cycles of american history arthur m. schlesinger...

AP/IB American History Mr. Blackmon

The Twenties

I. Reaction to the warA. Many believed that WWI had been a mistakeB. Progressive idealism yielded to cynicism, materialism, irresponsibility, and

iconoclasm.C. This is one example of the "Cycles of American History" identified by Arthur M.

Schlesinger Jr.II. Demobilization

A. Wilson "took the harness off" the economy1. No control in readjusting for a peace-time economy2. There was a short-term boom--post-war spending to make up for pent-up

demand.3. Product shortages led to inflation; prices doubled from 1913 to 1920.4. Inflation leads to labor strife, since wages did not keep up with inflation;

workers face a net loss of buying power.a. There are 3,600 strikes in 1919b. Boston Police Strike--led to riots and looting

(1) Gov. Calvin Coolidge became famous when he said, "Thereis no right to strike against the public safety by anybody,anywhere, anytime." He then fired the entire police force.

c. Gary Steel Strike--350,000 workers go out; 18 are killed in violence;non-union labor hired to replace the strikers; the AFL eventuallyrepudiates the strike.

d. Labor loses 10 years of progress.B. Post-War depression

1. There was a sudden drop in prices, especially agricultural prices.a. End of government deficit spendingb. Evening out of consumer demand once the first flush of spending was

overc. Effects of inflationd. 100,000 bankruptciese. 453,000 farmers lose their landf. 5,000,000 unemployed

2. Recovery was swift--completed by 1923--but it was frightening.III. Urban vs Rural Conflict

A. A crucial theme in this decade is deep cultural conflict, which to a large extent canbe classified as manifestations of an urban/rural conflict

B. This is a subject of a DBQ!!!!.C. The new, materialistic urban civilization was viewed by rural, conservative,

traditionalist Americans as sinful, fascinating, and unhealthy.1. A line from a famous World War I song was "How you gonna keep 'em down

on the farm once they've seen Paris?"

AP/IB American History Mr. BlackmonThe Twenties

D. Rural Americans responded by a fierce attempt to defend their traditional way of lifeand culture1. There is a new consciousness that they were a minority and were losing

ground. They had been losing ground for some time, of course, and in fact,had already lost. But the census of 1920 for the first time put a majority ofAmericans in an urban, big city environment.a. Rural America is now desperate in a way that they had not been

before, and that desperation bred intolerance.E. Disparate phenomena can be linked together using this theme:

1. Nativism and Xenophobiaa. Labor unrestb. Red Scarec. Palmer Raidsd. Immigration restriction e. the resurgence of the Ku Klux Klan

2. Evolutiona. Scopes Monkey Trial

3. Prohibition4. Alienation of the Intellectuals

a. Sacco and Vanzettib. the Lost Generationc. Babbitt and Elmer Gantryd. H.L. Mencken

F. Nativism and Xenophobia1. The labor unrest of 1919 spurred the "traditional" nativism which labelled

strikes, unions, etc. as foreign and un-American.a. The success of the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia intensified these

fears.2. The Red Scare

a. fearful reaction to labor unrest(1) fear of a plot to establish a Soviet government in the U.S.

(which in fact, Lenin would have liked to have done;however, he had more immediate worries in 1919)

(2) The Communist International (Comintern) in 1919, designedto export revolution, gives substance to these fears(a) It is not popular currently to argue that the Red Scare

had any basis in objective fact, and such a plot in facthad little chance of success in the U.S. However,anyone who does not believe that the Bolsheviksplotted and actively sought to export revolutionsimply doesn't know much about the time period. Justbecause you are paranoid does not mean that they are


not out to get you . . . .b. There were some radicals in the U.S.

(1) Letter bombs were found in 1919; 8 of them exploded on thesame day, which suggested a national conspiracy.

(2) Letter bombs were typical of Anarchists, rather thanBolsheviks. Most Americans were unable to distinguishbetween the two.

(3) The International Workers of the World (IWW or Wobblies)a small organization, advocated violence.

c. Old-stock Americans blend the image of the radical, unionist, andforeigner to convince themselves that our way of life was threatened.

3. The Palmer Raidsa. Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer (who, unusual among mindless

Red-baiters and witch-hunters like Joe McCarthy, was a Democrat)is:(1) Angry, since one letter bomb was sent to him(2) Ambitious to become President and needs an issue (3) Feeds the frenzy with violent xenophobic statements: "Out

of the sly and crafty eyes of many of them [foreigners] leapcupidity, cruelty, insanity, and crime; from their lopsidedfaces, sloping brows, and misshapen features may berecognized the unmistakable criminal type."

b. A young J. Edgar Hoover rises to prominence by collectinginformation on "radicals" (an activity he pursued with far greatertenacity and attention during his entire public career than he everpursued organized crime)

c. 650 "radicals" were arrested in 1919, and 43 deported (a pretty rottenconviction record)

d. The Palmer Raids proper took place on 1/2/20 (let's get the newdecade off to a good start!)(1) 6,000 arrested(2) Premises were searched without warrants(3) Persons were held incommunicado for weeks, in violation of

habeas corpus and the Fifth and Sixth Amendments(4) The search for arms caches (to arm the coming revolution)

yielded 3 pistols(a) Put that into perspective: how many Texans would be

required to build up a cache of 3 pistols? Or modernjunior high students (we will count machine pistols aspistols but assault rifles as machine guns)

(5) There were 556 deportations(6) Palmer looks ridiculous with this result (the worst thing that


can happen to a politician--one can beat an indictment but notmocking laughter) and the Red Scare collapses.

4. Immigration Restrictiona. Pressure to restrict immigration had been building up steadily, and by

World War I, some restriction was inevitable.b. The first success was the passage of the literacy test over Wilson's

second veto in 1917.c. The Emergency Quota Act of 1921 was aimed at stopping

immigrants from Eastern or Southern Europe, ie. the NewImmigrants.(1) The act established a quota system for the first time in US

history.(2) 3% of the number of foreign born residents in the US as of

1910 could enter the country (350,000)(3) The base year for the quota was 1910(4) Immigration from any particular country was made

proportional to the percentage of foreign born residentsoriginating in that country in the base year.

d. The National Origins Act of 1924 reduced both the percentage andaltered the base year.(1) The percentage was set at 2%(2) The base year was set at 1890(3) Both would have the effect of reducing immigration from

Eastern and Southern Europe, since a smaller percentage ofour foreign born residents were from those regions in 1890than in 1910.

e. In 1929, the quota was again altered, this time based on a percentageof the entire white population in 1920, and effectively set the numberof immigrants per year at about 150,000.

f. Instead of accepting the "huddled masses yearning to be free," theseacts attempted to preserve a homogeneous, Anglo-Saxon population--long after such a homogeneous population had ceased to exist. Theyare closing the barn door after the horse has gotten out.

5. The new Ku Klux Klana. The Klan was revived in 1915b. Originally an instrument for the oppression of African Americans, it

now broadens its scope to include anyone and anything "un-American."

c. In part, it is a response to the massive migration of AfricanAmericans to Northern cities.(1) There were race riots in Houston, Philadelphia, St. Louis and

Chicago in 1917 and 1919.


