Modernism: A mood and a movement The New Era Modernism: A mood and a movement

The new economy A growing consumer culture Spending became a virtue Advertising became a new industry Moderately priced creature comforts like hand cameras, wristwatches, cigarette lighters, vacuum cleaners, washing machines, and linoleum became available Advanced in communications, transportation, and business organization Movies, radio, telephones, automobiles By 1920 Hollywood is the center of movie production

Birth of a Nation revealed the power of movies Radio dominated with 3 million receivers in use by the end of 1922 The Wright brothers, Charles Lindbergh, Amelia Earhart and the birth of the aviation industry The most significant economic and social development of the 1920s was the automobile “When I’m through everybody will be able to afford one, and about everyone will have one” Henry Ford Automobile production dominated the American economy with its consumption of rubber, steel, glass, textiles and of course---oil.

Stabilizing the economy Consolidation—concentration of production in a few large firms (US Steel, GM) New forms of corporate organization such as divisional control Not consolidation, but cooperation through trade associations The goal of the New Era economy was to prevent the collapses that were too common in the past

Labor in the New Era Weak unions vs. strong corporations Welfare capitalism helped some during good times Many laborers remained poor and with little control over their own fate Unemployment was a problem from time to time Craft unions remained unconcerned with unskilled workers Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters

The plight of the farmer Overproduction, decline in food prices, drop in farmers’ income “parity” bills such as McNary-Haugen failed to become law

The new culture Consumerism-mass consumption Impact of automobile Growth of suburbs New idea of vacations Development of a youth culture

The new culture cont… Advertising The Man Nobody Knows Mass-Circulation magazines The Saturday Evening Post The Readers Digest Time

The new culture cont… Movies and Broadcasting The Jazz Singer – the first feature-length “talkie” 1927 Motion Picture Association Radio’s influence Wheaties commercial

Religion Liberal Protestantism—Harry Emerson Fosdick Fundamentalism vs. Modernism Billy Sunday Evangelical movement Scopes Monkey Trial (1925) a symbol of the cultural conflict of the 1920s

Changing ideas of motherhood Belief in the idea of “companionate marriage” Margaret Sanger and birth control

The “Flapper” New dress, hairstyle, speech, and behavior Started among the working class Both a myth and a reality

Women’s rights National Women’s Party and Alice Paul League of Women Voters Sheppard-Towner Act Controversial protective legislation Its repeal illustrated the power of the medical profession Also the reality that the women’s vote was a myth

The creation of adolescence The decline of the “self-made man” The progressive impulse of training and expertise manifested itself in the 1920s in the form of increased school attendance at all levels The creation of adolescence The decline of the “self-made man” Lindbergh Edison Ford

The Lost Generation Artists and intellectuals Disillusionment with American society Hemingway, Fitzgerald, H.L. Mencken, et al…

Harlem Renaissance Jazz (Duke Ellington) Poetry (Langston Hughes) Art and culture

The Southern Renaissance Allen Tate, Robert Warren Conflict between tradition and modern A romantic vision of the “backward’ South

Prohibition—January 1920 (18th Amendment) The failure of the “noble experiment” The rise of organized crime (Al Capone)

Nativism—an attack on radicalism 1921 Emergency Immigration Act 1924 National Origins Act The New Klan Not just against African Americans Against anyone who posed a threat to traditional values

Democrats struggle in the 1920s Split between rural and urban factions Prohibitionists, Klansmen, fundamentalists vs. Catholics, urban workers, immigrants

1920 Election—Warren Harding elected president “I am a man of limited talents from a small town” A penchant for gambling, illegal alcohol, and attractive women

Harding continued… He filled important offices with the so-called Ohio Gang Many who were corrupt Teapot Dome revealed corruption at high levels Harding died in 1923 of two heart attacks Calvin Coolidge became president

Coolidge and Harding were similar in that they both were passive Harding was genial, garrulous, and debauched while Coolidge was dour, silent, and even puritanical In 1924 he easily defeated the Democratic nominee John Davis “I do not choose to run for president in 1928”

Despite their passivity as leaders the Federal government worked to achieve the goal of helping business and industry Andrew Mellon-Treasury Secretary and Herbert Hoover—Commerce Secretary promoted the interests of big business in America Hoover was elected president in 1928 running against the Progressive Democrat Al Smith