1. Unit 8: The Roaring Twenties and the Great Depression

2. The 1920s
The Roaring Twenties : economic and cultural explosion that dominated the decade
Or…..
Jazz Age: Growth of new American culture revolving around new forms of entertainment and urban cultural life
Or…
Age of Normalcy: Return to practices of discrimination, laissez faire, and isolationism that have been traditions in American Government

3. The Roaring Twenties
Economic Boom – 33% increase in incomes, 60% increase in GDP, increased standard of living
Why?
1. European Demand – Destruction after World War I
2. New Business Techniques
- Mass Production + Assembly Line – Henry Ford
- Credit and Installment Plans
- Advertising
3. Consumer Economy –
- Consumerism – not just buying for necessity but buying goods for pleasure – discretionary goods and services

5. Consumerism –
The Automobile – Henry Ford – Model T
$295
million

6. 2. Airplane – 1927- Charles Lindbergh

7. 3. Consumer Goods: (Irons, Vacuums, Toasters, Washing Machines, Refrigerators)
But mostly……

8. Entertainment + The Jazz Age
The Radio – Marconi

9. Jazz Music – Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Cotton Club

10. Flappers – Cosmetics, Jewelry, Fashion - Dance Marathons
Movies – The Jazz Singer
Sports – Baseball
Babe Ruth
Harlem Renaissance
– Langston Hughes

11. Cultural Conflicts
The 1920s was marked by many cultural conflicts – most of which were Change v. Tradition or Urban v. Rural
1. Communism + The First Red Scare
- Russian Revolution and Comintern
- Labor Strikes – 3600 in 1919, Boston PD
- 30 Letter Bombs, 8 Cities, Wall Street
- A. Mitchell Palmer + Palmer Raids /500
Immigrants - Nativism - Radical Ideas
- Sacco and Vanzetti
– Emergency Quota Act - 3%/ ,000
– National Origins Act - 2%/1890
,000
- No Asian Immigration

12. Change v. Tradition Cont.
3. Alcohol
- 18th Amendment + Prohibition
- Bootlegging + Speakeasies
- Organized Crime, Racketeering, and Al Capone
- Protestant Fundamentalism – Rural America - Drys

13. Change v. Tradition Cont.
4. Science
- New Technology and inventions –Consumerism – Changing American values and culture
- Evolution v. Fundamentalism
- John T. Scopes - Dayton, TN - Biology
- Scopes Monkey Trial
- Clarence Darrow v. William Jennings Bryan
5. New Women
- 19th Amendment
- Household products and the car
- Educational and Job opportunities
- Flappers
- Margaret Sanger - Birth Control Movement
- Alice Paul - ERA
- Divorce Rates

14. Continued 6. African Americans - Great Migration and WWI Veterans
– Race Riots in 25 Cities - Chicago
- Jim Crow Laws + Lynchings
- Marcus Garvey + Black Nationalism - Back to Africa Movement and UNIA
- Harlem Renaissance

15. Ku Klux Klan Birth of a Nation – D.W. Griffith
Ku Klux Klan – Against Catholics, Jews, Immigrants, Scientists, Communists, African Americans, and changing urban society
– 4 Million Members in 1924

16. Age of Normalcy
Warren Harding and Calvin Coolidge returned the US to normalcy in politics
Isolation and Disarmament
- Kellogg-Briand Pact
- Washington Conference – 9 Power Pact, 5 Power Pact, Power Pact
- Dawes Plan
2. Laissez- Faire
- Supply-side economics
- Gov’t support of business, strikes, taxes, tariffs
3. Corruption
- Teapot Dome Scandal- $500,000 in bribes

17. The Great Depression Sept. 1929 – Stock Market Index = 400
Black Thursday – 10/24
Black Tuesday – 10/29
By 11/13 – Index = 200, $30 Billion Lost
This began a depression that would last for 12 years and be the worst in American History.