(2) The premier of D.W. Griffiths' landmark Birth of a Nationglorified the original Klan.(a) The film is a milestone in the history of

cinematography; a masterpiece of film-making. Theinterpretation of the Civil War and Reconstructiongiven by the film is racist and inaccurate.

d. The new Klan was founded by William J. Simmonse. They used elaborate rituals and titles to appeal to members (rather

like Catholic rituals, ironically)f. They quickly shifted to include Jews, Catholics, intellectuals and

foreigners in general on their hate list.g. They worked to purge America of "alien" influences and to enforce

conformity of ideas and behavior.h. Hiram Wesley Evans replaced Simmons as Imperial Wizard in 1922.

[Please note this for your DBQ] In 1926, Evans wrote the followingfor periodical, North American Review: "The Ku Klux Klan, inshort, is an organization which gives expression, direction, andpurpose to the most vital instincts, hopes, and resentments ofold-stock Americans, provides them with leadership and isenlisting and preparing them for militant, constructive actiontoward fulfilling their racial and national destiny. . . . .We area movement of the plain people, very weak in the matter ofculture, intellectual support, and trained leadership. We aredemanding, and we expect to win, a return of power into thehands of the everyday, not highly cultured, not overlyintellectualized, but entirely unspoiled and not de-Americanized, average citizen of the old stock. Our membersand leaders are all of this class--the opposition of theintellectuals and liberals who held the leadership, betrayedAmericanism, and from whom we expect to wrest control, isalmost automatic. This is undoubtedly a weakness. It lays usopen to the charge of being 'hicks' and 'rubes' and 'rubes' and'drivers of secondhand Fords.' We admit it. Far worse, itmakes it hard for us to state our state and advocate our crusadein the most effective way, for most of us lack skill in language.. . . .The Klan does not believe that the fact that it is emotionaland instinctive rather than coldly intellectual is a weakness. Allaction comes from emotion rather than from ratiocination.Our emotions and the instincts on which they are based havebeen bred into us for thousands of years, far longer than reasonhas had a place in the human brain. . . . . For centuries those


who obeyed them have lived and carried on the race; those inwhom they were weak, or who failed to obey, have died. Theyare the foundations of our American civilization, even morethan our great historic documents; they can be trusted wherethe fine-haired reasoning of the denatured intellectual cannot.Thus the Klan goes back to the American racial instincts, andto the common sense which is their first product." (Evans 509-10)

i. The Klan grew into the Midwest from the South(1) It was strongest in small towns and mid-sized cities (where

the rural outlook was still dominant)j. They targeted nonconformity and any group that threatened

traditional values.k. Their tactics included threats, intimidation, boycotts, beatings, arson,

and lynching.l. By 1923, there were 5,000,000 members and they were conducting

parades in broad daylight through the streets of American cities.m. A decline set in with factionalism and scandal

(1) The Indiana Klan leader, David C. Stephenson, wasconvicted of raping and murdering a young woman.

n. They retained enough strength to help defeat Al Smith for thePresidency in 1928 (Smith was a New Yorker and a Catholic).

o. They were down to 9000 members by 1930 (I have some questionsabout that figure. My father recalls quite clearly during theDepression years in Atlanta how powerful the Klan was politically;he had personal, direct, and unpleasant experiences with the Klan)

G. Evolution1. Fundamentalism

a. Protestantism by 1921 had split into (1) an urban, middle-class version, adapting religion to science

and to a secular society(2) a fundamentalist, provincial, largely rural version, trying to

preserve traditional faith and the centrality of religion inAmerican life.(a) Darwinism implies no absolutes, no inherent rights.

Fundamentalists sense that and reacted to defend theirbeliefs.

b. There was a wave of evangelism in the country(1) Billy Sunday was the best known of the evangelists.(2) Much of this seemed silly to secular society, or to what today

are labelled by evangelical Christians as "secular humanists"--such as Sinclair Lewis.


(3) Others were frauds (my father found himself working in theorganization of one such fraud in the 1930s, but not for long.He was a radio evangelist and all he was interested in werethe donations from desperately poor people. He would shakeopen their letters for money and throw them away unread.)

(4) Think of your (or my) reaction to Tammy Faye Bakker,Jimmy Swaggart, and others even less savory. Even the oneswho are legitimate are part of a subculture that can cause realculture shock to those (such as myself) who are not part of it.Check out the religious cable channels some time to see whatI mean. And I am an evangelical Christian whose theology isvery similar to theirs. If I am in culture shock, what of otherswho don't share the theology at all?

c. One rather odd example of the evangelism was Aimee SempleMcPherson, sort of a cross between California chic and JimmySwaggart. [Remember her for your DBQ!](1) "charismatic evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson, for

example, regularly filled the fifty-two hundred seats of herAngelus Temple in Los Angeles and reached many thousandsmore by radio. Radiating drama and beauty [over the radio?],the white gowned McPherson won an enormous followingthrough her cheerful sermons and considerable theatricaltalent. On one occasion she employed a gigantic electricscoreboard to illustrate the triumph of good over evil. Herfollowers, predominantly transplanted Midwestern farmers,embraced her fundamentalist theology while reveling in hermastery of the techniques of mass entertainment. In manyways, McPherson anticipated the television evangelists of alater day. When she died in 1944, her International Church ofthe Foursquare Gospel had over six hundred branches in theUnited States and abroad." (Boyer 856)

d. There was intense hostility to Darwinism and the Theory of Evolution(which has not diminished at all, believe me)(1) Fundamentalist Christians believed that Man had not evolved

from the apes, but had been created by God, as described inGenesis.

(2) This is not a minor point of theology. Since it deals with thevery conception of the nature of Man, it is almost asimportant as the conception of God to religious faith.

(3) If Darwin is right, then Man is just another animal, perhaps abit more complex, but not a creature with a soul to be saved;in fact, he is not a creature at all, but just a being, the product


of an essentially random process without any real meaning.Bertrand Russell is a good advocate of that point of viewtaken to its logical end.

(4) If Genesis is true, however, Man is a special creation of God,endowed with a soul and with the moral capacity tounderstand good and evil. Francis Schaeffer is the mostperceptive and eloquent spokesman of this point of view Iknow.

(5) Issues of public and private morality, public and privateethics, natural rights, and the dignity and meaning of humanlife are bound up inexorably in the debate. The debate is notjust about the paradigms used in biological science--else thedebate would not be so heated nor so prolonged--but inparadigms used to conceptualize a wide range of personal andsocial relationships.

e. Individual states, mostly in the Bible Belt, began passing lawsforbidding the teaching of Darwin's theory of evolution in publicschools.

f. Modernists are alarmed and horrified at those laws on a number ofgrounds.(1) Modernists are concerned at the censureship of human

thought implied by the laws.(2) Modernists also regard evolution as indisputable, thoroughly

proven scientific fact, and any denial of evolution asequivalent to asserting that the earth is flat and that the sunrevolves around the earth. Anyone who questions evolutionmust be stupid, ignorant, bigoted, or all three.

