American Life in the

1
American Life in the Roaring Twenties1919-1929

• Chapter 31

2
Red Scare

• Bolshevik Revolution created a fear of communism
  in America
• Palmer Raids (1919-1921)
• Used Alien and Sedition Acts to identify foreign
  agitators and arrest or deport them
• Anti-Red statutes
• IWW (Wobblies) were persecuted for radical
  beliefs
• Businesses used fear of communism to break unions
  and labor
• Sacco and Vanzetti
• Were convicted of murder, but were found guilty
  and executed largely because they were Italians,
  atheists and anarchists

3
Ku Klux Klan and Nativism

• Ku Klux Klan
• In 20s it focused mainly on anti-Immigrant
  sentiments
• Attacked blacks, Jews, Catholics, communists
• Mid 1920s it had 5 million members
• Nativism
• Wanted limits on immigration
• Emergency Quota Act 1921
• Established fixed ratios of immigrants from
  specific countries based on 1910
• Immigration Act 1924
• Lowered ratios and changed base year to 1890 to
  keep southern Europeans out
• Resulted in immigrants becoming more isolated
• Cultural Pluralism
• Favored immigration and saw benefits and
  strengths as a result

4
Prohibition (18th Amendment)

• Prohibition movement led by women and churches
• 18th Amendment establishes Prohibition, Volstead
  Act passed to enforce it
• Used to attack immigrants
• Argued liquor led to poverty, unemployment,
  violence
• Wets vs. Drys
• Oppose prohibition (mostly eastern cities) vs
  favor prohibition (mostly west and south)
• Organized Crime develops to profit off sale of
  alcohol
• Police and politicians were bribed Chicago most
  notorious
• Expanded into prostitution, racketeering,
  gambling
• Crime leads to legalization
• 21st Amendment repeals 18th Amendment

5
Scopes Trial

• States began increasing amount of years for
  education
• John Dewey
• Led progressive education reform movement
• John Scopes, a teacher in Tennessee, was arrested
  for teaching Darwins Evolution
• Clarence Darrow defended teacher William
  Jennings Bryan prosecuted
• Trial represented conflict between science and
  theology
• Fundamentalism was seen as a force of repression
  and ignorance

6
Mass Consumption Economy

• Consumer Spending
• American economy boomed in 1920s
• Individuals have higher income so spend more
  money
• Many goods available to buy radio, washing
  machine, refrigerators
• Installment Buying
• Development of credit allows more purchases
• Collateral
• Must have something of value equal to loan
• Synthetic Goods
• Artificial products allow more and cheaper
  products to be made
• Golden Age of Sports

7
Automobile

• Assembly Line
• Brought parts of production in one spot which
  increase speed but decreased uniqueness of
  production
• Developed by Henry Ford
• Ford made cars cheap and paid workers well to let
  them buy cars
• Automobile industry in US
• Centered in Detroit, led by Ford and Ransom Olds
• Ford developed Model T (Tin Lizzie)
• Many industries and jobs were tied directly or
  indirectly to cars

8
Humans Develop Wings

• Wilbur and Orville Wright
• First plane to fly in air at Kitty Hawk, NC
  (December 17, 1903), lasted less than a minute
• Planes were not important

• Commercial airlines and air mail develop after
  World War I
• Created new industry for wealth and growth

Charles Lindbergh was first person to fly solo
nonstop across Atlantic in Spirit of St Louis
Amelia Earhart first woman to fly solo across
Atlantic
9
Radio and Film

• Long distance broadcasts were possible by late
  1920s
• Allowed live broadcasts of events

• The Great Train Robbery (1903) first movie
• Birth of a Nation (1915) first full length movie
  (glorified KKK)
• Jazz Singer (1927) first movie with sound
  starring Al Jolson
• Steamboat Willie (1928) introduced Mickey Mouse
  and was first cartoon with synchronized sound
• Movies helped immigrants assimilate
• Allowed for working classes to unite across
  ethnic lines

10
Flapper

• 1920 census for first time most Americans lived
  in cities
• Women in Roaring 20s
• Worked in low paying womens jobs
• Margaret Sanger advocated for birth control and
  contraceptives
• Alice Pauls National Womens Party lobbied for
  Equal Rights Amendment
• Flappers were women who challenged traditional
  roles of dress, attitude, behavior
• Sigmund Freud redefined attitudes towards
  sexuality

11
Jazz and Harlem Renaissance

• Jazz develops as a uniquely American musical
  style developed in New Orleans that was
  energetic, lively and represented spirit of times
• WC Handy Jelly Roll Morton Joe King Oliver
  Louis Armstrong
• Harlem Renaissance
• Period of African American literature, poetry,
  music
• Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, Claude McKay
• Increased pride and vibrancy of African American
  culture during this time
• Back to Africa movement
• United Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) led
  by Marcus Garvey believed African Americans
  should migrate back to Africa
• Encouraged black racial pride
• Inspired Nation of Islam movement later on

12
Lost Generation

• Lost Generation were artists who saw little hope
  for future
• World War I created sense of cynicism and
  disillusionment
• Criticized emptiness of wealth, mediocrity and
  conformity of middle class
• Sought new sense of values and morals
• Were not traditional New England WASPs
• Expatriates
• many moved to Paris to escape American culture