“Roaring Twenties” (1920 - 1929)
Common Themes Nativism Fundamentalism Modernism Advances in Science Republican Resurgence
Nativism Sacco & Vanzetti Madison Grant’s The Passing of the Great Race (1916) Emergency Immigration Act (1924) Quota System Curb S. & E. European immigration
Sacco & Vanzetti
Nativism Ku Klux Klan Temperance Movement Prohibition WCTU Anti-Saloon League Prohibition
Klan in DC, 1925
Klan in Maine, 1926
Fundamentalism Restore Protestant values Anti-Catholic ; Anti-Semitic Reject Darwin’s theory of evolution Banned in several schools
The Scopes “Monkey” Trial John Scopes, HS biology teacher in TN Accused of teaching evolution Convicted, but charges dismissed
Prohibition Anti-Saloon League Moral Issue Legal issue “Jubilee Convention” of 1913 Endorse national amendment outlawing alcohol
Reaction to Prohibition 18th Amendment Social Reactions: Speakeasies Cocktail Parties Organized Crime Al Capone “Bootlegging” St. Valentine’s Massacre
Reaction to Prohibition
Jazz Age Reject rural, middle-class values Jazz Music New Dances (Charleston) Silent Movies Talkies 1920: 23,000 movie theaters Openness about sex
Women’s Liberation Changes in Marriage “Flappers” Margaret Sanger & birth control The Woman Rebel American Birth Control League Eugenics League of Women Voters (1920)
“Flappers” & the “New Woman”
Women in the Workforce
The “New Negro” “Great Migration” NAACP ; Niagra Movement 1915-1920 ; est. 1 million to northern cities NAACP ; Niagra Movement “Negro Nationalism” Marcus Garvey
“Harlem Renaissance” Claude McKay, c. 1925 Langston Hughes, c. 1925
Modernist Science Albert Einstein Max Planck Werner Heisenberg Relativity Theory Max Planck Quantum Theory Werner Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle Human knowledge has limits!!!
Modernist Art Realism Cubism Abstract Art Pablo Picasso
Modernist Literature “The Lost Generation” T.S. Eliot Ernest Hemingway F. Scott Fitzgerald
Harding Administration Return to “Normalcy” The “Ohio Gang” Teapot Dome Scandal “Business-friendly”, lax regulation
Teapot Dome
Return to Laissez-faire? Budget & Accounting Act (1921) Fordney-McCumber Tariff (1922) Revenue Act (1926) Tax cuts to rich 65% to 20% max. rate B & A Act - Independent budget preparation (Chi. Bank) ; balanced budget & reduced debt F & C Tariff - on iron & chemical products ; reduce competition from Germany
Coolidge Sworn In Harding dies of food poisoning on W. coast speaking tour Coolidge, VP from VT, becomes President
1924 Election
“Silent Cal” “The chief business of the American people is business” “…a return to the Gilded Age presidency…” McNary-Haugen Bill (1927-8) Protective tariff for agri. Vetoed twice by Coolidge M-H Bill - protective tariffs for agriculture ; pump surplus into global market to increase domestic price
“Nation of Consumption” Automobiles Ford Model T Movies Charlie Chaplin “Talkies” Radio Airplanes Subsidies for research, airports, mail Airplanes - govt. contracts are air-mail carriers for postal service
US Consumerism