2. The Scopes Monkey Triala. [Remember this for your DBQ!]b. The Tennessee statute made it illegal to "teach any theory that denies

the story of the divine creation of man as taught in the Bible."c. The American Civil Liberties Union offered free counsel to anyone

who broke the law.d. John T. Scopes reluctantly agreed to deliberately violate the law. He

was brought to trial in Dayton, Tennessee.e. His counsel was Clarence Darrow, the nation's most famous defense

attorney.f. William Jennings Bryan, who was devoting his last years to the issue

of evolution, offered himself as an expert witness for the prosecution.g. The trial was conducted in a circus atmosphere. The play and later

the movie, Inherit the Wind is a thin fictionalization of the ScopesTrial.


h. Darrow knew he would lose the case (Scopes was incontestably guiltyof violating state law), but really intended to hold the fundamentalistsup to ridicule. Having gotten Bryan (formerly a friend; Bryan thoughtthey still were) on the stand, he used his full range of irony andsarcasm to cut Bryan up badly. Bryan was not as dogmatic as Darrowmakes him out to appear, or as he is usually portrayed, and crossexamination was not something he was really good at anyway. It wasan unequal contest. Most portrayals and discussions of the trial areintensely hostile to Bryan and the Fundamentalists since most peoplewho write about it agree with Darrow and the modernists.

i. Bryan died just a few days after the trial. Mercifully, he neverunderstood the extent to which he had been held up to ridicule.Unfortunately, most Americans who recognize his name at all knowhim from the Scopes Trial. That is unfair, really. His career had beenlong, and, on the whole, constructive.

j. Scopes was found guilty and fined $100, which the ACLU paid.3. The issue has not gone away, although now there is a role reversal. Today,

it is the evolutionists who are trying to suppress an alternative view, andcreationists who are trying to get another interpretation into the text books.

H. Prohibition1. Prohibition was emphatically a rural victory.2. The XVIII Amendment (the Volstead Amendment) prohibited the

manufacture, sale, and transportation of alcoholic beverages.a. Temperance had been an important element in American culture since

the Age of Jackson.b. War shortages helped the prohibition impulse.c. Nativism also reinforced it:

(1) Germans drank a lot of beer(2) Italians drank a lot of wine.

3. Large portions of the country were legally dry by local law by 1917. Thesecounties were mostly rural, particularly in the Bible Belt.

4. There was an insistence on total abstinence.a. Partial prohibition might have worked.b. But Americans refused to quit drinking altogether.c. The demand for alcohol provided an opportunity for the expansion

and organization of crime in the cities. Those profits in turn fueledother activities.

5. Enforcementa. The resources put into enforcement of prohibition were laughably

inadequate.b. Saloons disappear and are replaced by speakeasies.c. Prohibition undermined the social fabric by encouraging hypocrisy


and graft. (President Warren G. Harding, for instance, was noted forthe whiskey served at his frequent parties)

6. The Volstead Amendment pitted the country vs. the city, the native born vsthe immigrant.

7. The Volstead Amendment almost destroyed the Democratic party by pittingurban immigrants against Bible Belt Southerners.

8. Although it soon became obvious that the amendment wasn't working, ruralforces defended it tenaciously.

I. Alienation of the Intellectuals1. Sacco and Vanzetti

a. For many intellectuals, this trial came to symbolize all that was wrongwith American culture. Many of the most creative Americans of thisvery creative era felt deeply alienated from the mainstream of USsociety.

b. Sacco and Vanzetti were arrested in 1920 for murder committedduring a robbery of a post office.

c. Both men were admitted anarchists as well as immigrantsd. The trial, like that of the Haymarket Square incident, was a travesty

of justice.e. The men were convicted and sentenced to death.f. Intellectuals rallied to try to save their lives, bringing considerable

media attention to the issue.g. The effort was to no avail, and the men were executed in 1927.h. The trial and effort to save them from the chair crystallized as well as

symbolized their discontent.i. Modern forensic evidence, unavailable at the time, indicates strongly

that Sacco may actually have been guilty.)2. The Lost Generation

a. Pre-war literature had generally been optimistic. The War changesthat (in conjunction with all other European literatures)(1) Actually, from a broader European perspective, the

destruction of the old world in art, music and literature, hadbegun prior to the war. The War shatters the old world for themass of citizens, and accelerates the decay of old valuesamong the artists. The entire subject of trends in the arts atthe turn of the century and the death of Romanticism andVictorianism is an immense subject, and one that is extremelyinteresting, at least to me. It is worth extended study.

(2) Personally, I use T.S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, Franz Kafka,Hermann Hesse, and Thomas Mann as both examples andsymbols of the process. In the arts, Picasso, theExpressionists; in music, Mahler, Schönberg, Hindemith,


Bartok. I had better stop this line of thought now! In order todo justice to it, instead of just throwing out random ideas, I'llhave to do an entire new handout.

(3) Ezra Pound had invented Imagism(4) Carl Sandburg had founded the "Chicago School"(5) American writers were beginning to use Freudian psychology.(6) Henry Adams' pessimistic Education of Henry Adams is

often cited as an example of the disillusionment of the purebred intellectual with the materialistic American culture.

b. The label "Lost Generation" was given post-war writers (many ofwhom were expatriates, that is, they were living abroad--mostly inParis-- rather than coming home) by Gertrude Stein.

c. F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby (1925) probably expressesthis mood as well as any work.(1) Gatsby aspires to and is destroyed by a world of fraud,

pretense, and cruelty.(2) Much of Fitzgerald's later work is trash, and he drifted into a

life of alcohol and despair.(3) Personally, I think Fitzgerald is over-rated, even if he did go

to Princeton.d. Ernest Hemingway is another of the expatriates (my thesis adviser,

Carlos Baker, was a specialist on Hemingway)(1) The Sun Also Rises (1926) pictured an expatriate world of

rootless desperation, amorality, and outrage atmeaninglessness.

(2) A Farewell to Arms (1929) depicts an American officer whoabandons war to run away with a nurse.

(3) He had a powerful, influential writing style.(4) The idea of the pursuit of manliness and a fascination with

blood sports runs through much of his work.e. T.S. Eliot belongs with the expatriates, although he is an Englishman

by adoption. he is, in my view, the greatest and most importantAmerican poet of the Twentieth Century. (Of course, my list of greatAmerican poets is rather short)(1) The Waste Land (1922) broke new ground poetically,

representing the sterility of contemporary culture, and thedead end to which literature had come.(a) Its tone is harsh despair(b) It attempted (rather successfully, I think) to point into

new directions for a valid poetry(c) It is a sharp break with Romanticism.

