1. in the Roaring Twenties

2. Urban Growth
Urban growth drove up land values and reshaped the skyline of America’s cities; forced architects to build “up”
Launched first great era of skyscrapers
By 1929, U.S. had more than 377 buildings with 20 or more floors
1920 Census: more Americans lived in cities than rural areas for first time
3.2 million immigrants poured into the country and cities between 1919 and 1921

3. Urban Growth Racial composition of cities also changed:
1910: 75% of African Americans lived on farms and 90% lived in the South
Great Migration during World War I
1.5 million moved to cities during 1920s to escape sharecropping and debt peonage
Most settled in New York, Philadelphia, Cleveland (307%), Detroit (611%), and Chicago (148%)

4. Urban Growth

5. Urban Growth
Competition for housing became a major source of friction; cities passed municipal residential segregation ordinances, white realtors refused to show houses in white areas to African Americans, and “neighborhood improvement associations” formed
Supreme Court ruled municipal resident segregation ordinances were unconstitutional in 1917
Whites resorted to the restrictive covenant; struck down by Supreme Court in 1948
Zoning laws offered a more subtle way of segregating cities; segregated on the basis of wealth

6. Urban Growth
“Black metropolises” or cities within cities began to emerge in American cities; Harlem, NYC
Racial prejudice made it impossible for African Americans to escape these new “ghettoes”
Many white middle-class, white-collar workers began moving to the suburbs made possible by streetcars and the automobile
City congestion remained a serious problem
Federal Highway Act of 1916
Traffic signals, traffic circles, divided dual highways, cloverleaf interchanges all introduced during 1920s

7. Consumer Economy

8. Consumer Economy Henry Ford
Introduced automated assembly line to cars in 1913; cut production time from 12.5 hours to 1.5 hours per car
He also cut prices six times between 1921 and 1925; a new Model T only cost $290 in 1925
To increase productivity, he introduced a minimum daily wage of $5 and shortened the workday to 8 hours in 1914
In 1926, he shortened the workweek to 5 days
Logic of mass production: expanded production allows manufacturers to reduce costs and therefore increase the number of products sold, and higher wages allow workers to buy more products

9. Consumer Economy

10. Consumer Economy Alfred Sloan, president of General Motors (1923-41)
“The primary object of the corporation was to make money, not just make cars.”
Was convinced Americans were willing to pay extra for luxury and prestige
Advertised cars as symbols of wealth and status; introduced yearly model change in 1927
Developed a series of divisions that were differienteated by status, price, and level of luxury: Chevrolet to Buick to Cadillac
Set up nation’s first national consumer credit agency, 1919
Revealed the importance of merchandising in a modern consumer economy

11. Consumer Economy Cars were the symbol of the new consumer society:
1919, 6.7 million cars on American roads
1929, 27 million cars on American roads
60% purchased cars on credit with interest rates of 30% or more
Cars revolutionized American way of life
Promoted family togetherness?
Created conflict between parents and teenagers?
“portable bedrooms”?

12. Consumer Economy Automobiles also transformed American landscape
Roads and highways doubled during 1920s
Increased government spending; $2 billion/year
Increased pollution; 30,000 annual traffic deaths
Automobile industry stimulated national economy
By 1929 produced 12.7 percent of manufacturing output and employed 1 of every 12 workers
Stimulated growth of steel, glass, rubber industries and gasoline stations, motor lodges, campgrounds, and hotdog stands

13. Consumer Economy
Other emblems of the consumer economy included the telephone and electricity; electrical appliances became more common in American homes (refrigerators, washing machines, vacuum cleaners, toasters, etc.)
“Labor-saving” appliances increased standards of cleanliness and imposed new pressures on housewives
Ready-to-wear clothing was another important innovation in the consumer economy; standard sizes defined by government in World War I

14. Consumer Economy

15. Consumer Economy
Eating habits also underwent a shift from starches (bread and potatoes) to more fruit and sugar
More processed foods; canning and freezing innovations during World War I – saved homemakers enormous amounts of time
To stimulate sales and increase profits, businesses expanded advertising, offered installment credit, and created the nation’s first regional and national chains

16. Consumer Economy

17. Consumer Economy Advertising agencies hired psychologists
Built up name-brand identification
Created memorable slogans
Manipulated endorsements by doctors or celebrities
Appealed to consumers’ desire for prestige and status
By 1929, American companies were spending $3 billion a year on advertising
Uneeda Biscuits, first million-dollar advertising campaign

18. Consumer Economy

19. Consumer Economy Use of installment credit soared during 1920s:
Banks offered home mortgages for first time
60% of all furniture and 75% of all radios were purchased on credit
New consumer society emphasized spending and borrowing over thrift and saving
Nation’s families spent a declining proportion of income on necessities, more on appliances, recreation
Older industries (textiles, railroads, steel) declined and newer industries (appliances, automobiles, aviation, chemicals, entertainment, and processed foods) surged ahead

