The Decade of Normalcy

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The Decade of Normalcy

• 1920-1929

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The Flapper

• The 1920s are a time of rapid social change, when
  people adopt new lifestyles and attitudes
• Nothing better symbolizes this decade of normalcy
  and growth than the Flapper of the 1920s
• A rebellious, fun-loving, bold young woman who
  wore short dresses and cut her hair, and smoked
  and drank in public

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The Flapper

• Not every woman was a flapper, and not everyone
  challenged tradition, but those who did helped
  create modern American society
• Women were working, voting, and attaining
  political offices
• Flappers were trying to break with the past and
  create a new future for participation by all in
  society

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Women in the Workplace

• But for most women in the workplace, very little
  changed during the 1920s
• They were still only allowed to work in certain
  fields, were prohibited from certain activities,
  and were still believed to be too weak ??

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Demographic Change

• Along with the social changes, America undergoes
  a major demographic change statistics that
  describe a population
• Millions of people moved from rural to urban
  areas suburbs emerge and car become more
  affordable (thanks to Henry Ford)

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The Great Migration

• The Great Migration of A-A from the South to
  northern cities increase in the 1920s as blacks
  were drawn by urban jobs
• This migration and changing perceptions would
  help lay a foundation for future changes in
  society

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Hero Worship

• With the idea of a return to normalcy, many
  Americans turned to heroes who seemed to embody
  values of an earlier and simpler time
• Aviation heroes like Charles Lindbergh and Amelia
  Earhart and sport stars like Babe Ruth, Jack
  Dempsey, and Jim Thorpe fascinated Americans

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Charles Lindbergh

• Lindbergh and Earhart became the heroes and
  symbols of the age of mechanical stuff
• Helped restore confidence in people who had
  become disillusioned after WW I
• Came to symbolize a pioneering spirit in a
  machine age

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Lindbergh and Spirit of St. Louis
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Recreational Time

• With more leisure time and more money from better
  paying jobs, many Americans also indulged in
  recreational activities for the first time
• Mass media the use of print and broadcast
  methods to communicate to large numbers of people
  was also growing with the help of radio and
  movies helped to create a national culture

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Harlem Renaissance

• NYCs Harlem was the center of the jazz world and
  becomes the cultural center for African-Americans
  and location of literary awakening known as the
  Harlem Renaissance
• Marcus Garvey formed the Universal Negro
  Improvement Society and proposed that blacks go
  back to Africa people do not, but it does
  stimulate pride in history/heritage of A-As

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Marcus Garvey
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Prohibition

• When the 18th Amendment prohibited the
  manufacture and sale of alcohol, rural areas
  tended to obey the law
• In urban areas, the law was ignored and demand
  for alcohol created a new kind of criminal a
  bootlegger person who sold alcohol (hooch)
  illegally
• Illegal (and hidden) bars spring up everywhere
  and are called speakeasies

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Prohibition

• Prohibition had been designed to stop some social
  problems associated with alcohol (WHAT??) but it
  only created an organized crime network
  (gangster/mobster) when these groups began to
  control the liquor trade
• Illegal drinking created illegitimate
  billion-dollar industry controlled (by force) by
  gangsters such as Al Capone

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Scopes Trial

• Religion was also an issue of change during the
  1920s as fundamentalism traditional Christian
  views clashed with scientific theories such as
  evolution
• Major battle took place in Dayton, TN during the
  Scopes Trial in 1925
• This court case came to symbolize the tensions of
  the 1920s resist change (normalcy) and preserve
  older values

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Scopes Trial

• Scopes found guilty, later overturned (law
  unconstitutional)
• Symbolized tensions of 1920s resist change
  preserve older values/beliefs

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Warren G. Harding

• In the Election of 1920 Warren G. Harding wins
  the Presidency and immediately embraced the
  policy of isolationism avoiding political
  alliances with foreign nations
• His campaign slogan becomes the motto for the
  1920s Return to Normalcy

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Warren G. Harding
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The Harding Years

• Following WW I US turned to conservative
  leaders who promised a return to NORMALCY
  away from Europe (isolationism)
• For many, this meant preserving rural American
  values and enjoying the growing wealth/prosperity
• For others, meant fascination with technology,
  stuff and fashions, etc

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The Harding Years

• Internationalism of Wilson would be reversed
  under the next three Republican Presidents
• Republican Party slogan becomes America First
  looking inward and not outward
• The 1920s also sees great achievements in
  business and pleasure

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Washington Conference

• Harding proposes a policy of disarmament
  nations would voluntarily give up their weapons
  and convenes the Washington Conference in 1921 to
  discuss this idea with the world
• 3 major treaties were signed with foreign nations
  limiting the size of navies and promising to be
  open with one another

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Causes of Nativism

• As the US became isolationist, they also became
  nativist again, for several reasons
• Patriotism immigrants never fully
• Religion mistrust of immigrants
• Urban conditions immigrants blamed for slums
  and corruption
• Jobs take away the jobs

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Causes of Nativism

• Red Scare believed those Russians and others
  might adopt or hold radical political ideas
  (communism)
• Nativists reacted harshly by passing a series of
  laws intended to stop immigration by placing a
  quota numerical limit on certain ethnic groups

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Nativism Again

• 1921 Emergency Quota Act cut of people
  admitted only 3 to total ethnic group living
  in the US in 1910
• 1924 National Origins Act made quota
  restrictions a permanent policy lowered to 2
  and based on 1890 census (less immigrants then)
• Intention was to discriminate and most
  low-paying jobs went to MIGRANT workers from
  Mexico and Canada