3. Eugene O'Neill is not an expatriate, and doesn't fit into any of my neat little


categories here. He is perhaps our first genuinely great playwright. He is thefirst American to win the Nobel Prize for Literature.a. Significantly, his Emperor Jones has a protagonist who is African

American.4. Sinclair Lewis, Babbitt, and Elmer Gantry

a. [remember this for your DBQ!]b. The writer who gives us the best view of popular culture in the

Twenties is Sinclair Lewis. Lewis is essentially a critic whose chieftool is irony. He provides pictures of middle America that arephotographic in detail and accuracy. Some people do not notice hisirony for what it is.

c. His first major work was Main Street in 1922.d. His greatest, and best known work is Babbitt (1922), which was so

powerful that the character George Babbitt and the name entered thepopular vocabulary (Eric Goldman has a chapter entitled "The Shameof the Babbitts." One can speak of babbitts and babbittry) This iswhy a passage from Babbitt is duplicated in your DBQ.(1) George Babbitt is a thoroughly conventional character living

in middle America, with a good job, a wife, 2.5 kids, a housewith a picket fence, and a dog. He does not have a singleindependent idea in his head--they are supplied by theRepublican Party, the Elks, Rotary Club, and MadisonAvenue. He is as happy as anyone in his brainless state canbe. He doesn't understand why his teenage children do notlike him. In the course of the novel, he meets a Bohemianwoman who represents everything that Babbitt isn't: a life ofart, love, passion, risk, unconventionality. He has an affairwith her. Ultimately, he is confronted with a choice: eithergo off with the bohemian woman and give up his job,marriage, and status and try to attain real happiness, or giveup the affair and return to the conventional, placid,materialistic life he had known. Since he is a Babbitt, hechooses the safe, conventional, sterile path.

e. Arrowsmith (1925) was a critique of the medical profession.f. Dodsworth is a very underrated novel about a businessman who

retires to Europe.g. Elmer Gantry (1927) is a scathing look at fraudulent evangelical

preachers. It is so true to life, that Elmer Gantry has been used as asymbol for the real thing, and many people are not aware that ElmerGantry is in fact a fictional character.

5. H.L. Menckena. Became one of the best known critics of the era; noted for his biting


sarcasm ("Puritanism is the haunting fear that someone, somewhere,might be happy."). He can be very funny, but when closely observed,he has not constructive view of the world of his own. He is thereforesterile and destructive.

6. Much of the literature of this time period is escapist, intensely creative, andsometimes revolutionary. It is a very interesting period, and the contrast withthe literature of the '30s, which is also powerful and creative, is especiallysuggestive.

IV. Popular Culture in the Roaring TwentiesA. The Jazz Age

1. The Twenties is well-known as a time period of youth rebellion againstnarrowness, prudery, add conservatism.

2. Youth indulged in intense self-expression, often in bizarre ways (gee, soundfamiliar? From the perspective of a former 1960s teenager who has beenwatching teenage fads for 18 years of teaching, this is an enduringphenomenon. They all look bizarre to me; they will look bizarre to you, too,ten years from now.)

3. The influence of Sigmund Freud, who emphasized non-rational motivationand relative or "emancipated" standards of behavior, is strong. Freud wasextremely popular among professionals (the discipline of psychoanalysis wasdeveloping quickly) and in popular culture (which did not necessary actuallyunderstand what he was saying.)

4. More than any other phenomenon of the Roaring Twenties, the Jazz Age isthe best and most suggestive symbol of the era.a. Jazz is a direct development of black gospel music via cake walk and

ragtime. It entered the mainstream of American culture via AfricanAmerican artists. It eventually gave birth to rock and roll.

b. Jazz was not only a type of music making, but a symbolc. Jazz is improvisational, breaks away from traditional forms and

abandons the discipline of a fixed, written score. Jazz emphasizesthe immediate, the emotional, and highlights the expression of theindividual. It symbolized a break with traditional authority.

5. The Twenties witnessed the arrival of fads in the modern sense (in myhousehold, the current fad as of 1995 is Mighty Morphin Power Rangers).The development of radio and Madison Avenue advertising techniqueshelped to make fads possible by distributing an idea nationally very quickly.

B. Cinema1. Early films included The Great Train Robbery in 19032. D.W. Griffiths is one of the great pioneers in cinematography. His epic Birth

of a Nation (1915) (see above) is a land mark.3. The Jazz Singer (1927) was the first talking film.4. A film culture evolves quickly


a. predictable, trashy plotsb. handsome, talentless starsc. a decline of the American staged. a new theatrical arte. changes in acting styles (you do not act the same before a camera as

on the stage)f. wider audiences.

5. Charlie Chaplin became the supreme comedic artist of the era.C. Radio

1. This became the most pervasive communication medium. Every family hada radio, and listened to programs as a family.

2. Lee DeForest devised improvements for long-distance broadcasting.3. Radio broadcasts had an immediate impact4. Advertising expands its role, using techniques of propaganda developed in

war-time.a. Advertising helped to create a consumer economy, encouraging

people to purchase goods purely for pleasure.5. Congressional control

a. Congress limited the number of stations and set the wavelengths in1927

b. The Federal Communications Commission was established in 1933under FDR.

D. Hero Worship1. One of the most striking qualities of the era was the growth of hero worship,

especially of sports heroes. This seems to have filled a psychological need,extolling the virtues of individual effort and achievement against a machineage.

2. Heroes were made into larger-than-life figures.a. Babe Ruth in baseball, probably the most widely known.b. Jack Dempsey in boxing.c. The "Four Horsemen of Notre Dame" a creation of Grantland Rice

and the sports information department.d. Charles Lindbergh, a genuine hero, who flew The Spirit of St. Louis

on the first solo flight across the Atlantic in 1927.(1) Lindbergh's achievement was striking, evidence of both great

courage and great skill. The magnitude of the idolatrydirected at him, however, seems to have more to do with hisbackground and personality than the flight itself.

(2) Lindbergh was of Scandinavian stock, a Midwesterner. Helooked "all-American" not like a New Immigrant. Inpersonality, he was modest, unassuming, a solid family man.In other words, he stood for everything that nativists believed


was most essential about America. [remember that for yourDBQ!]

3. Boyer makes some snide, politically correct slurs against Babe Ruth and TyCobb. It is in fact true that Ruth was a "coarse, heavy-drinking womanizer"and Cobb was "an ill-tempered racist." (647) He misses the point--aboutathletes, about both men and about hero worship. The implication seems tobe that great athletes ought really to be pristine pure individuals of great andpolitically correct moral stature, like Christy Mathewson, Walter Johnson, orLou Gehrig. The fact is, they often aren't. (Why, even as nice a guy as O.J.Simpson takes an occasional drink and is sometimes a bit coarse).a. Had Cobb been a nice man, he would not have been a great baseball

player. His racism is not central to his personality (was he a racist?Yes, absolutely. More to the point, he regarded himself as a manalone against the world and always at war.). "Ill-tempered" is a grossunderstatement. Cobb was driven by inner demons to excel ateverything, regardless of cost to himself or others. He was a manwho played an exhibition game with a deep knife wound in his back(he was attacked by three angry fans and drove them off singlehandedly) who neither gave nor asked quarter. Even his team-mateshated him. But on the field, he was an elemental force. Fans watchedhim; no one loved him or idolized him.

