orleans

Sacco and Vanzetti

italian immigrants and anarchists who were arrested after botched robbery resulting in two murders

sentenced to death and executed sparking international outcry from political radicals

National Origins Act

deigned to limit immigration

Quota system which limits 2% of total immigrants from a country in the 1890s (before most immigrants came to USA which completely excludes asian immigrants)

mexico immigration

increased due to being allowed into US more so than other immigrant groups for farming

League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC)

KKK

opposed catholic and jews

national not just southern

Fundamentalism

protestant seek to uphold traditional values in the face of modernity

teaches biblical literalism - idea that the bible is true

Scopes Trial

biology teacher teaches evolution, breaking law

battle of fundamentalism vs modernism

William Jennings Bryan assists prosecution

scopes found guilty

Herbert Hoover

progressive republican president

believed life was good and didn’t want to change anything

head of food administration during WW1

“a chicken in every pot and two cars in every garage”

Stock Market Crash

did not cause great depression

panicked selling causes the market to plummet. banks and lending agencies collapse

a result of broken economic structure - a decade of income inequality, overextension of credit, and failure of gov oversight (farmers)

Hoover Response to Depression

believed in laissez faire

was “willing” to support public works projects to bring americans back to work but failed to bring back economic prosperity

dust bowl

massive drowt that makes depression worse for farmers

how did the great depression affect families

people got married later

had fewer kids

worked less

women became breadwinners due to men not being able to get hired because women were cheaper labor