1920's




1st reading:

  • Frederick Lewis Allen depicted the 1920s as cynical, hedonistic in his book Only Yesterday.

    • Argued that WWI shattered Americans’ faith in reform and moral crusades

    • Young generation to rebel against traditional taboos and elders indulged in consumption

  • Image of the 1920s as a decade of prosperity with bootleggers, gangsters, flappers, hot jazz, flagpole sitters, and marathon dancers is misleading; 1920s was a decade of cultural conflict—immigration, race,  alcohol, evolution, gender politics, and sexual morality were all debated

  • Profound social changes within the 1920s:

    • Consumer-oriented economy

    • Mass entertainment

    • Social norms

  • “Cultural civil war”



2nd reading:

  • Many social fears (ex. Bolshevism)

  • Years following WWI were extremely tense socially and economically

    • Steel Strike of 1919 

  • Over 4 million workers (⅕ of nation workforce) strikes in 1919

  • Many labor gains during WWI and Progressive Era were rolled back:

    • 5 million decreased to 3 million members in labor unions

    • SCOTUS outlawed picketing (protesting outside a workplace where an event is happening); overturned national child labor laws; and abolished minimum wage laws for women


3rd reading:

  • Warren Harding nominated for president

    • Married with no children

    • Wandering eye and was believed to be infertile

  • Spoils system, appointed many corrupt officials to office, many scandals

    • Teapot Dome scandal revealed after sudden stroke in 1923

      • Interior Secretary Albert B. Fall was sent to prison for accepting $360,000 in bribes for leasing U.S. naval oil reserves in Wyoming to oil operators in exchange for above ground petroleum storage.

      • Private oil companies were also draining oil from federal lands.

  • Calvin Coolige became President after the death

    • Very silent

    • Chief business of American people is business. Government should keep its hands off the economy

  • Economic isolationism


4th reading:

  • Democratic party very diverse

  • Disputes over racism, prohibition, and religious tolerance

  • Pro- and anti-Klan delegates

  • Democrats subscribing to Progressivism


6th reading:

  • Herbert Hoover won over Al Smith in 1928 election

  • Secretary of Commerce Hoover eliminated destructive economic competition by creating more than 2,000 trade associations by 1929

  • After he was elected:

    • Created the Federal Farm Board to increase farmers’ income

    • System of private, voluntary old-age pensions

    • Great Depression ruined his vision of a laissez-faire economy



7th reading:

  • Consumerism and mass entertainment

    • Rise of modern consumer culture

      • Cars, appliances, fashion to ease and distract from the cultural and social tensions

    • Collapse of the economy → intense economic debates like the cultural conflicts 

    • Henry Ford revolutionized automobile manufacturing, making cars affordable for the average family

    • Alfred Sloan (General Motors) revealed the importance of merchandising in a consumer society

    • In 1919 there were 6.7 million cars; by 1929, there were more than 27 million— nearly one per household

    • Cars led to new landscape, ridding of paths and built highways and roads

    • Electricity → appliances

      • Social pressures expanded household chores to keep up with the evolving standard; appliances imposed new standards of cleanliness which women had to keep pace with, craze of consumption

      • Few regulations → speculation

      • New demands with new achievements

      • Everyone is mirroring everyone, must invest and follow the sources of prosperity → superficial with no safety net

      • Fueled the craze for the newest and best items

    • Ready to wear clothing

    • Processed or ready to cook food

    • Credit → spending and borrowing in modern consumer society

    • Advertisement power

    • Chains of stores increased exponentially

    • Risky financial speculation → Great Depression

      • Investment in stocks in hopes for gain but with the risk of loss


8th reading:

  • Market crash (Great Depression)

    • Unprecedented wave of sell orders shook the New York Stock Exchange

      • Stock prices plummeted by $11 billion

      • To raise money, investors dumped stocks for whatever price they could get

      • Prominent bankers met up to balance it out

      • Recovered but still fear mongering

    • Black Tuesday, October 29th

      • Trading volume soared to 16,410,030 shares

      • Average price of a share fell 12%

      • Stocks were sold for whatever they could get again

    • Index of stock prices fell from 210 to 30 by 1932

      • Nation’s stock exchanges lost $179 billion

  • Symbolized the end of the economic prosperity of the 1920s

  • Unemployment soared to 25% by 1933 from 3.2% in 1929

  • Industrial production fell by 50%

  • Investment decreased from $16 billion to $340 million between 1929 to 1933 — a decrease of 98 percent