The 1920s and a New Kind of Hero

1
The 1920s and a New Kind of Hero

• History 203
• April 4, 2007

2
Some 1920s Links

• Prosperity and Thrift The Coolidge Era Consumer
  Economy
• An on-line hypertext edition of Babbitt, Sinclair
  Lewiss novel about business culture in the 1920s
• The Famous Trials website has good
  presentations of some of the most important court
  cases of the 1920s. In addition to the Scopes
  Trial, you may be interested in
• The Sacco-Vanzetti case Two immigrant anarchists
  charged with a robbery-murder near Boston
• The Sweet case, involving racial conflict in
  1920s Detroit

3
Some 1920s Links (continued)

• On Lindbergh Charles Lindbergh An American
  Aviator
• At the bottom of a page on the kidnap case,
  youll find an audio clip of an interview about
  Lindbergh with his biographer, A. Scott Berg.
• The Famous Trials site on the Lindbergh baby
  kidnap case
• The Charles A. and Anne Morrow Lindbergh
  Foundation, Supporting Technological Solutions
  to Improve our Environment for a Sustainable
  Future

4
A Prosperous Decade

• Prosperity for Not-Quite-All
• A Second Industrial Revolution
• From Textiles, Coal and Railroads to Electricity,
  Chemicals and Automobiles
• The problems of the Old Economy
• Toward a Consumer Society

5
Henry Ford and the Model T
6
Bruce Barton Jesus Christ as a Businessman

• In 1925, prominent advertising man Bruce Barton
  published The Man Nobody Knows, a life of Jesus
  Christ that portrayed Christ as having the style
  of a modern businessman. Here are a few quotes
  from the book
• Jesus picked twelve men up from the bottom ranks
  of business and forged them into an organization
  that conquered the world.
• Take any one of the parables, no matter
  whichyou will find that it exemplifies all the
  principles on which advertising textbooks are
  written.
• Success is always exciting we never grow tired
  of asking what and how. What, then were the
  principal elements in his power over men? How was
  it is that the boy from a country village became
  the greatest leader? First of all he had the
  voice and manner of the leader--the personal
  magnetism which begets loyalty and commands
  respect.
• From Character to Personality
• Toward a Culture of Images

7
The Politics of Normalcy

• ''America's present need is not heroics but
  healing, not nostrums but normalcy, not
  revolution but restoration.''
• Warren G. Harding as Presidential candidate, 1920

8
The Politics of Normalcy

• A Republican Decade
• Peace and Prosperity
• Democrats in Disarray
• Al Smith Campaign 1928A Catholic Runs for
  President
• Origins of the New Deal Coalition?

9
Lucky Lindy
10
(No Transcript)
11
Lindbergh Does It!

• Charles A. Lindbergh (1902-1974) Achievement and
  Acclaim To Paris in 33-1/2 Hours
• Who Was He?
• What Made Lindbergh a Hero?
• Nobility in a Materialistic Era
• Individualism in a Machine Age
• Restoring Pioneer Virtues
• Lindbergh is the heir of all that we like to
  think best in America. He is of the stuff out of
  which have been made the pioneers that opened up
  the wilderness.His are the qualities which we as
  a people must nourish.Outlook magazine, 1927

12

• The life of an aviator seemed to me ideal. It
  involved skill. It brought adventure. It made use
  of the latest developments of science. Mechanical
  engineers were fettered to factories and drafting
  boards while pilots have the freedom of wind with
  the expanse of sky. There were times in an
  aeroplane when it seemed I had escaped mortality
  to look down on earth like a God. Charles A.
  Lindbergh, 1927

13
The Lone Eagle in His Era and Beyond

• Heroism in a Consumer Culture
• Life After the Flight
• Aviation and Rocketry Consultant
• Marriage to Anne Morrow
• 1932 Lindbergh Baby Kidnapped
• Lindbergh and the America First Movement
• Lindbergh as Environmentalist "I realized that
  if I had to choose, I would rather have birds
  than airplanes."

14
(No Transcript)
15
(No Transcript)
16
Lindbergh Visiting Germany
17

• "If any one of these groups--the British, the
  Jewish, or the administration--stops agitating
  for war, I believe there will be little danger of
  our involvement."            Charles Lindbergh-
  September 11, 1941

18
Lindbergh as Conservationist