AGENDA Research Project Check-In Peer Editing A New Era: 1920s Notes – New Culture

Homework:Final Paper due Friday!

A NEW ERA:

THE 1920’S

Post War Trends Americans divided

Debate over League of Nations Progressive changes Economic unrest

UnemploymentCost of living doubled

Nativism Isolationism

Republican Control

Business DoctrineBusiness takes the lead in developing the

economy

Republican Control

The President of Warren HardingAppointed abled cabinet members to compensate for his

deficitsDomestic policy○ Approved acts passed by Republican Congress

Income tax reduction Increase in tariff rates- Fordney-McCumber Tariff Act

Established Bureau of the Budget

Scandals and death○ Appointed incompetent and dishonest men○ Teapot Dome Scandal○ Harding died before being implicated

Republican Control

Presidency of Calvin Coolidge“The business of America is business”Election of 1924○ Republicans: Coolidge○ Democrats: Davis○ Progressives: La Follette

Vetoes and inaction○ Limited government that stood aside while business

conducted its own affairs○ Cut spending

Vetoed Republican majority in Congress

Republican Control

Hoover, Smith, and the Election of 1928Republicans nominate Hoover○ Promised to extend “Coolidge Prosperity”

Poverty eliminated once and for all

Democrats nominate Smith○ Catholic

Mixed Economic Development Economics of the 1920s

Brief postwar recession (1921)Lengthy period of business prosperity (1922 –

1928)Economic disaster (1929)

Causes of Business ProsperityIncreased productivityEnergy technologiesGovernment policy

Mixed Economic Development Farm Problems

Peak was during wartime

Growing surpluses produced falling prices

Labor problems

Decreased labor participation

○ Open Shops

○ Welfare Capitalism

Striking was typically unsuccessful

A New Culture The Jazz Age

Became the symbol of “new” and “modern” culture

Perpetuated by phonographs and radios○ Mainly followed by youth

A New Culture Consumerism

Electricity enabled millions to purchase customer appliances○Advertising expanded

businessesAutomobiles○ Changed the pattern of

American life

A New CultureEntertainment○Radio○Movie Industry

Popular heroes○New “Celebrities”

Sports heroesMovie heroesInnovators

A New Culture Gender Roles

Women at homeWomen in the labor forceRevolution in morals○ Sigmund Freud

○ Margaret Sanger

Fashion○ Flappers

○ Bobbed hair

Margaret Sanger“No woman can call herself free who does not control her own body.”

A New Culture Family

Traditional gender rolesDivorce○ 1/8 marriages end in divorce in 1920○ 1/6 marriages end in divorce in 1930

A New Culture Education

Direct correlation with economic prosperity

ReligionModernism

Fundamentalism

Revivalists on the Radio

A New Culture The Literature of Alienation

“Lost Generation”

ArtFunctionalism form follows function

A New Culture Harlem Renaissance

Poets○ Expressed range of emotion consistent with the time

Musicians○ Duke Ellington○ Louis Armstrong○ Bessie Smith○ Paul Robeson

Marcus Garvey○ United Negro Improvement Association (UNIA)○ “New Negro”

Duke Ellington

Louis Armstro

ng

Bessie Smith

Paul Robeson

Cultures in Conflict Scopes Trial

Dayton, TN

American Civil Liberties Union

○ John Scopes

Convicted but overturned on a

technicality

Cultures in Conflict Prohibition

18th Amendment ratified in 1919

○ Volstead Act 1919

Did not stop people from drinking

○ Rise in organized crimeBootlegging

21st Amendment repealed Prohibition in 1933

Cultures in Conflict Nativism

Immigration increased postwar

Quota laws

○ 3 laws passed to prevent immigration

Case of Sacco and Vanzetti

○ Italian immigrant anarchist arrested for robbery

and murder

○ Executed in 1927

Cultures in Conflict Ku Klux Klan

5 million members by 1925

Tactics

○ Burned crosses

○ Tar and feathers

○ Hangings

Some states had political representation

○ Texas

○ Indiana

Decline

○ Indiana’s leader was convicted of murder in 1925 Membership declined

○ Remained in prominence until 1960

Foreign Policy U.S. was not total isolationist

Actively pursued arrangements in foreign affairs

that would advance American interest while also

maintaining world peace

Foreign Policy Disarmament and Peace

Washington Conference

○ Talks on naval disarmament resulted in three agreementsFive-Power Treaty

Four-Power Treaty

Nine-Power Treaty

Kellogg-Briand Pact

○ Signed by almost all nations

○ Renounced the aggressive use of force to achieve national

endsProved ineffective

Foreign Policy Business and Diplomacy

Republican called for pro-business policies to ensure prosperity

Latin America

○ Negotiated mineral and oil resources in Mexico

○ American investments in Latin America doubled between 1919 and

1929

Middle East

○ Negotiated oil drilling rights

Tariffs

○ Fordney-McCumber Tariff increased the duties on foreign manufactured

goods by 25% Good for U.S. business, bad for global economy

Foreign Policy War Debts and Reparations

Dawes Plan

○ Established a cycle of paymentsU.S. Germany

Germany Allies

Allies U.S.

Legacy

○ Finland was the only country to repay war debts

○ Many saw U.S. as greedyPromoted isolationist feel