1. The Roaring 20s & The Great Depression

2. The Harding Years (1920-1924) President: Warren G. Harding
Vice President: Calvin Coolidge
Republican “old guard”= Conservative
Didn’t take strong stance on many issues, focused on using campaign slogan:
“a return to normalcy”
Harding remembered as a president when businesses boomed and farmers/unions struggled
The Harding Years ( )

3. Appointments Made during Harding Administration
Secretary of Treasury: Andrew Mellon (industrialist from Pittsburgh)
Chief Justice of Supreme Court: William Howard Taft
Secretary of Commerce: Herbert Hoover
Secretary of State: Charles Evan Hughes
**Harding would pardon Debs who was in prison after violating the Espionage Act during WWI**
The Harding Years ( )

4. Domestic Policy: Thought country would prosper if businesses did well and pushed for profits
Reduction of the income tax
Passage of the Fordney-McCumber Tariff (1922)
Established Bureau of Budget
The Harding Years ( )

5. Similar to the postwar presidency of Grant, after the Civil War, Harding’s presidency was marked with scandal and corruption
Scandal in the White House
Teapot Dome Scandal
Albert Fall took bribes from non-governmental men regarding the use of federal lands for oil reserves
Not discovered until after Harding’s death, so Harding was not implicated in the scandal
The Harding Years ( )

6. International Efforts
Washington Naval Conference
Major naval powers of the world agree to renounce war (1921)
Five Power Treaty: Have relative ratio of naval arms with five major countries of US, Great Britain, Japan, France, and Italy
Four Power Treaty: US, France, Great Britain, and Japan agree to respect one another’s holdings in Pacific
Nine Power Treaty: All nine countries present agreed to respect open door policy with China
International Efforts

7. International Efforts
Kellogg-Briand Pact (1928)
Efforts in the 1920s focused on preventing future wars
15 powers of the world sign a pact, but it was not enforceable
Permitted defensive wars
Failed to provide consequences/action for those who violate the agreement
International Efforts

8. Characteristics of the 1920’s
Union decline—government support of big business, union membership declined 20%
“open shop” policy contributed to this decline
Anti-internationalism
18th Amendment: Prohibition
Women gaining right to vote with 19th Amendment
Characteristics of the 1920’s

9. The Coolidge Years (1924-1928) Calvin “Silent Cal” Coolidge
“Stay Cool with Coolidge”
Presidency marked by vetoes and inaction
Kept a close eye on the budget but overall limited government
Did not help farmers or WWI veterans
Declined to run for reelection in 1928
The Coolidge Years ( )

10. Major Trials of the 1920s Sacco and Vanzetti (1921, 1927)
Italian immigrants accused of robbery and murder
Tried, convicted of murder despite their innocence
Executed 1927
Exonerated posthumously
Major Trials of the 1920s

11. Major Trials of the 1920s Scopes Trial
John Scopes (TN), biology teacher
Taught evolution to his class instead of creationism
Scopes defended by Clarence Darrow; Bryan was the expert creationism lawyer on the other side
Scopes convicted but the trial was overturned on a technicality
Major Trials of the 1920s

12. The Coolidge Years (1924-1928) Dawes Plan
Charles Dawes, American banker (Coolidge’s VP)
The United States would lend money to Germany to help pay reparations to Allies who in turn owned the United States money from the war (this cycle stopped after stock market crash of 1929)
Finland was only nation to pay war debts in full
Failure would cause bad feelings between US and Europe
The Coolidge Years ( )

13. Business Boom: “Business in the front, politics in the rear”
Rise in manufacturing between : 64%
Increased productivity
Henry Ford, assembly line
Increased use of electricity allowed more convenient production
Government rarely enforced antitrust laws of Progressive era
Offered big corporate tax cuts
The Coolidge Years ( )

14. The Roaring 20s: Entertainment
Influence of Radio
NBC (1924), CBS (1927)
Broadcast sports, soap operas, news
Hollywood & Talkie Movies
Dancing: The Charleston
The Roaring 20s: Entertainment

15. The Influence of the Automobile
1913: 1.2 million cars; 1929: 26.5 million cars
Production provided jobs and economy with money, but replaced railroads as main provider for the economy
Changed the ways American lived day to day
Shopping, traveling for pleasure, courting
Increase in need for steel, rubber, gasoline, and highways
The Influence of the Automobile

