The New Era: The 1920s
Ch. 31 American Life in the “Roaring Twenties,” 1919-1929; Ch. 32 The Politics of Boom and Bust
Economic Transformation:
-
The decade was one of significant economic growth, fueled by new technologies, new forms of
production, and new ways to market products
Business leaders sought to reduce harmful competition through agreements and government
cooperation
The prosperity was not widespread, however, as unions and farmers struggled throughout the
decade
Culture:
-
Economic prosperity helped create a national culture as consumer goods, media, and the
automobile created a shared experience for many Americans
American Diversity:
-
Patriotism and fear contributed to hostility toward immigrants, minorities, or those who
challenged the status quo
Congress responded with immigration restrictions while nativism led to the rise of the KKK
A difficult decade for those not of the majority, the Harlem Renaissance did offer a flourishing of
African American culture
American Identity:
-
The major social, economic, and political changes led to sharp questions over the nation’s
identity
Rural Americans sought to maintain what they saw as the traditional ideals of America in the
face of trends such as urbanization, secularization, and modernization … a forerunner of the
“culture wars” of the 1990s, these conflicts raged between supporters of tradition and
modernity during the 1920s
Chapter Summary
After the crusading idealism of World War I, America turned inward and became hostile to anything
foreign or different while sharp cultural conflicts occurred throughout the decade.
Economically, a new mass-consumption economy fueled a prosperous decade as industries like the
automobile transformed the country economically and socially.
Culturally, new forms of media, changing standards regarding women, and the stock market boom
helped symbolize the free-wheeling spirit of the decade.
Politically, the Republican governments of the 1920s carried out active, pro-business politics, while
undermining much of the progressive legacy by neglect.
Internationally, America worked to withdraw from international involvements while creating high tariffs
that while protecting domestic industry helped cause economic troubles elsewhere.
The end of the decade came with the stock-market crash of 1929 that plunged the United States into a
decade long depression.
Cornell Notes
Complete Cornell Notes for the following sections of the text OR the Lecture Note Activity:
Ch. 31
Pg. 700 Seeing Red, 703 Stemming the Foreign Flood, 704 The Prohibition "Experiment", 709 Monkey
Business in Tennessee, 710 The Mass-Consumption Economy, 711 Putting America on Rubber Tires, 712
The Advent of the Gasoline Age, 716 The Dynamic Decade, 720 Cultural Liberation
Ch. 32
Pg. 740 The Great Crash Ends the Golden Twenties, 742 Hooked on the Horn of Plenty, 743 Rugged
Times for Rugged Individualists, 744 Hoover Battles the Great Depression
Conservatism & Cultural Diversity in the 1920s
“Roaring Twenties”
Why “roaring”?
Economic boom
Consumerism
New culture
Contradictions
Urban v Rural
Rich v Poor
Native born v Immigrant
Traditional v Modern
Political & Economic Developments
Harding’s election in 1920, promising “a return to normalcy” indicated that the idealism and activism
that had characterized the prewar years of the Progressive era were over.
Election of 1920
Wilson’s idealism v Harding’s “normalcy”
60-34%
Rejection of Progressive Era?
Warren G. Harding
Taxes, tariffs
Impact – retaliation
Death & scandals
Calvin Coolidge
Deregulation
Herbert Hoover
Election of 1928
Associationalism
Political Climate
Economic Developments
Prosperity
Productivity
New industries
Cheap energy
Government
Positive signs
Unemployment 4%, standard of living up, real wages up 33%
Negative signs
Poverty 40%, farmers, railroads
Foreign Policy: The Fiction of Isolation
Widespread disillusionment with the war, Europe’s postwar problems, and communism in the Soviet
Union made Americans fearful of being pulled into another foreign war. Nevertheless, the U.S. did not
retreat to isolationism but pursued arrangements that would advance American interests while also
maintaining world peace.
Disarmament and Peace – Republicans of the 1920s tried to scale back expenditures on defense and
promote peace
Washington Conference (1921)
Kellogg-Briand Pact
Good Neighbor Policy
Business and Diplomacy – Republicans believed pro-business policies brought prosperity at home and
strengthened dealings with other nations
Latin America – investments
Middle East – oil
Fordney-McCumber Tariff
War Debts & Reparations – Allies have to pay U.S. back, but have no money; Germany bankrupt, so
can’t pay back Allies
Dawes Plan
New Culture & Mass Consumerism
By 1920, for the first time, more Americans were living in urban areas than rural areas. The culture of
the cities was based on popular tastes, morals, and habits that were increasingly at odds with the strict
religious and moral codes of rural America.
Economic Rebound
Credit
Appliances
Debt
Catalogs
Sears
Chain stores
Advertising
Radio
Automobile
1913 = 1.2
1929 = 26.5
1914 = $2k
1927 = $270
1/Family
Economic impact
Social impact
Entertainment
Radio
1920/1
1930/800
Movies
Silent – Talkies (1927)
90/1929
Music
Jazz
Sports
Baseball, boxing, horseracing
Hero’s
Gender Roles, Family, and Education
Women at home & in the labor force
Revolution in morals
Premarital sex
Culture & Contraceptives
Flappers
Family
Divorce
1900 = 1/10
1/8 = 1920
1/6 = 1930
Education
Compulsory
25%
Youth culture
Religion - Divisions among Protestants reflected the tensions in society between the traditional values of
rural areas and the modernizing forces of the cities.
Fundamentalists
Modernism
Harlem Renaissance - By 1930, 20% of African-Americans lived in the North and while discrimination still
existed in housing and jobs, some improvement did exist in terms of standard of living and earnings.
