American Life in the Roaring Twenties

1919: US in transition

The war was over;

Transitioning from wartime to peacetime impacted American society in several ways

• Demobilization

• Military: Reduction of the armed forces of the US; no longer need over 4 million young men in our military who don’t need to be stationed in Europe (Need to come home)

• The men were decommissioned and need to be returned to civilian life

• This puts enormous strains on the economy (Can’t return 4 million at once)

• Gradual phasing in

• The concern with this is that as these men are returning to civilian life they are also returning to the workforce; jobs vacated filled by different groups: women, AFrican AMericans, immigrants

• those people are going to be displaced when the soldiers return which contributes to significant unemployment

• Economic: US moves from Wartime economy to peacetime economy

  • factories need to reconfigure themselves

  • They need to go back to making consumer goods, which is going to take time and money and lead to a decrease in business production

• ALso want to keep in mind what happens after the world wars

• Brief economic recession; pre ww1 (recession), ww1 (war effort brought economy to prosperity), and post ww1(brief recessions followed by period of prosperity)  vs. pre ww2 (economic depression), ww2 (war effort brought economy to prosperity), post ww2 (brief recessions followed by period of prosperity)

• REcession: Business productivity declines, GDP declines, increase in inflation, unemployment increases, the agricultural sector is going to struggle, Supply chain issues happen (economy depends on overseas production and trade) (things aren’t at same production levels)

Labor

• During the progressive era and WW1: Good time for labor movement (political ship increased, mostly wages and working conditions improved, and union membership increased)

• War Restrictions:

  • Freeze wages in some industries

  • freezing the price of goods results in scarcity of goods because we’re producing war materials

  • Resulting in too many dollars chasing too many goods and restrictriction of prices

  • Unions couldn’t strike: Work or Fight

• RUnaway inflation: Significant increases in pricing of goods and services that is dramatically outpricing wage prices; double-digit inflation  (more than regular inflation)

• Bolshevik Revolution

• Events overseas are going to impact events in America

• March of 1917, the Romanov Dynasty (Tsar Nicholas was overthrown; his family was executed as well) was executed

• Predates AMerican involvement in the war

• What is put in place in Russia has a temporary representative government said they represented the people

  • Russia was losing autocratic government

  • The War continues andthe US enters but there’s unrest in Russia

  • vladimir Lenin and supporters (bolsheviks) rise up to challenge representative government

• Lenin and his Bolsheviks are going to take control of the Russian government

• March of 1918:

  • Russia Announces that they are going to withdraw from WWI

  • The War isn’t Doing nothing to benefit Russia and Russian soldiers dying

  • They view that it’s capitalist and imperialist war

  • Germany unleashes attack on Paris (Chateau-Thierry)

• Bolshevism: Essence was that Marx and Angels break the world down into two types of people: The haves (bourgeoise) and the have nots (proletariat):

• Have nots have grown tired of not having and the conditions of the world (starvation, poverty)

  • The workers are going to unite and rise up against the bourgeois

  • They seize control of the methods of production (farms and factories) and est. communal society where there is no class system and basic needs were taken care of

  • only way to accomplish that was through violent revolution (haves are not going to willingly give up their positions and have-nots were bitter )

• RADICAL left

• 1919 Happens: Year of the Strike

• 3,000 major strikes in the US in 1919 (avg. was 8 a day)

• First big one is going to contribute to the Red Scare following WWI

• January of 1919: Shipyard workers in Seattle went on strike (Important for region’s commerce) and other unions in city of Seattle joined, making it a general strike and Shutting down commerce within Seattle

• Break up the strike: Mayor sends in national guard

  • owners (the haves) have to discredit the union

  • Rationale: let’s label the unions as Bolsheviks (because some factory owners and ships also own the newspapers and radio stations and they can report stories that Bolshevism has taken root in the American labor movement)

• Seattle, Washington is on the Pacific Northwest and Russia is not very far away

• Now it seems feasible to people that immigrants from Russia may have come to Seattle and maybe in labor unions spreading Bolshevism and the idea’s going to spread

• Unions aren’t going on strike to end capitalism because they want better working conditions (successful ploy by management which stings the labor movement)

