The 1920s The Jazz Age The Roaring Twenties

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The 1920s The Jazz Age The Roaring Twenties
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A Decade of Contrasts

• Isolationism vs. Social Unrest
• Return to Normalcy vs. Political Turmoil
• Prohibition vs. Speakeasies
• Traditionalism vs. Modernism
• Economic Boom vs. Financial Bust

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Isolationism vs. Social Unrest

• November 11, 1918
• Armistice Day Cease-Fire in Europe
• June 28, 1919
• Treaty of Versailles Signed
• November 1919
• U.S. Senate Rejected Treaty
• Fear of alliances, being drawn into future wars
• U.S. preferred a policy of isolationism
• U.S. did NOT join The League of Nations

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A Gap in the Bridge . . .
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Isolationism vs. Social Unrest

• 1919
• Racial Tension
• Returning African-Americans soldiers wanted
  immediate equality
• Great Migration witnessed half a million Black
  Americans move to the North
• Settled in areas previously dominated by Whites
• Return of White soldiers led to competition
• Summer of 1919
• Over 20 race riots throughout country
• Chicago Race Riot 38 Dead, over 500 injured

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A Movement of the Masses . . .
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Isolationism vs. Social Unrest

• 1919
• A Year of Strikes
• A General Strike in Seattle began a sweep of
  strikes across the Nation
• Workers fought to keep gains achieved during WWI
  and for higher wages
• Steelworkers strike many are immigrants
  Company blamed strike on foreign radicals

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Isolationism vs. Social Unrest

• 1919
• Red Scare Began
• Fear that Communists might seize power
• Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer led series of
  Palmer Raids
• Raided headquarters of radicals
• Deported thousands without actual evidence
• Effect of Red Scare
• Americans link immigrants with radicalism
• Congress passed laws limiting immigration

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Cleaning the Nest . . .
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More Social Unrest Nativism

• Nativism Resurfaced
• New Immigration Laws
• 1921 Emergency Quota Act
• Limited Immigration to 3 of total number of
  ethnic group already in U.S.
• 1924 National Origins Act
• Made Immigration Restrictions permanent
  Tightened Quota System to 2
• The Case of Sacco Vanzetti
• 1920 Anarchist immigrants arrested for murder
• 1927 Executed despite lack of evidence, obvious
  prejudice of the judge

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Close the Gate . . .
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Funneling the Crowd . . .
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More Social Unrest Nativism

• Ku Klux Klan
• 1915 New Version Founded
• Central Message
• White Protestant hegemony threatened by
• Catholics, Jews, Black Americans, Immigrants
• 1924 Membership reached 4 million
• Elected to State/Local Governments across U.S.
• Eugenics
• Claimed human race could be improved by breeding
• Fueled nativists claims of superiority of
  original American born Protestants, warned
  against mixing breeds
• W. Wilson, H. Cabot Lodge embraced ideology

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Normalcy vs. Political Turmoil

• Republicans control White House during decade
• 1920 Warren G. Harding elected President
• Promised a return to normalcy after war years
• Appointed Ohio Gang, his friends, to his
  Cabinet
• Harding on his appointments Theyre the ones
  that keep me walking the floors at night
• The Teapot Dome Oil Scandal
• Albert Fall of the Ohio Gang leased Navy oil
  reserves to private interests for bribes
• Some lands located in Teapot Dome, Wyoming
• Fall 1st Cabinet officer to go to prison

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Hardings Legacy . . .
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Normalcy vs. Political Turmoil

• 1923 Harding died on tour of the West
• Calvin Coolidge became president
• Silent Cal on business
• The business of America is business
• Preferred limited to no government involvement
• A move toward laissez-faire economics
• 1928 Republican Herbert Hoover Elected Pres.
• The New Era Harding, Coolidge, Hoover

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Prohibition vs. Speakeasies

• 18th Amendment (The Noble Experiment)
• Volstead Act
• Provided for Enforcement of Amendment
• Not enough funds or Agents
• Led to an increase in organized crime
• Bootleggers smuggled alcohol in from Canada,
  Caribbean
• Speakeasies emerged secret bars, sold alcohol
  illegally
• Judges, police bribed
• Led to decrease in respect for law order
• 21st Amendment
• 1933 Repealed Prohibition

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Perception vs. Reality . . .
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Traditionalism vs. Modernism

• Fundamentalism
• Religious movement (Traditionalism)
• Believed in literal interpretation of the Bible
• Fought against modern consumer culture, relaxed
  ethics, growing urbanism
• 1925 Scopes Trial
• Debate over teaching of evolution in schools
  (Modern)
• John Scopes challenged TN law, fired
• Scopes defended by Clarence Darrow
• William Jennings Bryan was prosecutor
• Highlight of Trial Scopes cross-examined Bryan
• Scopes found guilty, fined 100

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The Medias Take on the Scopes Trial
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More Modernism

• The Changing Role of Women
• Empowered by work during WWI
• 1920 19th Amendment
• The Flapper
• Embraced a New Morality
• Glorified youth and personal freedom
• Some women remained single, held jobs
• Cut hair short (bobbed)
• Hem lines rose, wore flesh-colored stockings
• Smoked, drank, danced
• Margaret Sanger popularized term birth control,
  founded Planned Parenthood organ.

