The Roaring Twenties

President Warren G. Harding 29th President of the United States 1921-1923 Died in office August 2, 1923 Supposedly of a heartattack

Politics and Prosperity Recession: an economic slump The U.S went into a recession because the factories stopped turning out war materials Warren G. Harding takes office in 1920 “Back to Normalcy” The Ohio Gang: Harding’s cabinet consisted of his old friends - getting the name “Ohio gang”

The “Ohio Gang” Charles Forbes Veterans Bureau Stole millions Albert Fall Secretary of the Interior Took bribes from oil executives

Politics and Prosperity Teapot Dome Scandal Sec. of Interior Albert Fall was bribed by 2 oil executives Fall secretly leased them gov’t land in California and @ Teapot Dome, Wyoming Coolidge takes office Industry booms Most Americans incomes rose Sales of consumer goods rose

President Calvin Coolidge 30th President of the United States 1923-1929 Became President after Harding died in office Elected in his own right in 1924 Total opposite to Harding

Calvin Coolidge What does this mean? “The business of America is business. The man who builds a factory builds a temple. The man who works there worships there.” What does this mean?

Politics and Prosperity New ways: Installment buying - buying goods on credit, paying over time Buying on Margin - purchasing a stock for just 10% down payment of the price of the stock Ex: Stock costs $10, the investor would put down $1, down the road the person would have to pay the remaining balance Bull Market - increase stock trading and rising stock prices

Charging Bull (Wall Street Bull)

Politics and Prosperity Foreign affairs: communism: economic system in which all the wealth and property is owned by the community - this was implemented by Lenin in Russia, but the government controls everything (private property & religion), not the community disarmament: reduction of weapons and forces Kellogg-Briand Pact: treaty outlawed war

New Ways of Life Ban on Alcohol: New rights for women 18th amendment bootleggers speakeasies Rise of organize crime = mob and gangsters New rights for women 19th amendment gave women the right to vote League of Women Voters Carrie Chapman Catt

New Ways of Life ERA - equal rights amendment: rights shall not be denied based on gender Women’s work: women had new opportunities at home and at work

The Car Henry Ford and the assembly line Made cars more affordable $850  $290

Fords became more affordable! HOW? 1927 1908 1924

New Ways of Life The Car: Economic effects: Social effects Tourism, travel and more Suburbs created Created many jobs (rubber, glass, steel, gas, oil etc.) Social effects suburbs - community located outside the city The car allowed for the development of the suburbs

New Ways of Life Mass culture A National culture created by: cars, music, radio, fads, and more Radio Families would gather around after dinner News and entertainment Movies Charlie Chaplin Silent movies  “talkies” 1927 – The Jazz Singer

The Jazz Age Era of Changing Fashions: Fad: activity or fashion that is taken up with great passion for a short amount of time Flappers: young women that rebelled against traditional ways of thinking Wore dresses short Hair bobbed Red lipstick

The Jazz Age Jazz: combined West African rhythms, African American work songs and spirituals and European harmonies Louis Armstrong Writers: F. Scott Fitzgerald (The Great Gatsby) Ernest Hemmingway (Farewell to Arms, The Sun Also Rises)

The Jazz Age Harlem Renaissance Rebirth of African American culture Large numbers of African American musicians, artists, and writers settled in Harlem Writers Langston Hughes: poet, expressing in poetry the life of African Americans of the 1920’s

Athletes of the ’20s Bobby Jones Helen Wills Bill Tilden Jack Dempsey Gertrude Ederle Red Grange Babe Ruth

Charles Lindberg Mail pilot May 1927 First to fly non-stop across the Atlantic Ocean 33 ½ hrs. The Spirit of St. Louis “Lucky Lindy”

Aviation on Long Island

Today 1938

Uneven Prosperity Not everyone was benefitting from “Coolidge prosperity” Clothing industry  shorter skirts = less cloth Coal industry  switching over to oil as source of energy Farmers  Europe no longer reliant on American crops Labor unions  during WWI wages had not kept pace with prices

Trouble below the Surface Red Scare During WWI fear of sabotage  fear of foreigners Fear of communism spreading through America Anarchists - people who opposed organized government Red Scare – radicals, anarchists, communists were arrested, jailed and sometimes deported

Trouble below the Surface Sacco and Vanzetti Two Italian immigrants in Massachusetts were arrested for murder Admitted anarchists Limited evidence against them Convicted and put to death in 1927

Trouble below the Surface Limiting Immigration Nativism - anti-foreigners Emergency Quota Act – 1921, set up a quota system that allowed only a certain number of people from each country to enter the USA

What’s going on in this cartoon?

Trouble below the Surface Scopes Trial Clash between old and new values Evolution v. Religion John Scopes a Biology teacher in Ohio taught evolution and was arrested Scopes was convicted and fined Result: People fear CHANGE!

Trouble below the Surface Racism Fear of change led to hatred 1915: rebirth of the KKK Goal: Preserve the USA for white, native born Protestants Marcus Garvey - Universal Negro Improvement Association Promote unity and pride

1928 Election Republican Fmr. Secretary of Commerce Self-made millionaire Protestant from the mid West For Prohibition Democrat Fmr. Governor of New York Catholic from East Coast Was a “wet” against Prohibition Herbert Hoover Alfred E. Smith