Interwar Period

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Interwar Period

• Roaring 20s

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Postwar Trends

• League of Nations left much of America divided
• Returning soldiers faced unemployment or took
  jobs away from women and African-Americans
• Many responded by becoming fearful of outsiders
• Nativism- prejudice against foreign-born people
• Isolationism- policy of pulling away from
  involvement in world affairs

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Communism

• People feared the spread of communism-economic
  and political system based on a single-party
  government ruled by a dictatorship
• In order to equalize wealth and power, communism
  would put an end to private property,
  substituting govt ownership of factories, RR,
  and other businesses
• The panic in the US began in 1919 after
  revolutionaries in Russia (Bolsheviks) overthrew
  the czarist regime
• A Communist party formed in the US and 70,000
  joined
• Called it the Red Scare

4
Limiting Immigration

• Keep America for Americans became the attitude
  of most Americans
• As a result of the Red Scare and anti-immigrant
  feelings, the KKK rose again
• Devoted to 100 Americanism
• Targeted African-Americans, Roman Catholics, Jews
  and other foreign-born people
• Congress responded to the nativist pressure by
  limiting immigration from certain countries
• The Emergency Quota Act 1921 set up a quota
  system that established a maximum number of
  people who could enter the US from each country
• Designed to limit the number of Southern and
  Eastern European immigrants

5
Cultural Changes

• Impact of Automobile- became a status symbol
• Led to increase in jobs Gas stations, repair
  shops, motels, tourist camps, shopping centers,
  Route 66
• Airplane industry- 1927, Pan American Airways
  inaugurated 1st transatlantic passenger flight
• Electrical conveniences- spread to suburbs
• Irons, refrigerators, cooking ranges, etc.

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Mass Media Shapes Culture

• Mass advertising- made brand names familiar and
  marketed luxury items to all Americans
• Newspapers- more literate Americans led to
  increased in newspaper circulations
• Shaped cultural norms and sparked fads
• Magazines- mass-circulation to reach a wide
  audience
• Focused on weekly news and culture

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Mass Media continued

• Radio-MOST POWERFUL COMMUNICATION MEDIUM OF THE
  1920S
• Broadcast news, sports, music (jazz), childrens
  programs, soap operas
• Created a more national culture- different
  audiences around the country hearing the same
  programs
• Movies- offered viewers a way to escape their
  lives through romance and comedy
• Helped promote a national culture

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Sports

• Spectator sports became popular
• Boxing, baseball, college football, golf
• Babe Ruth electrified Americans
• Negro National Baseball League

9
City Life

• Between 1920-1929, nearly 2 million people left
  rural areas for cities every year
• City dwellers read and argued about major issues
• City dwellers tolerated drinking, gambling, and
  casual dating
• Major battle between traditional and modern values

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Women of the 20s

• In the rebellious, pleasure-loving atmosphere of
  the 20s, many women began asserting their
  independence and demanded the same freedom as men
• Flapper-an emancipated young woman who embraced
  new fashions and urban attitudes
• Close-fitting hats, waist less dresses an inch
  above the knee, skin toned stockings, boyish bob
  hairstyles
• Began smoking cigarettes, drinking in public,
  talking openly about sex
• Danced the foxtrot, tango, Charleston

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Traditional v. Modern Values

• As the 20s roared on, many people tried to
  combat the changing culture and values of the
  country
• Attempts were made to reign the country back in
• Prohibition
• Scopes Trial

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The Prohibition Experiment

• 18th Amendment- est. era of Prohibition-banned
  the manufacture, sale and transportation of
  alcoholic beverages
• The US govt failed to budget enough money to
  enforce the law
• Speakeasies-underground saloons and nightclubs
  that sold alcohol
• Bootleggers- people who manufactured or smuggled
  illegal liquor
• Led to an increase in organized crime and people
  making their own liquor

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Science and Religion

• Fundamentalism- belief in the literal
  interpretation of the Bible
• Led to conflict with some scientific ideas
• Rejected the idea that man had evolved from apes
  Darwins theory of evolution
• Scopes Trial (1925)- Teacher John T. Scopes
  violated TN law that banned teaching of evolution
  in schools
• Featured fight between lawyer Clarence Darrow and
  prosecution witness William Jennings Bryan
• Significance Highlighted the conflict between
  science and fundamentals

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Harlem Renaissance

• Literary and artistic movement celebrating
  African-American culture
• Great Migration brought African Americans to the
  north
• Many moved to Harlem, a neighborhood on the Upper
  West Side of NYC
• Became the worlds largest black urban community
• Suffered overcrowding, unemployment, and poverty

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Authors

• Harlem Renaissance encouraged a new pride in
  African-American experiences
• Wrote about the trials of being black in a white
  world
• Claude McKay-novelist, poet, urged African
  Americans to resist prejudice and discrimination.
  Wrote of the pain of life in the black ghettos
• Langston Hughes-poet, described difficult lives
  of working-class African Americans
• Zora Neale Hurston-portrayed the lives of poor
  Southern blacks

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Happy Tuesday!