20. Consumer Economy
During the 1920s, chain-store movement revolutionized retailing; Woolworth’s
Interlocking networks of banks and utility companies played a critical role in promoting financial speculation of the 1920s

21. Radio
Radio was most significant appliance to enter American homes in the 1920s; Sales went from $60 million (1922) to $426 million (1929)
1919, first commercial radio station; 500 by 1925 – news, musical variety shows, advertisements, soap operas, and comedies
Blunted regional differences and imposed similar tastes and lifestyles

22. Radio
Radio made Charles Lindbergh an instant hero when he became the first person to fly solo across the Atlantic in 1927
“Amos ‘n’ Andy” debuted in 1926; spread racial stereotypes; Italian gangster and tightfisted Jew

23. Phonograph
Phonograph sales surged from 190,000 in 1923 to 5 million in 1929; replaced piano in many homes
Fueled by popularity of jazz, blues, and “hillbilly” music
“Fiddlin’ John” Carson broke “hillbilly” music into popular culture in 1923
F. Scott Fitzgerald called the 1920s, the “Jazz Age”

24. Jazz Age

25. Movies
Single most significant instrument of mass entertainment was the movies
Movie attendance grew from 50 million patrons a week in 1920 to 90 million a week in 1920; Americans spent 83 cents of every entertainment dollar at the movies and 75% of the population went to a movie theater each week
By the 1920s, the film industry had relocated to Hollywood; ideal climate and cheap labor

26. Movies
Hollywood released 700 movies each year and dominated worldwide film production
A small group of companies controlled the film industry: Paramount, 20th-Century Fox, and MGM; kept actors, directors, and screenwriters under contract
Movies in the 1920s introduced the sex appeal; Greta Garbo and Rudolph Valentino
Hollywood also reinforced stereotypes

27. Movies

28. Spectator Sports

29. Low-Brow & Middle-Brow Culture
Mah Jong and crossword puzzles
Golf, tennis, and bowling
Dance crazes: fox trot, Charleston, jitterbug
Egyptian fad in 1922
Pole-sitting
Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs
Riders of the Purple Sage by Zane Grey
“Confession magazines”
Time, Reader’s Digest, New Yorker, Vanity Fair
Book-of-the-Month Club

30. Avant Garde Playwright Eugene O’Neill
Writers William Faulkner, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Thomas Wolfe published their first novels
Poets Hart Crane, e.e. cummings, Countee Cullen, Langston Hughes, Edna St. Vincent Millay, and Wallace Stevens
Artists Charles Demuth, Georgia O’Keeffe, and Joseph Stella pioneered nonrepresentational and expressionist art forms

31. Avant Garde
“The Figure 5 in Gold” (1928)
Charles Demuth

32. Avant Garde
“My Egypt” (1927)
Charles Demuth

33. Avant Garde
“Brooklyn Bridge” ( )
Joseph Stella

34. “Radiator Building at Night, New York” (1927)
Avant Garde
“Radiator Building at Night, New York” (1927)
Georgia O’Keeffe

35. Avant Garde
The 1920s marked America’s entry into the world of serious music:
50 symphony orchestras founded
Julliard, Eastman, and Curtis music conservatories founded
Aaron Copeland and Charles Ives
George Gershwin

36. Avant Garde
World War I left many American intellectuals and artists disillusioned and alienated; saw the war as a senseless mistake
T.S. Eliot called the United States a “wasteland”
Sinclair Lewis critized American middle class in Main Street (1920) and Babbit (1922)
Won Nobel Prize for Literature
H. L. Mencken

37. “Lost Generation”
Gertrude Stein, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald
Existentialism – maintains that life has no transcendent purpose and that each individual must salvage personal meaning from the void
The Sun Also Rises (1926)
A Farewell to Arms (1929)
The Great Gatsby (1925)
“so we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.”

38. The Sex Debate “If all girls at the Yale prom were laid end to end…
I wouldn’t be surprised.” Dorothy Parker
Practically every newspaper featured articles on prostitution, venereal disease, sex education, birth control, and the rising divorce rate.
City life nurtured new sexual attitudes; end of courtships, rise of dating
Sigmund Freud
Increase in premarital sex after 1900; especially generation that reached maturity in 1920s
Margaret Sanger vs. Comstock Law (1873)

39. Margaret Sanger

40. Flapper Bobbed her hair
Painted her lips
Raised her hemline
Danced the Charleston
Smoked and drank alcohol publicly
Openly talked about sex
Dated without chaperones
Wore high heels and felt hats
In reality, womens’ sexual experiences were typically limited to one or two partners, one of whom she married. This narrowed the gap between men and women and moved society towards a single standard of morality.

41. The Clash of Cultures
The 1920s was a decade of intense cultural conflict, the Protestant culture of rural America was being undermined by the secular values of an urban society:
Country vs. City
Native vs. Immigrant
Protestant vs. Catholic and Jew
Fundamentalist vs. Liberal and Science
Conservative vs. Progressive
Wet vs. Dry
The chief battlegrounds in this “culture war” were gender, immigration, prohibition, and evolution in public schools.

