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The Roaring Twenties

The Roaring Twenties. Flappers, Gangsters, and Pinkos . . . Oh my!. What defined the Twenties?.

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The Roaring Twenties

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  1. The Roaring Twenties Flappers, Gangsters, and Pinkos. . . Oh my!

  2. What defined the Twenties?

  3. “This is a story of America between two Wars, told in terms of the most significant, or typical, or utterly fantastic new events of the gaudy and chaotic years that separated Versailles from Pearl Harbor. . . We seem to have fluctuated between headaches: sometimes induced by prohibition, more frequently by the fevered pace of time. During these throbbing years we searched in vain for a cure-all, coming no closer to it than the aspirin bottle; hence: The Aspirin Age. . . Twenty-two prominent authors, all closely connected with the period have written . . . [what] is, I hope, no mere chronicling of the arresting events, but rather a recreation of a strange and almost somnambulistic time when America was much younger in spirit than it ever can be again.” -Isabel Leighton

  4. A Society in Turmoil “[the] world has been convulsed . . . and every field of thought and action has been disturbed . . . The most settled principles and laws of society . . . have been attacked.” –Presbyterian Magazine, 1919

  5. Recession of 1919-1921 • = economic slowdown • INFLATION • Why? Lift of wage/price controls •  COL high • GNP down • Why? Demand

  6. Labor Unrest • Workers vs. Owners, AGAIN • Class warfare? • Inflation + high COL + little job security + bad conditions + lost benefits • Adamson Act, Open shops • Esch-Cummins Transportation Act (RR Trans. Act)

  7. STRIKE! • 1/19- Seattle: Shipyard workers/docks • 11/19- Boston: Police Force • Unionize strike  lost jobs • Gov. Calvin Coolidge • “There is no right to strike against the public safety.” • 9/19- Steelworkers • 11/19- Coalminers

  8. Farming • Golden Age = 1896-1920 • Farmers = merry, prosperous • Farm prices fall  debt • Farmers = fearful, disillusioned

  9. The Red Scare

  10. Fear Spreads • Fear of radicalism • Bolshevik Rev.  Soviet Union (1921)  collectivization • Loss of property • Comintern = org. to spread Comm. Revs around world

  11. June 2, 1919- 8 bombs mailed to U.S. leaders • Terrorism? Sign of revolution? • Boston, NY, DC (Palmer), Pitt., Phil., E. Orange, Newton, Patterson • Earlier April bombs • Wall Street • Unions = radicalism & terrorists • Ex: Debs

  12. The Palmer Raids • What’s the fix? • “The Fighting Quaker” • 11/1919-1/1920: RAID! • Why support? • Raid homes and offices without warrant • Deportations- the “Soviet Ark” • Jailed w/o evidence or attorney • No court hearing • Centralia, WA issue • May Day Dupe = END of Palmer Raids • Palmer loses support

  13. Sacco and Vanzetti • Radicals! Anarchists! Immigrants! Wobblies! • Charged w/ murder of paymaster & guard @ shoe factory in South Braintree, MA • Executed

  14. Fear of Immigrants

  15. Immigration restrictions • Why? • Slow pop. growth, protect US from radicals • Xenophobia • Right vs. Wrong immigrants (Prescott Hall) • Radicals (Conserv.), block voting (politicians), overcrowded cities (reformers)

  16. The Quota system: “America for Americans” -Coolidge • How? • Literacy Test • Laws • Emergency Quota Act- 1921 • 3%, 1910 • Immigration Act of 1924 • 2% 1890 • National Origin Act- 1929 • 150k total

  17. Effect • Purpose to tilt balance to old immigrant nations • Exclusion of people from East Asia • Gate still open to W. Hemisphere • Increase in Hispanic Catholic population • Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, Cubans

  18. http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5078/

  19. The Rise of the New Klan

  20. 100% Americanism • WASP nativists • vs. African-Americans, Catholics, Jewish population, immigrants, “demon rum”, saloons • Use terror, assault •  further spread • Response to • Shifting morals, decline in influence of church, social permissiveness, city life • Defend Traditional America- God and country!

