THE ROARING 20S

Unit Overview

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.

Key Events &Players

Great Migration UNIA (Universal Negro

Improvement Association): Founder: Marcus Garvey Pan-Africanism Blacks should push for a separate

society Langston Hughes

Describes the struggles of black working class Uses jazz and blues tempos