1920s
A. Wartime Patriotism + postwar econ/pol turmoil--> strikes & violence (fear that Bolsheviks, blacks, foreigners were going to destroy American way of life)
1. Red Scare
B. Am econ soared after postwar depression 1921-22, fueled by new tech, efficient planning/management, innovative advertisingàGNP rose 40% tho prosperity uneven
1. Rising Standard of Living: new bathroom w. unlim hot water, privacy, clean white fixtures
2. Rise of the Modern Corporation:
4. Automobile Culture
7. Communications Revolution:
C. For some all kinds of hopes seemed realizable, but many discovered that no matter how modest their hopes, they lay tantalizingly out of reach: Hopes Raised, Promises Deferred
1. New culture emphasized consumption, pleasure/sex, upward mobility clashed w. trad values of hardwork, thrift, church, family, home--> Clash of values
2. Religious Fundamentalism even when ppl were drifting away from organized religion w. help of tech
D. Business of Politics: businessmen elected president, formulated dom/for policy
1. Harding & Coolidge-republicans, conservative, business-favoring policies
4. Progressivism- Sheppard-Towner Maternity Act called for $1mn/yr to assist states in providing medical aid & visiting nurses to teach expectant mothers how to care for themselves/babies
5. Temperance Triumphant- prohibition reduced total consumptn of alcohol, but speakeasies sprung up, bootlegging rings tied to organize crime-->Al Capone of Chicago
1. Red Scare
- John Reed- idealist converted to socialism, saw great hope in Russian Rev, but disillusioned by new regime’s authoritarianism
- In 1919, 4+mn workers took part in 4,000 strikes. U.S. Steel workers striked for 8hr workday & “living wage”, spread to Bethlehem Steel, but owners blamed strikers on Bolsheviks--> issues got lost & union surrendered
- Boston police went on strike, but govt fired them. Gov Calvin Coolidge- “There is no right to strike agst public safety by anybody, anywhere, anytime”
- Bomb-throwing radicals--> A Mitchell Palmer arrested/deported many aliens although few were Commies or wanted to overthrow US gov:
- Red Scare over by late 1920, but fear persisted throughout decade, promoting American Legion, Am Defense Society, Sentinels of Republic, DAR, US Flag Association, etc orgs determined to elim comm from am life
- William J. Simmons (GA) orged new KKK: only Protestants allowed, antiforeign, anti-Semitic, anti-Catholic, must keep blacks ‘in place’
- Opposed teaching of evolution, supported immig restrictns, etc
- Women of the KKK (WKKK) campaigned for women’s rights
- Flourished in small towns & rural areas, spread to urban areas and in some states, influenced politics
- Declined after 1925 due to internal power struggles/scandals
B. Am econ soared after postwar depression 1921-22, fueled by new tech, efficient planning/management, innovative advertisingàGNP rose 40% tho prosperity uneven
1. Rising Standard of Living: new bathroom w. unlim hot water, privacy, clean white fixtures
2. Rise of the Modern Corporation:
- mergers created giant co’s like General Electric, Gen Motors, US Rubberà oligarchies
- By 1930, 200 largest corps controlled almost 1/2 nation’s corporate wealth
- New managers like Alfred P. Sloan Jr (engineer who reorged Gen Mot) divided company into components, freeing top managers to concentrate on planning new products, controlling inventory, and integrating whole operation
- New mans college grad, owned no part of company tho had large staff, emphasized marketing & advertising, introduced pensions, recreation facilities, cafeteriasà welfare capitalism (improvement on Fred Taylor’s scientific management)
- Experts from philanthropic foundations, Nat’l Bureau of Econ Research, US Dpt of Commerce worked together to provide middle ground b/w collectivism & laissez-faire
4. Automobile Culture
- stimulated petrol, steel, rubber industries; forced constructn/improvemt of streets, stimulating labor & concrete
- created new suburbs, allowed families t live far from workà gas station, diner/motel
- gas polluted streams/air & old parts littered
- tractor/trucks transformed farming while buses eliminated one-room schoolhouse & cars small churches b/c rural family could now drive farther
- status symbol, created installment credit plan, “buy now pay later”
- Adapted assembly line & interchangeable parts to prductn of autos, reduced time to produce car from 14 hrs to 1.5 hrs
- 300% Turnover rate -->increased wages to $5/day (2x nat’l avg pay) to keep skilled workers from quitting
- Model T price $600 (1912) dropped to $290 (1924); light/easily repaired, but only one color so popularity declined by 1927
7. Communications Revolution:
- Telephones: homes w. them inc from 9mn to 13mn, but still 50+% w.o by decade end
- Radio broadcast music, news, presidential inaugurals, live dramas
- Movies: 40mn viewers/wk 1922--> Hollywood movie capital of world, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
- Announcers, actors, athletes (Babe Ruth) became stars as did Charles Lindbergh who flew solo from NY to Paris--> triumph of individual & machine & Am dream