42. The New Woman
After Nineteenth Amendment, male politicians passed laws guaranteeing women’s rights to serve on juries and hold public office
Set up a national system of women’s and infant’s health care clinics

43. The New Woman
Women’s movement divided in the 1920s over the Equal Rights Amendment
Pitted professional women against working-class women
Women’s movement also faced opposition from federal government; “Spider Web” chart
Adkins v. Children’s Hospital (1923)
Women did not win new opportunities in the workplace; confined to traditional “female jobs” and professionals consistently received less pay than their male counterparts

44. Prohibition
Initial compliance had more to do with supply and demand than respect for the law; private enterprise filled the void
Smugglers, bootleggers, and moonshiners
Neither federal nor state authorities had enough funds to enforce prohibition
Lax enforcement and huge profits enticed organized crime to enter bootlegging; by late 1920s, liquor sales generated $2 billion annually – Al Capone

45. Prohibition

46. Prohibition
In large cities, people openly defied the law; 17 convictions of 7,000 arrests in New York City; President Harding
In 1923, New York became the first state to repeal its enforcement law; by 1930 six more states had followed suit
Congress repealed Prohibition in 1933 with the 21st Amendment
National Anti-Cigarette League, 1903; by 1923, 14 states had outlawed cigarettes

47. Fundamentalism
Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution caused a split in American Protestantism: Fundamentalists vs. Liberals
Rise of Pentecostalism in early 1900s; The Fundamentals ( )
Religious revivals in West, South
Billy Sunday
Aimee Semple McPherson

48. Fundamentalism

49. Scopes Trial

50. Scopes Trial

51. Xenophobia Emergency Quota Act, 1921 National Origins Act of 1924
Sacco & Vanzetti Case, 1921

52. Ku Klux Klan
The KKK experienced a rebirth in the 1920s under the leadership of Col. William Joseph Simmons; “ 100 percent pure Americanism”
Hired advertising agency to boost membership; 5 million members by 1925
Powerful political force; influenced governors and state legislatures
Continued to intimidate African Americans, immigrants, Catholics, Jews and others who violated moral standards (wife-beaters, drunkards, bootleggers, gamblers, etc.)
A series of sex scandals and increasing violence decreased power of the Klan by late 1920s

53. Ku Klux Klan

54. African American Protests
After facing discrimination and segregation in World War I and race riots in , African Americans were more determined to fight discrimination
National Urban League, 1911 – focused on economic issues (Washington)
NAACP, 1909 – focused on civil rights and legal action (Du Bois)

55. African American Protests
Supreme Court ruled against “grandfather clause” (1915) and segregation ordinances (1917)
NAACP also fought against school segregation in North and for federal anti-lynching bill under James Weldon Johnson
A. Philip Randolph – “New Negro”
Marcus Garvey – Universal Negro Improvement Association, 1917

56. African American Protests

57. Black Belt (1934) by Archibald Motley, Jr.
Harlem Renaissance
Black Belt (1934) by Archibald Motley, Jr.

58. Harlem Renaissance
Increasing interest in African American History and Culture; W. E. B. Du Bois
Fisk University Jubilee Singers
American Negro Academy, 1897
Negro dolls and all-Negro towns
African Americans newspapers and magazines appeared in 1910s
Association for the Study of Negro Life and History – Carter Woodson, 1919

59. Harlem Renaissance
Harlem became the center of African American cultural expression
Poets Countee Cullen, Claude McKay and Langston Hughes
Novelist Zora Neale Hurston
Performer Paul Robeson
“If we must die—oh let us nobly die dying, but fighting back!”

60. Warren G. Harding ( )

61. Return to “Normalcy”
Americans wanted a partnership between government and industry, instead of trustbusting in the 1920s; Republicans offered the conservative choice
Supreme Court, under Chief Justice William Howard Taft, outlawed picketing, overturned national child labor laws, and abolished minimum wage laws for women; states were responsible for protecting individual citizens
Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover proposed to eliminate competition and waste in the economy through “associationism”; 2000 trade associations by 1929

62. Return to “Normalcy”
Charles Evan Hughes and Andrew Mellon were other capable members of Harding’s cabinet; “Ohio Gang”

63. Return to “Normalcy”
Teapot Dome Scandal – Secretary of Interior Albert B. Fall was convicted of taking bribes
Attorney General Harry Daughtry
Warren G. Harding died on 2 August 1923

64. Election of 1924

65. Calvin Coolidge ( )

66. Twilight of Progressivism
Coolidge had no desire to be a strong president and believed that government should do everything in its power to promote business interests; “the business of America is business”
The government’s tilt toward business signaled a retreat from progressivism
Robert La Follette (WI) and George Norris (NB) tried to keep progressivism alive in Congress; had better luck at state and local level
By 1930, 43 states had passed laws providing assistance to women with dependent children and 34 states had workers’ compensation laws; NY Governor Alfred E. Smith

67. Election of 1928
Alfred E. Smith
Herbert Hoover

68. Election of 1928