american life in the “roaring twenties” a period of boom and bust

American Life in the “Roaring Twenties”

A period of Boom and Bust

Roaring Twenties

• Against diplomatic connections to foreign countries

• Against radical foreign ideas

• Stop immigration• New tech• New consumer products • New leisure and

entertainment

I see Red People

• Bolshevik Revolution of 1917- spawns small communists party in US

• Labor strikes are thought to be the blame of bomb and whisker Bolsheviks

I see Red People• Red Scare 1919-1920• Mitchell A Palmer-

Fighting Quakers– Palmer Raids

– Round up suspected Commies

I see Red People • Buford (Soviet ark)-

US ship ships radicals and anarchists to Russia

• Sept 20 1919 bomb goes off on wall street

I see Red People

• Criminal syndicalism laws- anti red laws, against the law to advocate violence for social change

• 1920 5 legislatures are denied seats in NY because they are socialists

• Big business love red scare- use it to kill closed shops- call their campaign for open shops the American Plan

Sacco and Vanzetti Case

• 1921- tried for murder• Couldn’t get a fair

case- Italians, atheists, anarchists, draft dodges

• 6 year trial • Executed • Evidence is very very

questionable

The New KKK

• Very similar to Nativism movement in 1850’s

• Against Catholics, blacks, Jews, pacifists, communist, internationalist, revolutionists, bootlegging, gambling, birth control

The New KKK

• Spread fast in Midwest and bible belt (south)

• South fundamentalism is thriving

• At one point 5 million members, thus political force

• Dies in late 1920’s- congressional investigation reveals kick-backs

Stemming the Foreign Flood

• SE “New Immigrants” still flooding America

• 100% Americans lead charge against new immigrants

Eugenics

Stemming the Foreign Flood• 1921: The Emergency

Quota Act- Limited newcomers to 3% of their nationality living here in 1910. (Not too bad for New Immigrants because levels were high in 1910)

• 1924: Immigration Act of 1924- Reduced quota to 2% and made the base year 1890 (good for Ireland and England, also excludes Canadians and Mexicans


• Japan really screwed by IA of 1924- American hatred builds up there

• Acts basically say no vacancy for America

• 1931- more people leave the country then enter


• Ethnic Enclaves form• Immigration affects labor

unions– Common goal- better

wages and conditions

– Common problem- language

– Employers play up racial differences to keep unions from getting stronger

Cultural Pluralists

• Horace Kallen- “melting pot” (- allow immigrants to retain cultural aspects of life- like instruments in an orchestra, each immigrant community would harmonize with others while retaining its singular identity

• Randolph Bourne- cosmopolitan- US should serve as the vanguard of a more international and multicultural age

The Prohibition “Experiment”

• 1919- 18th amendment- prohibition

• Implemented by the Volstead act

• Pushed by churches and women


• Supported mainly in south and west- why?

• Not supported in major cities along the east coast- why?

• Problems- American love drinking, and we have a weak central government


• Wets- believe only way to get the law repealed was to violate on a large scale

• Drinking becomes associated with a personal liberty

• Working class upset, rich can still afford to buy illegal drink


• Problems- not enough staff to enforce it, underpaid leaves them to bribery

• Speakeasies= illegal bars• Hard liquor becomes more

popular (transportation) • Home brew, bathtub gin,

rotgut• Pros- people saved more

money, absenteeism at work decreased

Golden age of Gangstas

• Prohibition = crime increase

• Bribe police – see and smell no evil

• Rival gangs fight to control illegal alcohol trade- (Machine guns)

Golden age of Gangstas

• Chicago best example• Gangster = Al

“Scarface” Capone• Made millions in

bootlegging • Public enemy number

1

Golden age of Gangstas• Gangsters go from

bootlegging to other aspects of crime

• Racketeering- protection money

• 1930- Underworld takes in roughly 12-18 billion dollars, much more than federal government

• 1932- Charles Lindbergh’s infant son is kidnapped

• Lindbergh Laws- interstate childhood abduction is punishable by death

High School Education• More states pass laws requiring kids

to stay in school until 16-18• John Dewey- “Learning by doing” • Foundation of progressive education• Replace text book with work bench

– “education for life” • Public health program- Rockefeller

foundation basically wipes out hook worm in the south

• Life expectancy: 1901= 50 – 1929= 59 years

Monkey Business in Tennessee • Scopes Monkey trial Tenn.

1925• Evolution (Science) vs.

