1. The Roaring Twenties

2. American Society of the 1920s

3. Age of Excess Increased standard of living
Consumerism and mass advertising
Entertainment – radio, phonograph, movies

4. End of the Progressive Era
Last two amendments
18th amendment – prohibited the manufacture, sale, transportation, or importation of intoxicating liquors. Passed into law by the Volstead Act – effective January 1, 1920

5. Life during Prohibition
Speakeasies
Drinking
Dancing
Jazz

6. The American Economy Inflation
Prices were 105% higher in 1920 than prior to WW I
2,655 strikes in the US in 1919
4 million workers, 20% of work force

7. Boston Police Strike 1919
Massachusetts Governor Calvin Coolidge called the National Guard to end the strike
“no right to strike against the public safety by
anybody, anywhere, anytime!”

8. Race Riots in 1919 Why ? Summer 1919
Unemployed WW I veterans blamed job losses on the Great Migration
Summer 1919
Riots in 20+ US cities

9. “Treat ‘em rough”

10. THE RED SCARE

11. The Red Scare Fear of Communist revolution among working class
Strikes “caused” by Communists

12. Renewed Fear of Unions
Change in attitude toward unions after the large number of strikes
Americans feared a “people’s revolution”
COMMUNISM

13. Bombings – April to June 1919
At least 36 dynamite filled packages were mailed to prominent Americans (Rockefeller, JP Morgan, Chief Justice Holmes, Attorney General Mitchell Palmer)

14. Seattle General Strike
35,000 shipyard workers strike
Within 5 days – 60,000 on strike all over Seattle

16. Palmer Raids US Attorney General – A.Mitchell Palmer
Created special division of Justice Dept
General Intelligence Division
Led by J. Edgar Hoover

17. Nativism Returns Immigration limitations Emergency Quota Act (1921)
Immigration Quota Act (1924)
Both focused on reducing immigration, especially from Southern and Eastern Europe, Asia

18. Sacco and Vanzetti Italian born anarchists
Sentenced to death with little evidence

19. Rebirth of the KKK – targeted Catholics, Jews, immigrants, blacks, and other “non-Americans”

20. Warren Harding “Return to normalcy” Isolationism
Laissez-faire economics
Lowered taxes
Fortney McCumber Tariff
Purpose: protect American business and farming

21. Scandals Most scandalous administration since Grant
Teapot Dome scandal

22. Calvin Coolidge The man who builds a factory builds a temple
Four-fifths of all our troubles in this world would disappear if only we would sit down and keep still

23. The Business Civilization
“The business of America is business”
- Calvin Coolidge

24. Coolidge Continuation of laissez-faire economic policies
Lowered taxes even more
Reduced the power of the FTC and ICC
Against unions

25. Economic boom (1922 – 1929) Electrification of industry
Assembly line production
Automobiles – ownership from 8.1 million to 26.7 million

26. Electricity
2/3 of all Americans had it
Electrical appliances invented

27. Installment Plans Easy credit, more people used it
Large purchases made with payment plans

28. Expansion of Branch Banking
25,568 banks by 1929
Increase in loans for real estate, stocks and bonds purchases

29. Tough times for Farmers
European demand down
Prices drop, costs go up (new machinery)
Foreshadows an economic decline

30. Sexual Revolution

31. Influences on Independence
Women’s suffrage
Increased college attendance
Advertising and consumerism
Hollywood
The Jazz Age

32. Margaret Sanger and Birth Control
Promoted birth control for women in the US, Japan, and Europe

33. Education
Free elementary education was available to most whites during the 1920s
Longer school year
Increased higher education

34. Creationism vs. Science
Fundamentalism – strict interpretation of the Bible, conservative religious philosophy
Aimee Semple McPherson
Tennessee Law  the Butler Act (1925), cannot teach any evolution theory in public schools

35. Scopes Trial – “Monkey Trial”
Clarence Darrow vs. William Jennings Bryan
Science vs. Creationism/Fundamentalism

36. Harlem Renaissance

37. Causes Great Migration - Jim Crow laws and the KKK in the South
WW I – jobs left open in northern industries
Modernization of the cities
“New Negro” Movement

38. Significance / Impact African American pride
Intellectual identity, change in how they were viewed and accepted in America
African Americans defined what it meant to be black – broke the stereotypes
Began the integration of the races (whites were exposed to black culture)
New art, literature, Jazz