• The Boston police department (75 % of it) went on strike and were trying to form a union, but crime goes up (chaos and unrest; riots and looting)

  • AFter 3 days they decide to go back to work

  • The Mayor while this chaos was going on has no means to spot it because of his police dept. Was on strike; made call to governor and governor sends in national guard (governor: Calvin Coolidge)

• Calvin Coolidge fired Boston Police Department when they tried coming back

• Hired veterans to replace them

• Becomes a darling to the conservatives of the republican party; in 1920 he is going to be the vice-presidential nominee for the party; William Harding became president

• Harding wins the election in 1920

• Harding dies in office and Coolidge becomes president of the US

The Great Migration (broad event tied to) Led to Red Summer

Red Summer

• NOT the Red scare

• Summer (began in April 1919) of racial violence, tension, and death

• Series of riots in various cities

• Called the Red Summer by NAACP field secretary James Weldon Johnson referring to the blood that was shed

• The resurgence of the KKK during the 1920s led to racial violence

  • often there were claims of a Black man sexually abusing white woman (unsubstantiated)

  • part of it resulted from the Great Migration (taking away jobs, lowering wages, resentment boiled over in 1919)

Omaha Race Riot: September 28-29, 1919

America Turns Inward

• Political Pendulum (more conservative vs. more liberal such as Labor unions being strong vs. weaker)

• Happens with foreign Policy (Post civil war there was a dramatic change which was the Industrial revolution, Teddy Roosevelt, and becoming more internationalist when we had been traditionally isolationism)

• Internationalists: Fully support war effort, Support ALlies w or w/o sending troops

• Isolationists: don’t want US to get involved (Only need a european solution)

War is over

• Americans were disillusioned with the outcome of world war I

• 50,000 Americans died on the battlefield in Europe at what cost?

• The world isn’t safe for democracy and there’s lot of bitterness and resentment at the end of the war

• not the war to end wars

AMerica becomes more inward

• retreating from internationalist viewpoints

• Caused by disillusionment by World War I

• US Shunned diplomatic commitments to foreign countries

• US refusal to join the league of nations

• Denounced radical foreign ideals

• Communism, Socialism, Anarchy were radical foreign ideals

• Condemned Un-American lifestyles

• Immigrant Culture different from mainstream culture

• Un-American:

• religion: catholicism, Judaism, greek/russian orthodox, Atheist

• Language

• Education was different

• Halted the flow of immigration to the country

Nativism: Prejudice against foreign-born (new immigrants)

Rise of Nativism coincides with an economic recession

• Red Scare: fear that communism was taking root in American institutions

• Three Factors that contributed to Red Scare:

• Bolshevik Revolution in Russia

• Changing immigration patterns: Influx from southern and eastern Europe

• The rash of strikes in the US in 1919: Contributed most to the Red Scare **Best answer

Examples of nativism

• Palmer Raids

• Post-WWI Fighter of communism: Attorney general A Mitchell Palmer (Fighting Quaker) – believed there was a communist threat; thought it was part of a larger global conspiracy —-use the power of his office to STOP the communist threat

• A Mitchell Palmer: Rounded up suspects: Americans arrested on suspicion of being a communist, socialist, or anarchist and 500 were deported from this country

• The justice department raided businesses, union offices, magazine offices for anyone who they suspect may have had communist threats but it was a violation of due process and civil liberties

• He talked about communist conspiracy but didn’t have evidence to support it

• A Mitchell Palmer and his Palmer raids —faded from public interest

• Trial of Sacco and Vanzetti

• Two italian immigrants living in Massachusetts: accused of robbery and murder of a paymaster (all money who had to pay factory workers) and his guard

• No eye witness

  • The witness in general vicinity who reported to police that there were two suspicious characters

  • They gave general description (it was raining and it was night)

  • Authorities rounded up Sacco and Vanzetti, who were Italian Immigrants, anarchists, drop dodgers, anarchists were unamerican

  • The trial gained national and international notoriety (Americans were split because some thought they were guilty and others thought they were only being arrested because they were Italian immigrants; strikes in Italy and America)

