Detailed Notes on The Jazz Age (1919-1929)

The Jazz Age: Redefining the Nation 1919-1929

• Roosevelt’s Corporatism and State Capitalism
  • Concerns from Wilson regarding concentration of business assets.
  • Belief that big business growth undermined American freedom.
  • Calls for business regulation:
  • Who decides what to regulate?
  • Business regulations versus protecting jobs.

The New Era

• Post-war sentiment:
  • Americans tired of conflict.
  • Harding’s desire for “return to normalcy” emphasizing stability.
  • Harding’s quote promoting normalcy over heroics:
  • Importance of quality citizenship over excessive government legislation.
• Harding’s Administration:
  • Known for corruption (The Ohio Gang) and catering to special interests.
  • Aimed to distract from issues like racial tensions and unemployment.
• Emergence of mass consumption and new products:
  • Introduction of automobiles, household appliances, film, radio, and air travel.
  • Loosening social and sexual constraints.

Economic and Cultural Changes

• Mass Production
  • Increased consumer spending and job creation.
  • Impression of prosperity, but overlooking the costs and implications.
  • Questions of whether the era was carefree or careless.
• Entertainment and Wealth:
  • Rising disposable income allowed for new forms of leisure and entertainment:
  • Impact of Henry Ford’s assembly-line techniques on automobile affordability.
  • Growth of advertising as a key industry.
  • Families increasingly relied on credit to enhance consumption.

Transformation and Backlash

• Conflict between old and new societal norms:
  • Urban vs. rural divides in embracing cultural changes.
  • Rise in immigration highlighted diversity in urban areas; rural areas remained more homogeneous.
• Significant events:
  • Sacco and Vanzetti Trial:
  • Example of political turmoil and civil liberty disregard.
  • Scopes Trial:
  • Confrontation of evolution teaching versus traditional beliefs.
  • Highlight of societal fears regarding immigrants and radical ideas.

Philosophical Divide and Nativism

• The rise of nativist sentiments during the 1920s:
  • Emergence of the Second Ku Klux Klan, expanded focus on perceived threats to American values from various groups.
  • Incidents such as the lynching of Leo Frank fueling racial and cultural tensions.
  • Influence of media like The Birth of a Nation in fostering support for the Klan.
• “Strange Fruit” (1937):
  • Poem presenting the horrors of racial violence, symbolizing the era’s racial issues.

A New Generation

• Young urbanites embraced cultural shifts and new social outlets:
  • Women sought professional and political growth, aided by the Nineteenth Amendment.
• Harlem Renaissance:
  • Focused on African American creativity amidst ongoing racism:
  • Leaders like Marcus Garvey and W. E. B. Du Bois led civil rights movements.
• Passage of Prohibition increased illegal activities, leading to organized crime growth.

Republican Ascendancy: Politics in the 1920s

• Republican administrations (1921-1933) marked by scandals and certain corruption:
  • Teapot Dome Scandal:
  • Involved leasing of government land for profit, leading to high-profile resignations.
• Calvin Coolidge’s presidency continued Harding’s policies in a similar manner, promoting business over social change.
• Herbert Hoover's presidency faced challenges with economic disparities and the onset of the Great Depression in August 1929:
  • Failure to address underlying economic weaknesses tied to overreliance on credit, income inequality, and high tariffs.
• The decade culminated in the Great Depression, altering perceptions of prosperity and revealing the fragility of the economic stability.