16. Society & Culture in the Roaring 20s
Women in the 1920s
Labor at home made easier with washing machines, vacuum cleaner, etc…
Women in the workforce: clerks, nurses, and teachers (lower pay than men in the same jobs)
Women gained the right to vote but didn’t begin to “bloc vote” they tended to vote on the same side as the men in their family
Margaret Sanger advocated for contraceptives (birth control)
As education levels rose so did divorce rates
Society & Culture in the Roaring 20s

17. Society & Culture in the Roaring 20s
Religion (Divisions among Protestants)
Modernism: accept Darwin’s theory without abandoning religious faith (historical/critical analysis)
Fundamentalism: 100% pro-creationism, take literal meaning of the Bible
Radio Evangelists
Billy Sunday and Aimee Semple McPherson
Society & Culture in the Roaring 20s

18. Society & Culture in the Roaring 20s
Music, Arts, & Literature
“The Lost Generation”
Unhappy with what was happening in America
F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Ezra Pound, T.S. Eliot
Frank Lloyd Wright
Functionalism—”form follow function”; only using something if it has a true and useful purpose
Society & Culture in the Roaring 20s

19. Society & Culture in the Roaring 20s
Music, Arts, & Literature
Jazz Age
Fast paced jazz music
George and Ira Gershwin
Radios allowed jazz to be listened to in America
Listen to
“Rhapsody in Blue” Ira Gershwin
“Summertime” Ella Fitzgerald
Civil Rights Movement
Society & Culture in the Roaring 20s

20. Society & Culture in the Roaring 20s
18th Amendment—Prohibition
Volstead Act
Illegal crime as a result of prohibition
Al Capone and others involved in mob activity wanted to be in control of bootlegging (Chicago)
Gambling, bootlegging, prostitution
NASCAR
Led to rise in crime rates
Many leaders still drank alcohol
Lucky Lindbergh—Charles Lindbergh, 1st Transatlantic Flight (Spirit of St. Louis)
Society & Culture in the Roaring 20s

21. No longer solely an anti-black movement; now anti-foreigner, immigrant, etc… (any non-white, non-Protestant)
Grew to 5 million nationwide members by 1925
Tactics
Burning crosses, whips, tar and feathering, lynching
Decline
Reporters discovered conflict and exposed leader (David Stephenson) to murder in 1925
The Klan’s Rebirth

22. Harlem Renaissance Background
Early 1920s until the onset of the Great Depression
Primarily intellectual and literary movement
Harlem, NYC
Harlem Renaissance

23. Harlem Renaissance Five Themes of Harlem Renaissance
Africa as a source of racial pride
Black American heroes
Racial and political propaganda
Black folk tradition
Candid self-revelation
Harlem Renaissance

24. Harlem Renaissance Key Figures
W.E.B. Du Bois: political leader, writer (promoted racial pride and self-respect)
Langston Hughes: poet, leader within the community
Countee Cullen: poet, intellect, published author (young)
Claude McKay: poet and community leader
(Show Earl “Snake hips” Tucker
Charleston “alternative”)
Harlem Renaissance

25. Harlem Renaissance Key Figures
Marcus Garvey: political radical, “back to Africa movement”
Bessie Smith: blues singer and on-stage performer
Zora Neal Hurston: writer, folklore expert, leader of the female community (Their Eyes Were Watching God)
Louis Armstrong: musician, song writer, performer, famous trumpet player
Duke Ellington: song writer & performer (Big Band jazz)
(Play Armstrong & Duke Ellington)
Harlem Renaissance

26. Herbert Hoover President: Herbert Hoover (1928-1932), Republican
Economy: Raised tariffs
Society: Support Prohibition
Government: Limited Interaction
Herbert Hoover

27. From Boom to Bust Stocks: All-time High—September 1928
Black Thursday: October 24, 1929
Unprecedented volume of stock selling
Stock Market Crash: October 29, 1929
Black Tuesday—Bank fails to stop crash
From Boom to Bust