• Evidence was circumstantial

• At the end of the trial, judge found them guilty and sentenced them to die

• Sacco and Vinzetti went through appeals process (turned down) and plead innocent

• If you shoot a gun, there’s a fingerprint on the bullet; years later they dug up the bodies of the paymaster and the guard; Sacco and Vanzetti had the fingerprint

Resurgence of KKK

• New KKK In post WWI Era was antiforeign and was very radical, conservative nativist society

• Anti immigrants, anti black, anti jew, anti catholic, anti labor union

• Klan was rising up against the modernization and diversity of America; membership reached at about 5 million in 1920s

• SO influential in 1920s

  • Certain states were a card carrying member of the KKK or support of KKK to get elected

Immigration laws passed during 1920s

• Reaction to influx of new immigrants

National Origins acts

• Restrict new immigrants of coming into the country

• Quota Act: est. of a quota system dealing with immigrant system; immigrants from Europe were restricted in any given year to a definite quota

  • quota set at 3% of the people of their nationality who had been in the US in 1910

  • Americans were trying to keep southern and eastern europeans out (millions living here)

• Immigration Act: Change quota to 2% and the base year to 1890

  • This Kept southern and eastern europeans out

  • also had a provision prohibiting japanese immigration

• Stayed the law of the land for 40 years

• Purpose of these acts was to maintain and freeze the existence racial composition of the US; which was overwhelmingly northern european; wanted to keep white anglo-saxon protestant culture (WASPS)

• End of a period of unrestricted immigration that had brought over 35 million newcomers to this country

• Quota system would freeze existing racial composition and maintain the dominance of white, anglo-saxon, protestantism

• Resurgence of the KKK

  • Resulted in Anti minority and Labor union

  • They didn’ t want modernization and diversity

Great Migration was a Catalyst for Red Summer

Prohibition

• Noble Experiment -National prohibition of alcohol—arguments, people who supported believed that it would leave people to poverty because men were drinking instead of fam needs, accidents in the workplace, absenteeism.

• People who were opposed - immigrants were part of the culture.

• Also, veterans who were returning from war who didn't want to give up liquor after willing to die for their country

• Conservatives who thought it was gov overreach

• Despite the two sides, the amendment does pass

• It is an era and an amendment, 1920-1933 - the 18th amendment was the law of the land.

• Amendment  - prohibiting the manufacture, sale, and transportation of alc

• Volstead Act- a congressional act that allowed for the prohibition.

• Bill was popular in the midwest and south. People thought it lead to sinful behavior

• Rural America trying to impose values on urban America

• Bank savings increase

• Absentees decrease

• Job increases

• Organized crime flourishes  - mafia grows in strength.

American Life in the Roaring Twenties: domestic changes

The Twenties Woman

• After the tumult of World War I, Americans were looking for a little fun in the 1920s

• Women were becoming more independent and achieving greater freedoms (right to vote, more employment, freedom of the automobile)

• Women were not independent in 1920s

  • MORE were becoming independent, but slow arc of history going on

  • women were getting more rights *19th amendment

  • There were more employment opportunities (During WWI—working in shipyards and factories—stereotypically male jobs)

Life in the 1920s:

• Jeanette Rankin: First woman elected to Congress (1916)--served throughout the 1920s, which predates for 19th amendment; however, a number of states already gave women the right to vote

• Flappers: minority modern women of the 1920s—young, rebellious (rebelling typical gender roles), fun-loving, and bold—short hair, short dresses (to the knees), more makeup (esp. lipstick)--attitude changes—ex. Began to smoke and drink in public
  

The Flapper

• During the 1920s a new ideal emerged for some women: The Flapper

• A flapper was an emancipated young woman who embraced the new fashions and urban attitudes

The New Woman and the New Morality; Louise Brooks

• The image of the flapper and the “new woman,” who bobbed her hair, wore make-up, danced to jazz music, and smoked cigarettes is synonymous and the 1920s

• The emerging advertising industry and mass media promoted more sexualized images of women, thus, giving license for young women to shed some of the old sexual mores that were perceived as “Victorian”

