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The Roaring 20s
The Business of America
The Buisness of America
"The chief business of the American people is business" Calvin Coolidge 1923
An era of widespread social and economic change
Economic growth, close cooperation between business and government, rise of consumer culture
Prosperity
Prosperity
As Europe recovered, US businesses flourished
Dollar became currency of international trade
Celebrity culture emerges
Limits of Prosperity
1929 - 40% of Americans living in poverty
De-industrialization of parts of New England - textiles moved South
Crop prices fell after WWI
3 million people migrated from rural areas in the 1920s
Labor
Businessmen like Ford, Herbert Hoover were heroes
Public relations departments in businesses
Open shop - free of government regulations and unions
Labor unions lost two million members
Women's Freedom
National Women's Party - pushed for an Equal Right's Amendment - workplace rights
Flappers - bobbed hair, short skirts, public smoking and drug use, birth control, dance halls
Consumer goods marketed to women
Government and Business
Republicans dominated national politics
Voter participation fell - women voted in low numbers
Government and Business
New leisure activities and consumer culture replaced politics as focus of public concern
Republican Dominance
Republican Dominance
Low taxes, high tariffs, campaigned against unions
Supreme Court Justice Taft - conservative court
Corruption
Corruption
Harding government one of the most corrupt in American history
Attorney General received payments to prosecute individuals
Teapot Dome - Sec of Interior received $500k to lease oil reserves at Teapot Dome, Wyoming
Return to Dollar Diplomacy
Return to Dollar Diplomacy
US did not join League of Nations
Increase exports and overseas investments
Nicaragua - withrew troops but returned in 1926 - left in 1933 and General Somoza came to power in 1933
Culture Wars
Disagreement in society about emerging lifestlyles and traditional values
Fundamentalists
Fundamentalists
Evangelical Protestants felt threatened by decline of traditional values
Fundamentalist preachers attracted large crowds in revivals
Billy Sunday - Amiee Semple McPherson
Supported Prohibition, opposed birth control and the teaching of evolution
Living through Prohibition
Living through Prohibition
Democratic Party split into wet and dry wings
Bootleggers and owners of speakeasies made large profits
Growth of organized crime - corruption in all levels of government
Scopes Monkey Trial
Progressive movement lost its momentum during World War I
Reassertion of Anglo/Protestant Culture
Scopes Trial
Red Scare - Scopes Trial - Klan
Media event - broadcast around the country on radio
Dayton Tennessee
Town leaders wanted to revitalize the town - heard that ACLU was looking for a show trial
Dayton, TN
Tennessee law prevented teaching of evolution
Approached biology teacher John T. Scopes and asked about his textbook - arrested
Bryan vs. Darrow
Country's most famous politician vs. most famous lawyer
Bryan vs. Darrow
Ziegfeld Follies
Florenz Zeigfeld - b. 1867 in Chicago - created new show on Broadway 1907
Inspired by cabaret show in Paris
Ziegfeld Follies
Sophie Tucker - "Red Hot Momma"
Stand up - Will Rogers, WC Fields
Show Boat
Oscar Hammerstein - 1927 - produced by Ziegfeld
First racially integrated musical - portrayed a racially integrated marriage
Showboat
Paul Robeson - "Ol' Man River" - later Civil Rights activist
The Second Klan
The Second Klan
Ku Klux Klan reborn in Atlanta in 1915 - inspired by Birth of a Nation and the lynching of Jewish factory owner Leo Frank
By the mid 1920s, the KKK had more than 3 million members
Slogan: 100% Americanism
Opposed Catholics, Jews, alcohol, secular culture, immorality
Reduced Immigration
Reduced Immigration
National Origins Act 1924 - limited European immigration to 150,000 per year - quotas on southern and Eastern Europe, banned Asian immigration
Mexican immigrants excepted because of need for seasonal labor
Harlem Renaissance
The Great Migration - need for labor in the North after WWI - Immigration Acts of 1921, 1924
Harlem Renaissance
1 million African Americans left the South
Harlem became the "capitol" of Black America
https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/negro-speaks-rivers
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44694/if-we-must-die
Great Depression
Great Depression
Overproduction, excessive use of credit contribute to economic depression
Stock market crashed in 1929
Deepest and longest lasting economic downturn in history of Western industrialized world
11 million Americans unemployed (25%)
Depression
Life
Depression Life
Bread lines, evictions
Hoovervilles - shantytowns in parks or abandoned land
Positive images of big business changed
http://depts.washington.edu/depress/hooverville.shtml
Hoover's Response
Hoover's Response
Republicans believed that the economy would recover on its own
Hoover committed to "associational action" - voluntary actions by businesses to invest and employ wokers
Unemployed turned to informal economy to survive
Demonstrations
Demonstrations
Bonus Army - spring 1932 - 20k unemployed WWI veterans marched on Washington to demand early payment of bonus
National Famers Holiday Association - blocked roads in the Midwest
Communist Party sponsored marches and demonstrations
The Economy Worsens
The Economy Worsens
Hawley Smoot Tariff 1930 - reduces international trade - extends depression worldwide
Reconstruction Finance Corporation - loaned money to failing railroads and businesses
$2 billion for public works projects including Hoover Dam
No direct relief to unemployed