The 1920s

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The 1920s Everything you need to know
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A little before the 1920s
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Russian Revolution

• 1917
• Czar Nicholas II is extremely unpopular amongst
  the Russians
• Vladimir Lenin and his followers, the Bolsheviks,
  lead a successful revolution
• 1918
• Civil War engulfed Russia
• Lenins forces- the Reds
• Opposition- the Whites
• 1920
• Reds win the civil war
• Renamed the nation Union of Soviet Socialist
  Republics (USSR)
• Communism named the official ideology of USSR
• Effect on the US- RED SCARE intense fear of
  communism and other extreme ideas

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Red Scare

• Caused by labor unrest, hikes in cost of living
  and distrust of Communism

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Schenck v. US (1919)

• Charles Schenck mailed letters to WWI draftees
  urging them not to report for duty.
• He was convicted under the Espionage Act, which
  was meant to catch spies and opponents to the
  war.
• His appeal to the Supremes claimed he was
  exercising his right to free speech.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. was the author of the
Courts opinion. One of the best legal writers
of the time and always the best moustache!
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• Supreme Court decision established the
  justification of silencing free speech when there
  is a clear and present danger to the nation.
• Holmes compares Schencks actions to shouting
  FIRE! in a crowded movie theatre, which would
  cause a dangerous panic.

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Palmer Raids

• Atty. General A. Mitchell Palmer set up a special
  force to conduct raids and arrest suspected
  subversives. His targets included Communists,
  Socialists, and anarchists.
• Palmers forces jailed thousands, most of whom
  were born overseas. More than 500 immigrants
  were deported even though they were accused of no
  crime.
• Had popular support at first, but lessened as the
  raids became more outrageous and aggressive.

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Sacco and Vanzetti

• In 1920, gunmen robbed and killed a guard and
  paymaster of a shoe factory, and two Italian
  immigrants are arrested.
• Many Americans suspect that they are arrested
  because they are immigrants.
• Ruckus ensues.
• S and V are convicted and sentenced to die, on
  repeated appeals the conviction holds. They are
  electrocuted in 1927.

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Society in the 1920s
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Flappers and Changes for women

• Women prefer their dresses and hair shorter!
  Skirts rise from 6 inches off the ground to knee
  length or higher by the mid 1920s clothes were
  worn tighter as well!
• Women also begin to wear makeup which was once
  thought to be a sign of immorality!

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Jazz Age

• Jazz grew out of African American music in the
  south, especially ragtime and the blues younger
  people loved to dance to it, and a survey of
  radio stations shows that 2/3 of all air time is
  devoted to jazz!
• The hottest clubs were the jazz clubs too. The
  most famous was the cotton club in Harlem, and
  the most famous band was Louis Armstrongs Jelly
  Roll Morton Band.

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The Lost Generation

• A set of writers lost in the greedy materialism
  of the era most of them were living in
  Greenwich Village
• Included ee Cummings, Hemingway, John Dos Passos,
  and F. Scott Fitzgerald

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Harlem Renaissance

• African American literary awakening, centered in
  Harlem, NY
• Zora Neale Hurston, Langston Hughes, Countee
  Cullen

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The jazz Singer

• First film with sound
• Featured a Vaudeville star, Al Jolson
• Talkies

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Conflicts and drama
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Prohibition

• 18th Amendment ignored on much of the east coast
  
• 1924 report 95 of Kansas obeys the law, and 5
  of New Yorkers obey it
• Bootlegging illegal sale and transport
• Speakeasies clubs where liquor is served
• Organized crime the mob got its roots and
  gained lots of influence during this period
  bootlegging for a wide range of people
• The most famous was Al Capone, nicknamed
  Scarface

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Scopes monkey trial

• Can you teach evolution in school?
• Scopes tried, but loses to William Jennings
  Bryan!
• Broadcast over radio, reported in papers first
  nationwide coverage of a trial (like an early OJ
  trial)

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Revival of the KKK

• This time, its against immigrants, minorities,
  catholics, jews, and others who dont fit in

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A Republican Decade
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Warren G. Harding

• looks like a president
• Speeches often left people wondering what his
  views were
• One democrat called his words an army of pompous
  phrases moving across the landscape in search of
  an idea

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Harding presidency

• Isolationism foreign policy reflected the
  American postwar desire to turn away from foreign
  entanglements.
• This included discouraging economic imports by
  passing tariffs!
• While we did avoid joining the League of Nations,
  Harding did participate in a call for
  disarmament. Under this program, the nations of
  the world would give up their weapons voluntarily.