• Advertising, billboard, radio was widely used and they Realized that sex sells

• Used the iconic women of the era to sell their products and merchandise

• Some people saw the 1920s women as a threat to the morality of American society

  • They thought Immigrants were responsible for radical ideas

  • Urbanization supposedly led to the delinquency of American Society (still going on today ex. With abortion rights)
    

• In 1920, the 19th Amendment gave women the right to vote

• The notable birth control activist Margaret Sanger (trailblazer) campaigned across the country to educate women about family planning, remove the social stigma attached to contraceptives, and make safe birth control accessible to every class of women (poor women - pregnant at a young age—remain in poverty with children so the cycle continues)

• Sanger began her campaign for birth control after spending years as a nurse in poor communities

• Wanted to help young women make better choices about their bodies

• Opens first birth control clinic in US

• Changes in the feminine ideal: The well bred Gibson girl of the turn of the century and the decidedly more dangerous flapper of the Roaring 20s

New Roles for Women

• The fast-changing world of the 1920s produced new roles for women

• Many women entered the workplace as nurses, teachers, librarians, and secretaries

• However, women earned less than men and were kept out of many traditional male jobs (management) and faced gender discrimination (AFrican Americans same thing – additional Jim Crow)

The Changing Family

• American birth rates declined for several decades before the 1920s

• During the 1920s the trend increased as birth control information became widely available

• Birth control clinics opened and the American Birth Control League was founded in 1921

Modern Family Emerges

• Marriage was based on romantic love, women managed household & finances, and children were not considered laborers/wage earners but rather developing children who needed nurturing and education

Education

• DUring the 1920s Developments in education had a powerful impact on the nation

• Enrollment in high schools quadrupled between 1914 and 1926

  • compulsory education because business is telling America that they want better educated workers

• Public schools met the challenge of educating immigrants

• States were requiring students to remain in school until age 16 or 19 or until graduation

• High school graduation doubled in the 1920s

• Change in Educational theory

• Made by John Dewey

• Principles of “learning by doing”

• So-called progressive education

• With its greater “permissiveness”

• Believed the workbench was as essential as the blackboard

• Education for life was the primary goal of the teacher

Rise of Fundamentalism

• Every so often in the US, a wave of people become very religious

• In the United States, religious waves have often been associated with questioning authority and power or questioning the elite

• Often these religious revivals involve passionate speakers and people feel that they are directly connected to God

• The First Great Awakening (1740s-1750s)--helped fuel rebellion against England the Anglican Church (popular religions: Presbyterianism, Baptists, Methodists)

• Second Great Awakening (1820s-1840s): helped launch a number of 19th political movements—temperance, abolition (during this time, spread of Methodists and baptists; birth of Mormonism)

• In the 1920s, a new religious wave hit the country: Fundamentalism. Fundamentalists believed in the literal truth of the bible. They also were very opposed to what they believed to be the sins of modern life

• Nostalgia for past in reaction to changing social mores characterized the growing influence of religious fundamentalism in the Jazz Age

• Secularist: Science only

• Modernist: Science and God

• Fundamentalist: God

Scientific and REligion Clash

• Another battleground during the 1920s was between fundamentlaist religious groups and secular thinkers

Scopes Trial

• In March 1925, Tennessee passed the nation's first law that made it a crime to teach evolution —-only teach the Creation story from the old testament

• The American Civil Liberties Union promised to defend any teacher willing to challenge the law- John Scopes did (Scopes was a biology teacher who dared to teach evolution)

• The ACLU hired Clarence Darrow, the most famous trial lawyer of the era to defend Scopes

• The prosecution countered with William Jennings Bryan, the 3 time Democratic presidential nominee (fundamentalist)

• Darrow called Bryan to the stand: Should the bible be interpreted literally

• Under intense questioning, Darrow got Bryan to admit that the bible can be interpreted in different ways

• Nonetheless, Scopes was found guilty and fined $100

• Verdict was vacated

• fundamentalism took a hit (people thought it was a foolish)

• Bryan wanted to seek nomination for dem party in upcoming election, but his blood pressure became so elevated that he died after trial

Rising anti sentiment because new immigrants were so culturally different from previous immigrants