Fundamentalism • John Scopes teaches

evolution in bible belt, defended by Clarence Darrow

• Prosecution lead by William Jennings Bryan

• Teacher found guilty, but not a real victory for Fundamentalists as their cause looked foolish

The Mass Consumption Economy

• 1920-1921- Recession, then 7 year BOOM

• Assembly line- perfected by Henry Ford

• Manufactures had master production, now they have to focus on consumption


• Advertising takes off-brain behind it Bruce Barton

• Baseball takes off- Babe Ruth

• Boxing extremely popular- Jack Dempsey


• Buying on credit becomes more popular

• Consumers go in debt to buy radios, cars, vacuum cleaners

Putting America on Rubber Tires

• Of all new technology- cars are cutting edge- mass production and assembly lines

• Frederick Taylor- Scientific Management

Putting America on Rubber Tires

• Henry Ford’s Car = Model T

• Moving assembly line known as Fordism

• So efficient he can sell cars for very cheap prices

• 1914 produced 500,000 Model Ts

• 1930- 20 million

Gasoline Age

• Cars spawn growth of other industries

• Oil industry hits tremendous growth

• Losers = railroads are now on the decline because of cars, buses, trucks

Gasoline Age• Road construction takes off• Installment plans = early credit systems• Cars cut down on travel time, this allows more leisure time• Suburbs begin to grow• Auto accidents are becoming more common• Cars aid crime- getaways and prostitution • Cars help the public health- no more horse carriages (no

more horse manure all over the place) • Women- more independence, modern women drive, and yet

can still be argued that it helps them manage the house hold

I believe I can fly!

• Orville and Wilbur Wright- Kitty Hawk NC- 1st- 1st air plane flight

• Dangerous business to get into – “Flying Coffins”

• Used in WWI- then private companies take over- airmail

I believe I can fly!

• Charles A Lindbergh- Flying Fool- first solo flight across the Atlantic in The Spirit of St. Louis

• Becomes a hero- makes air industry take off

• Planes also hurt the RR industry because they took passengers and mail

• Planes aid destruction in wars

The Radio Revolution

• Invented in 1890• 1920’s radio waves are lengthened- thus not restricted to

local audiences• Impact

– Radios allow mass advertising– US is even more connected– Famous shows Amos n Andy– Sports more popular– Politicians have to adjust speeches to cater to millions rather

than thousands– Music (mainly jazz) can take off

Hollywood • 1903- The Great Train

Robbery- first story sequenced movie

• 5 cent theaters called Nickelodeons

• D.W. Griffith- Birth of A Nation 1915-

• Hollywood becomes movie center

• 1927-first “talkie”- The Jazz Singer- featured Al Jolson

Impact of Movies

• Movies used during WWI- anti-German propaganda

• Actors get paid more and are more popular than the president

• More advertising• Helps assimilate immigrant

youth

Dynamic Decade

• 1920’s Census- more people live in urban than rural areas

• Women get “women’s work”

• Margaret Sanger- Birth Control Movement

Dynamic Decade• Fundamentalists

losing to modernists• Advertising exploits

sex• Flappers- women who

go against traditional norms

Dynamic Decade

• Freud helps flappers- sexual repression causes nervous and emotional ills

• “Necking” in public- oh my!

• Jazz is new musical crave- flappers can dance

Harlem Renaissance

• Harlem (NYC) one of largest black populations in the world

• Langston Hughes- poetry• Marcus Garvey- United

Negro Improvement Association– Instill more pride in blacks

– Back to Africa movement

• Successful in instill pride

Cultural Liberation

• Change in literature- new immigrants represent new backgrounds and cultures

• New youth energy, ambition of excluded outsiders, resentment of failed idealism

Cultural Liberation

• F. Scott Fitzgerald– This Side of Paradise

– Great Gatsby

• Ernest Hemingway– The Sun Also Rises

– Farewell to Arms

• Sherwood Anderson– Winesburg, Ohio

• Sinclair Lewis– Babbitt

Cultural Liberation

• William Faulkner– The Sound and Fury

• T.S. Eliot (Poetry)– “The Waste Land”

• Other Harlem Renaissance writers– Claude McKay– Zora Neale Hurston – Arguing for the “New

Negro”- full citizen with equal rights

Wall Street’s Big Bull Market

• Some signs of disaster loom– Banks are failing

annually

– Florida boom killed by West Indian Hurricane


• Stock speculation is rampant

• Buying on the margin-small down payment to buy stock


• 1921- Bureau of the Budget- go over government spending

• Sec. of Treasury- Andrew Mellon

• Problems with High Taxes– Forces rich to invest in tax

exempt securities rather than business

– Discourage business, and actually bring in less revenue


• Mellon makes tax reductions 1921-1926

• Spare the rich policies shift tax burden to middle class

• Reduced national debt by 10 billion

• Conservative historian love him, other say he should have taxed more during this prosperity

american life in the “roaring twenties” a period of boom and bust

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