The Business of America

1. The Business of America Standard 6.1 “The Business of America is Business.” –Calvin Coolidge, 30th President of the United States

2. New Industries • automobiles: changed everything; roads now paved; changed American landscape; spinoff industries (diners, motels, gas stations, mechanic shops, parking garages); connected rural areas; sparked independence among teens/women; led to urban sprawl • airplanes: only for mail at first; began carrying ppl. 1927

3. Standard of Living • soared for most in 1920’s; US owned 40% of world’s wealth • electricity available to all except remote farms • many new appliances created free time (refrigerators, washing machines, electric stoves, vacuum cleaners) • advertising made ppl. “need” these things

4. Superficial Prosperity • chain stores spreading; glass, steel, rubber industries expanding • income gap widening; farmers losing money; RR struggling • installment plan allowed ppl. to live beyond their means BUT

5. Proof of Learning 4/12Section 20.3 in the book • How did automobiles physically impact the United States? • How did automobiles help the US economy? • Why did people find themselves with more free time? • Explain how the installment plan “tricked” people. • Which new appliance would you have been most excited about and why?

6. Popular Culture of the 1920’s Standard 6.2

7. Education • 400% increase in HS enrollment 1914-26 • began offering more than just college prep courses; offered vocational training • challenge to teach immigrant children & create literate Americans • taxes rose to fund new schools

8. Mass Media • increased literacy fueled rise in newspaper & magazine circulation • many local papers closed & national papers took over • Reader’s Digest & Time founded in 1920’s • radio: most powerful communicator of the 20’s; could experience things as they happened

9. Louis Armstrong John Barrymore Clara Bow Charlie Chaplin Jack Dempsey Gertrude Ederle Red Grange Harry Houdini Bobby Jones Charles Lindbergh Knute Rockne Babe Ruth Gene Tunney Rudolph Valentino Cultural HeroesRecord this list, leaving room to tell why each is remembered.

11. “Men bowed down & worshipped at the altar of the goddess Success while seeking quick something-for-nothing riches” “What was to make the people of the twenties attractive to memory was the relation they had to possibility.”

12. Entertainment • movies: began as “silent” (accompanied by live musicians); first talking picture The Jazz Singer (1927); Disney’s Steamboat Willie (1928) 1st animated cartoon w/sound • George Gershwin gave American music its own sound • Georgia O’Keeffe painted many bright scenes of New York

13. Literature • Sinclair Lewis: most novels critical of American life in 20’s; Babbitt, Main Street • F. Scott Fitzgerald: coined term “jazz age;” The Great Gatsby • Edna St. Vincent Millay: poet celebrating new freedoms of 20’s • Ernest Hemingway: wrote simply; criticized war; Farewell to Arms, The Sun Also Rises

14. Harlem Renaissance • intellectual movement; many blacks in north due to Great Migration; working for equality w/NAACP; main goal was to end lynching • Marcus Garvey: founded UNIA; said blacks should go back to Africa b/c could never be equal here; movement never took off, but awakened pride

15. HR Figures • Claude McKay: novelist w/militant tone; expressed pain of ghetto life • Langston Hughes: best-known poet; described hardships of being black; poems had a jazzy tempo • Paul Robeson: Shakespearean actor • Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Bessie Smith: musicians; helped spread jazz nationwide

16. Proof of Learning 4/15 • How did high school course work change in the 1920’s? • Explain how mass media helped unite the nation. • How did many writers feel about the changes in America in the 1920’s? • Why did the NAACP need the intellect of the Harlem Renaissance? • Which pop culture hero made the biggest contribution to life at that time? Why?

17. Postwar Politics Standard 6.2

18. General Trends • nation exhausted from war • economy adjusting to postwar levels • women & blacks now out of work due to returning soldiers • some soldiers returning physically &/or mentally broken • return to nativism & isolationism

19. Fear of Communism • communism meant end of private property; govt run by one party/dictator; fear began after Russian Revolution 1917 • communist party formed in US; sent bombs to govt officials • A. Mitchell Palmer: Attorney General; fought communism w/raids that trampled civil rights; these ruined his reputation

20. Sacco & Vanzetti • Italian immigrants; known anarchists • victims (?) of nativism • arrested in 1920 for robbery & murder • knew little/no English; couldn’t follow court proceedings • judge prejudiced • found guilty & executed http://player.discoveryeducation.com/index.cfm?guidAssetId=75864bca-7152-46f4-8947-ec603534d4e6

21. Immigration Woes • attitude became “Keep America for Americans” • Emergency Quota Act 1921: est. limits on how many immigrants could come from each country; designed to discriminate against “new” immigrants • gives rise to the “new & improved” KKK; no longer only hated/terrorized blacks; hated foreigners, Catholics, Jews, AND non-whites