b. Ruth's gargantuan personality (let us recall the literary source of thatadjective) was essential to the hero worship leveled at him. Was hecoarse? Yes, indeed. Children raised between brothels, saloons, andchildren's homes are not usually models of decorum. His team-matessaw him as a large healthy animal--and the most extraordinarybaseball player of all time. (Even if you norm all statistics to takeconsideration of changes i the game over the years, and then usemathematical models of effectiveness, the most valuable baseballplayer of all time is, easily, Babe Ruth.) Yes, he hit 60 home runs in1927, but he also batted over .350 with around 120 walks (I can't findmy book of stats); in 1920, he batted .376, with 54 HRs, 158 Rs, and148 Ws.(1) Being vivid and colorful are key to the popularity. I admire

no baseball player--no American pro athlete-- more than LouGehrig. Not only was he a brave man, but a fundamentallydecent one as well (my family knows first hand; I am cousinto Bill Terry, 1st baseman of the NY Giants, Hall of Famer,and last National Leaguer to hit .400; his mother lived in St.Petersburg and Gehrig made a point of visiting her every yearduring Spring training; he paid a lonely woman much moreattention than her own son did; Terry was blood kin, famous,


and wealthy, but no one in my family has much use for him)In 1927, when Ruth hit 60, Gehrig won the RBI crown andwas MVP. Who paid him any attention?

c. Jack Dempsey's background is not exactly pristine either. What madehim popular was the savage, merciless intensity of his fighting. Asmall man by today's standards, he was a killer in the ring--look upthe Willard (Dempsey broke his band, also Willard's jaw and ribs;Willard was droped 7 times in the first round) fight and the Firpofight (the most savage fight in heavyweight championship history.Dempsey was knocked completely out of the ring in the opening ofthe first round. Firpo was huge, strong, and brave, and he droppedDempsey repeatedly, but Dempsey mauled him brutally and endedthe fight in the second round)

d. Boyer does not point out (snide in reverse) that Lindbergh, for all hisgreat virtues personally, was hopelessly wrong on the subject offascism--a topic I find that I am quite sensitive on. He was one ofHitler's best friends in the US, having been fooled utterly intothinking that the US could never defeat Germany. He became theleading spokesman of the "America First" movement.(1) What do you prefer? Personal rectitude and public error of

such magnitude (and, in the case of Hitler, is there not a moraldimension to the belief that the US should not fight him? orprivate weakness without a public dimension?

(2) By the way, after Pearl Harbor, Lindbergh offered his servicesas an aviation expert, especially in the techniques ofconserving fuel. For many pilots in the Pacific, Lindberghprobably saved their lives.

E. Feminism1. Feminists won superficial gains.

a. Margaret Sanger has become a politically correct heroine for heradvocacy of birth control.(1) She argued that sexual relationships are not simply a means

of procreation but as the culmination of romantic love.(2) It is not so politically correct that she wished to stop the

procreation of groups which she regarded as less valuable tosociety, such as immigrant women.

b. Gains in technology reduces the demands of motherhood, givingmore time to devote to other interests.

c. There gains in some professional areas(1) fashion(2) publishing(3) cosmetics


(4) social work(5) education(6) nursing

d. Social mores were relaxed(1) smoking(2) drinking(3) wearing seductive clothing(4) make-up

2. Weaknesses a. "By placing more and more emphasis on their relationships with men

[romantic love], women were increasing their vulnerability tofrustration when those relationships proved unsatisfactory."(1) the divorce rate soared as women became more intolerant of

marriages that were not good romances.(2) I am a strong believer in companionate marriages rich in

romance. I think, however, that it can be argued that ourpresent obsession with romance and quick lustful emotionshave detracted from stable marriages by encouraging lesswillingness to work through rough spots or by encouraging anunrealistic view of the dynamics of human relationships(when the violins stop playing, it's time to move out)

(3) From the point of view of society, marriage is the crucialinstitution that nurtures and rears children, transmits culturalvalues, and provides economic as well as emotional stabilityto succeeding generations. At the risk of sounding like asupporter of Dan Quayle (I shudder at the thought) thestatistical evidence available today leave no room for doubtor even argument that the weakening of the family in Americahas been an economic, social, and psychological catastrophe.

b. wages did not equal men's wages(1) Therefore, a divorced woman and her children is condemned

to instant poverty or is dependent upon the support of herformer spouse. Statistics collected after 50 years of newattitudes are compelling.

c. Women did not vote as a bloc(a) Gaining the vote did not automatically bring equality(b) Alice Paul begins to lead a fight for an Equal Rights

Amendment.3. Generational Split

a. Older feminists vs younger feminists, especially over sexual mores.V. African Americans in the Twenties

A. Problems


1. The resurgence of the Ku Klux Klan faced them with intensified persecutioneverywhere.

2. Jim Crow had reached its apex in the South; repression in the South is asintense as it will ever get, and will remain about that intense at least into the1930s.

3. The middle class is hostile to labor, which hurts them since they are moreoften laborers.

4. Organized labor is hostile to them, since they tend to drive wages down andrefuse to accept African Americans into unions.

B. The new urban ghettoes.1. The migration of African Americans to Northern or Midwestern cities had

begun prior to the war, but was greatly accelerated during the war. Prior toWorld War I, the great majority of African Americans lived in the ruralSouth. Racism against them was therefore a phenomenon that was mostoften seen in the South.

2. Immigrants to cities such as Chicago tended to concentrate into a narrowgeographic area of the city.a. Part of this is due to deliberate discrimination in neighborhoods.

Persons who rented to African Americans were pressured; blackrenters were harassed.

b. The concentration of many renters in those few districts availabledrove rents upward, as there were not enough units to meet demand.

c. One response was to subdivide housing units and keep the rents up.(This had also happened with other ethnic neighborhoods.)

d. Many immigrants to the cities were ignorant and inexperienced inurban living, and that caused problems.

3. African American response.a. W.E.B. DuBois, in the NAACP's magazine, The Crisis, strengthened

his call for black nationalism.b. Marcus Garvey formed the Universal Negro Improvement

Association.(1) His "Negro Nationalism" "exalted blackness, black cultural

expression, and black exclusiveness." (Tindall & Shi 1041)(2) He began a "Back to Africa Movement" which attracted

followers.(3) He criticized DuBois savagely for being too "soft" on whites.(4) He was a poor businessman, and his projects fail financially.

(a) he was convicted of fraud in using the mails inconnection with the Black Star steamship company in1923, and served 2 years' imprisonment until 1927,when Coolidge pardoned him and deported him.

c. Both men are preaching the message of the "New Negro" proud "of


his culture and heritage and prepared to resist both whitemistreatment and white ideas."

C. Political power1. Concentration in the ghettoes concentrated the black vote, and gave them

some political leverage with urban machines.2. Ironically, the ghettoes do have the positive effect of helping to create a black

world with economic opportunities and rights.D. The Harlem Renaissance

1. There is a surge of African American artists and artistry during this timeperiod, some of which may legitimately classed among the HarlemRenaissance.

