The 1920s

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The 1920s
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Changing Consumer Habits

• Companies focused on inventing producing
  consumer goods
• Examples radios, automobiles, icebox, washing
  machine, vacuum cleaner
• People buying goods using credit
• mass production of goods cheaper products
• increased use of advertisingto sell products

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Transportation

• Car ownership grew 18 million from 1920 to 1930
• New roads more mobility, causing growth in the
  suburbs
• Charles Lindberghs 1927 transatlantic flight
  could fly across the Atlantic Ocean

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President Harding

• Republican President elected in 1920
• Most famous for three scandals
• - Ohio Gang (presidents advisors caught
  using power of the presidency to get rich) -
  Teapot Dome Scandal (extreme example- gov.
  claimed some land oil- rich land for supplying
  the navy, but the secretary of the navy secretly
  let private companies get and use the oil in
  return for ) - Mysterious death in S.F at
  the Palace Hotel in 1923

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Calvin Coolidge

• Hardings Vice President
• Became President in 1923 (after Hardings death)
  
• Elected in 1924 with slogan Coolidge or Chaos
• Anecdotes- Silent Cal (you dont have to write
  this stuff)
• in private he was a man of few words and was
  therefore commonly referred to as "Silent Cal." A
  possibly apocryphal story has it that Dorothy
  Parker, seated next to him at a dinner, said to
  him, "Mr. Coolidge, I've made a bet against a
  fellow who said it was impossible to get more
  than two words out of you." His famous reply
  "You lose.
• It was also Parker who, upon learning that
  Coolidge had died, reportedly remarked, "How can
  they tell?"

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Herbert Hoover

• Conservative pro-business Republican elected in
  1928
• Believed in the individual a small federal
  government

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Anti-Immigration Movement

• Mitchell Palmer (U.S. Attorney General) started
  the First Red Scare
• He deported immigrants during the Palmer Raids
• In 1921 1924 limits were placed on immigrants
  from Italy, Russia, and Slavic nations.
• Fear and discrimination against immigrants
  minority ethnic groups spread throughout the
  U.S.Ex Sacco Vanzetti Trial

Question Why would Americans dislike immigrants?
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Prohibition

• The 18th Amendment Volstead Act prohibited the
  manufacturing or sale of alcohol (1919)
• It was hard to enforce smuggled and bootleg
  liquor was common led to a rise in organized
  crime (mob)
• The 21st Amendment ended Prohibition in 1933

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Civil Rights
Women in the 1920s

• Gain right to vote in 1920 with the 19th
  Amendment
• Women expressed new freedoms and political
  rights - birth control, voting, and new fashions
  (though few in number, flappers represented the
  new woman)

African Americans in the 1920s

• Black Americans moved north to cities for jobs,
  but still suffered from discrimination
• KKK membership grew to 4.5 million by 1924
• Increase in Civil Rights groups fighting for
  change (ex Marcus Garveys Back to Africa
  movement)

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Sports Mania

• Era of Babe Ruth Yankee Stadium
• Sports figures were heroes and big business
  (1927 Dempsey fight made 2.6 million)
• Negro National Baseball League started in the
  1920s

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Entertainment

• Rise of movie stars (Rudolph Valentino Charlie
  Chaplin) became popular in the 1920s
• Talking movies started October 6th, 1927 with
  The Jazz Singer
• Harlem Renaissance rebirth of black culture in
  New York City