The Roaring Twenties and Depression 1919 1933

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The Roaring Twenties and Depression 1919 -1933
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1.) Postwar Adjustments

• Many thought that the U.S. would begin again the
  reforms that marked the pre-war years.
• the brutality of the war, fear of drastic change,
  suspicion of communism and socialism made the
  transition to peace a bumpy one.
• Massive unemployment. Food prices and rent went
  up. The cost of living doubled. Prices farmers
  got on their goods decreased as Europe began to
  produce again. Labor strikes abounded.

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2.) Red Scare

• As the war ended, Russias revolution was still
  raging. Under leader, Vladimir Lenin they took
  the name Bolsheviks and adopted the red flag as
  their emblem. They adopted socialism. They
  adopted communism - when workers take over a
  society to end all differences between the
  classes (economically and politically).
• In 1918, Civil War broke out in Russia. Many were
  opposed to it, but Lenins "Reds" eventually won.
  A "red scare" occurred in the U.S. - the fear
  that communism, or socialism spread to the U.S.
  Labor strikes, general strikes (other unions join
  to show their support) and terrorist acts
  convinced many U.S. citizens of this. Thousands
  of innocent people, mostly foreign born, were
  jailed or deported without being convicted of a
  crime. Sacco and Venzetti Case - two Italian men
  electrocuted because one had a similar gun used
  in a shooting. The trail was unfair. Nativism
  also revived - movement to limit immigrants
  moving into the country. The red-scare faded,
  but would be reprised much later on, but just
  being accused of being Un-American could still
  ruin a persons reputation.

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3.) Womens movement fades

• Women did not flock to the polls in huge numbers
  and made little difference in the outcome of
  national contests, although local contests show
  some change due to women voters.
• Women continued to work behind the scenes in
  politics because they were rarely nominated for
  high ranking positions.
• The gains were few - could now serve on juries
  and polling stations were no longer in saloons.
  But, the first step for equality, gains in jobs,
  and civil rights was made.

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4.) African Americans

• Jobs were scarce and low paying especially in the
  South. They were terrorized and lynchings
  continued. Many southern blacks headed north
  even though it was also not free of
  discrimination.
• Race riots occurred in Illinois and Washington
  D.C. Northerners felt threatened in their jobs
  because African Americans accepted lower wages.

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5.) Harlem Renaissance

• The population of Harlem swelled from 14,000 in
  1914 to about 200,000 in 1930.
• Jazz was popular in this area and black
  performers were quite popular. Also a literary
  movement occurred that came to be called the
  Harlem Renaissance with writers such as Nora
  Zeale Hurston, Countee Cullen, Langston Hughes,
  and Claude McKay.

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6.) Garvey Movement

• Marcus Garvey in New York City established the
  UNIA - Universal Negro Improvement Association -
  which sought to build up African Americans
  self-respect.
• It attracted many followers and inspired many
  other "black pride" movements.

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7.) Republican Dominance

• Republicans gained control of the White House
  when the economy rebounded because unemployment
  went down when industrial production went up.
• In 1920, Warren Harding and Calvin Coolidge were
  elected to office. Harding promised Americans a
  "return to normalcy".
• Hardings presidency was scandal-ridden. He
  nominated friends to high positions who stole
  funds from the government, and had taken bribes.
  Two friends committed suicide when they were
  exposed.

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8.) Teapot Dome

• Hardings secretary of the interior, Albert B.
  Fall leased government oil reserves to private
  companies. He received 300,000 in kickbacks.

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9.) Coolidge

• Harding died while in office, and Coolidge took
  over in 1923, and was re-elected in 1924.
• He helped business by raising tariffs on
  European products making them more expensive then
  American products for the first time since the
  war.
• Herbert Hoover became the next republican
  President in 1928.

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10.) New Manners, New Morals

• Americans wanted social change.
• The youths especially found the values of earlier
  years dreadfully old-fashioned and they began to
  experiment.

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11.) Jazz Age Manners

• Kids began to look to their friends for guidance
  instead of parents who had gotten them involved
  in the war.
• And because of the massive migration of African
  Americans to the north, jazz and the blues really
  influenced the youths of the day.
• Phonographs were popular and in many homes now.
  The music inspired new, fast dancing like the
  Cake-walk, Bunny-Hug, Turkey Trot, the Charleston
  and the Black Bottom, and dance marathons.

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12.) Breaking Social Conventions

• Youths began to date without chaperones. They
  danced with their bodies touching. There were
  changes in fashion. More revealing, legs and
  arms exposed. Women began to wear make-up. Cars
  became more widely available so dates were taken
  out and they no longer met in the young ladies'
  homes.
• Some women became known as flappers. The term
  came from a picture of a women dancing with her
  boots open and flapping. Men were called rakes
  because of their fast cars, reckless drinking,
  and irresponsible flirting. Ironically, this new
  youth culture was not as widespread as Hollywood
  made it out to be. Women did experiment with
  shorter hair and short skirts, but they did so
  out of convenience.
• The reality for women was that they worked until
  they were married and were never trained for
  advancement. If they continued to work they were
  fired after they became pregnant.

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13.) Technology

• This really changed womens lives. With cars
  they could shop for foods.
• They bought sewing machines, vacuum cleaners, and
  other labor-saving devices. There were also
  telephones being put in peoples homes.

