1. Roaring Twenties
Unit VIA
AP U.S. History

2. Fundamental Question
Did the Roaring Twenties continue the Progressive Era reforms and did it reflect its description as “roaring”?

3. “A Return to Normalcy” “The Business of America is Business”
Dedication and inspiration for Progressive reform waned
Americans apprehensive about becoming a world power after WWI
Returning soldiers and paranoia of WWI reestablished a conservative and isolationist society
A reinvigoration of American business prosperity and consumerism

4. America’s Consumer Society
Competition increased against trusts/monopolies
Real income increased for most workers
Avoid agitation of unions
Welfare capitalism reduced union membership
Production and profits through mass production techniques
Wide variety and availability of consumer products
Model T
Domestic appliances
Installment plans
Purchase on credit
National advertising
Brand names for all Americans (rural/urban, east/west, wealthy/poor)
Automobiles – the new railroad
Evolved the nation’s transportation infrastructure
Invigorated other industries

5. Consumer Ads

6. Republican Domination
Republican Congress, Presidents, appointed commissions, and conservative Supreme Court pursued and sided with pro-business policies
Regulation as a form of stabilization, but generally a hands-off approach to the national economy

7. Election of 1920

8. Warren G. Harding (R) (1920-1923)
“Return to normalcy.”
Bureau of the Budget
Revenue Act of 1921
Tax cuts for wealthy
Fordney-McCumber Tariff (1922)
Increase tariff rates, especially on industrial goods
Scandalous
Teapot Dome – bribes for oil fields
Veteran’s Bureau fraud and bribery
Attorney General bribed by almost everyone
Harding died in office

9. Election of 1924

10. Calvin Coolidge (R) (1923-1928)
“The business of the United States is business.”
Revenue Act of 1926
More tax cuts for the wealthy
Vetoed veterans’ benefits and farm assistance, but overruled by Congress

11. Election of 1928

12. Herbert Hoover (R) ( )
Never ran for elected office; worked under last three presidents
Campaigned on prosperity of last Republican presidents and to continue policies

13. 1920s Social Turmoil Blacks Nativists and Immigrants Prohibition Women
White resentment on blacks in job market
Lynches increased
Ku Klux Klan returns
Universal Negro Improvement Association and Marcus Garvey
Economic solidarity and advancement for blacks
Unsuccessful migration plan to return to Africa
Nativists and Immigrants
Palmer Raids and Red Scare prejudice continue on with Sacco and Vanzetti case
Quota laws
Emergency Quota Act (1921) – 3% of person in U.S. in 1910
National Origins Act (1924) – 2% of persons in U.S. in 1890
Max of 150,000 non-Western
Prohibition
Enforced in rural areas; blind eye in urban areas
Speakeasies
Bootlegging and rise of organized crime/bribes
Women
Voted as husbands did
Homemaker, domestic jobs, low wages
Divorces becoming more attainable

14. Marcus Garvey

15. KKK as Rural Terrorists

16. Immigration and Quotas

17. Speakeasies

18. Culture Conflict and Change
Religion
Election of 1928 showed disdain of Protestants and Catholics
Modernism vs. fundamentalism among Christians
Scopes Trial – creationism and evolution
Hero Worship
Individual success amidst a sea of conformity
Babe Ruth, Charles Lindbergh, Charlie Chaplin
Entertainment develops mass culture
Radio broadcasts news, sports, game shows, dramas, comedies
Movie industry rises with silent films and talkies
Jazz Age
American youth break with American social and rural-based traditions
Flapper girl
Jazz music and clubs
“The Lost Generation”
Disillusionment with American culture and society as materialistic and consumer-driven
Ernest Hemingway (The Sun Also Rises, A Farewell to Arms), F. Scott Fitzgerald (The Great Gatsby)
Harlem Renaissance
Poets, musicians, painters, authors on black themes and culture

19. Flapper Girl and Sexual Direction

20. Babe Ruth

21. Charles Lindbergh

22. Charlie Chaplin

23. American Foreign Affairs
Washington Conference (1921)
5:5:3 naval ratio
Respect China and Open Door policy
Kellogg-Briand Pact (1928)
Aggressive war illegal; defensive war legal
Foreign investments
Middle East oil investments
Protection of Latin America investments
War debts and Dawes Plan
Cycle of American bank loans to Germany to pay reparations to France/GB to pay war debts to America