The Roaring Twenties
Post War Life Gov’t cancelled war production contracts Returning soldiers needed jobs Women & Minorities lost wartime jobs Unemployment rose Result – inflation by 1920 goods cost 2x’s more than 1918
Post War Life cont.. Trends in America: 1. Renewed isolationism (Return to Normalcy) 2. Resurgence of Nativism 3. Political conservatism (move away from progressive reforms)
Teapot Dome Scandal Oil rich government land in Teapot Dome, Wyoming sold to companies
Economy in the 1920’s Manufacturing doubled - electrical appliances Advertising - surplus of goods to be sold - targeted women Installment Plan - credit
Henry Ford’s Assembly line
Route 66 est. 1926 - One of the original U.S. highways - Main Street of America - major path of the migrants who went during the Dust Bowl
Technology and Industry Airplanes - introduced as transportation - airmail route common Amelia Earhart Charles Lindbergh
Technology and Industry Consumer appliances - Dishwasher, toasters, lawn mowers - Mass produced in order to keep workers Electricity and plumbing - More standard in homes In-Sink Dishwashers 1927 Toaster
Technology and Industry Radio - regular broadcast became standard - technology brought the world into ones living room
Technology and Industry Movies - became a big leisure activity - Jazz Singer first movie with audio sound * called a talkie * first dialogue
Technology and Industry Vitamins and medicine - Penicillin discovered by Alexander Fleming
Social/Societal Scopes Trial - John Scopes (science teacher) - ACLU (protects rights) - First debate over evolution and the Bible - Results: found guilty
Social/Societal Rights: Civil Rights Groups ACLU NAACP - Am. Civil Liberties Union - protect indiv. rights NAACP - legal fights / laws UNIA - Universal Negro Improvement Assoc. - Marcus Garvey - fight discrimination thru social means
Social/Societal Women: more received college education late 1920 - more women in public office Flappers - non traditional - rebellious youth - smoking, drinking in public - flashy non fitting clothes
Social/Societal The Blues and Jazz Famous musicians you should know Developed in New Orleans Jazz would eventually move to the north as part of the great migration Cities like New York and Chicago were jazz hot spots. Famous musicians you should know Louis Armstrong Duke Ellington
Social/Societal Professional sports became mass entertainment due to the radio. This is the era of Babe Ruth “Shoeless” Joe Jackson Ty Cobb Lou Gehrig
The Harlem Renaissance Cultural movement based in Harlem, NY Music, Literature, and the arts flourished. People to Know: Earnest Hemmingway
Social/Societal Prohibition: an era supposedly free of alcohol 18th Amendment made it law Shifted legal business to organized crime
Social/Societal Speakeasies underground (hidden) saloons needed a card or password to enter mix of middle and upper class Membership Cards
Social/Societal Organized Crime: increased due to prohibition in big cities gangsters controlled city liquor business - killing competition hundreds of bloody gang killings bribed law officials & business leaders
St. Valentines Day Massacre
1920’s Fears Communism: Red Scare: Palmer Raids Communist Bolshevik overthrew the Czar gov’t in Russia Communist called for a worldwide revolt Red Scare: 70,000 radicals in U.S. Communist party (less than 1%) Talk of communism and revolts caused fear Fear of “red” taking over U.S. Palmer Raids Justice Dept. set up a special interest group to hunt down communist, socialist and anarchists Later became the FBI
Sacco and Vanzetti Italian immigrants & anarchist blamed for a murder that took place in Mass. witnesses describe Italian men no real evidence judge made prejudice remarks found guilty and sentenced to death (died in electric chair in 1927)
Minorities: - KKK reborn in GA - Opposed blacks, immigrants, Catholics, and Jews - influenced politics and elections in U.S.