1920s: history unit 2

Warren G. Harding

29th president (1921-23); won a landslide on a "return to normalcy"; his administration was among the most corrupt; died in office in 1923

Return to Normalcy

Harding's campaign promise of stability after WWI, the 1919 unrest and the Red Scare: "not heroics, but healing"

Ohio Gang

Harding's friends and close supporters he appointed to office; they caused most of his administration's trouble

Teapot Dome Scandal

Officials leased government oil land in Wyoming to oil companies for cash; Interior Sec. Albert Fall was convicted and jailed

Calvin Coolidge

President after Harding died; "The chief business of the American people is business"; cut taxes and kept tariffs high; "Silent Cal"

Herbert Hoover

Commerce secretary under Harding and Coolidge; won the 1928 election in a landslide over Al Smith; promised to end poverty

Al Smith

1928 Democratic candidate; his Catholicism, immigrant background and anti-Prohibition stance fed nativist suspicion; lost to Hoover

Second Industrial Revolution

Gasoline, electricity and new manufacturing tech that fueled mass production of cars, appliances, film and radio

Consumer Culture

Economy built on mass production and buying; driven by department stores, catalogs, national brands, advertising and credit

Installment Buying

Buying on credit; over 60% of cars were sold this way by 1927; appliance spending rose 120%+ from 1919 to 1929

Henry Ford

Auto maker whose assembly line made cars affordable to middle-income Americans

Model T

Ford car; by 1925 one rolled off the line every 10 seconds; registered cars grew from about 9 million (1920) to about 27 million (1929)

Mass Production

Assembly-line manufacturing that produced goods cheaply and in huge quantity

Advertising

Tool used to create consumer desire; radio ads and sponsors funded programs, and soap companies sponsored "soap operas"

Radio

Entered homes around 1920; about half of homes had one by 1930; spread jazz, sports and national pop culture

The Jazz Singer (1927)

First movie with synchronized sound; starred Al Jolson; made by Warner Bros.

Jazz

Uniquely American music from the Black community of New Orleans; spread by radio and records; symbol of cultural independence

Charles Lindbergh

First nonstop solo flight from New York to Paris (1927); "hero of the decade"; restored faith in technology

Flappers

Young women with bobbed hair, short skirts, makeup and cigarettes who rejected Victorian modesty; symbol of the "New Woman"

Nineteenth Amendment

Gave women the right to vote (1920)

Equal Rights Amendment (ERA)

Proposed by Alice Paul and the National Woman's Party to end legal distinctions "on account of sex"; introduced but defeated in Congress

Women and Work in the 1920s

Gains were real but limited: women clustered in teaching, nursing and clerk jobs; law and medicine stayed male; married women were expected to stay home

Great Migration

Mass movement of Black Southerners to northern cities; New York's Black population grew 257% from 1910 to 1930

Harlem Renaissance

Black cultural and intellectual flowering in Harlem (literature, art, theater, music); also called the New Negro Movement

Alain Locke

Edited the 1925 anthology The New Negro, written by African Americans, not just about them

Langston Hughes

Famous Harlem Renaissance poet and writer, along with Claude McKay and Zora Neale Hurston

Marcus Garvey

Jamaican leader who built the largest Black nationalist group; promoted racial pride, Black economic independence and "return to Africa"; imprisoned and deported

Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA)

Garvey's Harlem-based organization; published Negro World and ran the Black Star Line shipping company

Tulsa Race Massacre (1921)

White mob destroyed the prosperous Black Greenwood District ("Black Wall Street"), burning 1,000+ homes

Second Ku Klux Klan

Revived in 1915 (Birth of a Nation, Leo Frank lynching); targeted Black people, immigrants, Catholics, Jews and bootleggers; peaked at 4-5 million members; declined by 1930

National Origins Act (1924)

Set immigration quotas at 2% of each nationality's 1890 US population; favored northern Europeans and excluded all Asians

Sacco and Vanzetti

Italian anarchists executed in 1927 on thin evidence; symbol of nativism and fear of foreign radicals

