Chapter 22 - The New Era

President Warren G. Harding

Served as the 29th President from 1921 until he died in 1923. His administration emphasized a return to pre-war normalcy, isolationism, and laissez-faire economics. his presidency was marred by scandals and corruption, including the Teapot Dome scandal.

The Roaring Twenties

1920s decade of economic prosperity, cultural change, and social upheaval in the U.S, including jazz music, flapper culture, film, radio, new household appliances, mass production of automobiles, and technological advancements.

Teapot Dome Scandal

Major political scandal during Harding's presidency involving his interior and navy secretaries secretly leasing federal oil reserves in Wyoming to private companies in exchange for bribes.

President Calvin Coolidge

Succeeding Harding, he was the 30th President (1923-1928). He committed to reducing government intervention in business (laissez-faire economic policies), refusing to take action in defense of workers or consumers. He cut business taxes and raised tariff rates.

1923 Equal Rights Amendment Draft (ERA)

1923 proposed amendment by Alice Paul that failed to pass Congress until the 1970s, designed to eliminate all legal distinctions on the account of sex, ensuring equal rights and eliminating discrimination based on gender.

1928 Election

Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover (R), known for his economic growth and managerial prowess, defeated New York Governor Al Smith (D), whose Catholic faith, immigrant background, connections to Tammany Hall, and anti-prohibition politics all led to his defeat.

1920s Consumer Change

With the previous discoveries of new energy sources and manufacturing technologies, industrial output flooded the market with a range of consumer products such as ready-to-wear clothing, convenience foods, and home appliances. Consumerism and access to goods rose significantly.

Department Stores

Formed by businessmen’s attempt to avoid overproduction by offering a variety of goods under one roof. To further attract customers amenities included such as restaurants, babysitting, and refreshments. Fueled consumer drive and marketing tactics to appeal to the buyer.

Automobile Consumption

The automobile industry fostered new consumer culture by promoting the use of credit. Easy access to credit led to consumer expenditures, tripling the number of registered cars from 1920 to 1930, with 80% of the world’s cars owned by Americans.

1920s Popular Culture

Gasoline and electricity enabled Americans to experience film, radio, jazz records, movies, mass consumption of household goods, and automobiles. Americans escaped into media and traveled farther distances. Diners, motels, and movie/picture palaces emerged.

U.S. Film Industry

Dominated the film industry, producing silent films and longer, higher-quality films shown in picture palaces and theaters. The Jazz Singer (1927) used synchronized words and pictures, bolstering Warner Bros.’ assets and shaping future cinema.

Mary Pickford

An iconic silent film actress known as "America's Sweetheart,” she popularized the flapper. She played a pivotal role in the popularity of early cinema in the 1920s, earning a million dollars a year through film and endorsement contracts.

Radio Culture

Radio stations brought entertainment directly into the living room and by 1930 half of American homes contained a radio. Companies sponsored drama and entertainment shows, and the Radio exposed Americans to music and jazz, and sports broadcasts.

1920s American Heros

Jack Dempsey a famous heavyweight boxing champion, Babe Ruth a legendary baseball player, and Charles Lindbergh, the first person to fly solo nonstop across the Atlantic Ocean.

The Flapper

Fashionable young women in the 1920s, known for their bold style, short skirts, makeup, cigarette, and carefree spirits, rejecting old Victorian values of desexualized modesty and self-restraint, embracing independence, youth culture, and femininity.

Women In The Workplace

Women’s employment rose in the 1920s, including professional women and office clerk positions filled by young middle-class white women. Many minority women worked outside the home out of financial necessity.

Changing Sexual Attitudes

Attempt to rebel against repressive Victorian notion of sexuality, especially among young college-educated white woman, led to an increase in premarital sexual activity. Meanwhile in urban centers the gay community flourished, and same-sex relationships faced less scrutiny.

The Great Migration

During WW1, thousands of Black Americans fled poverty-stricken Jim Crow South to Northern industrial cities to fill draft labor shortages, seeking economic opportunities. Racial conflicts rose when white veterans returned and fought to reclaim their jobs and neighborhoods.

Harlem Renaissance

Many black people who immigrated to the Harlem district of Manhattan, energized by pride and the urban environment, with artistic and musical displays of black culture, and Pan-Africanism ideas, fostering the New Negro Movement.

The New Negro

Term used to describe a progressive, self-aware black identity emerging during the Harlem Renaissance, emphasizing pride, cultural expression, artistry, and social activism against racism.

Marcus Garvey

Jamaican political leader and activist known for promoting black nationalism and Pan-Africanism, the Universal Nego Improvement Association (UNIA), and Black Star Line shipping company. He opposed Du Buis’s elitist strategies and the slow pace of the NAACP.

Garvey’s Pan-Africanism

Ideological movement that sought to unite African people and people of African descent worldwide, advocating for rights, shared heritage, and solidarity. Including the failed “Back-To-Africa” Black Star Line shipping for trade and travel to Africa.

National Origins Act (1924)

1924 Legislation that established quotas for immigration to the U.S., based on country of origin. Effectively limited new waves of immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe and Latin America. Excluding all Asians but temporarily omitting the restriction on Mexican migrants.

Christian Fundamentalism

Religious movement emphasizing a literal interpretation of the Bible, advocating for traditional values and resisting modern cultural changes. It gained prominence in the early 20th century, reacting against scientific liberal theology and secularism (separation of state).

The Scopes Trial (1925)

Landmark legal case, HS biology teacher John T. Scopes was tried for teaching evolution in violation of Tennessee law. Agnostic attorney Clarence Darrow triumphed over fundamentalist Jennings Bryan, creating a public spectacle embarrassing the fundamentalist movement.

Reborn Ku Klux Klan (KKK)

National revival of the white supremacist group in the 1920s, claiming to protect American values from Black people, feminists, immigrants, Catholics, Jews, atheists, and moral enemies. Peaking at five million members and having massive political powers and influence over elections.

Revival of the KKK

The Birth of a Nation valorized the Reconstruction Era Klan as a protector of feminine virtue and white racial purity, bringing a surge of popularity. William Joseph Simmons used to organize the second KKK in Geroge 1915, eventually acquiring chapters in every state.

Roaring Twenties Closure

The Great Depression loomed over a new culture of consumption and freedom, with an economy built on credit. The glitz and glamor of new media and entertainment reshaped lifestyles and norms yet for farmers, minorities, unionized workers the Jazz Age had always been a fiction.