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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.