Post on 02-Jan-2016
Organizing Principle
The “Roaring Twenties” were an oddity in a sense as they were ushered in on Warren G. Harding’s campaign slogan, “a return to normalcy.” On one hand, this decade is largely marked by isolationism and a McKinley style conservatism in the political realm. On the other hand, this period of introversion displays a radical cultural shift in the American identity that challenged rural American traditions. In this sense, the decade of the 1920s was largely a departure from normalcy.
The Automobile
Infant industry Inventors and promoters
Henry Ford and Ransom E. Olds Factory assembly 1910: 69 companies—181,000 cars
Frederick W. Taylor Father of scientific management
Ford Motor Company Standardized parts Moving assembly line 1930: 20 million cars made
The Gasoline Age
Auto industry Ousts steel as industrial powerhouse Employs 6 million people (1930) Concomitant industries
Glass, rubber, fabrics, highways, service stations… Oil—gasoline Rails declined Market economy
Faster and more independent
Social change Vacations, demographics, female autonomy,
suburbanization, dangers of the road, youth in rebellion
Ze Plane! Ze Plane!
“Miracle at Kitty Hawk” 17 December 1903 Starts the air age
Uses of the airplane Entertainment—stunt fliers Transcontinental mail route
NY to SF (1920) Charles Lindbergh
Spirit of St. Louis—NY to Paris Impacts
Transportation, isolationism, rails, war…
Temperance
Billy Sunday
“The reign of tears is over! The slums will soon be only a memory. We will turn our
prisons into factories and our jails into storehouses and corncribs. Men will walk
upright now, women will smile and the children will laugh. Hell will be forever for rent!”
The Prohibition “Experiment”
The 18th Amendment Bans the sale or manufacturing of alcohol Volstead Act—enforces amendment
Supported by churches and women Difficult to enforce
Criminalizes a major component of the social scene Officials bribed
Naysayers Soldiers, working class, foreigners, city dwellers…
Big Picture Unsuccessful as a law Savings increased and work attendance
increased
Illegal Consumption
Speakeasies & Blind Pigs Hidden saloons
Shiners Distill own concoctions
Bathtub gin Bootleggers & Rumrunners
Alcohol smugglers Canada West Indies
Organized Crime Syndicates
Chicago Al Capone (Scarface)
Monopoly on Chicago liquor Smuggling Speakeasies
Bribe and violence $100 million Arrested in 1931
Organized crime Grossed 12—18 billion/year Drugs, prostitution, and gambling Protection money
Religion meets Science “Fundamentalism”
Literal interpretation of Holy Scripture
Bible provides all knowledge Skeptics of science
Evolution
The Scopes Trial
1925: Tennessee outlaws teaching evolution
John T. Scopes breaks law Legal council by ACLU
National spectacle Thousands in attendance
William Jennings Bryan versus Clarence Darrow
Bryan called as expert witness for defense Darrow makes a mockery of fundamentalists
Scopes found guilty
The Dynamic Decade
Characteristics of the 20s Urban population>rural population Opportunities for women—women’s work Women’s rights
Margaret Sanger—birth control Alice Paul—Equal Rights Amendment of 1923 (fails)
Modernism replaces fundamentalism “Flappers”—challenged societal norms Sexual mores loosen
Double Standard Jazz Age
Media in the 1920s
Radio Mass broadcasts homogenized
American culture: Sports casts, politics, programs,
music…
Film Nickelodeons to full length features
D.W. Griffith’s Birth of a Nation (1915) “Hang the Kaiser” films—WWI
propaganda The Jazz Singer (1927)—first “talkie”
Media facilitated acculturation of immigrants
Harlem Renaissance
In between WWI and WWII, African-American ideas, politics, art, literature, and music emanated from Harlem and impacted the culture of the United States.