18. Causes of the Great Depression
Business Decline – Overproduction, Foreign Trade, and Tariffs
Uneven Distribution of Wealth in United States
3. Over speculation in the stock market – Buying on Margin
4. Bank Failures – 9000 banks closed in 4 years
5. International Crisis – Dawes Plan? Germany, Britain, and France cannot repay war debts
6. Federal Reserve Bank – Raised Interest Rates and Cut Circulation of Money

19. Life During the Great Depression
– 25% Unemployment, 50% in Cities
Farmers -Tenant Farmers and Sharecroppers

20. - Homelessness – Hobos and Hoovervilles

21. Dust Bowl and Okies

24. Malnutrition, Starvation, health problems – Bread Lines and Soup Kitchens

26. - Family Values – Divorce, Marriage, and Birth Rates Down
- Discrimination – Women, Asians, Hispanics, and African Americans, Scottsboro Boys
- Entertainment – Movies, Radio, and Books

28. Hoover's Attempts
1. Trickle Down Theory + Supply-side Economics- Individualism and hard work (American Dream)
2. Public Works – Hoover Dam
3. Reconstruction Finance Corp – loans to banks, business, and farms- only spent 20% of $2 Billion budget – Balanced Budget - raised taxes and tariffs
Public’s Anger – Hoovervilles, Hoover flags, Hoover Blankets
- Bonus Army – 20,000 WWI Veterans + General MacArthur
Election of 1932 – Herbert Hoover (R) v. Franklin Delano Roosevelt (D) – New Deal

30. The Old Deal (traditional ideas on American Government)
The New Deal (new ideas on government proposed by FDR)

31. The Old Deal (traditional ideas on American Government)
The New Deal (new ideas on government proposed by FDR)

33. FDR and The New Deal
1st Inaugural Speech – “Nothing to fear but fear itself”
March 5 – Bank Holiday + The First Fireside Chat
- Elected to four terms – Great Depression and WWII
The New Deal :
Three R’s:
Relief: Programs designed to solve people’s immediate problems, relief from homelessness, poverty, hunger
Recovery: Programs designed to fix the American economy, help industry and farmers recover from economic decline
Reform: Programs designed to change American government to ensure another great depression could not occur
Alphabet Agencies - The First Hundred Days (March – June 1933) and the Second 100 Days (1935)

34. Relief - Aimed at solving people’s immediate problems
1. Unemployment – Public Works Programs – FERA, CWA, CCC, PWA, WPA, TVA
2. Homelessness – HOLC
Recovery - Aimed at fixing industry and farming so they could prosper
– NRA, AAA, FSA
Reform- Aimed at fixing the system so it wouldn’t happen again
– SEC, FDIC, Social Security, Fair Labor Standards Act

35. New Deal Programs to Remember
Relief - Public Works – 20 Million Jobs - unemployment
- CCC – created jobs for urban youths in conservation projects
- TVA - built over 30 hydroelectric dams
Recovery
– AAA and NRA
- Supreme Court
Packing Scheme
- Separation of
Powers, Checks and
Balances

37. New Deal Programs to Remember
3. Legacy (Reform Programs)
Social Security- Old Age Pension, Unemployment and Disability Insurance, Payroll Taxes
FDIC – Insured bank deposits up to $2500 ($250,000 today)
SEC – Regulates Stock Markets – Protects investors, requires financial reports, investigates fraud
Wagner Act – protected unions in the United States
Fair Labor Standards Act – No Child Labor, 40 hr. workweek, minimum wage

38. The New Deal Evaluated The Bad: 1. Didn’t End the Depression
2. Civil Rights – CCC, TVA, Anti-lynching laws? – Democratic Party and Southern Support
– National Debt = $43 Billion
The Good:
1. Confidence in America + FDR – Fireside Chats and use of the Media
2. Increase power of President and the scope and power of the federal government – Welfare, Workers Rights, Banks and Stock Market
3. Democratic Party - New Deal Coalition – Civil Rights and Minorities, Women, Urban, Poverty
4. Legacy: Public Works, SEC, FDIC, Social
Security, minimum wage, Unions