1. CHAPTER 22 Cultural Conflict, Bubble, and Bust, 1919‒1932
James A. Henretta
Eric Hinderaker
Rebecca Edwards
Robert O. Self
America’s History Eighth Edition America: A Concise History Sixth Edition
CHAPTER 22
Cultural Conflict, Bubble, and Bust,
1919‒1932
Copyright © 2014 by Bedford/St. Martin’s

2. 1. Describe this Life magazine cover from July 1926
1. Describe this Life magazine cover from July Who are the people depicted, and what are they doing? (Answer: Image presents a young woman—a flapper—front and center. She is between two men who are playing music, probably jazz.)
2. What is this image supposed to represent? What is the viewer supposed to understand about their values and priorities? (Answer: This image celebrates the modernism that was manifest in much of 1920s culture. The people in the drawing are young and enjoying jazz in a commercial setting. The flapper in the image symbolizes the independent “new woman” who rejected traditional femininity in favor of more revealing clothing, bobbed hair, and expressive sexuality. Presenting these images on a magazine cover that celebrates the Fourth of July also suggests that these new elements are quintessentially American.)

3. I. Conflicted Legacies of World War I
A. Racial Strife 1. White Violence 2. Competition

4. I. Conflicted Legacies of World War I
B. Erosion of Labor Rights 1. National War Labor Board 2. Public employees 3. Welfare capitalism

5. I. Conflicted Legacies of World War I
C. The Red Scare 1. Bolsheviks 2. Palmer raids 3. Sacco and Vanzetti

6. II. Politics in the 1920s
A. Women in Politics 1. Sheppard-Towner Federal Maternity and Infancy Act 2. Equal Rights Amendment 3. Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom

7. II. Politics in the 1920s
B. Republicans and Business 1. Warren Harding 2. Calvin Coolidge 7

8. II. Politics in the 1920s
C. Dollar Diplomacy 1. Foreign affairs 2. On the defensive

9. II. Politics in the 1920s
D. Culture Wars 1. Prohibition 2. Evolution in the Schools 9

10. II. Politics in the 1920s
D. Culture Wars (cont.) 3. Nativism 4. The National Klan 5. The Election 1928
II. Politics in the 1920s
D. Culture Wars (cont.)
3. Nativism – Fears about unrestricted immigration by native-born Protestants who believed them to be the cause of problems in United States; Catholics and Jews were targets of hostility; Coolidge: “America must be kept American;” arguments that immigrants undermined Christianity and imported anarchism and socialism; the National Origins Act (1924) used the 1890 census to determine how many people could enter from individual nations; further restricted immigration from Europe in 1929; immigrants from Western Hemisphere were unrestricted leading to increasing numbers of Latin American immigrants, including 1 million Mexicans; Great Depression led to cuts in immigration from Mexico; hostility towards Asians grew in California which passed a law making it illegal for noncitizens to own property.
4. The National Klan – Following Birth of a Nation (1915 film) the KKK grew, targeting Jews and Catholics; ran for political offices and won; more than 3 million members at height.
5. The Election of 1928 – Catholic Governor Al Smith (D-NY) ran against Herbert Hoover, secretary of commerce; opponents: “No Governor can kiss the papal ring and get within gunshot of the White House;” Hoover won 58 percent of popular vote and 444 electoral votes. 10

11. III. Intellectual Modernism
A. Harlem in Vogue 1. Black Writers and Artists 1. Jazz 2. Marcus Garvey and the UNIA
III. Intellectual Modernism
A. Harlem in Vogue (Black population of New York tripled between 1910 and 1920; black artists and writers migrated to Harlem.)
1. Black Writers and Artists – Writers like Langston Hughes, Claude McKay, and Jean Toomer published works that championed black pride; Zora Neale Hurston documented black folklore, songs, and religious beliefs that she incorporated into short stories and novels.
2. Jazz – Most visible piece of Harlem culture for most Americans; started in New Orleans before World War I; combination of blues, ragtime, and other musical forms; improvised solo made trumpeter Louis Armstrong a star; radio helped grow the nationwide popularity of jazz; 1920s saw advent of companies producing race records for black audiences, records for immigrant communities in native languages.
3. Marcus Garvey and the UNIA – Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) formed in 1920s in Harlem; Garvey: born in Jamaica, advocated black separatism, claimed to have 4 million followers; published Negro World and sought to create a steamship company to bring blacks back to Africa, Black Star Line; Garvey imprisoned for mail fraud and deported in 1925; symbol of emerging pan-Africanism: idea that people of African descent had a common destiny and should cooperate in political action.

12. III. Intellectual Modernism
B. Critiquing American Life 1. The Lost Generation 2. The dark side
III. Intellectual Modernism
B. Critiquing American Life
1. The Lost Generation – Post-World War I voices proclaimed growing dissent: Gertrude Stein called those who survived the war the Lost Generation; John Dos Passos criticized the war in The Three Soldiers (1921), as did Ernest Hemingway in A Farewell to Arms (1929).
2. The dark side – Examinations of the dark side of human beings: Eugene O’Neill in Desire Under the Elms (1924) and The Emperor Jones (1920); Sinclair Lewis criticized conformity in Babbitt (1922); Lewis was first American to win Nobel Prize for literature in 1930; F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby (1925) criticized the pursuit of pleasure and wealth.

13. IV. From Boom to Bust
A. The Postwar Economy 1. Corporate monopolies 2. Languishing industries
IV. From Boom to Bust
A. The Postwar Economy
1. Corporate monopolies – By the 1920s, corporations were the major form of business in the United States; a few major producers were at the top of most markets (oligopoly); mergers between banks made Wall Street the financial center of the United States; post-World War I inflation was followed by two years of recession with 10 percent unemployment; between 1922 and 1929, national per capita income rose.
2. Languishing industries – Despite boom, U.S. economy had weak agricultural sector due to falling prices; coal and textile industries languished for similar reasons; rural Americans did not benefit from prosperity.

14. IV. From Boom to Bust
B. Consumer Culture 1. The Automobile 2. Hollywood
IV. From Boom to Bust
B. Consumer Culture
1. The Automobile – Mass production led to Americans spending $2.58 billion on automobiles in 1929; other industries were stimulated: steel, petroleum, chemical, rubber, and glass; suburbs grew and new shopping centers were developed; hurt the railroad industry; changed the way people spent leisure time.
2. Hollywood – By 1910, moviemaking industry was growing in California on cheap land; young people followed the fashions of movie actors and actresses, including flapper Clara Bow; flappers represented social and sexual emancipation for women.

15. IV. From Boom to Bust
C. The Coming of the Great Depression 1. Causes 2. Effects
IV. From Boom to Bust
C. The Coming of the Great Depression
1. Causes – Too much lending ($7 billion per year by 1927); drop in consumer spending as credit became more difficult to get; global economic problems; adherence to the gold standard, which the British and Germans had abandoned with some positive results in 1931.
2. Effects – During the first four years, industrial production fell 37 percent, construction fell 78 percent, and, by 1932, unemployment had reached 24 percent; Americans cut back dramatically and falling demand deepened the crisis; bank failures; desperate people turned to private charity for aid; couples delayed marriage; birthrate fell to a historic low; African Americans were affected more deeply than whites.