Cultural History

The Roaring Twenties: Life & Culture in America in the 1920s

Significance of 1920 Census: More Americans in cities than in rural areas

• During the 1920s, urbanization continued to accelerate

• For the first time more AMericans lived in cities than in rural areas

• New York City was home to 5 million people in 1920

• Chicago had nearly 3 million with lot of scandinavian immigrants

• Push and Pull factors

• Every 10 years we take a census to have representative democracy (need to know population) because constitution says so because we have representation based on population and it determines congressional districts (ONLY Changes HOR not the senate because there are 2 senators per state no matter the population)

• The census is used for taxes, population growth (outcomes)

Urban vs. Rural

• Throughout the 1920s Americans found themselves caught between urban and rural cultures

• Each are trying to assert their way of life as a predominant culture of America

• Urban life:

  • world of anonymous crowds, strangers, moneymakers, and pleasure seekers

  • Cities were impersonal (thought rural dudes were judging them)

• Rural life was safe, close personal tiers, hard work, and morals (thought cities were elitists)

• Tension between two sides (still have it today)

1920’s Pop Culture:

• Charlie Chaplin (Hitler was a fan of Chaplin)

• Contemporary ideas and items that are well-known and widely accepted

Expanding News Coverage

• As literacy increased, newspaper circulation rose and mass-circulation magazines flourished

• This was mostly because of compulsory education (businesses wanted literate americans because they were more productive)

• By the end of the 1920s, ten American magazines—including Reader’s Digest and Time—boasted circulations of over 2 million

Radio:

• WAS the medium of the 1920s

• ALthough print media was popular, radio was the most powerful communications medium to emerge in the 1920s

• News was delivered faster and to a larger audience (KDKA)

• AMericans could hear the voice of the president or listen to the world

American Heroes of the ‘20s

-  Babe Ruth—”The Sultan of Swat” or “The Great Bambino”

• He was most famous baseball payer of the ‘20s

• He played most of his career with the NY (Hit 60 home-runs in 1927 and 714 career home runs)

- Jack Dempsey

Gertrude Ederle was the 1st woman to swim across the 35 mile wide ENglish Channel and her time beat the men’s record by nearly 2 hours

Lindbergh’s Flight

• America’s most beloved hero of the time wasn’t an athlete but a small-town pilot named Charles Lindbergh who made the first nonstop solo trans-atlantic flight

• Took off from NYC in the SPirit of St. Louis and arrived in Paris 33 hours later to a hero’s welcome

• No parachute, no radio, no heat, no sleep

• Son was kidnapped and killed in the early in the 1930s

• Didn’t want people to be involved WW2

Amelia Earhart- 1st woman to fly across the Atlantic without stopping

• Disappeared while trying to fly around the world

Mass Culture: The Movies

• With the mass communication came the parallel ascendancy of consumer culture and the cult of celebrity

• Good for Immigrants to adapt

Entertainment

• Jazz Singer

  • *white man playing black character (black face)

• Music and Art

• George Gershwin:

• Edward Hopper

• Georgia O'Keeffe

Writers of the 1920s: Greatest literary eras in american history

• The Lost Generation (Critical of America’s conformity and materialism)

• Sincalair Lewis, Ernest Hemingway, F. scott Fitzgerald

• They were disillusioned with American values

• John Dos Passos was soured by American culture and settled in Europe

Harlem Renaissance

• Centered in Harlem NY

• Outpouring of culture and art from African-Americans

• This was going to occur North of Mason-Dickson line

Both Civil Rights Organizations and looking for racial equality for African Americans

Difference: *would not give you credit on AP exams for different founders; NAACP: wanted immediate and complete equality UNIA wanted to resettle African Americans into African Homeland (separatism was valued by UNIA and inclusion was valuedF NAACP)

Flapper: Rebellious and challenged gender stereotypes of 1920s

What was the real issue of the Scopes Trial:

• Values of Rural America Vs. Values of Modern America

• Rural America thought their way of life was dying (teaching of evolution, changing school curriculum, lifestyles, changing immigration patterns and they thought they might be bred out)

Artists:

Writers:

