The Roaring 20’s
An era of prosperity,
Republican power,
DBQ #1
President Calvin Coolidge
30th President 1923-28
By the 1920s, the U.S. had become the leading
industrial power in the world. This boom was due to
several factors:
A. a wealth of natural resources
B. government support for business
C. a growing urban population for cheap
labor and markets for new products.
President Coolidge
“The business of America is business. The man who
builds a factory builds a temple. The man who works
in it worships there.”
 1923-29
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The political genius of President Coolidge,
Walter Lippmann pointed out in 1926, was
his talent for effectively doing nothing:
"This active inactivity suits the mood and
certain of the needs of the country
admirably. It suits all the business interests
which want to be let alone....
Reduced regulations on businesses
16th Amendment passes in 1913: begins
Individual and Corporate Income Taxes
Today we pay our taxes to the Federal and
State governments no later than April 15th
Taxes are reduced for businesses under both
Presidents Warren Harding and Calvin Coolidge
Age of Prosperity
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Employment and wages/salaries
are strong in the 1920s as the
economy expands
Henry Ford introduces the
assembly line to factories – reduces
costs and increases supply so the
price goes down and more
Americans can afford a car
Assembly lines and mass
production spread throughout the
US economy
In 1919 there are 7 million cars in
the US but by 1929 there are 23
million on the road; creating an
estimated 4 million new jobs
Age of Prosperity
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The car transforms the US economy
Competition increases as General Motors manufactures cars and
Ford does not have a monopoly
New jobs are needed to keep up with the demand for refining oil
into gasoline, gas stations, building roads, restaurants, and
shopping centers.
People move from the crowded cities to the suburbs further
away from work because they can drive there
Document 2
Women in the Roaring ‘20s
1920's Great Changes
for Women...
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1920 - 19th Amendment
gave them the federal vote
The League of Women
Voters worked to educate
women on voting and to
ensure women could serve
on juries
During WWI many women
worked in factories
After the war, many women
kept working outside the
home
More women went to college
and wanted to join the
professions
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Women didn't want to sacrifice their
wartime gains in income and life
outside of the home - amounted to a
social revolt
the FLAPPER became the name for
"new woman” who wore skirts that
only went to the knee, smoke
cigarettes and drank alcohol in
public, drove cars fast, and cut their
hair short
With income from working, women
bought appliances like vacuum
cleaners, refrigerators, and radios
Some women had to work and also
run their homes. It was hard for
them to combine these roles. While
many women worked, most
remained homemakers.
Consumer Economy
What are these items?
Document 3
The Harlem Renaissance
Many Black
Americans in this
period continued to
live in poverty
 sharecropping kept
them in de facto
slavery
 white landowners
went bankrupt &
forced blacks off their
land
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African-Americans moved north to take advantage of booming
wartime industry (= Great Migration) - Black ghettoes began
to form like Harlem in New York City
A distinct Black culture flourished but most neighborhoods
and schools were not integrated in the North.
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Marcus Garvey (Jamaican born
immigrant) established the
Universal Negro Improvement
Association
believed in Black pride
advocated racial segregation b/c of
Black superiority
Garvey believed Blacks should
return to Africa
he purchased a ship to start the
Black Star line
attracted many investments: gov't
charged him with with fraud
he was found guilty and eventually
deported to Jamaica, but his
organization continued to exist
Document 4
The “Roaring Twenties”
"Old" Culture
"New" Culture
Emphasized Production
Emphasized Consumption
Character
Personality
Scarcity
Abundunce
Religion
Science
Idealized the Past
Looked to the Future
Local Culture
Mass Culture
Substance
Image
The above graph indicates in a general sense what historians mean
when they refer to the "old" and the "new" cultures of the 1920s.
This list is not meant to be definitive. Source: Culture as History: The
Transformation of American Society in the Twentieth Century (New
York: Pantheon Books, 1984).
Presidents Harding and Coolidge reduce the Progressives’
regulations of businesses. America switches from war
goods to consumer goods and advertising to sell products.
