The Red ScareThe Red Scare• Fears of Russian Communism (Socialism)

coming to America• Small Communist party in America

Post War StrikesPost War Strikes

• Because of high prices -- will cause the strikes of 1919 and 1920s

• But many blamed them on the communists. Why?

BIG RED SCARE 1919 - 1920BIG RED SCARE 1919 - 1920

• Nationwide crusade against left wingers• Attorney General Mitchell Palmer led the attack

(palmer raids) 6000 rounded up• Bomb blast on wall street kills 38• State legislatures pass anti-red laws – unlawful

to advocate violence to secure social change.• Boon to Conservative businessmen – the closed

shop was seen as Sovietism in disguise

Sacco and Vanzetti TrialSacco and Vanzetti Trial

• Convicted of the murder of a Mass. Paymaster and his guard

• Jury probably prejudiced because they were known anarchists, atheists, draft dodgers, and Italian.

• Six year trial ends in electrocution • Martyrs to the red scare

KKKKKK

• Anti Foreign nativist movement during the 20s

• They were anti -- foreign, Catholic, black, Semitic, pacifist, communist, internationalists, evolutionist, bootlegger, gambling, adultery, and birth control.

• They were pro – WASP• Spread rapidly in the 1920s – 5 million• Died out in scandal in late 20s.

ImmigrationImmigration

• Southern and Eastern Europeans most objectionable

• Emergency quota act 1921– 3% of persons of their nationality living in the

U.S. in 1910– Still allowed too many southern and eastern – Europeans

Immigration Act of 1924Immigration Act of 1924

• Ouotas cut from 3% to 2%• National Origin base shifted to 1890• Slammed the door to all Japanese• Quota system was an important departure

in American practice of immigration• Exempted from the system – Canadians

and Latinos

ProhibitionProhibition

• 18th amendment – progressive• Strongest in the mid-west and south• Weakest in the east• Many people still wanted alcohol• Too few to enforce it • Prohibition simply did not prohibit• Volsted Act

SpeakeasiesRumrunnersHome brew and bathtub ginNot a complete failure

bank savings increaseabsenteeism in industry decreases

GangsterismGangsterism

• Gang wars to corner the booze market• Chicago’s Al Capone• Serves time for income tax evasion• Organized crime became one of the

nations most gigantic businesses

EducationEducation

• John Dewey makes great strides in Progressive education– learn by doing– Greater permissiveness – workbench as

essential as the blackboard• The battle between Modernist and

Fundamentalists leads to the Scopes Trial

Scopes (Monkey Trial)Scopes (Monkey Trial)

• Tennessee law outlawed the teaching of Darwinism 1925

• Biology teacher Scopes indicted for teaching evolution

• Became a newspaper event• Defended by Clarence Darrow• Prosecuted by William Jennings Bryan• Scopes found guilty fined $100

Consumer SocietyConsumer Society

• Except for the recession of 1921 – 22 the 20s enjoyed tremendous prosperity

• Mellon’s tax policies were to cut taxes on the rich

• Sec. of the Tres. Andrew Mellon’s tax policies favor the rich (trickle down) and the rapid expansion of capital investment

Henry FordHenry Ford

• Frederic Taylor – Father of scientific management

• Assembly line reaches perfection under Ford

• Auto became affordable to all Americans• Any color as long as it was black. Why?

Growth in AdvertisingGrowth in Advertising

• Bruce Barton – founder of the new profession of Advertising “The Man Nobody Knows”

• Makes American’s dissatisfied with what they have.

Buying on CreditBuying on Credit

• American’s went into debt over consumer goods

• The economy became increasingly vulnerable to credit disruptions.

The CarThe Car

• Hurts the Railroad industry• Major Prop in the nations prosperity

gasoline age – 1920 10,000,000 cars– 1929 26,000,000 cars– 1920 369,000 miles of surfaced road– 1929 662,000 miles

The AirplaneThe Airplane

• Used in WWI• Next used in stunt flying and mail carrying• Lindberg’s flight across the Atlantic

RadioRadio

• KDKA• News, politicians, comedy, sports,

symphony.

HollywoodHollywood

• 1903 Great Train Robbery• Birth of a Nation• Used in anti-German propaganda• 1927 first talking motion picture• Eclipsed all other forms of entertainment.

Changes in Lifestyles and Changes in Lifestyles and ValuesValues

• Parallels the upsurge in the economy• Women’s movement• Attempt at ERA 1923 National Women’s Party• Birth Control – Margaret Sanger• Flappers• Even the Church turns to entertainment and

advertising to lure back the fold – Billy Sunday

LiteratureLiterature• H.L. Mencken• Criticizes American Society, marriage, patriotism,

democracy, prohibition, do-gooders• F. Scott Fitzgerald• New code of morals• “The Great Gatsby”

– On the glamour and cruelty of the achievement oriented society.

• “This side of Paradise”1920– a bible for the young– Full of melancholy – “All wars fought, all gods dead all faith in

mankind shaken”

• Theodore Dreiser“An American Tragedy”same theme -- achievement and cruelty

• Freud– Much of the reason for the sexual revolution

• Ernest Hemmingway– “the Sun Also Rises”– A Farewell to Arms” about war and how people were changed by it.

• Sinclair Lewis– “Babbitt” 1922– “Main street” 1920– Captures the hypocrisy and the materialism of the middle class

• Faulkner– “A Soldiers Pay”– “The Sound and the Fury”– As I Lay Dying

Poets and PlaywrightsPoets and Playwrights

• Frost• T.S. Elliot• Eugene O”Neal• Laid bare the Freudian notions of sex