The 1920s

A Return to Normalcy

Americans desired a return to normalcy following World War I.

They wanted to get back to the every day life that existed prior to the war.

Results of Return to NormalcyIsolationism: US did not get

involved in world affairsNativism: suspicion of people

who are foreign bornPolitical Conservatism: turned

away from government control

The Red Scare1917, Russian Revolution:

Russia becomes communistCommunism: system where

government controls the industries

Palmer Raids Mitchell Palmer and J. Edgar

Hoover hunt down communist and anarchists and arrest them

Anarchists: those opposed to any and all forms of government

Sacco & VanzettiNicola Sacco and Bartolomeo

Vanzetti: Italian immigrants accused and convicted of robbery and murder with little evidence; both were executed.

Displayed nativism in US.

The Ku Klux Klan In 1920s, the KKK grew due to

the Red Scare and anti-immigration feelings.

It feared that foreigners were going to change American way of life; also looked down on AA

Labor Strikes Hurt USFollowing WWI, workers began

to demand higher wages to keep up with rising prices.

Workers joined labor unions and held strikes against their employers.

Boston Police, Steel, & Coal

Warren Harding & The Business of

America

Harding Works For PeacePresident Harding invited 4

major nations to discuss arms reductions (Russia not invited)

Called for a reduction in naval power, and a 10 year period of not building any new ships.

Kellogg-Briand Pact

1929, US and 64 other nations agreed to denounce (reject) war as an instrument of national policy.

Problem: There was no way to enforce the pact.

Limiting ImmigrationNativist and anti-foreign views

led to a restriction of the amount of immigrants allowed.

Emergency Quota Act: 1921, limited number of foreigners allowed into US (excluded Japan)

Teapot Dome ScandalOhio Gang: Harding’s friends

he appointed to government positions; very corrupt

Albert Fall (Interior Secretary) secretly leased oil fields to private companies in return for money.

August 2, 1923After becoming ill, Warren

Harding dies.Vice-President Calvin

Coolidge takes over as President.

Increase in Standard of LivingCoolidge sought to keep taxes

low and business profits up.Americans owned 40% of the

world’s wealth.Cars, airplane, new electrical

devices changed peoples’ lives.

Consumer SpendingAs businesses expanded more

money was spent on advertising to get people to buy goods.

Installment plans: enabled people to buy goods over an extended period, or on credit.

Changing Ways of Life

The Prohibition Era18th Amendment: bans the

production, sale, and transportation of alcohol

Why? It was believed that alcohol was a major cause of crime, wife and child abuse, and other social problems.

Prohibition’s Opponents ReactSpeakeasies: underground

saloons and night clubs that sold alcohol illegally.

Bootleggers: criminals who smuggled in alcohol from Canada or Cuba

Organized CrimeDeveloped from prohibition;

gangsters made their money from bootlegging.

Al Capone: crime boss in Chicago; eventually convicted of tax evasion

The End to ProhibitionRealizing the failure of the 18th

Amendment to end drinking among the majority of Americans, Congress acts.

21st Amendment: repeals the 18th Amendment; makes alcohol legal again

The Scopes Trial1925, Tennessee passed a

law making it a crime to teach evolution.

John Scopes (24 year old biology teacher) taught evolution instead of “Adam & Eve”

The State of Tennessee arrests Scopes and he is put on trial.

Clarence Darrow - defends Scopes

William Jennings Bryan - prosecutor

Results of the Scopes TrialScopes is found guilty and

fined $100.Importance: displayed the

tension that existed in the US surrounding the separation of church and state

1920s Pop Culture & The Harlem Renaissance

Women and the 1920sFlappers: an emancipated

woman who embraced the new fashions and urban attitudes

Drinking, smoking, dancingShort hair and short skirtsNew jobs and more sexual

freedom.

Pop Culture in the 1920sSports: Babe Ruth (baseball) Jack Dempsey (boxing)Movies: Charlie Chaplin,

Disney’s “Steamboat Willie”Literature: “The Great Gatsby”

by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Lindbergh Crosses the AtlanticCharles Lindberghmade the first solo non-stop

flight across the AtlanticSpirit of St. Louis: Lindbergh’s

planeNational hero

African-Americans Move NorthMany African-Americans move

to northern cities during the Great Migration.

Marcus Garvey: founded Universal Negro Improvement Association to promote black rights and individuality

Harlem RenaissanceA literary and artistic

movement celebrating African- American culture in the 1920s.

Based out of Harlem, a neighborhood on the upper west side of NYC, it spread to other areas.

Prominent African-AmericansLangston Hughes: wrote

poems of the working class lives of African-Americans.

Zora Neal Hurston: most accomplished female author; Their Eyes Were Watching God

The Jazz AgeJazz was born in New Orleans

in the early 1900s, but began to flourish and spread in the 1920s

Louis Armstrong: trumpeter, most famous jazz musician, along with “Duke” Ellington and Bessie Smith.