Chapter 31 American Pageant

Bolshevik revolution

Communism sweeping russia

Fear that labor unions in the US were influenced by bolsheviks

Red scare of 1919-20 (1st red scare)

• Crusade led by mitchell palmer 

• Americans arrested 

• Business people used it to help break unions

• Sacco and Vanzetti

  • Two italian immigrants accused of murder, sentenced to death

  • Showed tensions between immigrants and nativists

KKK reemerged in the 1920s, anti-foreignism 

5 million americans paid dues as members

Scandals led to decline of the clan

Nativists feared new immigrants

Emergency quota act of 1921: restricted number of immigrants from country to 3% of total people from that country living in US 1910

• Favored southern and eastern europe

Immigration act of 1924: quotas for foreigners was cut from 3% to 2%, used 1890 census instead, hurt new immigrants 

Shut out japanese immigrants, hate america rallies in japan

Marked an end or era of unrestricted immigration

Prohibition experiment 

• Popular in the south and west

• Southerners wanted to keep alcohol away from blacks

• Westerners hated saloon 

Problems with prohibition

• People liked to drink, weak enforcement, hostile to law

• Many government officials were bribed

• Increase in organized crime

Positives of prohibition

• Bank savings increased

• Absenteeism in industry decreased

Huge demand of illegal alcohol

Large cities flourished with crime

Al capone was very popular

St valentine's day massacre: 7 gang members killed

Dies of syphilis later in life

Eventually, organized crime spread to other activities, not just alcohol smuggling

Prostitution, gambling, narcotics, etc. 

Religion in the 1920’s

John, dewey, professor at columbia, “learning by doing”, “education for life”

Christian fundamentalist, interpret the bible literally

Detested evolution theory

Monkey Trial

• John scopes, biology teacher from tenn, violated a law by teaching evolution

• Leads to a trial 

• Scopes found guilty, fined

• Fuel religion v secularism, 

For much of the 1920s, economy boomed

cars , once reserved for the rich, became available to many, 30 million by 1930

Mass consumption fueled by advertising 

Rise in sports, especially baseball

Buying in credit becomes prevalent

Problem later in the 20’s, contributed to the stock market crash

Railroad industry hurt by car industry

Taylorism: promoted efficiency in production, workers were shown movements to eliminate wasted movement

12/17/03 wright brothers flight

Charles lindbergh first person to solo fly from America to Europe

Becomes overnight sensation

Film industry takes off in hollywood

The Birth of a nation (1915), glorified the KKK, first full-length populr movie

Propaganda machine during ww1

Disney was instrumental in anti-german propaganda movies in ww2

The Jazz Singer (1927), first talkie

1920 census, more Americans lived in the cities

Margaret Sanger advocated for birth control and contraceptives

Upset fundamentalists

Flappers, women with shorter dresses and short hair

Smoked, drank, and danced

Marcus Garvey, led the UNIA (united negro improvement association)

Promoted resettlement of America blacks in their own “African Homeland”

Stock market soared, bull market

Crashed in 1929, bear market

Bull market driven by speculation, buying on the margin (credit)