1920s
The transformation of America into an ethnically and
religiously diverse nation, predominantly urban,
caused a BACKLASH in the 1920s.
- immigration restriction laws
- Prohibition, 18th Amendment
- Ku Klux Klan
- Fundamentalism
- politics (and candidates)
The 1920s was a period of sustained economic growth
and rising real wages.
- consumer durable goods became accessible to a
rapidly growing middle class
- Hollywood & entertainment
- youth culture and generational tensions
The Great Migration from the southern countryside to
northern cities created urban black enclaves, notably in
Harlem, NY
- influential community leaders competed for black
audiences
- Black & white intellectuals joined to study the
Harlem phenomenon
The size and reach of the federal government declined
through the 1920s.
- Coolidge limits govt intervention in the economy
- restraint of govt contrasts the growth of
totalitarianism in Italy and Russia
ELECTION OF 1920 (1st time women were allowed to vote)
Dem: James Cox (FDR as VP)
Rep: Warren G. Harding (Coolidge as VP)
“Return to Normalcy”
Harding wins in a landslide
“Less govt in business, more business in govt”
Died of a stroke in 1923. Scandals start coming out:
-Had several affairs in the White House
-Atty General Henry Dougherty: selling liquor permits, pardons
& paroles
-Sec of Interior Albert Fall: in charge of navy oil reserves; sells
reserves for $250,000 [Teapot Dome Scandal)
-Dougherty & Fall eventually indicted & imprisoned
-Other officials also involved
1917 Communist Revolution in Russia
FEAR OF COMMUNISM
1920 RED SCARE
Bomb exploded on Wall Street. Paranoia that Communists were
responsible. Govt arrested 4,000 Communists, 500 deported
(many were not truly Communists)
1920 SACCO & VANZETTI
Rob payroll in MA, policeman killed. Caught, found guilty,
sentenced to death. Flimsy proof, emphasis on FOREIGNOR
status. 1927: electrocuted
 IMMIGRATION LAWS AGAINST EUROPEANS
IMMIGRATION RESTRICTION ACT (1921)
1) Quota system: 3% of population who migrated in 1910
2) European ONLY
3) Asians banned
(fails – still too many people coming in)
NATIONAL ORIGINS ACT (1924)
2% of population who migrated in 1890
1927: 150,000 people TOTAL from any country
Politically: fear of Communism
Socially: people don’t fit American “standards”
(foreign element: Russian Jews, Southern Italians,
etc)
…Attempt to return to “normalcy”
PROHIBITION
1840 Average 25 gallons per person/year
Temperance Movement: to cut back on alcohol consumption
(State of ME goes “dry” – til 1880s)
Women & Progressives push for PROHIBITION
- Created Anti-Saloon League (Carrie Nation)
- Mid-West & South in favor
1917 18th Amendment: against Germans/breweries in U.S.
1919 VOLSTEAD ACT
1) ½ OF 1% legal limit of alcohol in any beverage
2) Can NOT manufacture, sell, barter, transport, import, export,
or deliver WITHOUT A PERMIT FROM GOVT
3) Exempts medicine & religion
PROHIBITION
Volstead Act made everyone criminals; unenforceable.