• Claude McKay: through her works, celebrated peasant life in Jamaica, and poems that protested racial and economic inequalities

• Langston Hughes

• Zora Neale Hurston

Performers:

• Paul Robeson: actors and singer

• Bass Baritone

• Stage and Film actor

• Louis Armstrong

• Duke Ellington

• Bessie Smith

Economic Expansion: 1920-1929: A period of prosperity

• Reasons for the growth of the 1920s

• Favorable tax policies **MORE beneficial to wealthy than larger middle class

• Cheap energy (oil)

• Increased capital investment

• New Industries blossom

• Advertising (convince that want is a need) to increase consumption

• The Man Nobody Knows (by Bruce Barton) claimed Jesus the greatest advertiser in history

  • Jesus has a product (christianity) but nobody knows about it (it’s new; it’s a  breakoff from judaism)

  • The 12 apostles (sales team) spread the message

  • Jesus told parables (short stories with easy to understand messages)

  • The KEY to advertising: Short and easy messages

• Buying on credit (installment payments) was precursor to credit card: this was good for business and consumers IF You have the money to pay for it

• Prosperity built on debt which gave a lot of people a false sense of prosperity

• Consumer Debt: 1920-1931:

  • Much of it spent on recreation and modern convenience (cars, refrigerators, dishwashers, washing machines, vacuums)

  • Good debt does exist (making timely payments meant a build up credits: look at income, and debt you have, and credit card; and all that increases credit rating, resulting in a lower interest rates with better credit rating when going for a loan)

• Automobile Changes America

• Inventing the automobile

• 1886: invented by European (Karl Benz)

• 1890s: adapted by Americans (Ford and others)

• Henry Ford most responsible for popularizing cars

• 1910s-1920s: used assembly-line production and efficiency (Fordism) to standardize cars

• made cheap enough for most workers

• Ford introduced the five-dollar work day

• Production and sales were going up; workers were quitting (high turnover because boring job, dangerous conditions, loud factory, but now we have to retrain replacement)

• Innovation:

  • daily wage to $5

  • Payroll was the largest expense for a business, which allow them to have a different standard of living—gamble pays off

  • There’s less turnover and more production means more cars to sell, which also means more revenue

  • Revenue goes up significantly and people buying his cars were his employees because he was paying a very good salary

• Very strict moral rules for employees (no smoking and drinking, go to church on Sunday) and he was one of the richest men in the world and made significant political contributions to the Nazis (EW)

• Frederick W. Taylor (Taylorism)

• Father of Scientific Management (Time everything):

  • Worker productivity was measured and after 8 hours worker productivity drops significantly

  • Ford and his management team desired to maximize productivity with an 8 hour workday every 3 shifts

• The Social impact of the auto

• Went from luxury to necessity

• Badge of freedom, equality and social standing

• Expanded leisure travel

• Increased independence of women

• Less isolation among sections of US

• Less attractive states lost population

• Consolidation of schools and churches

• Sprawl of suburbs

• Increased accidents and deaths

• Increased freedom of youth, frequently for sex

• Crime increased because of ability for quick getaway

• At first, improved air and environmental quality (from horses)--> Now contributes to CO2

• Speculation on the stock exchange

• Stocks went up because people speculated that they would be able to sell for more than they paid

• Buying “on margin” meant buying on credit which created false senses of prosperity

• Stocks purchased w/small down payment

• Only worked as long as stocks went up (like recent housing bubble and mortgages)

• National debt and tax policies

• Secretary of the Treasury Andrew Mellon attacked high taxes (holdover from WWI) because:

• Forced rich to invest in tax-exempt securities instead of factories

• Brought lower net receipts into Treasury

• Controversy over Mellon Policies

• Shifted tax burden to middle-income groups

  • theoretically this meant that more money to businessmen meant more money was put into economy and doesn’t happen in practicality

  • The rich like to make more money so they invest and invest in market and you create a bubble in the stock market

• Reduced national debt but should have reduced it more

• Indirectly encouraged speculation on stock exchange by increasing holdings of the rich

• THEORY of the trickle down economics is followed but no clear evidence that it will ever work–then or now