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14.) Creating a Shared Culture

• As people moved, they interacted with people in
  other regions.
• Mass media, and advances in transportation led to
  a wider sharing of tastes, values, and
  experiences.

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15.) Leisure

• The work week had gone down from sixty to fifty
  hours a week. Workers had more time to enjoy
  themselves. The radio became more popular. From
  1920 to 22, the number of radio stations
  increased from one to 500. The Movies continued
  to be popular and nickelodeons were transformed
  into luxury theaters. (Studios such as MGM,
  Warner Brothers, and Columbia were established.
• Movie stars such as Mary Pickford, Charlie
  Chaplin, and Rudy Valentino were considered
  idols. The first Talkies - The Jazz Singer - was
  released in 1927. Babe Ruth became a national
  hero in baseball. The decades ultimate hero was
  Charles Lindbergh who was the first aviator to
  fly across the Atlantic in1927 with his plane
  called The Spirit of St. Louis. He won 25,000
  dollars.

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16.) Henry Ford and the Model T

• The automobile helped to bring people closer
  together. Ford wanted to 'democratize the
  automobile' - produce more cars at lower prices
  to make it affordable for more Americans.
• He created the assembly line. In 1914, he was
  able to produce more cars faster, lowering the
  cost of an automobile by half to 490.00 from
  1910. In 1915 the price dropped to 390.00.

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17.) Immorality of the 20s

• Many people felt their society was out of
  control. Prohibition did not work to help
  alleviate the problems of society. People
  continued to drink in their homes, and in
  speakeasies- bars where liquor was sold
  illegally. Bootlegging was on the rise and this
  smuggling led to the development of organized
  crime syndicates.
• Immorality was also found in the movies. Film
  makers began to include more sexually explicit
  content. They tried to enforce the six inch rule
  in dancing.

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18.) Controls on Beliefs

• A group of fundamentalists emerged to try to get
  people to believe that every word in the bible
  was literally true.
• They tried to ban the teaching of evolution in
  public schools. This lead to the very famous
  Scopes Trial in Tennessee.
• The KKK was on the rise. People of Jewish and
  Catholic descent became a strong target in the
  1920s. Even Henry Ford has been considered
  anti-Semitic. The Klans goal was to restore
  Protestants to a dominant place in society.

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19.) Artists in exile

• After WWI, artists felt it impossible that
  society would progress. That began to write of
  the U.S. as a wasteland and Americans as shallow
  and self-involved. Some writers even went into
  self-imposed exile.

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20.) Election of 1928

• Herbert Hoover (Rep.) ran against New Yorks Al
  Smith (Dem...) Radio for the first time played a
  major role in the election. Smiths New York
  accent, and because he was Catholic lost him the
  election.

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21.) The Economy

• Most were optimistic. Health, medical advances
  and technology made life longer and easier.
  Hoover predicted that his term would banish
  poverty from the nation. People expected the
  good times would get even better under Hoover who
  was a self-made millionaire. The stock market
  was doing remarkably well going from 27 to 87
  billion from 1925 to October of 1929. Working
  people were better off. Unemployment was down
  to 4. Only a few lost jobs due to assembly line
  machinery. People began to save for retirement.
  Investors claimed "everyone ought to be rich".
  15.00 a week over 20 years would give them
  400.00 a month for the rest of their lives.
  People began to buy stocks on credit. Employers
  began to offer paid vacations, health plans, and
  other benefits.

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22.) Signs of Trouble

• Huge conglomerations were getting richer.
  Personal wealth was concentrated in the hands of
  a few as well. There were only 513 families in
  1929 considered millionaires. Because
  assembly-line production lowered costs, people
  began to buy on credit or as advertisers liked to
  put it - installment buying. Everyone felt they
  could get rich quick, and newspapers abounded
  with stories of the average man making it by
  speculating - take chances in the stock market.
  Many people bought stocks on credit, or they
  stockbrokers let them buy on margin - paid a
  fraction of the price and borrowed the rest. By
  the end of the decade the warehouses were full,
  but Americans could not afford to buy them as
  fast as they were made. Farmers had never shared
  in this prosperity. New machinery that they
  purchased on credit had allowed them to produce
  more food, but the demand was down for their
  produce as Europe strengthened. As a result,
  crop prices fell s low farmers could not pay for
  land and debts. Banks began to foreclose, but
  when they could not sell the land to others, the
  banks began to suffer as well.

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23.) Worldwide Repercussions

• The crash affected the whole world because
  international banking made the nations
  interdependent. The U.S. tried to insist that
  France and Great Britain repay its war debt.
  Import taxes were still high and this made it
  hard for foreign nations to sell their goods in
  the U.S. So, these foreign nations relied on
  Germany making its reparations payments to pay
  back their debt. Germany continued to make its
  payments until the U.S. stopped investing in it.
  Germany suspended their reparation payments and
  in turn the allies stopped paying their debts.
  Europeans also were not able to buy American
  goods which started the depression of the global
  economy.

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24.) What caused the Great Depression?

• The stock market crash was the final push that
  toppled the fragile structure of the American
  economy. Over speculation, and buying on credit
  also contributed to the crash and depression.
  When investors began to lose confidence they
  pulled their money out and stock prices began to
  drop. Another cause was that industrial
  over-production and competition dropped prices so
  low they were unable to profit and glutted the
  economy. Unevenness of prosperity made it
  impossible for a rapid recovery.