22. Labor Issues • many strikes in 1920’s; couldn’t do this during the war • unions lose momentum in 20’s b/c • most workers were immigrants willing to work anywhere • diverse immigrants made it difficult to organize • former farmers used to relying on themselves • blacks excluded

23. Warren G. Harding • President 1921-23; Republican • signed treaty limiting battleship construction • raised tariffs as high as 60%; severely limited trade & kept Br. & Fr. from repaying debts • Dawes plan: we loaned Germany money to repay Britain & France to repay us

24. Scandal • Harding had friends in his cabinet (The Ohio Gang) • Teapot Dome Scandal: Secretary of Interior leased oil reserves on public lands to private companies & got kickbacks • scandal caused stress that MAY have contributed to Harding’s sudden death

25. Proof of Learning 4/15 • How did the Palmer raids fuel a fear of communism? • Why could Sacco & Vanzetti be considered victims of nativism? • What group resurfaced in response to nativism? • Describe the status of labor unions in the 1920’s • How did Harding’s policies help to isolate the US?

26. Daily Life of the 1920’s Standard 6.2

27. Create a T-Chart on a clean piece of paper. Label one side CONSERVATIVE and the other LIBERAL. Think about a definition for each, but do not write one until the class comes up with one together.

28. Rural vs. Urban • rural areas very conservative; clung to tradition; slower pace; everyone knew everyone • cities more progressive/liberal; always moving; cars/buses/trolleys; cutting edge thought; change came fast; impersonal

29. Prohibition • began in small towns in west & south; many religious gps. considered alcohol the cause of everything evil • nationalized by the ________ Amendment • policy was underfunded • repealed by the __________ Amendment

30. Find your color partner and discuss whether Prohibition was liberal or conservative and why.

31. Responses to Prohibition • speakeasies: underground (secret) bars; mainly enjoyed by the middle & upper classes; needed a card or password to get in • bootleggers: made own alcohol @ home; “bathtub gin;” dangerous; poisonous • organized crime: best-known in Chicago; Al Capone most famous bootlegger; killed off competition & ran liquor business in the city

32. Scopes Trial • demonstrated clash between big city & small town • John Scopes on trial for teaching evolution; fundamentalism created that law • Clarence Darrow defended him; William Jennings Bryan prosecuted • became a media circus • Scopes found guilty; but appealed

33. Find your color partner and discuss whether the Scopes trial was liberal or conservative and why.

34. Women • many new-found freedoms (voting, appliances, general equality) • flapper became ideal in terms of style, attitude (smoked/drank in public; casual sex, short hair, short skirts) • new jobs: store clerks, assembly line workers, pilots, secretaries • family life: clothes no longer homemade; marriages more equal; birth control introduced

35. Find your color partner and discuss whether the flapper phenomenon was liberal or conservative and why.

36. Proof of Learning 4/19 • Why might people moving from a small town have trouble adjusting to city life? • List the 3 unexpected results of Prohibition. • How can the Scopes trial be considered both liberal AND conservative? • How did life change for women in the 1920’s? • What was the most significant change to life in the 1920’s? Explain your answer.

37. Causes of the Great Depression Standard 6.3

38. Republican Policies • favored the wealthy • massive tax breaks to companies • known as “trickle down” policies: businesses were to take refunds & invest in expanding their business; thus, breaks for the rich would ultimately “trickle down” to help the poor • to cover lack of income, taxes increased for middle class & poor

40. Speculation • buying stocks or real estate at a low price & then selling quickly to make $$$$ • real estate markets glutted & soon they had to sell really cheap • stock prices inflated; ppl. bought on margin (borrowed $ from the company) • stock market crashes 10/29/29 (Black Tuesday)

41. Overproduction • too many goods produced for demand • examples: cars, farmers

42. Bank Failures • did not have enough money to cover loans • tried to collect from businesses who borrowed for buying on margin • ppl tried to get money out of banks, but none there • industry collapsed

43. Unequal Distribution of Wealth • 1% of population controlled 85% of wealth • poor getting poorer by the minute • most people had no purchasing power

44. Farm Crisis • overproduction exhausted the land • stripped the land of trees & grass • drought created a desert (Dust Bowl) in the Great Plains

45. Proof of Learning 4/22 • How did Republican policies hurt the poor in the 1920’s? • How did buying on margin lead to the collapse of the stock market and banks? • Describe how farmers attempted to fix problems brought on by overproduction. • Why did the Great Plains turn into a desert? • Which cause of the Depression played the biggest role in the event? Explain.

46. The Depression Takes Hold Standard 6.3

47. Immediate Effects • cities: many lost homes; slept in makeshift homes (shanty); soup kitchens & bread lines formed; worse for blacks & Hispanics • farms: not as difficult for them; could grow own food; most eventually lost their land • middle & upper classes not affected as much as the poor

48. The Dust Bowl • desertification process caused by drought & bad farming practices • caused massive dust storms; clouds affected NYC • many people lost homes, packed up & moved west • called Okies b/c most were from ______