1. A conflict between the familiar (tradition) and the new (modern)
The RoaringTwenties:
A conflict between the familiar (tradition) and the new (modern)

2. The 1920’s Themes “CULTURAL CLASH” (“War of the Worlds”)
Between the New Urban Industrial AGAINST the more Traditional Rural-Agricultural. The Battle was over Values.
Materialism
The “ROARING” ECONOMY of 1920’s
But much of the “ROAR” was False Prosperity
Unsound economic policies
Disillusionment – Disgust about World War I
Rejection of International Commitment = “Isolationist” Mentality.

3. 1920’s: Culture Clash Old New Rural Religious centered
Slow pace of life
Traditional roles
Social cohesion
New
Urban
Science/technology
Fast paced life
Changing roles
Unraveling of society

4. Calvin Coolidge – “the business of America is business”
A REPUBLICAN DECADE
Calvin Coolidge – “the business of America is business”
Warren G. Harding – “A return to normalcy”
Herbert Hoover
( )
( )
( )

5. Conservative (Republican) Gov’t. & Politics (1920 – 1932)
Return to Laissez faire:
Very little regulation
Tax breaks for rich & corporations
Cut spending
High tariffs to protect business
Hawley-Smoot Tariff
Harding – “Return to Normalcy”
Teapot Dome Scandal with Standard Oil
Coolidge – “The business of America is business”

6. Economic Changes Brief post-war recession: Appearance of prosperity:
No longer producing war goods, must demobilize
Appearance of prosperity:
more production
rise in income
low unemployment
higher standard of living
Areas of economic growth: auto/auto-related, construction, real estate, radio
Not everyone is doing well: farmers, mining

7. Economy of the 1920s Roaring Twenties Advertising Buying on Credit
Materialism
Consumer Culture
Celebrities

8. Mass Production Manufacturing output rose 60%
Output per worker grew 33%
Income grew by 30%
Mass production
Produced by assembly line
More goods = cheaper goods

9. Growth of Advertising
Advertise new products: appliances, cars, furniture, radios, vacuums, irons, washing machines
Promote “buy now, pay later” mentality
Installment buying
Stimulate desire for goods, increase economic demand
Age of consumer: More materialistic
Electricity + new appliances = free time
Radio: cheaper, music & entertainment

11. “New Era” of Technology and mass production of our “new” consumer economy
Assembly Line
Henry Ford perfected assembly line for his Model T – mass production
Cultural impact of automobile: suburbs, “Sunday drive”, dates!!!
Radio is used for mass communication
entertain, educate and advertise
Leisure time and the car led people to take up golf, tennis, swimming and other types of recreation.
Electricity was now the major energy source; a wave of new electrical appliances make their way into American homes for the first time

13. Radio / Motion Picture Homogenization of American Culture
1920=20, =13,750,000
Everyone watches the same movies/listens to same show
Ends rural isolation
Popularizes ragtime and jazz
Advertising
Increase interest in politics and sports
Heroes and celebrities

14. American Celebrities

15. Flappers Harlem Renaissance Religion
1920s Society and Culture
Flappers
Harlem Renaissance
Religion

16. Social Changes: Clash between “old” vs. “new”
Women:
Traditional: stay home, dress conservative, no political involvement, religious
Modern: work, vote, new fads (“flapper” style), more interested in science

17. Cultural Change “Great Migration” WW I to 1920’s Harlem Renaissance
New modern music: Jazz
Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington

18. The Jazz Age
The “NEW” Negro (the GREAT MIGRATION) – Harlem Renaissance
A rebirth in Black culture in the arts, music and literature
Jazz sound entertained American fans; Jelly Roll Morton, Duke Ellington, Louie Armstrong
“Harlem Renaissance” occurred: New Black “pride” reflected in poetry of Langston Hughes

20. Louis “Satchmo” Armstrong
-Jazz
Musician
-Great Trumpeter
& singer
"What a Wonderful World"

22. Harlem in the 1920’s

23. Langston Hughes ONE WAY TICKET I am fed up With Jim Crow laws,
-Great American Poet
ONE WAY TICKET
I am fed up
With Jim Crow laws,
People who are Cruel
And Afraid,
Who lynch and run,
Who are scared of me
And me of them.
I pick up my life
And take it away
On a one-way ticket
Gone up North
Gone out west
Gone!
-1926

24. The Harlem Renaissance
A rebirth into racial heritage and backgrounds
Led by intellectual African Americans
Well educated and middle class
Felt alienated form society
Called for action against bigotry
Expressed pride in African American Culture and identity
Blending of African-American cultures to establish/find true identity

25. “Lost Generation” The “Lost Generation”
Writers: F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway,
Disillusioned by war
Tired of materialism & consumer culture
Themes of feeling disconnected

27. Religious Culture Clash
Fundamentalism (Traditional) v. Science (Modern/Science)
Darwin’s Theory of Evolution
Scopes Trial
Darrow defends Scopes against Bryan

28. The Scopes Trial
New Emphasis on Literal Interpretation of the Bible – Scopes Trial.
Scopes “Monkey” Trial (1925) – Biology teacher in Tennessee on trial for teaching evolution which goes against the Bible
- Pro-Evolution (urban) v. anti-evolution (rural)
- Scopes was convicted, fined, but a higher court overturned it

30. Prohibition Nativism - Red Scare - Sacco and Vanzetti Trial
More Social Issues
Prohibition
Nativism
- Red Scare
- Sacco and Vanzetti Trial

31. Social Changes (cont.) Concerns about drinking
During war: prohibition to save grain
After war: 1920: 18th amendment
Favored by rural areas, not cities
Rise in bootlegging, mob “families”, crime
Ordinary Americans breaking the law

32. Carrie Nation

33. Prohibition
Under the 18th Amendment –the production, consumption or distribution of alcohol became illegal

35. Al Capone

36. St. Valentine’s Day Massacre

37. The Untouchables Trailer

40. Effects Outrage Leads to organized crime
Al Capone
Bootleggers – production “moon shine” in the South
21st Amendment repeals in 1933
Unpopular laws are difficult to enforce

41. The Red Scare of 1919 Nativism and Immigration Emergency Quota Act
National Origins Act
Sacco and Vanzetti Trial

42. Immigration Fear
Immigration fears: will all these new people “fit in”?25 million new arrivals: So. & E. Europe, Asia, unskilled, not Protestant, language
Desire for limits: literacy tests, quotas
Nativism gives greater rise to KKK
Emergency Quota Act
National Origins Act(s) – 3 laws that kept immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe and out of the US
A “new” KKK aimed at Jews, Blacks and Catholics and immigrants

44. Fear of Communism
Russian Revolution (1917): increased fear of radicalism, fear of foreigners in U.S.
Palmer Raids: mass arrests, civil liberties violated
Sacco & Vanzetti case: armed robbery, judge openly biased, faulty evidence

45. Sacco and Vanzetti Case
May the red scare is in full effect
Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti -2 Italian immigrants arrested for a murder in South Braintree, Mass
Evidence was inadequate-as confessed anarchists they were presumed guilty
The judge was openly prejudiced
Both men were convicted, sentenced to death and executed in 1927
In the 1980’s they were exonerated by governor Michael Dukakis

46. “Anarchist Bastards!!!” -Judge Webster Thayer

47. Heading Towards the Crash
“False Prosperity”

48. 1928: Cracks in the Foundation of Prosperity
Farmers: End of war cut demand, left w/ heavy debt (machinery & land)
Productivity actually created surplus; hard to reduce, led to slow down
Families carrying too much debt