Instalment Buying: Get it now and pay later
Credit: pay a small amount each month until an item is
paid for
Interest: financial charge for borrowing $
Demand for US goods greatly increases but so does
American debt.
“If we want anything, all we have to do is go and buy it
on credit. So that leaves us without any economic problems
whatever, except some day to have to pay for it. But we are
certainly not thinking about it this early” Comedian Will
Rogers, 1928
The Jazz Age
Jazz began in New Orleans, based
on West African rhythms, Black
spirituals and work songs, and
European harmonies. Greats
included Louis Armstrong and
Duke Ellington. Eventually, rock
and roll plus hip hop will develop
from it.
Americans bought radios and
went to the movies. Popular fads
grabbed the nation’s attention,
like flag-pole sitting (21 days was
the record) and then disappeared
. The Charleston dance became
another fad.
Culture of the Roaring 20’s
<<< Radio: GE, Westinghouse,&
RCA form NBC
Silent Movies
>>>>
Charlie
Chaplin
“Talkies”
The Jazz Singer
Starring Al Jolson
Mary Pickford
“America’s Sweetheart”
Celebrities
Babe Ruth &Ty Cobb
Charles Lindbergh
The Spirit of St. Louis
Jack Dempsey
The 20’s is The Jazz Age
The Flappers
make up
cigarettes
short skirts
Writers
Musicians
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Ernest Hemingway
Louis Armstrong
Duke Ellington
Charles Lindbergh
The Ku Klux Klan: Great increase
In power across the US, not just the South
Anti-black
Anti-immigrant
Anti-Semitic
Anti-Catholic
Anti-women’s suffrage
Anti-bootleggers
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PROHIBITION - on the
manufacture and sale of alcohol
Ratified in 1919 as the 18th
AMENDMENT
In WWI, temperance (antialcohol) became a patriotic
cause. Drunkenness caused
lower work productivity &
inefficiency.
Prohibition was a difficult law
to enforce. Organized crime
made millions while millions of
law-abiding Americans turned
to bootleggers for their booze.
Al Capone virtually controlled
Chicago in this period capitalism at its zenith…
Prohibition finally ended in
1933 with the 21st Amendment
The 21st forced organized crime
to pursue other interests…
Prohibition Volstead Act
18th Amendment
Gangsters
Al Capone
Document 5a and 5b
Wall Street Brokers and the
Problems of the American
Economy
The 1920s was a decade of enormous economic growth. The raging
U.S. stock market was hailed by many as evidence of a "New Era"
of economic fundamentals. Supporters of this theory pointed to
evidence such as the establishment of the Federal Reserve System in
1913; government policies including the extension of free trade,
anti-inflation measures, and the relaxation of anti-trust laws; and
corporate improvements such as increased worker productivity and
expanded research and development.
The decade was marked by an enormous expansion of consumer
credit, which Americans used to finance purchases of new products
such as automobiles and radios, which were created using new
techniques of mass production that additionally helped to drive
down prices.
Consumers also used credit to purchase stocks, and as the stock
market escalated, investors began to take advantage of margin loans
provided by their brokers. Their primary targets were industries
involving new technologies, such as the automobile, aircraft, and
motion picture, and aircraft industries. Radio stocks boomed, rising
by 400 percent in 1928 alone, and the stock market attracted an
immense public following.
The practice of "buying on margin" refers to the use of loans to buy
stocks. Often stocks themselves were used as collateral to secure the
loans. Such a system worked well as long as stock values climbed
steadily, but when the market dipped this practice set of a
catastrophic chain reaction that ultimately lead to the failure of
many banks. On September 3, 1929, just before the stock market
crash, the Dow Jones Industrial Average reached its high for the
year.
1920s Soaring Stock Market
Companies sell stocks to gain the money they
need to expand their business. Investors buy
the stocks and hope the value of them will
increase
 The 1920s were a Bull Market where stock
prices rose rapidly. Often the price rose not
because the company was improving but
simply because investors expected the price to
rise. Investors became rich overnight, buying
stocks and selling them for more not long
afterwards. As long as prices continued to rise
all was well.
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