The Roaring 20s: Economic Boom and Road to Disaster

World War I and the U.S. Economy

• Profitable for some companies

• Changed from debtor to creditor nation and financial capital of the world

• Post war boom led to inflation then recession from 1920-1921

• Economy quickly rebounded and decade became known as the “Roaring 20s”

Government Involvement in the Economy

• Laissez-faire – minimal government involvement in economy except to preserve law and order

• Pull back from Progressive Reforms – which had favored government regulation of business practices to ensure competition and free enterprise

A Revolution in Manners and Morals

• Changes had roots in previous century– Industrialization, urbanization, immigration– Creation of complex urban culture

• WWI (1914-19)– Soldiers returned injured and disillusioned– Questioned ideas and attitudes that led to war– The flapper symbolized this revolution

• Rebellious, energetic, fun-loving, bold

The flapper• Increasingly shorter

skirts• “Bobbed” hair• Close-fitting, rather

than wide-brimmed hats

• Alcohol consumption and cigarette use

• Olive Thomas

Regarding the flappers:

“The American woman…has lifted her skirts far beyond any modest limitation.”

- NY Times, 1920

(Flappers at this time had 9” hem line)

Useless statistic

• Between 1913 and 1928, the average amount of fabric used to make a woman’s outfit shrank from 19.5 yards to just 7 yards!

Women’s Changing Roles

• During 1920s, women gain greater equality• Before WWI, both single and married women

had been in work force• During war, numbers increased and moved into

better paying jobs• 19th Amendment (1920), all women can vote

»BUT…

• Employers seldom trained women for jobs beyond entry level

• Women continued to be paid less than men

• Employers expected women to quit if they married and became pregnant

• Fear that new women voters would vote as a bloc, or special-interest group– Most voted along same lines w/ men– Few women voted in early elections– Only 35% of women voters went to the polls in

1920!

1923 Survey to women in Chicago

• Why didn’t you vote?– 1/3 said they lacked interest– 11% did not think that women should vote!

Women get political…eventually

• 1916, first woman elected to Congress– Jeannette Rankin of Montana

• 1924, Texas and Wyoming elect female governors

• 1928, 145 women in 38 state legislatures

Changing Demographics

• Statistics that describe a population, such as data on race or income

• 1920s, more Americans lived in urban areas than rural areas

• 1920-1930, attendance at public high schools doubled

• The Great Migration – blacks moved from south to northern cities

U.S. African American Population

• 1860, 93% lived in the South

• 1910, 89%

• 1930, 80%

• Still, often faced anger in North– Took jobs– Lowered wages– Scabs/strikebrakers

Other Migration

• After WWI, masses of refugees applied for entry to U.S.

• During 1920s, Congress acted to limit immigration from S. and E. Europe and Asia– Legislation DID NOT apply to Americas

• Employers turned to Mexicans and Canadians for labor

American Heroes

• Charles Lindbergh (“Lucky Lindy”)– Spirit of St. Louis from NY to Paris in 1927– Given Congressional Medal of Honor– 33½ hr flight

• Amelia Earhart– 1932, first woman to fly solo across Atlantic– 1937, disappeared trying to circle world

Mass Media Creates a Common National Culture

• Print, film, and broadcast methods of communicating info. to large numbers of people

• Movies (Hollywood)• Newspapers

– Tabloids

• Magazines• Radio

– 1920, Pittsburgh’s KDKA– Networks like NBC linked many individual stations

together– Americans heard same news, commercials, music,

etc.

The Jazz Age

• Radio and great African American migration to cities increased led to increased popularity

• Very popular with young people during 1920s

• 1929 survey: 2/3 of all radio air time devoted to jazz

• 1920s came to be called the Jazz Age

• National Dance to Jazz: The Charleston

The Lost Generation

• American expatriates disheartened by artless and uninspired American culture

• Many lived in Paris, where they wrote some of their most famous works– F. Scott Fitzgerald: Gatsby (1925)– Ernest Hemingway: The Sun Also Rises

(1926)

1920s Slang

• Baloney – nonsense, untrue• Bee’s knees – the best• Gold digger – women in search of a

wealthy man• Goofy – silly, clumsy, stupid• Peppy – energetic• Ritzy – high class• Swell - terrific

The Harlem Renaissance

• For African Americans, NYC was becoming the cultural center of the U.S.

• Numbers increased from 50,000 in 1914 to 200,000 in 1930.

• Over 500 jazz clubs

• Harlem was home of an African American literary awakening of the 1920s known as the Harlem Renaissance– Langston Hughes

New Technology• Automobiles became the

country’s largest industry in 1920s

• Mass Production inspired by Henry Ford– Adopted moving assembly line

with each worker completing simple task (1913)

– Ford offered workers $5 a day (generous for time period) so they could purchase cars

• Corporations growing during 20s• Electricity and automobile led to

consumption boom, changed culture

Video Questions1. What was the cultural significance of the

automobile?

2. What was happening with urbanization and why was that significant for the culture?

3. How did women’s changing roles impact the economy?

4. How did consumerism and advertising change the culture?

5. What was the cultural significance of the movie industry?

6. Where did jazz spread and what was its cultural significance?