1. 1920s AP United States History
THE ROARING TWENTIES
1920s
AP United States History

2. Fundamental Questions
Did the Roaring Twenties continue Progressive Era reforms?
Did it reflect its description as “roaring”?
Did the economic, political, and social realities of the 1920s lead directly to the Great Depression?

3. Isolationist America
“America’s present need is not heroics, but healing; not nostrums but normalcy; not revolution but restoration;…not surgery, but serenity.”- Warren G. Harding
Disillusioned by the Treaty of Versailles and the Great War, American focused inward in the 1920s, promoting an idealized “America.”
Denounced “radical” foreign ideas like socialism in the Red Scare
Condemned “un-American” lifestyles
Embraced racism and xenophobia
Severe immigration restrictions, largely based on race/ethnicity

4. Election of 1920 Democrats Republicans Socialist Party James M. Cox
Warren G. Harding
“A Return to Normalcy”
Socialist Party
Eugene V. Debs
Received 913,664 votes despite incarceration

5. Warren G. Harding (R) (1921-1923)
“A Return to Normalcy.”
Budget and Accounting Act (1921)
President required to submit annual budget to Congress
Bureau of the Budget
Emergency Quota Act (1921)
Fordney-McCumber Tariff (1922)
Increase tariff rates, especially on industrial goods
Washington Naval Conference ( )-major powers agree to reduce naval armament.
Race-called for full political, economic, and social equality for blacks, but not mixing races. Supported anti-lynching Dyer Bill, which passed House but failed in Senate due to Democratic filibuster. Appointed some African-American officials.
Women & Children-Sheppard-Towner Maternity Act set up 3,000 health centers for pregnant women and children. Lasted 8 years.
Pick Your Friends Wisely!
Teapot Dome Scandal
Bribes for oil fields
Veteran’s Bureau fraud and bribery
Attorney General bribed by almost everyone
Harding died in office
Calvin Coolidge assumed presidency

6. Election of 1924 Democrats Republicans Progressive Party John W. Davis
Split primarily over KKK support
Republicans
Calvin Coolidge
Booming economy and conservatism
Progressive Party
Robert La Follette
Liberal alternative to both parties

7. Calvin Coolidge (R) (1923-1928)
“The business of the American people is business.”
Revenue Acts of 1924, 1926, 1928
Overall decrease in tax rates
National Origins Act (1924)
Kellogg-Briand Pact (1928)-international agreement not to use war to resolve conflicts.

8. Election of 1928 Democrats Republicans Al Smith Herbert Hoover
First Catholic major party candidate
Split the party
Smith’s support for Catholics
Smith’s support for anti-Prohibitionist
Smith’s Tammany Hall association
Republicans
Herbert Hoover
Ran on continuing economic prosperity and conservative policies

9. “A Return to Normalcy” “The Business of America is Business”
Dedication and inspiration for Progressive reform waned=
World War I reestablished a conservative and isolationist society
“The Business of America is Business”
A reinvigoration of American business prosperity and consumerism
Social and Cultural Impact
Urban and Rural divisiveness
Reactions to Conservatism

10. American Consumer Society
American economy increasingly competitive
Welfare Capitalism
Real income increased for most workers
Insurance, profit-sharing, worker safety
Decreased influence of unions
Mass Production
Model T
Electric Motor=
Wide variety and availability of consumer products at affordable prices
Domestic appliances
Precarious Financing
Buying on credit
Buying on margin
National Advertising
“keeping up with the Joneses”
Automobiles
Inspired development of highway system and transportation infrastructure
Invigorated other industries

11. Consumer Ads

12. 1920s Society Blacks White Resentment
Lynchings increased, especially in the South
Great Migration led to increased racial tension in northern cities.
Changing neighborhoods=
Universal Negro Improvement Association
Marcus Garvey
Economic solidarity and advancement for blacks
Failed attempt of mass migration to Africa
Inspired black pride and nationalism