Demand goes up, bootlegging, smuggling, Al Capone, etc
Police also become “corrupt” as many also drink
1919-1933 crime rate goes up; prohibition plays a part
1933: 18th Amendment repealed / Dems take over Congress
(21st Amendment)
Fed Govt turns issue to states who turn it to local govt
[Mississippi last state to OK alcohol again – 1966]
REP favor prohibition: morals, big business – sober workers
DEM favor repeal: can TAX & regulate alcohol; lessen crime
KU KLUX KLAN
Reborn in Georgia – 1915
White supremacy: anti-Catholic, anti-Jew, anti-immigrant
1924: 2.5 million members
Membership decreases as violence becomes more frequent
1926: KKK falls apart (reborn again in 1950s-1960s)
KKK Act: govt steps in to stop threats against voting, rights, etc
Protestant Fundamentalists
Targets public school system
- Darwinism vs Creationism
TN: John Scopes (bio teacher) teaches Darwinism (illegal)
Arrested & tried. TN state trial: “MONKEY TRIAL” of John
Scopes. Press is super-sensationalistic
- William Jennings Bryan (prosecution)
- Clarence Darrow (defense)
Darrow puts Bryan on the stand, argued about
Creationism/Bible. Judge stops trial, rules Scopes has to pay
$100 fine & he can not teach for the rest of the year
Protestant Fundamentalists appear to be “lunatic fringe”
- Fade away…
LOST GENERATION (1920s)
Both American & European feeling, backlash against parents
- Bitter - Resentful - disillusioned - promise of America broken
Writers such as Hemingway, Fitzgerald
- Pre WWI parents strict, rigid
-GIs returning from WWI get no benefits, no jobs, etc
-Women get vote (1920), more freedoms, more expressions
AUTOMOBILES
1909 Henry Ford’s 1st Model-T
1913 14 hours to make 1 car
1914 90 minutes (thanks to ASSEMBLY LINE)
45% of all cars in 1920s are Fords, under $500 (affordable)
1920 9 million cars on the road
1929 30 million
LOST GENERATION (1920s)
Both American & European feeling, backlash against parents
- Bitter - Resentful - disillusioned - promise of America broken
Writers such as Hemingway, Fitzgerald
- Pre WWI parents strict, rigid
-GIs returning from WWI get no benefits, no jobs, etc
-Women get vote (1920), more freedoms, more expressions
AUTOMOBILES
1909 Henry Ford’s 1st Model-T
1913 14 hours to make 1 car
1914 90 minutes (thanks to ASSEMBLY LINE)
45% of all cars in 1920s are Fords, under $500 (affordable)
1920 9 million cars on the road
1929 30 million
1927 Model A / Ford
Henry Ford pays highest wage in America (up to $15/hour)
Entertainment:
Drive-in theaters, movie houses
-Films go from 15 minute reels to 2 hour epics; all silent movies
1927
First “talkie” movie: Al Jolson in The Jazz Singer
Radios popularized
1920 – first radio station broadcasts
KBDA (Pitts, PA – broadcasts election results)
By end of 1920s, most all families have radio
CALVIN COOLIDGE (born in VT, raised in MA)
“Keep cool with Coolidge”
Nickname: Silent Cal (didn’t speak much)
“America’s business is business”
“If 10 troubles are coming down the road, wait, and 9 of them
will end up in the ditch.”
RE-ELECTED IN 1924 (very popular)
Cuts budget by 25%
- 1920: pay taxes if you made more than $3,200
- 1928: pay taxes if you made more than $7,500
*Supports Fed/govt spending on HIGHWAYS (due to all the new
cars, travel, spending $$), railroads, civil rights, reforms in civil
service laws
*Cuts military spending
Save money by:
1) Reduce budget (spending)
2) Allies pay debts
3) Lower taxes for the wealthy (they’ll invest $$)
4) Raise tariffs (leads to depression)
1928 Coolidge retires, does not want to run for re-election
WASHINGTON NAVAL CONFERENCE
Discuss reduction in navies w/world powers
-Cuts in ships to save $$, keep balance
-Submarines & aircraft carriers NOT included
-U.S. decreases navy by 40% (others must do so as well)
-No naval arms race, keeps the peace, saves $$
4 POWER PACT
US, UK, France & Japan: pledge peace in the Pacific
- If any 1 attacks a member, the other 2 will help “attackee”
- Also outlaws poison gas
9 POWER PACT
US, UK, Fra, Italy, Belgium, Portugal, Neth, China, Japan
Kellogg-Briand Pact (1928)
Frank Kellogg (US Sec of State) & Aristide Briand (Fr For Minister)
-Renounce war as a foreign policy tool
-64 nations around the world also sign
-NO deterrence or punishment for violations
ELECTION OF 1928
- REP: Herbert Hoover
- DEM: Al Smith
Republican focus: govt in the 1920s:
- social reforms
- build country
- cut military
- keep taxes the same