1. The Second Industrial Revolution
The increase of national name brands (rather than locally produced goods) linked Americans more than ever
From 1922 to 1929, the U.S. had a 2nd industrial boom:
Mostly in consumer durable goods like appliances, cars, radios, furniture, & clothing
Electricity replaced steam power
Corporations used salaried executives, plant managers, & engineers to increase efficiency

2. The Second Industrial Revolution
To stop the growth of labor unions companies used welfare capitalism
Offered employees stock, house-purchase, & insurance options
Used an “open shop” & offered non-union workers the same rights that unions gained
After WWI, the federal gov’t & Supreme Court reverted back to a pro-business stance

3. The consumer goods revolution was best seen in the auto industry
Henry Ford revolutionized the assembly line, the “$5-day,” new marketing & advertising techniques, & annual model changes
The consumer goods revolution was best seen in the auto industry
“The work moves and the men stand still”
The auto industry stimulated the steel, sheet metal, rubber, glass, petroleum industries
Henry Ford’s River Rouge plant emphasized uniformity, speed, precision, & coordination

4. The auto industry led to the construction of roads & new filling stations…
Filling station 36 cent gas is from 1925

5. …and new suburban shopping centers: Kansas City’s Country Club Plaza was the 1st U.S. shopping mall (built in 1924)

6. Glenwood Stove Ad 1920s consumerism led to luxury living:
New appliances like refrigerators, washing machines, & vacuums
Glenwood Stove Ad

7. 1920s advertising

8. 1920s consumerism led to luxury living: Radios & movies boomed
100 million Americans went to the movies in 1929 per week
The first “talkie”
NBC was the 1st successful radio network

9. Economic Weaknesses
The “Roaring 20s” was not as prosperous as it appeared:
RR, cotton textile, coal industries suffered due to new competition
Farmers boomed during WWI but a decline in demand after the war deflated farm prices
Farm per capita income was $273 per year vs. the U.S. average of $681 per year

10. Economic Weaknesses
Union membership dropped due to improved conditions & links to Debs’ “radical socialism”
Northern migration of blacks grew but workers gained menial jobs & faced racism
Growth in income was unequal with middle-class managers, bankers, engineers benefiting the most from the new affluence

11. Social Changes in the “Jazz Age”

12. Alice Paul’s National Women’s Party (NWP) failed to pass an Equal Rights Amendment

13. But…most women looked forward to lives as a mother and a wife
Women and the Family
“Flappers” rebelled against Victorian customs
Divorce rates doubled
But…most women looked forward to lives as a mother and a wife
“The creation and fulfillment of a successful home…compares favorably with building a beautiful cathedral.”
—Ladies Home Journal

14. Women and the Family Change (& continuity) for women:
Female workers after WWI were limited to teachers, nurses, & other low-paying jobs
The 19th Amendment gave women the right to vote but few women voted

15. Women and the Family
Families became smaller due to greater access to birth control
Children were no longer need to work to support their families
Teens began to “discover” their adolescence & revolt against their parents by drinking, having premarital sex, & searching for new forms of excitement
“I have been kissed by dozens of men. I suppose I’ll kiss dozens more.”
—character in F. Scott Fitzgerald novel

16. The Flowering of the Arts
The Harlem Renaissance reflected the explosion of black culture & the “New Negro”:
Jazz & Blues expressed the social realities of blacks; Louis Armstrong became very popular
Langston Hughes’ poetry, novels, & plays promoted equality, condemned racism, & celebrated black culture

17. Josephine Baker, internationally renowned singer/dancer
Josephine Baker-international singer/dancer
“You could be black & proud, politically assertive & economically independent, creative & disciplined—or so it seemed”

18. The Flowering of the Arts
“The Waste Land” focused on a sterile U.S. society
The 1920s gave rise to a new class of intellectuals who condemned the new American industrial society & materialism:
Pessimistic Literature: TS Eliot, Ezra Pound, Sinclair Lewis, F Scott Fitzgerald, Hemmingway
Playwrights: Eugene O’Neill
Music: Gershwin & Copland
Poetry discussed a “botched wasteland”
“Main Street”–narrow-minded small towns
“Great Gatsby”—human emptiness
Romantic individualism & violence
Plays of tragic pipedreams

19. The Arts in the Roaring 20s Video (2.42)

20. “The most dangerous enemy of the Negro race”
Marcus Garvey
Marcus Garvey was the preeminent civil rights activist of the 1920s
Oppression in the U.S. necessitated strict segregation & black nationalism
He formed the United Negro Improvement Assoc & advocated a return to Africa
“The most dangerous enemy of the Negro race”
—W.E.B. DuBois

21. Closure Activity: The Long Road to Women’s Suffrage
What was a typical woman’s role in each era in American history?
Colonial life
Revolutionary era
Antebellum South
19th century “sphere” & reform
Progressive era