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Immigration

• Along with an isolationist policy towards
  politics, Americans sought to limit the number of
  foreigners admitted to the US.
• Why? Here are 5 arguments of nativists
• People from foreign countries would never be
  fully loyal to the US
• Dislike of Catholics, Jews, and Orthodox
  Christians
• Immigrants would take jobs from Americans
• Slums are caused by immigrants who dont know how
  to live correctly
• Immigrants are coming here from the unstable
  parts of Europe and might infiltrate the American
  public with dangerous ideas or start a revolt
  themselves
• How did we appease these fears? We set up a
  quota system, numerical limits on the number of
  entries into the US. Europeans were limited,
  Asians were banned.

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Teapot Dome

• While Hardings involvement is uncertain, his
  administration was filled with scandal illegal
  bribes, embezzlement, and blackmail were among
  the many crimes.
• The worst was the Teapot Dome scandal. Hardings
  Secretary of the Interior gave oil drilling
  rights on government land to private oil
  companies. In return, he received more than
  300,000 in payments and gifts.

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Labor strikes

• Boston police
• Police officers had not received a pay increase
  since the beginning of WWI. In the fall of 1919,
  they went on strike and rioting broke out in
  Boston.
• Mass. Governor Coolidge called out the state
  guard saying that there is no right to strike
  against public safety by anybody, anywhere, any
  time.
• Steel and coal
• Strikes in several cities, broken with force,
  some workers are killed.
• Strike activity dies down during the 1920s.
  Union memberships drop during 1921 and 22, and
  will not grow again the rest of the decade.

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Coolidge

• When Harding died mid-term, his VP Calvin
  Coolidge took over. He was not affiliated with
  any of the Harding scandals, so Americans were
  ready to have him restore the dignity and
  prestige of the Presidency.
• He finished Hardings term and then was elected
  to one of his own in 1924 as Americans decided to
  keep it cool with Coolidge

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The business of the American People is Business

• Coolidge supported a laissez faire approach to
  business, making sure not to interfere with
  growth. This policy is the spark for a huge
  economic boom in the 20s. (Quite different from
  past presidents, right?)
• Coolidge combines this with a belief that we
  should shrink the federal government. His
  commitment to have government do less was
  criticized as inaction.

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Kellogg Briand Pact

• Coolidge continued the isolationist policies of
  his predecessors, leaving most decisions up to
  his Secty. of State, Frank B. Kellogg.
• Kellogg and the French worked out a deal under
  which 15 nations agreed not to use the threat of
  war in their dealings with one another. More
  than 60 countries joined the pact eventually, but
  it proved unrealistic and unworkable.

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Kellogg was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1929 for
his work with the pact!
This is his acceptance speech!
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Business boom

• a.k.a. How to Succeed in Business and then
• Really Screw It Up.

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• As the US adjusted to a postwar economy, wages
  rose by almost 28 and the number of millionaires
  doubled in just under 10 years. Why?
• The US developed a consumer economy, one that is
  supported by the vigorous buying and selling of
  goods by consumers
• One of the things that helped consumers buy
  things were the creation of Installment plans,
  letting customers make partial payments at set
  intervals over a period of time
• Influence of electricity new electric-based
  appliances fueled a need for electricity in
  just over 10 years, the number of people with
  electricity jumped from 16 to 63!

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• This is the era of Ford and assembly line,
  influencing sweeping changes of industrial
  procedures and labor needs in every part of the
  economy!