13. 1920s Society Immigrants First Red Scare and Nativism Quota Laws
Emergency Quota Act (1921)
3% of 1910 Census
National Origins Act (1924)
2% of 1890 Census
Sacco and Vanzetti Trial ( )
Two Italian immigrants executed for murder despite little evidence

14. 1920s Society Women Voting Employment Usually voted like husbands
Led politicians to pursue female-friendly legislation and programs
Minority women still restricted from voting in many areas, especially South and West.
Employment
Clerical, teachers, nurses, domestic servants
Jobs by class=
Lower wages and no managerial positions
“Hey, Dollface.”
Immigrants and black women lowest paid, worked in most dangerous conditions.

15. Fashion as Freedom Starting a sexual revolution? Divorce
Margaret Sanger
American Birth Control League
Established Planned Parenthood
Flapper Girl
Young women of the Jazz Age
Short hair, short hemline, cosmetics, cigarette

16. 1920s Culture Wars Prohibition
Eighteenth Amendment and Volstead Act
Supported by middle-class progressives and rural Protestants especially in South and West
Generally ignored in urban centers
Bootleggers/Rumrunners
Smuggling of alcohol
Rise of organized crime
Al Capone
Valentine’s Day Massacre
NASCAR
Speakeasies
Underground saloons

17. 1920s Culture Wars Ku Klux Klan

18. 1920s Culture Wars Religion
Fundamentalism
Literal view of Bible; Creationism
Attacked urban lifestyle and culture
Revivalists
Billy Sunday
Aimee Semple McPherson
Modernism
Liberal view of religion
Acceptance and coordination of science in context with faith
Scopes Monkey Trial (1925)
Law against teaching of evolution in Tennessee public school
Creationism
William Jennings Bryan
Evolution
Clarence Darrow

19. 1920s Culture Wars Hero Worship
Athletes, celebrities, innovators famed for individual accomplishment
A personification of American individualism
Babe Ruth
Charles Lindbergh
Lindbergh kidnapping-
Amelia Earhart
Fueled tabloid and gossip columns in newspapers and magazines

20. 1920s Culture Wars Entertainment
Jazz Age
Inspiration of rebellious youth and liberal reaction to conservatism and fundamentalism
Jazz
Louis Armstrong
George Gershwin
Speakeasies
Dance Clubs
Waltz to Foxtrot to Charleston
Josephine Baker
Flappers
Radio
Mainstream medium
Networks: NBC, CBS
Cinema
Talkies
The Jazz Singer
Nickelodeons
Charlie Chaplin

21. 1920s Culture Wars Literature
The Lost Generation
Disillusioned by World War I, consumerism, and modernism
Sinclair Lewis
Babbitt
American culture as conformist and materialistic
Ernest Hemingway
The Sun Also Rises
A Farewell to Arms
F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Great Gatsby

22. 1920s Culture Wars Harlem Renaissance
Fueled by the Great Migration and inspired by black pride
Themes challenged racist stereotypes
“Black is beautiful”
Langston Hughes
Zora Neale Hurston
The New Negro: An Interpretation (1925)

23. Langton Hughes

24. Zora Neal Hurston
Click on the quote above and read a passage titled, “How It Feels to be Colored Me.”

25. 1920s Culture Wars Art and Architecture
Art Deco
Rich colors, geometric shapes, ornamentation
Modernism
Expressionism
Evoke emotional response through distortion
Precisionism
Inspired by industrialism and modernization evoked through geometric shapes
Chrysler Building
Aucassin
Charles Demuth, 1921
Art Deco District – Miami Beach

26. Herbert Hoover (R) ( )
“Given the chance to go forward with the policies of the last eight years, we shall soon… be in sight of the day when poverty will be banished from this nation.”
Great Depression Begins
Voluntarism
Stock Market Crash of 1929
Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act (1930)
Reconstruction Finance Corporation (1932)
Bonus Army (1932)