  21. CITY vs. RURAL AMERICA • Industrial powerhouses • High population • Varied cultures • Mass transit • Activities: movies, vaudeville, clubs, gambling, drinking, casual dating • People discussed & argued social and scientific ideas- tolerance of other ideas and values • Fast-paced life, impersonal, strangers • Had to have endurance to survive! • Rural towns, farming communities • People bound together by conservative morals, religion, friends, family • Perspectives often the same • Slow-paced life, intimate relationships • Judgment often on background, not accomplishment

  22. Fundamentalism

  23. Old vs. New Religion • Literal translation of Bible vs. modernism • Take note of scientific discoveries, higher criticism • WJB = a crusader for fundamentalism! • 1925- Butler Act = ban on teaching evolution in TN

  24. The Scopes Monkey Trial • Dayton, TN: John T. Scopes • Accepts ACLU idea to be test case • TEXTBOOK ISSUE • Starring. . . • WJB- prosecution • Clarence Darrow- defense • Fundamentalism vs. Modernism • WJB called as expert witness  “fool ideas” • Scopes GUILTY • “A duel to the death.” -WJB

  25. Youth Culture & The “Young Generation” • On “adolescence” • “The growing secularism of American culture and its expanding emphasis on training and expertise found reflection in the increasingly important role of education in the lives of American youth. The growing emergence of education contributed to the emergence of a separate youth culture.” • Schools, colleges  environment to develop social patterns, interests, activities outside the home and influence of families

  26. The Lost Generation • Gertrude Stein, “You are all a lost generation.” • Values after war? • US intolerant, materialistic, unspiritual • 1920s-30s: writers in Paris, modernist movement • Believe in • Youthful idealism • Sought meaning of life • Love affairs • Drinking • Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Dos Passos, Pound, Lewis • Post-WWI generation

  27. The Scopes Monkey Trial • Video Clip • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMWXc365HMU

  28. “The Noble Experiment” Wet vs. Dry

  29. Prohibition • Drive for moral righteousness, conformity • Shift by WCTU & ASL • Individual  nat’l law • Much support gained during WWI • = a test of patriotism • 18th Amendment = ban on manufacture, sale, transport of intoxicating liquors • Effective Jan. 1920 • Volstead Act = definition of “intoxicating,” power to gov’t to enforce law

  30. Effects • SUCCESS? • Hopes vs. reality • Early success vs. early failure • Economic impact • What’s the problem? ENFORCEMENT • Not much local support, $$ in bootlegging, no more sacrifice! • Loopholes • Pharmacies, churches, home brewing

  31. The Failure of Prohibition • Disrespect for law enforcement • Corruption • Slow legal system  “plea bargain” • “Victimless Crime” • Organized crime- $$ in bootlegging • Also: gambling, extortion, systematic vice • $$ + auto + sub machine gun = mobility & firepower • Al Capone, $60 m./yr + 45 m. racketeering • Vs. Eliot Ness • Bill McCoy

  32. Progressivism Ends Disillusionment and Reaction

  33. A better world? • Success • 19th Amendment, trust busting, child labor laws • BUT . . . • Disillusionment • Economic problems, labor unrest, racial tension, antiradicalism

  34. Failure of Progressivism • “It is only once in a generation that a people can be lifted above material things. That is why conservative government is in the saddle two-thirds of the time.” -Wilson • Do better laws make better lives? • WWI- US turns to isolationism • Red Scare • 16thAmend. fails to redistribute wealth • Farmers, workers • 19th Amend.  few changes in politics • 18th Amend. to save families openly disregarded

  35. 1920 Election • Issues over disillusionment, recession, peace treaty/LON • fear of radicals, terrorists, l • Labor unrest • Workers, farmers • Dem. James Cox vs. Rep. Warren G. Harding • Last election campaign by phonograph

  36. Harding • “America’s present need is not heroics, but healing; not nostrums, but normalcy; not revolution, but restoration; not agitation, but adjustment; not surgery, but serenity; not the dramatic, but the dispassionate; not experiment, but equipoise; not submergence in internationality, but sustainment in triumphant nationality.” -WGH

  37. On Progressivism • Americans “were tired of issues, sick at heart of ideals, and weary of being noble.” - William Allen White, progressive journalist

  38. A Return to Normalcy Warren G. Harding 1920-1923*

  39. Did Mr. Carson masquerade as a president?

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