TRANSITION TO MODERN AMERICA THE ROARING TWENTIES

THE SECOND INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION  U.S. develops the highest standard of living in the world  The Twenties brought a second revolution  Electricity replaces steam  Modern assembly introduced  Productivity rose to meet consumer demand

THE AUTOMOBILE INDUSTRY  Auto makers stimulate sales through model changes, advertising  Auto industry fosters other businesses  steel, rubber, glass, paint, petroleum  Autos encourage suburban sprawl

PATTERNS OF ECONOMIC GROWTH  Structural change  Professional managers replace individual entrepreneurs  Corporations become the dominant business form  Big business weakens regionalism, brings uniformity to America  Retailers emphasize marketing and design, buying on credit

ECONOMIC WEAKNESSES  Railroads poorly managed, trucking creates competition  Coal displaced by petroleum  Farmers face decline in exports, prices  Growing disparity between income of laborers, middle- class managers  Middle class speculates with idle money

CITY LIFE IN THE JAZZ AGE  Rapid increase in urban population  Skyscrapers symbolize the new mass culture  Communities of home, church, and school are absent in the cities

WOMEN AND THE FAMILY  Ongoing crusade for equal rights  “Flappers” seek individual freedom  Divorce rates double  Smoke and drink in public  Birth rates decline  “Women’s professions” grow  Discovery of adolescence  Teenagers no longer need to work, attend high school

PROHIBITION  19 th Amendment led to “speakeasies” & “bootleggers”  Resulted in the emergence of organized crime  Repealed in 1933

HERO WORSHIP  Attendance at sporting events skyrocketed as mass media glorified sports heroes  Charles Lindbergh made the 1 st nonstop solo flight across the Atlantic and became the most beloved hero of the time

MASS CULTURE  Increased literacy created a wider audience  Newspapers & mass circulation magazines flourished  Motion pictures became a national pastime in the ’20s  Radios reached mass audiences as well

THE FLOWERING OF THE ARTS  Lost Generation: "Exiled" American writers put U.S. in forefront of world literature  Alienation from 20s’ mass culture  T.S. Eliot: emptiness of the modern man  Ernest Hemingway: sought violence and adventure  F. Scott Fitzgerald: emptiness of wealth

RACE RELATIONS IN THE ’20S  25 race riots erupted in 1919 and the KKK regained power  NAACP moved its headquarters to Harlem, sought anti-lynching legislation  Marcus Garvey founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA), Black Star Cruise Line

JAZZ & THE HARLEM RENAISSANCE  “Jazz Age” – most popular music of the time  In the 1920s, Harlem was the world’s largest black urban community  Harlem became the origin of a number of creative works celebrating African American culture  Jazz became a driving force in spreading the Renaissance to the white population

THE RURAL COUNTERATTACK  Rural Americans identify urban culture with Communism, crime, immorality – resulting in an upsurge of bigotry and rise of repression  “Red Scare” led to Palmer Raids  Immigrant “radicals” arrested and forcibly deported  Sacco and Vanzetti executed  New restrictions on immigration

THE FUNDAMENTALIST CHALLENGE  Fundamentalists stress traditional Protestant orthodoxy, biblical literalism  Fundamentalists strengthen grassroots appeal in new churches  Clash between fundamentalism & evolution theory led to Scopes “monkey trial” in 1925

WARREN G. HARDING ( )  Ushered in a “Republican Era” of presidents  Won popularity by promising a “return to normalcy” after the war  Advocated isolationism and international disarmament, but promoted the expansion of U.S. trade  Administration plagued by scandals, most notably Teapot Dome – Harding’s Secretary of the Interior gave oil drilling rights on govt. lands in exchange for illegal payments

CALVIN COOLIDGE ( )  “The business of America is business” – Laissez faire policies helped fuel the economic boom of the 1920s  Signed the Kellogg-Briand Pact – more than 60 nations agreed not to threaten each other with war

REPUBLICAN POLICIES  Blocked Congressional aid to farmers as unwarranted interference  Government-business cooperation  Tariffs raised (Fordney-McCumber Tariff Act)  Corporate, income taxes cut  Spending cut

THE DIVIDED DEMOCRATS  The urban-rural split weakened Democrats  1924 Election saw a major shift in political loyalties  Democrats gain more Congressional seats than Republicans after 1922

THE ELECTION OF 1928  Democrat Al Smith carried urban vote  Roman Catholic governor of New York  Republican Herbert Hoover won the race  Protestant, conservative  Foresaw an end to poverty in America  Religion and traditional values were the campaign’s decisive issues

“HEALTHY” ECONOMY?  High confidence in the economy encouraged risky investments.  No one heeded the economic danger signs:  Uneven prosperity  Personal debt  Stock market manipulation  Overproduction  Troubled farmers & workers