The Roaring Twenties

The Republican Presidents

Warren Harding 1921-1923:• Refused to join the League Nations, enacted high tariffs, lowered

taxes, and restricted immigration• Supported anti-lynching bill • Pursued arms reduction by sponsoring the Washington Naval

Conference and supporting US membership in the World Court• Appointed friends to the Cabinet

Teapot Dome Scandal – Secretary of Interior, leased oil-rich government land at Teapot Dome, Wyoming in exchange for personal bribes.Charles Forbes – stole millions from the construction of hospitals for returning war veterans.

The Republican Presidents

Calvin Coolidge 1923 - 1929:• Continued Harding’s pro-business policies• Nickname was Silent Cal• His laissez-faire approach to the economy as

encouraging the over-speculation that may have resulted in the crash of 1929

The Republican Presidents

Herbert Hoover 1929 – 1933:• Skilled engineer and self-made millionaire• Oversaw U.S. food production during the war• “Rugged Individualism” – equal opportunities,

free education, and a will to succeed• Too much government interference would

undermine the nation’s prosperity

Reason for Prosperity of 1920s

Rise of the Automobile• Henry Ford - assembly line making

automobile cheaper• Standardize parts• Gave people greater mobility• Stimulated the economy with auto-related

industries

Reason for Prosperity of 1920s

Age of Mass Consumption• Buying on Credit – buyer had to pay small

down payment, take the item home, then pay the rest off in small monthly payments with interest

• Advertising – stimulated demand for products

Reason for Prosperity of 1920s

Rise of other New Industries• Improvements in transmitting electricity• Trans-Atlantic telephone service• Household appliances - vacuum cleaners,

refrigerators, toasters, etc• Radio and motion pictures became widespread• Start of Navy’s 1st aircraft - Glenn Curtiss - early

aviation pioneer - 1st sea plane

Reason for Prosperity of 1920s

Speculation Boom• Purchase of any item, not for personal use,

but in the hope of selling it later at a higher price

Reason for Prosperity of 1920s

Uneven Prosperity• 0.1% of Americans had a combined income

equal to that of the bottom 42%. They also controlled 1/3 of all savings, while more the ¾ of Americans had no savings at all.

Cultural Values of the 1920sProhibition

• Frances Willard most outspoken voice the Temperance Movement

• 18th Amendment banned the sale, making, and transporting of alcohol

• Led to a growth of lawlessness and a rise of organized crime

• 21st Amendment repealed the 18th

Cultural Values of the 1920s

The Scopes “Monkey Trial” of 1925• Tennessee passed a law banning the teaching of

evolution • William Jennings Bryan was the special

prosecutor• Clarence Darrow defended John Scopes, who

was arrested• Scopes was convicted for teaching evolution,

but his $1 fine was later set aside

Cultural Values of the 1920s

New Restrictions on Immigration• Immigration Acts of 1921, 1924, and 1929 basically

designed to keep immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe.

• These laws established quotas for each separate nationality based on America’s existing ethnic composition

• Under this system Northern and Western Europeans were allowed in great numbers, Eastern and Southern Europeans were severely limited, and Asians were barred altogether

Cultural Values of the 1920s

Eugenics• Leading supporter - Charles Davenport• Pseudo-scientific belief that the human race

could be improved by breeding. It was supposed that superior parents would have even better children. It was closely tied to Social Darwinism.

Emergence of New Values in 1920s

Women • started to smoke and drink in public, rejected

restrictive clothing and adopted the new look called the “flapper”

• Flappers wore short dresses that revealed body shape, hair was short, and wore lots of make up

Emergence of New Values in 1920s

Tin Pan Alley • a section of New York City, was the area where

song-writing and musical ideas mixed together to form American popular music.

• Vaudeville show became the most popular form of stage entertainment.

• Famous songwriters - Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, Scott Joplin and George and Ira Gershwin

Emergence of New Values in 1920s

The Lost Generation• Rejected the desire for material wealth, they

believed they did not fit in after the horrors and brutality of WWI

• Famous authors – – Ernest Hemingway – A Farewell to Arms, The Sun Also

Rises– Sinclair Lewis (1st American to win the Nobel Prize in

Literature) – Main Street , Babbitt– F. Scott Fitzgerald – The Jazz Age, The Great Gatsby

Emergence of New Values in 1920s

The Harlem Renaissance• General awakening of African-American

culture sometimes referred to as the Jazz Age• Poets and writers – Langston Hughes, Alain

Locke, Countee Cullen, Zora Neale Hurston• Marcus Garvey, political activist, Back-to-

Africa Movement

Emergence of New Values in 1920s

Popular New Heroes• Babe Ruth - baseball• Jack Dempsey - boxing• Charles Lindbergh – 1st person to fly across the

Atlantic Ocean in 1927 in “The Spirit of St. Louis”. It took 33 hours

Key Individuals• Nicola Sacco & Bartolomeo Vanzetti – convicted and executed of a robbery in part because of the hysteria against foreigners

• Henry Ford – early auto manufacturer who pioneered new production techniques

• Glenn Curtiss – Aviation pioneer who developed airplanes that landed on water

• Clarence Darrow – Represented Scopes at the “Monkey Trial” on evolution on 1925

Key Individuals• William Jennings Bryan – helped prosecute John Scopes at the “Monkey Trial”

• Langston Hughes – African American poet and writer during Harlem Renaissance

• Marcus Garvey – believed in black-owned businesses; led Back-to-Africa Movement

• Charles Lindbergh – 1st person to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean; became an international hero

• F. Scott Fitzgerald – his works, like The Great Gatsby, captured the spirit of the Jazz Age