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Editing the Dictionary . . .
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The Harlem Renaissance

• What was it?
• Celebration of African-American achievements in
  the arts, literature, and music
• Results in large part from Great Migration
• Key Feature
• Rise of Jazz
• Popularity of Jazz attributed to African-American
  musicians
• The Cotton Club a popular hangout
• Black Performers, White Audience

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Jeunesse . . .
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More on The Harlem Renaissance

• Musicians
• Duke Ellington
• Louis Armstrong
• Bessie Smith (blues)
• 1927 Highest Paid Black Artist in the World
• Significant Writers
• Claude McKay
• Worked Expressed Proud Defiance of Racism
• Langston Hughes
• Poet, leading voice of the African-American
  experience in the United States

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Selected Poems of Langston Hughes

• I, Too
• I, too sing America
• I am the darker brother
• They send me to eat in the kitchen
• When company comes,
• But I laugh,
• And eat well,
• And grow strong.
• Tomorrow,
• Ill be at the table
• When company comes.
• Nobodyll dare
• Say to me,
• Eat in the kitchen,
• Then.
• Besides,
• Theyll see how beautiful I am
• And be ashamed

• Youth
• We have tomorrow
• Bright before us
• Like a flame
• Yesterday, a night-gone thing
• A sun-down name
• And dawn today
• Broad arch above the road we came
• We march!

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African-American Politics

• Marcus Garvey
• Jamaican immigrant
• Founded the Universal Negro Improvement
  Association (UNIA)
• Promoted Negro Nationalism
• Opposed integration, emphasized Black nationalism
  and Black Pride
• Opened the Black Star Line
• Started a Back to Africa movement
• Convicted of mail fraud, jailed, then deported

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Modernism Pop Culture

• Entertainment
• Talkies
• 1927 The Jazz Singer 1st Movie with Sound
• 1928 Steamboat Willie 1st Animated Movie w/
  Sound
• 1920 First Commercial Radio Station
• Helped create a common national culture, regional
  differences not as pronounced
• Sports Heroes
• 1927 Babe Ruth Hits 60 Home Runs
• Jack Dempsey Heavyweight Champ

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Modernism Pop Culture

• The Biggest Hero of the Decade
• Charles Lindbergh Lucky Lindy
• 1927 1st Person to Fly Solo Across the Atlantic
• Symbol of American ingenuity and courage
• The Lost Generation
• Novelists disenchanted with life following WWI
• F. Scott Fitzgerald
• The Great Gatsby, This Side of Paradise
• Ernest Hemingway
• A Farewell to Arms, For Whom the Bell Tolls
• Sinclair Lewis
• Main Street

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Modernism Pop Culture - The Arts
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Economic Boom vs. Financial Bust

• A Review, Republican Economic Policy
• Pro-business, relaxed regulation
• Cut income taxes on highest income bracket
• 1922 Fordney-McCumber Tariff
• Highest American tariff ever to that point
• Protect American businesses

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Economic Boom vs. Financial Bust

• Time of Prosperity
• Rising Standard of Living
• Average income rose 35
• New electrical conveniences refrigerators,
  vacuums, toasters
• Heavy investment in stock market hoped for quick
  profits to repay loans
• Heavy advertising by companies to sell products
• Buying goods on credit (installment plan)
• Productivity increased
• Mass production created more supply, cut consumer
  costs

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Economic Boom vs. Financial Bust

• Henry Ford The Automobile
• Ford the 1st to use the moving assembly line
• Combination of standardized parts division of
  labor
• Introduced installment plan
• Impact of the Automobile
• New Roads Built Route 66
• Led to urban sprawl Live farther from work
• Families could vacation farther from home
• Liberated isolated rural families
• Led to new businesses Service Stations, Hotels

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Economic Boom vs. Financial Bust

• Really a Time of False Prosperity
• Era begins with what seemed like plenty of jobs
  and available money, but . . .
• Farming products sold poorly throughout decade
• Hurt by Overproduction and High Tariffs
• Railroads received less business thanks to
  automobile
• Unequal distribution of wealth
• Top 5 of wage earners earned 30 of income
• Bottom 50 only received 20 of total income
• By 1927 people were running out of money credit
• People stopped investing in businesses, focused
  on stock market