• Take out your 1920s homework packet. Keep it on
  your desk

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Interwar Period

• Great Depression

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False Prosperity

• Prosperity in the 20s based on credit- buy now,
  pay later
• Installment buying- form of credit with monthly
  payments with interest
• Overspeculation-buying too many stocks hoping to
  sell at a higher price in short period of time,
  regardless of risk involved
• Buying on margin- paying only a small percentage
  of a stocks price as a down payment and
  borrowing the rest to make a stock purchase

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And speaking of stocks..

• It was the latest get rich quick scheme
• Everyone was playing the stock market
• Putting entire savings into the market
• Gambling with life savings

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Causes of the Great Depression

• Industries were in trouble-after war, production
  slowed down, people losing jobs
• Farmers in debt- during war, farmers producing a
  lot of crops to feed troops but after war they
  didnt slow down production
• Too much product, what does that mean?
• Consumers had less money- wages were being cut,
  people losing their jobs less money in hand to
  buy luxury items- Creates a cycle of issues
• Credit- people buying more than they can afford,
  cant pay off their credit
• Uneven distribution of wealth- rich were not
  impacted by economic issues

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Coolidge and Hoover

• Calvin Coolidge (R) and successor Herbert
  Hoover(R) were very pro-business
• favored govt policies that kept taxes down and
  business profits up
• Goal was the keep govt interference minimal
• Hoover ignored signs of trouble, expecting the
  marketplace to correct itself

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Black Tuesday

• October 29, 1929- the stock market crashed with
  16.4 million shares sold in 1 day- prices
  collapse
• Prices of stocks fell-gt speculators left with
  huge debts that they couldnt repay to banks
  -gtbanks failed -gt people lost their savings
• Federal Reserve failed to prevent widespread
  collapse of the nations banking system
• Hawley Smoot Act (1930)- high protective tariff
  resulted in retaliatory tariffs in other
  countries, which strangled international trade

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Great Depression

• Period from 1929-1940 in which the economy
  plummeted and unemployment skyrocketed, causing
  widespread hardship
• Businesses failed (90,000)
• Collapse of financial system- over 11,000 banks
  closed
• Unemployment rose to 25 by 1932

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Hoovers approach

• Hoover tried to reassure Americans that the
  nations economy was sound
• Americans had to remain optimistic
• Business as usual
• Depression is a normal part of the business cycle
• The economy will fix itself
• Believed governments role was to encourage and
  facilitate cooperation not control it
• Americans values individualism therefore Hoover
  opposed any form of federal welfare or direct
  relief
• Felt it would weaken peoples self-respect
• His answer to the problem was to let individuals,
  charities and local organizations pitch in and
  help

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Hardships and Suffering

• Many lost their homes, jobs
• Homelessness increased
• Shanty towns emerged- little towns consisting of
  shacks
• Nicknamed HOOVERVILLES- after President Hoover
• Soup kitchens
• Bread lines

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Hardships and Suffering

• Farms were foreclosed on
• The Dust Bowl
• drought struck in the 1930s
• For decades farmers in the Midwest broke up
  farmland, removing the protective grass covering,
  exposing dirt
• Leaving a lot of land unusable
• When the drought struck and winds picked up dust
  became unbearable
• Hardest hit was Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New
  Mexico, and Colorado
• Many abandoned their farms and moved to
  California
• Nicknamed Okies

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Stop and Think!!

• Why did many farm families leave their land
  during the Great Depression?

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Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR)

• Wins elections of 1932
• Inaugural address rallied a frightened nation
• the only thing we have to fear is fear itself
• Instituted fireside chats- radio addresses
  aimed at restoring American confidence
• Implemented his plan to bring country out of
  Depression- New Deal
• Focus of relief, recovery, and reform measures
• First Hundred Days- period of massive reform
• 21st Amendment- repeals prohibition

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Relief Measures

• PROVIDE DIRECT PAYMENT TO PEOPLE FOR IMMEDIATE
  HELP- temporary programs
• Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC)-provided jobs
  for young single males on conservation projects
• Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA)- provided jobs
  building dams to bring water and electricity to
  poor regions in the South
• Works Progress Administration (WPA)- created as
  many jobs as quickly as possible
• Construction of airports, highways, public
  buildings
• Professional art, music, theater

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Recovery Measures

• PROGRAMS DESIGNED TO BRING THE NATION OUT OF THE
  DEPRESSION OVER TIME- permanent programs
• Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA)- aided farmers
  by regulating crop production so prices would
  rise
• National Recovery Administration (NRA)- reformed
  banking practices and established fair codes of
  competition for businesses

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Reform Measures

• MEASURES THAT ALTERED THE SYSTEMS IN PLACE TO
  PREVENT ANOTHER DEPRESSION
• Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC)-
  protected bank deposits up to 5,000
• Wagner Act- defined unfair labor practices and
  established a National Labor Relations Board to
  settle disputes between employers and employees
• Social Security Act (SSA)- provided a pension for
  retired workers and their spouses and helped
  people with disabilities

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Impact of New Deal

• Changed the role of government- Government took a
  more active role in solving the nations problems
• Public believed the responsibility of the govt
  was to
• Deliver public services
• Intervene in the economy
• Act in ways to promote the general welfare