28. Causes of the Great Depression
Global economic problems
Uneven distribution of wealth
Stock market speculation/buying on margin
Excessive use of credit
Overproduction of consumer goods
Weak farm economy
Governmental policies (or lack thereof)
Causes of the Great Depression

29. Effects of the Great Depression
Gross National Product at All-time Low
National income decline by 50%
Unemployment at All-time High
1929: 4 %
1933: 25 % (13 million not including farmers)
10 millions savings accounts wiped out
Suicide rates at an all-time high
Farmers, immigrants, and Black Americans had it worse than anyone
Effects of the Great Depression

30. Hoover’s Attempts at Solving the Problem
Hawley-Smoot Tariff (1930)
Higher tariffs—to protect US markets
Europe did the same thing and nearly all trade was eliminated
Made Depression a worldwide problem
Debt Moratorium on Dawes Plan (1931)
Cease all reparation payments and loans
Hoover’s Attempts at Solving the Problem

31. Hoover’s Attempts at Solving the Problem
Federal Farm Board (1929)
held surplus grain and cotton in storage so prices could rise
Reconstruction Finance Corporation (1932)
help some institutions: RR, banks, life insurance companies
Idea of trickle down economics
Too Little, Too Late
Hoover’s Attempts at Solving the Problem

32. Roosevelt & The New Deal

33. Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) Defeats Herbert Hoover
Pledged a “new deal” for Americans
NY Governor
Victim of polio (disabled, wheelchair)
Repeal of Prohibition (21st Amendment), help for the unemployed, cuts in government spending
Supported across party lines
Congress also became largely Democratic
Election of 1932

34. “Lame-duck” Amendment: shortened term between election and inauguration (March—January 20th)
Brain Trust & Other Advisors
Columbia Professors
Highly diverse cabinet
Secretary of Labor: Frances Perkins
FDR

35. New Deal Programs First 100 Days Fireside Chats—use of the radio
The 3 R’s
Relief for people out of work
Recovery for businesses and economy
Reform American economic institution
New Deal Relief Agencies (see chart)
Fireside Chats—use of the radio
“Court Packing”
New Deal Programs

36. New Deal Political Cartoons

37. New Deal Political Cartoons

38. Critics of the New Deal Father Charles E. Coughlin—Radio
National Bank, Anti-Semitic, fascist
Ending “evil conspiracies”
Dr. Francis E. Townsend
Guarantee a secure income
Economic security for elderly (prior to SS Act)
Huey Long
Louisiana “Kingfish”, Senator, assassinated, minimum US income
“Share Our Wealth” program
Conservatives
Some thought the New Deal bordered on Communism
Deficit financing (financing government jobs through borrowed money)
Critics of the New Deal

39. The National Industrial Recovery Act and Wagner Act revolutionized labor-management relations by legalizing labor unions
C.I.O.—Committee of Industrial Workers
John Lewis
Break off from AFL…skilled and unskilled, regardless of race/sex
Fair Labor Standards Act (last major reform of New Deal)
Minimum wage, max workweek=40 hours, child labor laws (16)
Rise of Unions

40. Recession of 1937 & Keynesian Economics
SS Act reduced spending, while Roosevelt limited payments for public works programs (hurt the economy)
British economist John Maynard Keynes
“priming the pump” by using deficit spending to increase investors/to create jobs
Recession of 1937 & Keynesian Economics

41. How are these groups doing?
Women
% in total labor forced increased Even with help from Eleanor Roosevelt, women still received lower pay than men
Dust Bowl Farmers
Farmers in Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas dealing with major drought—bad farming practices and extreme winds
The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck
African Americans
Employment rate lower than others in New Deal; last hired and first fired
Excluded from state/local relief programs
Eleanor Roosevelt did help in several ways
Several appointments to middle-level positions in federal departments
How are these groups doing?

42. Song Parody Activity 6 groups of 5 people
Choose one set of lyrics, numbered 1-6 w/ corresponding topic
Harding/Coolidge (20s Politics)
Controversial Trails of 20s (S/V and Scopes)
Society & Culture of 20s (not including HR)
Harlem Renaissance
Great Depression
New Deal
Song Parody Activity

43. https://www. youtube. com/watch
(instrumental) (song w/ lyrics)
“Call Me Maybe”