Nativism

Favoring native-born Americans and opposing immigrants; drove the Klan, immigration quotas and the Sacco and Vanzetti case

Religious Fundamentalism

Protestant movement holding the Bible as literally true and inerrant; opposed modernism and relaxed morals; based on The Fundamentals essays

Scopes Trial (1925)

Tennessee teacher John Scopes tried for teaching evolution (Butler Act); Darrow vs. Bryan; Scopes found guilty, but fundamentalists were embarrassed publicly; "Monkey Trial"

Prohibition

Ban on making and selling alcohol, starting January 1920

18th Amendment

Constitutional amendment that created Prohibition

Volstead Act

Law that enforced Prohibition

Speakeasies

Illegal bars that operated during Prohibition

Al Capone

Chicago gangster who got rich from bootlegging during Prohibition

Labor unions in the 1920s

Membership and power declined; they lost the support of courts, politicians and the public

Who struggled in the 1920s economy?

Farmers, racial minorities and unionized workers did not share in the prosperity

Stock Market Speculation

Buying stocks with credit in hopes of fast profits; helped create the bubble that crashed in 1929

Weaknesses behind the 1920s boom

Credit-based economy, high tariffs, wealth inequality, weak European economies, construction bubble, flooded consumer market; led to the Great Depression

How did Republican leadership in the 1920s reflect a shift in American politics and government priorities?

Republicans held the presidency and both houses of Congress. Harding, Coolidge and Hoover favored business over workers and consumers: lower taxes on the wealthy (66% to 20%), high tariffs, and an end to wartime controls. Coolidge's approach was "active inactivity" ("the chief business of the American people is business"). Labor unions lost power, and Harding's cabinet was corrupt (Teapot Dome).

In what ways did new technology and consumerism transform daily life for Americans?

Cars (Model T, assembly line), radios, appliances and movies changed how people traveled, worked and had fun. Credit and installment buying made big purchases possible, and advertising created demand. Roadside culture grew (gas stations, motels), radio and film spread a national pop culture, and household tech raised standards of cleanliness.

How did the roles and expectations of women change during the 1920s?

Women won the vote (19th Amendment) and the flapper became the "New Woman": short skirts, makeup, independence and new sexual freedom. More women worked, but mostly in teaching, nursing and clerk jobs, with few leadership roles. Married women were still expected to stay home, the ERA failed, and the flapper image was out of reach for many women by race, age and class.

What were the goals and achievements of the Harlem Renaissance?

Goals: racial pride, self-expression and countering stereotypes. Achievements: writers like Langston Hughes, Claude McKay and Zora Neale Hurston; Alain Locke's The New Negro (1925); Black actors in serious Broadway roles; artists like Aaron Douglas; the rise of jazz (Duke Ellington). Limits: Black patrons were often excluded from the Harlem clubs where Black performers entertained.

How did immigration laws and the resurgence of the Ku Klux Klan reflect broader social anxieties?

Both came from fear of a changing America and a search for scapegoats (immigrants, Catholics, Jews, Black Americans migrating north, radicals). The National Origins Act (1924) set quotas that favored northern Europeans and excluded Asians. The second KKK, with 4-5 million members, claimed to defend "American values." Sacco and Vanzetti showed the same nativism.

What cultural conflicts emerged between modern and traditional values during the decade?

Modernists (flappers, jazz, evolution, city life, relaxed morals) clashed with traditionalists (fundamentalists, the Klan, nativists, Prohibition supporters). Key examples: the Scopes Trial (science vs. biblical literalism), Prohibition and speakeasies, the 1928 Hoover-Smith election (Protestant vs. Catholic, dry vs. wet), and immigration quotas. Historians call this a "culture war."

How did economic prosperity mask underlying problems in the American economy?

Boom times hid deep weaknesses: farmers, minorities and unionized workers did not share the prosperity, and wealth inequality was extreme. The economy relied on credit and installment buying, and on overproduction and speculation. High tariffs, weak European economies and a construction bubble added risk. Hoover claimed poverty was nearly defeated, but the 1929 crash led into the Great Depression.