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Trial of Sacco and Vanzetti

• The one event that came to symbolize the hatred
  and mistrust of immigrants was the trial of Sacco
  and Vanzetti
• 2 Italian immigrants (anarchists) were accused of
  killing 2 men during a robbery were convicted
  with weak evidence (unfair trial many said) and
  were executed in 1927

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Sacco Vanzetti
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Schenck v. US

• The Supreme Court also made an important ruling
  in the 1920s
• Schenck v. U.S. stated that the govt had the
  right to silence free speech when there is a
  clear and present danger
• Used to silence anarchists, communists, and those
  who had opposed WW I

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Teapot Dome Scandal

• A major scandal scars Hardings administration in
  1923 with the Teapot Dome Scandal there was NO
  evidence that Harding was involved, but public
  opinion goes bad and so does Hardings health
• Hardings Sec of Interior Albert Fall, secretly
  sold oil lands to private companies in return for
  a bribe of 300,000

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Calvin Coolidge

• Harding dies in office in 1923 and his VP Calvin
  Coolidge becomes the President
• Adopts a laissez-faire approach to business which
  helps fuel an economic boom
• Also continues disarmament with the
  Kellogg-Briand Pact in 1927 nations agree NOT
  to use threat of war in dealing with other nations

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Calvin Coolidge
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Calvin Coolidge

• Coolidge is elected in 1924 and continues his
  laissez-faire approach to business
• Business boomed, wages rose, former luxuries
  became necessities and people had leisure time
• New gadgets, new technology, and more money to
  spend helped make the the 1920s Roaring

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• The symbol of this new age was the Ford
  automobile the Model T Tin Lizzie
• Almost single-handedly Henry Ford changed the
  auto from the toy of the wealthy to a necessity
  for ALL used newer, cheaper, and quicker
  methods
• Standardized Parts, Vertical Consolidation, and
  Assembly Line worker does one special task over
  and over

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Henry Ford

• Ford also grew his empire by keeping unions
  away (by paying his workers more ) other
  employers hated him b/c of this (their workers
  wanted more too)
• The auto revolutionized US life new fields of
  business (???) rural areas were now closer to
  cities, the country was within reach of
  city-dwellers

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Henry Ford
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Consumer Economy

• The 1920s created a consumer economy one that
  depends on people spending large amounts of money
• Traditionally, the US had been thrifty but with
  extra money and time, Americans became attached
  to things

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Big-Time Business

• Businesses also introduced paying by installment
  plan (credit) on this plan, the customer makes
  partial payment at set times over a period of
  time
• Americans began spending beyond their means (DEBT
  BAD!!)
• This buying on credit would be one of the major
  causes of the Great Depression!!!

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Mass-Media

• Mass-media advertising also began in the 1920s,
  persuading people to buy more and more
• Advertisers appealed to peoples emotions,
  promoting products by implying that they would
  enhance someones image or make someone socially
  acceptable Keeping up with the Jones

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Industrial Growth

• As consumers bought, productivity rose to meet
  the demand
• The Gross National Product (GNP) the total
  value of goods and services a country produces
  annually rose also
• Industrial growth spurred by Henry Ford grew,
  but some people and industries did not profit

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Left Behind

• Unskilled laborers (immigrants) and migrant
  workers remained poor and farmers were completely
  shut out of the prosperity of the 1920s
• Technology on the farms led to more production
  and lower prices while the farmers costs grew
• Cycle of debt kept farmers poor and many got out
  or went broke!!

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Herbert Hoover

• Entering the late 1920s, the economy appeared in
  good shape, and people were optimistic about the
  future
• When Herbert Hoover became President in 1928, he
  sought to keep govt out of business and promoted
  rugged individualism very Republican ideas
  encourage people to make investments in business
  (mostly thru STOCKS)

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Herbert Hoover
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Business Normalcy

• During the late 1920s, labor enjoyed prosperity
  as well
• Employers promoted open shops did not have to
  join unions
• Also promoted Welfare Capitalism system to make
  workers feel a part of business sold stocks,
  fringe benefits (med, retirement, play stuff)
• With good wages, and good jobs, unions were NOT
  needed strikes pointless

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Souring Economy

• The truth was that looks were deceiving for the
  economy there were warning signs that serious
  problems existed, but most disregarded them (some
  of which exist again today!!???!!)
• There was an uneven distribution of wealth most
  held by just a few thousand people and large
  companies dominated

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Bad Decisions

• Tax policies benefited the rich by NOT taxing
  them or by reducing their taxes
• Many Americans bought on credit, increasing their
  personal debt (DEBT BAD!!)
• Others began playing the stock market,
  indulging in speculation the practice of making
  high-risk buys in hopes of making lots of

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Major Problems

• Some people also invested in stocks by buying on
  margin investors buy a stock for a fraction of
  its price and borrowed the rest (interests) in
  hopes of price going up
• Overproduction caused problems, too
• There were too many goods, more than consumers
  could buy and industry became stagnant and dropped

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The Beginning of the END

• Again, farmers, factory workers, and miners were
  some of those hardest hit by the slow downs in
  the last years of the 1920s most faced poverty
  and starvation
• Clearly, by 1929, the economy was in bad shape,
  but Americans never slowed in their buying or
  their unwise investments in the stock markets