The Roaring Twenties

Election of 1920► Warren G. Harding (R)

▪ “A Return to Normalcy”

► James M. Cox (D) ► Eugene V. Debs

(Socialist) ▪ Received 913,664

votes despite incarceration

Warren G. Harding (R) (1921-1923)► “A Return to Normalcy.” ► Emergency Quota Act

(1921) ► Fordney-McCumber Tariff

(1922) ►Washington Naval

Conference (1922-1923) ►Teapot Dome Scandal ►Harding died in office ▪ Calvin Coolidge assumed

presidency

Election of 1924► Calvin Coolidge (R)

▪ Booming economy and conservatism

► John W. Davis (D) ▪ Democrats split

between conservatives and liberals (LaFollette)

Calvin Coolidge (R) (1923-1928)► “The business of the

American people is business.”

►National Origins Act (1924)

►Kellogg-Briand Pact (1928)

Election of 1928► Herbert Hoover (R) ► Al Smith (D)

▪ First Catholic major party candidate

Herbert Hoover (R) (1929-1933)

► “Given the chance to go forward with the policies of the last eight years, we shall soon… be in sight of the day when poverty will be banished from this nation.”

► Great Depression ▪ Voluntarism ▪ Stock Market Crash of 1929 ▪ Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act

(1930) ▪ Reconstruction Finance

Corporation (1932) ▪ Bonus Army (1932)

American Consumer Society► Welfare Capitalism

▪ Real income increases ► Higher rate for owners, managers,

skilled labor ► Minimal increased rates for unskilled

labor and working class ▪ Insurance, profit-sharing, worker

safety ▪ Decreased influence of unions

► Mass Production ▪ Wide variety and availability of

consumer products at affordable prices

▪ Model T ▪ Domestic appliances

► Installment Plans ► Impact of the Automobile

Consumer Ads

1920s SocietyBlacks

►White Resentment ▪ Lynchings increased especially in

the South ►Universal Negro

Improvement Association ▪ Marcus Garvey ▪ Economic solidarity and

advancement for blacks ▪ Failed attempt of mass migration

to Africa ▪ Inspired black pride and

nationalism

1920s SocietyImmigrants

► First Red Scare and Nativism

►Quota Laws ▪ Emergency Quota Act

(1921) ►3% of 1910 Census

▪ National Origins Act (1924) ►2% of 1890 Census

►Sacco and Vanzetti Trial (1920-1927) ▪ Two Italian immigrants

executed for murder despite little evidence

1920s SocietyWomen

► Nineteenth Amendment and Voting ▪ Usually voted as husbands ▪ Politicians catered to female-friendly

legislation and programs ► Employment

▪ Clerical, teachers, nurses, domestic servants

▪ Lower wages and no managerial positions

► Margaret Sanger ▪ American Birth Control League ▪ Established Planned Parenthood

► Flapper Girl ▪ Young women of the Jazz Age ▪ Short hair, short hemline,

cosmetics, cigarette

1920s Culture WarsProhibition

► Eighteenth Amendment and Volsteadt Act ▪ Supported by middle-class

progressives and rural Protestants especially in South and West

▪ Generally ignored in urban centers ► Bootleggers/Rumrunners

▪ Smuggling of alcohol ▪ Rise of organized crime

► Al Capone

► Speakeasies ▪ Underground saloons

1920s Culture WarsKu Klux Klan

1920s Culture WarsReligion

► Fundamentalism ▪ Literal view of Bible; Creationism ▪ Attacked urban lifestyle and culture ▪ Revivalists

► Billy Sunday ► Aimee Semple McPherson

► Modernism ▪ Liberal view of religion ▪ Acceptance and coordination of science

and context with faith ► Scopes Monkey Trial (1925)

▪ Law against teaching of evolution in Tennessee public school

▪ Creationism ►William Jennings Bryan

▪ Evolution ► Clarence Darrow

1920s Culture WarsHero Worship

►Athletes, celebrities, innovators famed for individual accomplishment

►A personification of American individualism ▪ Babe Ruth ▪ Charles Lindbergh

► Fueled tabloid and gossip columns in newspapers and magazines

1920s Culture WarsThe Jazz Age

► Inspiration of rebellious youth and liberal reaction to conservatism and fundamentalism

► Song and Dance ▪ Jazz

► Louis Armstrong ► George Gershwin

▪ Speakeasies ▪ Dance Clubs

► Waltz to Foxtrot to Charleston ► Josephine Baker

▪ Flappers ► Radio

▪ Mainstream medium ▪ Networks: NBC, CBS

► Cinema ▪ Talkies

► The Jazz Singer ▪ Nickelodeons ▪ Charlie Chaplin

1920s Culture WarsLiterature

►The Lost Generation ▪ Disillusioned by World

War I, consumerism, and modernism

▪ Ernest Hemingway ►The Sun Also Rises ►A Farewell to Arms

▪ Sinclair Lewis ►Babbitt

▪ F. Scott Fitzgerald ►The Great Gatsby

1920s Culture WarsHarlem Renaissance

► Fueled by the Great Migration and inspired by black pride

►Themes challenged racist stereotypes

► “Black is beautiful” ► Langston Hughes ► Zora Neale Hurston ►The New Negro: An

Interpretation (1925)