C. For some all kinds of hopes seemed realizable, but many discovered that no matter how modest their hopes, they lay tantalizingly out of reach: Hopes Raised, Promises Deferred
1. New culture emphasized consumption, pleasure/sex, upward mobility clashed w. trad values of hardwork, thrift, church, family, home--> Clash of values
2. Religious Fundamentalism even when ppl were drifting away from organized religion w. help of tech
- Scopes Monkey Trial- bio teacher broke law by teaching evolution n TN, Lawyer Clarence Darrow reduced William J Bryan’s statements to intellectual rubble, but jury declared Scopes guilty for breaking law--> nat’l press covered trial & upheld science freedom
- Believed in literal interpretation & infallibility of Bible; Jesus=only road to salvation
- Popular ministers like Billy Sunday & Aimee Semple McPherson performed flamboyantly & spread ideas thru radio, reaching vast audiences
- 1917 immig law required literacy test & prohibited immig of certain political radicals
- 1921 Cong limited Eur immig to 3% popn of each nationality present US in 1910/yr
- 1924 Cong changed quota to 2% of 1890 to lim immig from S&E Eur and ban Asians
- 1927 Nat’l Origins Act set overall lim of 150,000 Eur immigs/yr, 60+% Brit/Germ
- New laws opened country to Mexican laborers--"> largest 1st gen immig group
- Afr Ams migrated north in great numbers 1915-1920 Great Migration for factory work
- Most unskilled; Cleveland’s black popn grew 8fold b/w 1910-30
- Young black men moved first & later brought wives/children
- Black ghettos & increased racial tensionà Chicago riot 1919, etc
- Saw self-help as means of political empowermt by which Afr ppls would reclaim homelands
- Founded Universal Negro Improvement Association, The Negro World, Black Star Line (steamship company to be owned & operated by Afr Ams, collapsed b/c white entrepreneurs sold Garvey inferior ships & equipment)
- Preached that blacks should be proud of being black & return of blacks to Africa
- Arrested for defrauding shareholders & deported as undesirable alien
- Uplifting message won converts among lower-middle class blacks
- Blacks expressed pride in being black & sought Afr roots/folk tradition of Am blacks, but unlike Garvey had no desire to return to Afr: sought to be both black & American
- Alain Locke- father of HR, collection of essays The New Negro
- Langston Hughes used black vernacular to describe pathos/pride of Afr Ams
- Jazz- Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington became popular even in Eur
- Many white intellectuals, writers, artists felt alienated from materialism, conformity, provincial prejudice of Am life, so moved to Paris, where they wrote about Am
- E Hemingway volunteered for war, but disillusioned w. slaughter--> The Sun Also Rises
- FS Fitzgerald epitomized despair & wrote of lives that end tragically
- Sherwood Anderson described dull, warped lives of Am culture
- HL Mencken laughed at Am middle class thru American Mercury, editor
- More sexual freedom, contraceptives more available but still banned in some states
- Family size declined, ppl married more for love than security
- More women worked outside home, white-collar, job=lesson in obedience & to meet men
- More married women had jobs but mostly marriages led to dismissal
- Women could vote but couldn’t serve on juries, sign contract w/o husbands’ permission, etc; few women voted--> National League of Women Voters to edu women abt politics
- Alice Paul, leader of Nat’l Women’s Party, fought for equal rts amd, but many women opposed it b/c it would cancel special legis to protect women in industry
- New tech improved yield at time when worldwide demand for Am products declined
- Large commercial operations produced most of cash cropsà small farmers left farms
- Real wages inc 21% while corp dividends inc 2/3rds; richest 5% inc wealth from 1/4 to 1/3
- Labor union membership fell, as unions now faced competition from employers’ new policies
D. Business of Politics: businessmen elected president, formulated dom/for policy
1. Harding & Coolidge-republicans, conservative, business-favoring policies
- Harding: conference on disarmament & unemploymt, pardoned Eugene Debs
- Coolidge: SecTrez Andrew Mellon lowered ind/corp taxes; small gov- “The chief business of the Am ppl is business. The man who builds a factory builds a temple…The man who works there worships there”
- Supp 8hr day, better child nutrition, conservatnà Pollution Act 1924 to control oil poll
- Believed in free enterp & local volunteer action, but convinced Harding to hold unemp conf
- Primary resp of fedgov= to educate & promote
4. Progressivism- Sheppard-Towner Maternity Act called for $1mn/yr to assist states in providing medical aid & visiting nurses to teach expectant mothers how to care for themselves/babies
5. Temperance Triumphant- prohibition reduced total consumptn of alcohol, but speakeasies sprung up, bootlegging rings tied to organize crime-->Al Capone of Chicago