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Transition to Modern America
25 Transition to Modern America
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The Second Industrial Revolution
U.S. developed the highest standard of living in the world The 1920s and the second revolution Electricity replaced steam Modern assembly introduced
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The Automobile Industry
Auto makers stimulated sales through model changes, advertising Auto industry fostered other businesses Rubber industry Steel industry Highway construction Gasoline/oil Autos encouraged suburban sprawl More shopping Traveling for pleasure Commuting to work Dating Traffic jams in cities, injuries on roads and highways By 1929 – 26.5 million cars were registered compared to 1.2 million in 1913. 1 car per American family Replaced the railroad industry as the key to economic growth
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Patterns of Economic Growth
New technologies meant new industries such as radio and motion pictures 1920 – only a few thousand listeners 1930 – 10 million radios/800 stations 1927 – talking movies (sound) 1929 – 80 million movie tickets sold per week Structural change Professional managers replaced individual entrepreneurs Corporations became the dominant business form Thousands of stockholders
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Patterns of Economic Growth
Marketing and national brands spread Advertising rose to $3.4 billion by 1926 Chain stores – A & P & Woolworth’s Uniformity and standardization – characterized by mass production Big business weakened regionalism, brought uniformity to America Sectional differences faded in regards to dress, food, and furniture
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Glenwood Stove Ad
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Economic Weaknesses Revolution in consumer goods disguised the decline of traditional industries Railroads poorly managed and overcapitalized Coal displaced by petroleum and natural gas Farmers faced decline in exports, prices – income dropped $273 vs national average of $681 a year. Growing disparity between income of laborers, middle-class managers Middle class speculated with idle money – invested heavily in the stock market to reap gains from industrial growth.
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City Life in the Jazz Age
Rapid increase in urban population More than 50% of Americans lived in cities – 250,000 to 8 million in some areas Skyscrapers symbolized the new mass culture – Woolworth building, Empire state building Communities of home, church, and school were absent in the cities
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Women and the Family Ongoing crusade for equal rights
“Flappers” sought individual freedom – premarital sex, movies, novels all promoted promiscuity. Advocated for birth control although it was generally illegal (Margaret Sanger), bob haircuts, smoking cigarettes, driving cars, college graduates, took jobs until marriage Most women remained in domestic sphere Discovery of adolescence Teenage children no longer needed to work Universal education – American goal – graduates doubled to over 25% of school age young adults Indulged their craving for excitement
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The Roaring Twenties Sports, like golf and baseball, boxing became much bigger part of national popular culture; Babe Ruth Crime waves – prohibition led to speakeasies, bootleggers, violent shootouts, Al Capone ($60 million/year) Decade was notable for obsessive interest in celebrities like Charles Lindbergh and Gertrude Ederle Sex became an all-consuming topic of interest in popular entertainment
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The Flowering of the Arts
Alienation from 1920s mass culture “Exiled” American writers put U.S. at forefront of world literature T.S. Eliot & Ernest Hemingway exiled to Europe F. Scott Fitzgerald – took to a life of drinking
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The Flowering of the Arts
Harlem Renaissance: African Americans prominent in music, poetry – 1930 – 20% of Africans lived in the North, as migration from South continued. Marcus Garvey – Back to Africa movement United Negro Improvement Organization (UNIA) – from Jamaica Advocated individual and racial pride; political ideas of black nationalism Found guilty for selling fraudulent stock and deported; movement collapsed 200,000 African Americans in Harlem by 1930 due to the concentration in the 1920s of talented actors, artists, museums and writers. Langston Hughes Bessie Smith – blues singer Louis Armstrong
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The Rural Counterattack
Rural Americans identified urban culture with Communism, crime, immorality Progressives attempted to force reform on the American people Upsurge of bigotry An era of repression
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The Fear of Radicalism 1919: “Red Scare”
Illegal roundups of innocent people Forcible deportation of aliens Terrorism against “radicals,” immigrants 1927: Sacco and Vanzetti executed
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Prohibition 18th Amendment gives federal government power to pass Volstead Act of 1920 prohibiting production, sale, or transport of alcoholic beverages Consumption of alcohol reduced Prohibition resented in urban areas Bootlegging became big business 1933: 18th amendment repealed
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The Ku Klux Klan 1925: Klan membership hit 5 million
Attack on urban culture, inhabitants Defense of traditional rural values Klan sought to win U.S. by persuasion Violence, internal corruption resulted in Klan’s virtual disappearance by 1930
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Immigration Restriction
1924: National Origins Act – 2% of all immigrants 150,000 person quota on immigration Quotas favored northern Europeans Mexican immigrants exempted from quota
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The Fundamentalist Challenge
Fundamentalism: Stress on traditional Protestant orthodoxy, biblical literalism (theory of evolution vs bible teaching) 1925: Scopes Trial discredited fundamentalism among intellectuals “Modernists” gained mainline churches Fundamentalists strengthened grassroots appeal in new churches
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Harding, Coolidge, and Hoover
Republican presidents appealed to traditional American values Harding scandals broke after his death Teapot Dome Scandal Attorney General vs Sec of the Interior – oil reserves taken from navy and sold privately Coolidge represented America in his honesty and integrity Hoover represented the self-made man – cooperation between business and government
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Republican Policies Return to “normalcy”
Tariffs raised Corporate and income taxes cut Spending cut Coolidge blocked Congressional aid to farmers as unwarranted interference in the economy Government-business cooperation
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The Divided Democrats 1924: Urban-rural split weakened Democrats
Major shift in political loyalties Democrats gained more Congressional seats than Republicans after 1922
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The Election of 1924
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The Election of 1928 Democrat Al Smith carried urban vote
Governor of New York Roman Catholic Republican Herbert Hoover won race Midwesterner Protestant Religion the campaign’s decisive issue
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The Old and the New Old historical view: The Depression ended the spirit of the twenties New historical view: The 1920s laid the foundations of modern America
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