Harlem
Poets & Musicians
Louis Armstrong, Bessie Smith, Paul Robeson
Marcus Garvey
Black Nationalism
W.E.B. DuBois vs. Booker T. Washington
Cultures in Conflict
The dominant social and political issues of the 1920s expressed sharp divisions in U.S. society between
rural and urban Americans as young and old, modernists and fundamentalists, prohibitionists and antiprohibitionists, and nativists and foreign-born disputed the appropriate course of America on a number
of social and cultural issues.
Prohibition
18th Amendment (1919)
Volstead Act (1919)
Defying the law
Speakeasies, bootlegging
Gangsters, Al Capone
Organized crime
Repeal
Declines in alcoholism vs. increased criminal activity
Economic argument
21st Amendment (1933)
Nativism
Russian Revolution
“Red Scare”
Conservative reaction to immigration
Emergency Quota Act (1921), Chinese Exclusion Act, Immigration Act (1924)
Sacco & Vanzetti Trial
Ku Klux Klan
Rise (1915-1924)
Targets
5
Midwest & South
Decline
Fundamentalism
Teaching of evolution
ACLU
John Scopes
The trial
Aftermath
1928 Election
Hoover vs. Smith
The Great Depression & the New Deal:
1929-1941
Ch. 33 The Great Depression and the New Deal, 1933-1939
Great Depression
Economic Transformation:
-
The causes of the Great Depression and impact upon the role of the government
Politics and Citizenship:
-
Hoover’s response to the Great Depression
Culture:
-
The impact of the Great Depression upon the “success ethic” and individuality
The growth of the American left versus the commitment to capitalism and democracy
Globalization:
-
The impact of tariffs upon the world economy
New Deal
Reform:
-
The changing role of the federal government in the creation of the federal welfare system
The elevation of various groups to balance the power of corporations
Economic Transformation:
-
The creation of regulatory mechanisms to prevent future depressions
The economic growth of the South and the West
Politics and Citizenship:
-
The creation of the Democratic coalition
American Identity:
-
The questioning of individualism
The acceptance of government
Chapter Summary
Focusing on relief, recovery, and reform, FDR swept into office with a mandate to cope with the Great
Depression. Criticized on both the left and the right, FDR’s programs created long-lasting and farreaching changes that helped create a new political coalition that would last for decades. Although
highly controversial, the New Deal is seen as saving America from extreme right or left-wing changes, or
worse, dictatorships.
Cornell Notes
Complete Cornell Notes for the following sections of the text OR the Lecture Note Activity:
Ch. 33
Pg. 754 FDR and the Three R’s: Relief, Recovery, Reform; pg. 755 Roosevelt Manages the Money; Pg. 757
Creating Jobs for the Jobless; pg. 761 Helping Industry and Labor; pg. 763 Paying Farmers Not to Farm;
pg. 765 The TVA Harnesses the Tennessee; pg. 767 Housing and Social Security; pg. 772 Twilight of the
New Deal; pg. 773 New Deal or Raw Deal; pg. 774 FDR’s Balance Sheet
The Great Depression and the New Deal: 1929-1941
Causes
Unequal distribution of wealth
1929 – Average = $2,300 … 10% = $14,000 … 16% = $1,000
Why? Tax policies
Under consumption
42% = poverty, 36% = minimum-comfort level
Leads to overproduction, surpluses … don’t need as many workers
Tariffs
Fragile banks
Borrowing on margin
The Extent of the Collapse (1929-1933)
Topic
GNP
1929
$104b
1933
$56b
Notes
Per capita disposable
income
$678
$369
Farmers income
$5.7b
$1.7b
400,000 farms
Unemployment
3%
25%
122m … 51m
Women?
A-A?
Children?
Investments
$10b
$1b
Exports
$5.2b
$1.7b
Construction
$300b
$500m
Bank failures
550
1,700
20%
Capacity utilization
90%
40%
90,000 businesses
Hunger, homelessness, depression
Entertainment, family
Hoover and the Collapse of the Economy
Hoover
Localism
Volunteerism
Rugged individualism
Why?
Laissez-faire, social-darwinism, budget
Intervention
Protest
Hoovervilles
Bonus Army
Change
FDR
Braintrust
New Deal
Goals – R, R, R,
Phases – 100 Days, 1st, 2nd
Phase
First 100 Days
Relief
Bank Holiday
Recovery
Gold Standard
Reform
Glass-Steagall Act
Federal Emergency
Relief Act
Federal Securities Act
Federal Deposit
Insurance Corporation
Public Works
Administration
National Industrial
Recovery Act
Tennessee Valley
Authority
Farm Credit
Association
Agricultural
Adjustment Act
Civilian Conservation
Corp
Homeowners Loan
Corporation
1st New Deal
Civilian Works
Administration
Federal Housing Act
Securities and Exchange
Commission
2nd New Deal
Works Progress
Administration
Works Progress
Administration
Wagner Act
Fair Labor Standards Act
Social Security
Why the 2nd New Deal?
Great Depression
Critics
Too far
Not far enough – Townsend, Coughlin, Long
Keynesian Economics
Keynes
Private sector unable to prevent severe downturns
Government should create demand
Government should lower taxes
Government should promote trade
Government should deficit spend
FDR
1933-1937
1937
Recession
14-20%
Balanced budget versus Keynes
1939
Results
The end of the New Deal
1937
Court Packing Scheme
Southerners
Conservatives
Legacy of the New Deal
Minorities
ND = Segregation, exclusion, discrimination
PWA/WPA
Republicans to Democrats
FDR
Pros – aid to Americans, addressed problems that caused GD
Cons – too conservative and didn’t change the actual social conditions OR too liberal and
created a huge government and the modern welfare state
Economy
Pros – wages, confidence
Cons – unemployment
World War II
Role of government
Expanded
Everyday life