22. How did the 1920s change Americans’ lives?
Essential Question:
To what extent did the new economic, social, & urban changes of the “Roaring 20s” conflict with the traditional values of rural America?
Warm-Up Question:
How did the 1920s change Americans’ lives?
Lesson Plan for Tuesday, February 3, 2009: Warm-Up Q, Rural Attack notes & video, Urban v Rural activity

23. The Rural Counterattack

24. City Life in the Jazz Age
The shift in focus from the countryside revealed that urban life was different; traditional ties of home, church, schools were absent
City Life in the Jazz Age
The 1920 census revealed for the 1st time that more Americans lived in cities than the countryside
The New York City skyline in 1930: Skyscrapers gave cities a unique architectural style

25. The Rural Counterattack
Rural Americans identified cities with saloons, whorehouses, communist cells, & immorality
The 1920s saw an attempt to restore a “Protestant” culture in America & an attack on any “un-American” behavior like drinking, illiteracy, & immigration

26. A rural, Protestant attack on the “social disease of drunkenness”
Prohibition
In Jan 1920, Congress passed the Volstead Act to enforce the 18th Amendment (1919)
26 states had already banned alcohol but the real conflict came when prohibition was applied to urban ethnic groups
Rural America became dry & urban consumption dropped but was severely resisted
A rural, Protestant attack on the “social disease of drunkenness”

28. Per capita consumption of alcohol (1910-1929)

30. The Rise of Prohibition (4.31)

31. Prohibition: Gangsters & the Liquor Business (4.33)

32. Prohibition: City Corruption (3.05)

33. The 1st KKK disbanded when Reconstruction ended in the 1870s, but the 2nd KKK formed in 1915 to protect rural, Christian values

34. The Ku Klux Klan
The rebirth of the Ku Klux Klan in 1915 (Stone Mtn, GA) was aimed at blacks, immigrants, Jews, Catholics, & prostitutes
The “Invisible Empire” sought to ease rural anxieties in the face of changing cultural attitudes
Used violence, kidnapping, murder, & politics to affect change
3 distinct lives of the KKK: 1st Klan aimed at Reconstruction was disbanded in nd Klan aimed at cultural changes of early 20th century existed from 1915 to 1944; 3rd Klan emerged in 1946 aimed at growing civil rights movement & communism

35. Klan violence met resistance & membership declined by 1925
The KKK provided a sense of identity to its members: Women’s Order, Junior Order for boys, Tri-K Klub for girls, Krusaders for assimilated immigrants
The state gov’ts of TX, OK, OR, IN were heavily influenced by KKK members
Klan violence met resistance & membership declined by 1925

36. D.W. Griffith’s The Birth of a Nation (1915) was one of the most controversial films in movie history. Set during & after the Civil War, the film glorifies white supremacy & the KKK

37. Including the bombing of Attorney General Palmer’s house in 1919
The Fear of Radicalism
The most dramatic rural reaction was the Red Scare ( ):
A general workers strike in Seattle, police strike in Boston, & series of mail bombs led to fears of anarchy & socialism
Deportation without due process, searches without warrants, & imprisonment of innocent people was initially backed by the American people
Including the bombing of Attorney General Palmer’s house in 1919

38. Palmer’s “Soviet Ark” The solution is simple: “S.O.S.—ship or shoot”
“Place the Bolsheviks on ships of stone with sails of lead”
“Stand them up before the firing squad and save space on our ships”

39. Italian immigrants Nicola Sacco & Bartolomeo Vanzetti were executed for armed robbery & murder without evidence
The judge in the case even referred to Sacco & Vanzetti as “those anarchist bastards”

40. National Origins Act & Sacco/Vanzetti Trial Video (2.19)

41. The Fundamentalist Challenge
Pentecostals, Church of Christ, Jehovah’s Witnesses all grew in membership
The most long-lasting reaction of rural America was a retreat to Christian beliefs
Aggressive fundamentalist churches provided a haven for rural American values
The Scopes “Monkey Trial” revealed the rural attack on evolution in schools

42. Scopes “Monkey Trial” & Prohibition Video (4.08)

43. Conclusions
Urban America came to define all of the United States in the 1920s:
Radio, movies, advertising reflected urban culture
Consumer goods were made in American cities
Small-town whites, blacks, & immigrants moved to cities
But, conservative rural Americans (religious fundamentalists & KKK) attacked these new, urban ideas

44. Closure Activity: The Urban vs. Rural Debate
Examine the list of events of the 1920s. For each, describe how urban and rural perspectives were shaped.
Discussion questions:
Why did the rural counter-attack occur in the 1920s? Why not earlier?
Are any of the arguments among rural Americans justified? Explain