2. Jazz, as note above, moved from New Orleans to a nation-wide musical form.a. Then and now, many of the greatest and most influential jazz

performers were black:(1) Louis Armstrong(2) Duke Ellington(3) Bessie Smith

b. The Cotton Club, in Harlem, was a famous center for performances(but was available only to white audiences)

3. There is the appearance of the singer and actor Paul Robeson at this time.4. The Harlem Renaissance proper "was a rediscovery of black folk and an

emancipation from the genteel tradition." (Tindall & Shi 1040)a. Langston Hughes is probably the most widely known poet and

novelist. [Remember this for your DBQ!]b. Zora Neale Hurston is pushing Hughes for recognition, since she is

now often being taught in high schools.c. Countée Cullen, poet and novelistd. James Weldon Johnsone. Jean Toomer's novel Cane is perhaps the finest single work.

5. The most serious problem facing the Harlem Renaissance writers is thenarrow base of support from the black middle class, which made themdependent upon the support of white patrons.

E. The Influence of African American art on White Culture1. Jazz was picked up by white artists, and jazz clearly is the most important

and pervasive contribution of black artists of the era.a. George Gershwin in particular adapted the idiom of jazz to classical

music to produce An American In Paris (1928), Concerto in F,Rhapsody in Blue (1924) , and Porgy and Bess.

2. DuBose Heyward wrote Porgy in 1925 (from which Gershwin took hislibretto

3. Eugene O'Neill (as mentioned above) wrote Emperor Jones (which starredRobeson)


4. Marc Connelly wrote The Green Pastures (1930)5. Shermwood Anderson also took up the theme.6. Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II wrote Showboat, from a novel by

Edna Ferber, uses African Americans extensively in the sub-plots.7. Boyer takes a very condescending attitude--not to say snide--toward the

Harlem Renaissance and the spread of the influence of African American art.He complains that the music is "drained of its energy" and the literature"perpetuated racial stereotypes." (853) Tindall & Shi are somewhat moresophisticated, stating that one set of racial stereotypes were replaced byanother (1041)a. Both of them miss the real point, especially Boyer.b. For the first time in our history, this period sees the entry of African

Americans and their art into the mainstream of American culture.Heretofore, they possessed a subculture which remained isolated fromthe larger national culture.

c. I do not believe that one can adopt substantial part of someone else'sculture without obtaining some insight into that other person'sexperience and view of the world.

d. It is my belief that the introduction of African American culture intothe national mainstream was a vital prerequisite to convincing amajority of white America that African Americans possess the samecivil rights that white men possess, and should not, must not, bedenied those rights.

e. What strikes me most about Porgy and Bess is not alleged racialstereotypes (I missed them if they are there) but the lyricism of themusic and the humanity of the characters--drawn as suffering andaspiring individuals, not caricatures and stereotypes. (1) (Not to mention the number of African American artists who

have made a living on the play; there aren't all that many stageand singing parts for black actors)

f. What strikes me the most about Showboat is that the black stageworkers, and especially Queenie and Joe, provide a human chorus,more caring than the white community as a whole. "Old Man River,"the play's most famous song, is given to Joe, and is a powerfulcommentary on the life of black people in the American South.When Magnolia is abandoned by her husband Gaylord Ravenol andgoes into labor, it is Joe who rows to shore in the middle of a stormto fetch the doctor. The sub-plot took on the explosive issue ofmiscegenation: Julie LaVerne, the star of the Show Boat, is actuallya black woman passing for white. When she is exposed, her husband,a white man, chooses to claim "Negro blood" for himself to live withher rather than be separated by law (it was illegal for whites and


blacks to be married). Later, it is the tragic Julie LaVerne who givesMagnolia her first chance for a starting role by deliberately giving upthe role. These are not caricatures. They are finely drawn humanbeings who are African Americans. I recommend the film versionwith Alan Jones, Irene Dunn, Helen Morgan, Paul Robeson, andHattie McDaniel (which is very close to the original Broadwayversion; the movie with Howard Keel and Ava Gardner is a waste oftime from this perspective).

VI. The Era of Normalcy: The Presidency of Warren G. HardingA. Warren G. Harding was ill-suited for the office of President

1. Invented the vulgar expression "normalcy."2. He chose very capable subordinates to run key Cabinet posts.3. Too weak to abandon party hacks. Many posts went to his "Ohio Gang."4. Harding was completely bewildered by the job. He preferred to escape his

responsibilities by going to the "House on H Street" with the "Ohio Gang"where he could indulge in poker, whiskey, and women. TheodoreRoosevelt's oldest daughter commented, "Harding wasn't a bad man. He wasjust a slob." (Tindall & Shi 1067)

B. The Harding Scandals1. As I never cease enjoying telling you, Harding is one of the three most

corrupt administrations in our history (all together now, chant "The other twoare Grant and Nixon.". I have much less sympathy for him than I have forGrant.a. Please recall, all three are Republican administrations, came after a

major wave of idealistic reform, came during a period of notablematerialism and cynicism in our culture, and followed or were duringa war.

2. The Ohio Gang were crooks. They sold government offices, passed outfavors, bribed congressmen and Senators, and plundered their governmentdepartments.

3. In 1923, Charles R. Forbes, in charge of the Veterans Bureau, wasdiscovered to have been looting medical and hospital supplies. He had stolenmillions. He fled to Europe to escape prosecution.a. Harding's general counsel, Charles F. Cramer, then committed

suicide in Harding's old Washington house.b. Shortly after that, Jesse Smith, a close crony of Attorney General

Harry M Daugherty, committed suicide when his business ofinfluence peddling for bribes, was exposed.

4. Col. Thomas Miller, another friend of Daugherty's was convicted offraudulent German assets seized after the war, such as German chemicalpatents, which he sold dirt cheap. He was convicted of criminal conspiracy.Daugherty was implicated in this fraud.


5. Harry Daugherty, the Attorney General, took the Fifth Amendment whenquestioned about selling his favors. He was tried twice for bribery, butacquitted for want of evidence (pertinent records were somehow missing).

6. The worst scandal was the Teapot Dome Scandal.a. Secretary of the Interior Albert Fall transferred oil reserves at Elk

Hill California and Teapot Dome, Wyoming from the US Navy to hisdepartment.

b. He then secretly leased the reserves to the oil companies of EdwardJ. Doheny and Harry Sinclair

c. A Senate Committee investigating the lease discovered that Fall hadreceived a $100,000 "loan" from Doheny and that Doheny hadprovided a herd of cattle for Fall's ranch, $85,000 in cash, and$223.000 in bonds.

d. The government forced cancellation of the leases.e. Somehow, Sinclair, Doheny, and Fall were acquitted of fraud.f. Sinclair was convicted of jury tampering. Fall was convicted of

bribery, the first Cabinet officer to go to prison (but not the last,thanks to Richard Nixon.)

7. Harding attempted to escape the mounting scandals by taking a long trip toAlaska. He told William Allen White, "My God, this is a hell of a job! Ihave no trouble with my enemies. . . But my damn friends . . . they're theones that keep me walking the floor nights!" (Blum 625, Tindall & Shi 1071,Boyer 837)a. In Seattle, he fell ill. His physician, a crony, diagnosed ptomaine

poisoning. It was a heart attack. He suffered a second heart attackand died in a San Francisco hotel.

VII. The Presidency of Calvin CoolidgeA. Coolidge was little better suited. Walter Lippmann observed that "Mr. Coolidge's

genius for inactivity is developed to a very high point. It is a grim,determined, alert inactivity, which keeps Mr. Coolidge occupied constantly."(Morrison & Commager 418)

B. "Silent Cal" lived a puritanical life style, and was profoundly conservative in everyaspect of his life.1. His personal honesty was a God-send for the Republicans2. One aspect of his conservatism was his idea of the Presidency as a caretaker.

3. "Four-fifths of our troubles would disappear if we would sit down andkeep still." he said. (Tindall & Shi 1073)a. He slept 12 hours a day, and took an afternoon nap in addition.

C. Coolidge quite deliberately adopted the creed of business, and encouraged industrialdevelopment at the expense of everything else.1. Even more than the Gilded Age, Coolidge's administration marks the high


water mark of the influence of business interests.a. "The man who builds a factory, builds a temple, the man who

works there, worships there." (Blum 628)b. "The business of the American people is business."c. The Wall Street Journal wrote "Never before, here or anywhere

else, has a government been so completely fused with business."(Tindall & Shi 1073)

D. Coolidge was easily elected President on his own in 1924, and retained Harding'sbest appointments: Mellon, Hoover, and Hughes.

VIII. The Foreign Policy of Charles Evans HughesA. Hughes had a distinguished record, and one that does not truly conform to the label

"isolationist." The underlying problem is a lack of grasp of power relationships, afault Hughes shared with almost all other Americans.

B. The Washington Naval Conference 19211. Hughes wished to avoid a destabilizing naval armaments race.2. Hughes proposed a reduction in fleets3. Hughes proposed a 10 months moratorium on new ship construction.4. Proposed the Five Power Pact 1922

a. Established a ratio of capital ship tonnage between the US / GreatBritain / Japan / Italy / France of 5:5:3:1.75:1.75

b. Japan agreed to this ratio since they had only Pacific interests whereasthe US and Great Britain had Pacific and Atlantic interests.

5. Proposed the Nine Power Pacta. All conferees agreed to respect China's territorial integrity and uphold

the Open Door.6. Proposed the Four Power Pact

a. The US, Great Britain, France, and Japan agree to a mutual Pacificnon-aggression pact.

C. The Kellogg-Briand Pact (1928) is the crown of his policy, although it wascompleted after Hughes had been appointed Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.1. The pact outlawed offensive war as an instrument of national power.2. 62 nations signed it.3. That included Germany, Italy, and Japan.4. It was wonderful. War was now illegal. What a relief.

D. Hughes' policy attempted to involve the US in maintaining world peace, but on ourown terms, rather than through the League of Nations.

IX. The Treasury Policies of Andrew MellonA. Mellon was a multi-millionaire banker.B. He represented a conscious return to laissez-faireC. He agreed with Harding: "We want less government in business and more

business in government."D. "The government is just a business and can and should be run on business


principles." (Blum 621)E. He reduced the debt by sharply cutting expense and balancing the budget.F. He cut taxes on the wealthy (50% cut in corporate, income and inheritance taxes)G. He argued (the classic Republican position) that the tax cut would stimulate

investment. Prosperity would then trickle down to lower-income groups.1. Bob LaFollette summed up his philosophy by saying "Wealth will not and

cannot be made to bear its full share of taxation." (Blum 622)H. Supported the close cooperation of government with business (with business holding

the initiative)I. Supported the Budget and Accounting Act of 1921, which unified the budget and

accounting procedures.J. He supported the Fordney-McCumber Tariff in 1922, which reversed the

Underwood Tariff.1. Fordney-McCumber provided protection for infant industries such as rayon,

toys, and chemicals.2. On other products, it was strongly protectionist.3. This is a ticking time-bomb for our economy. We are lending very large

amounts of money to Europeans. However, the only way the Europeans canpay us back is by trading with us. We have now erected high tariff walls thateffectively choke off international trade. The inability of Europeans to earndollars also makes it impossible to buy from us, including agriculturalsurpluses. We have called the tune, and we will pay the piper in the GreatDepression.

K. He also supported the disastrous Hawley-Smoot Tariff in 1930, the highest in ourhistory.

L. Hailed by businessmen as the greatest Secretary of the Treasury since AlexanderHamilton.

M. Opposition1. The Farm Bloc opposed him

a. The Farm Bloc provided a kind of conservative Populism in responseto similar problems to the 1890s.

b. Mellon opposed the McNary-Haugen Bill. (cf below)N. He failed to understand that a lasting economic expansion would require greater

consumption which would require higher wages.X. The Commerce Policies of Herbert Hoover

A. In 1919, Herbert Hoover was the second most popular man in the world. Heremained immensely popular in the US during the Twenties.

B. Hoover is the dominant figure in both the administrations of Harding and Coolidge.C. "He used his position to promote a better organized, more efficient national

economy."D. "Hoover constantly encouraged voluntary [that is the key word in his psychological

make-up] cooperation in the private sector as the best avenue to stability . . . [H]e


became the champion of the concept of business associationalism, a concept thatenvisioned the creation of national organizations of businessmen in particularindustries.. Through such trade associations, private entrepreneurs could, Hooverbelieved, stabilize their industries and promote efficiency in production andmarketing. Hoover strongly resisted those who urged that the government sanctioncollusion among manufacturers to fix prices, arguing that competition was essentialto a prosperous economy. He did, however, believe that shared information andlimited cooperation would keep that competition from becoming destructive and thisimprove the strength of the economy as a whole."

E. "In the 1920s, particularly as Harding and Coolidge filled [regulatory agencies] withmembers of the very businesses they were supposed to regulate, the agencies beganto believe that their role was not to regulate industry but to assist it." (Current 706)

F. The Supreme Court, particularly when William Howard Taft became Chief Justice,supported that trend.1. Bailey v. Drexel Furniture Company (1922) struck down federal child labor

laws.2. Adkins v. Children's Hospital (1923) struck down a minimum wage law for

women in the District of Columbia.3. U.S. v. Maple Flooring Association (1925) sanctioned trade associations.

XI. The New Era and the Coolidge ProsperityA. During the 1920s, the US held about 40% of all world wealth.B. The foundations of prosperity

1. A friendly governmental attitude2. Pent-up war time demand3. Mechanization and rationalization of industry, which was farther in advance

in the US than in any other nation in the world.a. The US doubled industrial output between 1921 to 1929, which

implies enormous increases in worker productivity.b. The US produced 50% of world output of electricity in 1929.

C. Frederick Taylor had written The Principles of Scientific Management in 1911.He stressed "proper organization, time-motion studies to improve factoryarrangement, the use of standardized tools and equipment, proper routing andscheduling of work, and the development of planning departments." (Tindall & Shi1079-80)

D. Bruce Barton symbolized the new power of Madison Avenue and advertising withThe Man Nobody Knows (1925) Barton discovered that Jesus was a businessman:"Jesus was the founder of a modern business [who] picked up 12 men from thebottom ranks . . . and forged them into an organization that conquered the world."(Garraty 641)

E. Installment buying (ie credit) multiplied buying power.F. The automobile industry emerges as the great economic multiplier.

1. Spurred road building


2. Created a tourist industry3. Provided thousands of jobs.4. Became symbolic of a new way of life. (just drive down any street and Miami

and count the cars parked in front and divide by the number of dwellings.Then go to Europe and do the same).

G. Henry Ford 1. The greatest entrepreneur of the era.2. "Get the price down to the buying power." Garraty 642)3. "I am going to democratize the automobile. When I am through,

everyone will be able to afford one, and about everyone will have one."(Tindall & Shi 1078)a. The Model T (1908) was tough, durable, and cheap. b. The price in 1908 was $850. In 1924, the price was $290.c. Its price made it available to thousands. Ford's idea created a huge

demand.4. Ford paid high wages to stimulate output (one of Taylor's ideas)

a. He raised wages 66% (from $3.00/day to $5.00/day in order to endabsenteeism and employee turnover.

5. Ford implemented very careful time-motion studies and introduced theassembly line on a large scale and utilized continuous motion (usingconveyor belts, gravity slides, and overhead monorails) (also ideas ofTaylor's)a. it is only fair to note that Ford introduced these ideas in his Highland

Park factory in 1911, the same year Taylor published his book; Fordreached the same ideas independently.

6. His profits soared, and spurred imitation by other companies, such as GeneralMotors.

7. Ford became a folk hero.a. Unfortunately, he was ignorant, uninformed, stubborn and tyrannical.b. He would not tolerate a union.c. He was virulently anti-Semitic, published an anti-Semitic newspaper.d. He endeared himself to historians by saying "History is more or less

bunk."XII. Economic Problems

A. Uneven growth1. Some industries, like coal, cotton and wool, lagged.

B. Continued consolidation1. 200 companies controlled 50% of all US assets.2. 1% of all financial institutions controlled 46% of all banking. (Garraty 643)3. Such consolidation made the entire nation very vulnerable to anything that

might damage those few companies.C. Policies of the giants


1. The big corporations sought stability and "fair" prices2. "regulated competition" and oligarchy were typical (cf the discussion of

Hoover)3. Trade Associations grew rapidly (cf Hoover and Trade Associationism)

a. The associations exchanged informationb. The associations provided informal price fixing.c. They could easily have been attacked by anti-trust lawsd. Hoover put the Commerce Department facilities at the disposal of

business.e. The Antitrust Division encouraged and aided cooperation.

D. Weak Agriculture1. Farm prices slump as war time demand drops2. Costs mount, particularly as farmers now have to pay for land and equipment

bought during the war-time boom.3. Foreign tariffs and quotas were placed on the importation of food, as other

nations attempted to protect domestic farmers.4. The use of chemical fertilizers increases the crop yield / acre which equals

overproduction.5. There was a world wide slump in agriculture6. This is a repetition of the pattern from the 1890s.7. George Peek in 1921 proposed that the federal government should buy up

surplus wheat. This additional demand would raise prices. the governmentwould then sell the wheat abroad and recover its losses by an "equalizationfee" on wheat farmers.a. Cotton and other staples were added to his list of products to be

bought up.8. The McNary-Haugen Bill embodied this concept, and was passed by Farm

Bloc Congressmen, but was vetoed by Coolidge in 1927.a. Coolidge cited laissez-faire for his veto.b. Coolidge vetoed it again in 1928.

E. Weak Foundations1. Maldistribution of resources2. Production was far ahead of buying power

a. Wages lagged far behind productivity; the difference between the twomeant dramatically increased profits. But low wages meant lowbuying power.

b. High earnings and low taxes spurred the growth of large fortunesc. This money was not, repeat not, re-invested productively.

(1) I stress this because the heart of the Republican argument forlower taxes, and especially a lower capital gains tax (afavorite idea since Reagan) base their argument on the ideathat the money thus saved will be re-invested in productive


enterprises. If this were true, they would have a good case.However, the experience of the 1920s, and of the 1980s wouldlead to a different conclusion: the excess money is usedspeculatively. Today, many corporations are carryingmassive debt burdens and are forced to down-size (cut jobs)while forcing more productivity out in order to pay off debtsaccumulated during the 1980s. An awful lot of this debt wastotally unnecessary, the result of corporate raiders whoprofited personally with obscene amounts of money evenwhile they weakened the productive capacity and profitabilityof the corporations they were raiding. Anyone who disagreesis invited to study the time period. Speculation is driven bygreed; human beings are still greedy. A capital gains tax cutshould be accompanied by measures to penalize speculation.Otherwise, there is absolutely no guarantee that the savingswill be used as it is intended; and much reason to believe thatthey will be wasted in sterile and risky activities.

d. In the Roaring Twenties, much of this money went into Wall StreetSpeculation.

XIII. The Election of 1928A. The Republicans nominated Herbert Hoover, who could have been President in

1920, had he wanted to. He was the dominant figure in the Harding and Coolidgeadministrations.

B. Hoover was the philosopher of the New Era1. A self-made millionaire, he believed in "rugged individualism"2. He believed that voluntary associations would "create codes of business

practice and ethics that would eliminate abuses and make for higherstandards." (Garraty 646)

3. He is influenced by Woodrow Wilson and government/business cooperationduring World War I

4. He saw himself not as a conservative but as a Progressive. [Remember thisfor your DBQ!]

5. He opposed both union busting and trust busting.C. The Democrats nominated Al Smith

1. Smith was a Tammany Hall Democrat and a Catholic2. He favored repeal of Prohibition.3. He was urban, and appealed to urban immigrants4. He was therefore very weak in rural Democratic districts.

D. Hoover won a smashing victory1. General prosperity beat Smith2. Internal strains over ethnic conflict (like Prohibition) threatened to break up

the Democratic Party.


3. The election concealed a realignmenta. Working class voters are shifting to the Democratsb. The Democrats had a stronger showing in farm districtsc. A growing coalition is forming of dissatisfied farmers and urban

workers.


Works Cited

Blum, John M., Morgan, Edmund S., Rose, Willie Lee, Schlesinger, Jr., Arthur M.,Stampp, Kenneth M.,and Woodward, C.Vann. The NationalExperience: AHistory of the UnitedStates. 5th ed. NewYork: Harcourt BraceJovanovich, 1981.

Boyer, Paul S.; Clark, Clifford Jr.; Kett, Joseph F.; Purvis, Thomas; Sitkoff, Harvard; Woloch,Nancy. The Enduring Vision: AHistory of the American People. New York: D.C. Heath. 1990.[Referred to as Boyer]

Current, Richard N., Williams, T. Harry, Freidel Frank, Brinkley, Alan. American History: ASurvey. 6th Ed. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1979.

Evans, Hiram Wesley. "The Klan's Fight for Americanism" Annals of America. Vol. 14. Chicago:EncyclopeadiaBritannica, 1976. 506-11.

Garraty, John. The American Nation. 5th Ed. New York: Harper & Row, 1983.

Morrison, Samuel Eliot and Commager, Henry Steele. The Growth of the AmericanRepublic. Vol. II. 6thEd. New York: Oxford UniversityPress, 1969.

Tindall, George Brown and Shi, David E. America: A Narrative History. 3rd Ed. New York: W.W. Norton, 1992.

cycles of american history arthur m. schlesinger...

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