The Roaring 20 s An era of prosperity, Republican power,
DBQ #1 President Calvin Coolidge 30 th President 1923-28
By the 1920s, the U.S. had become the leading industrial power in the world. This boom was due to several factors: A. a wealth of natural resources B. government support for business C. a growing urban population for cheap labor and markets for new products.
President Coolidge The business of America is business. The man who builds a factory builds a temple. The man who works in it worships there. 1923-29 The political genius of President Coolidge, Walter Lippmann pointed out in 1926, was his talent for effectively doing nothing: "This active inactivity suits the mood and certain of the needs of the country admirably. It suits all the business interests which want to be let alone... Reduced regulations on businesses
16 th Amendment passes in 1913: begins Individual and Corporate Income Taxes Today we pay our taxes to the Federal and State governments no later than April 15 th Taxes are reduced for businesses under both Presidents Warren Harding and Calvin Coolidge
Age of Prosperity Employment and wages/salaries are strong in the 1920s as the economy expands Henry Ford introduces the assembly line to factories reduces costs and increases supply so the price goes down and more Americans can afford a car Assembly lines and mass production spread throughout the US economy In 1919 there are 7 million cars in the US but by 1929 there are 23 million on the road; creating an estimated 4 million new jobs
Age of Prosperity The car transforms the US economy Competition increases as General Motors manufactures cars and Ford does not have a monopoly New jobs are needed to keep up with the demand for refining oil into gasoline, gas stations, building roads, restaurants, and shopping centers. People move from the crowded cities to the suburbs further away from work because they can drive there
Document 2 Women in the Roaring 20s
1920's Great Changes for Women... 1920-19th Amendment gave them the federal vote The League of Women Voters worked to educate women on voting and to ensure women could serve on juries During WWI many women worked in factories After the war, many women kept working outside the home More women went to college and wanted to join the professions
Women didn't want to sacrifice their wartime gains in income and life outside of the home - amounted to a social revolt the FLAPPER became the name for "new woman who wore skirts that only went to the knee, smoke cigarettes and drank alcohol in public, drove cars fast, and cut their hair short With income from working, women bought appliances like vacuum cleaners, refrigerators, and radios Some women had to work and also run their homes. It was hard for them to combine these roles. While many women worked, most remained homemakers.
Consumer Economy What are these items?
Document 3 The Harlem Renaissance
Many Black Americans in this period continued to live in poverty sharecropping kept them in de facto slavery white landowners went bankrupt & forced blacks off their land
African-Americans moved north to take advantage of booming wartime industry (= Great Migration) - Black ghettoes began to form like Harlem in New York City A distinct Black culture flourished but most neighborhoods and schools were not integrated in the North.
Marcus Garvey (Jamaican born immigrant) established the Universal Negro Improvement Association believed in Black pride advocated racial segregation b/c of Black superiority Garvey believed Blacks should return to Africa he purchased a ship to start the Black Star line attracted many investments: gov't charged him with with fraud he was found guilty and eventually deported to Jamaica, but his organization continued to exist
Document 4
The Roaring Twenties "Old" Culture Emphasized Production Character Scarcity Religion Idealized the Past Local Culture Substance "New" Culture Emphasized Consumption Personality Abundunce Science Looked to the Future Mass Culture Image The above graph indicates in a general sense what historians mean when they refer to the "old" and the "new" cultures of the 1920s. This list is not meant to be definitive. Source: Culture as History: The Transformation of American Society in the Twentieth Century (New York: Pantheon Books, 1984).
Presidents Harding and Coolidge reduce the Progressives regulations of businesses. America switches from war goods to consumer goods and advertising to sell products. Instalment Buying: Get it now and pay later Credit: pay a small amount each month until an item is paid for Interest: financial charge for borrowing $ Demand for US goods greatly increases but so does American debt. If we want anything, all we have to do is go and buy it on credit. So that leaves us without any economic problems whatever, except some day to have to pay for it. But we are certainly not thinking about it this early Comedian Will Rogers, 1928
The Jazz Age Jazz began in New Orleans, based on West African rhythms, Black spirituals and work songs, and European harmonies. Greats included Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington. Eventually, rock and roll plus hip hop will develop from it. Americans bought radios and went to the movies. Popular fads grabbed the nation s attention, like flag-pole sitting (21 days was the record) and then disappeared. The Charleston dance became another fad.
Culture of the Roaring 20 s <<< Radio: GE, Westinghouse,& RCA form NBC >>>> Chaplin Silent Movies Charlie Talkies The Jazz Singer Starring Al Jolson Mary Pickford America s Sweetheart
Celebrities Babe Ruth &Ty Cobb Charles Lindbergh The Spirit of St. Louis Jack Dempsey
The 20 s is The Jazz Age The Flappers make up cigarettes short skirts Writers F. Scott Fitzgerald Ernest Hemingway Musicians Louis Armstrong Duke Ellington
Charles Lindbergh
The Ku Klux Klan: Great increase In power across the US, not just the South Anti-black Anti-immigrant Anti-Semitic Anti-Catholic Anti-women s suffrage Anti-bootleggers
PROHIBITION - on the manufacture and sale of alcohol Ratified in 1919 as the 18th AMENDMENT In WWI, temperance (antialcohol) became a patriotic cause. Drunkenness caused lower work productivity & inefficiency. Prohibition was a difficult law to enforce. Organized crime made millions while millions of law-abiding Americans turned to bootleggers for their booze. Al Capone virtually controlled Chicago in this period - capitalism at its zenith Prohibition finally ended in 1933 with the 21st Amendment The 21 st forced organized crime to pursue other interests
Prohibition 18 th Amendment Volstead Act Gangsters Al Capone
Document 5a and 5b Wall Street Brokers and the Problems of the American Economy
The 1920s was a decade of enormous economic growth. The raging U.S. stock market was hailed by many as evidence of a "New Era" of economic fundamentals. Supporters of this theory pointed to evidence such as the establishment of the Federal Reserve System in 1913; government policies including the extension of free trade, anti-inflation measures, and the relaxation of anti-trust laws; and corporate improvements such as increased worker productivity and expanded research and development. The decade was marked by an enormous expansion of consumer credit, which Americans used to finance purchases of new products such as automobiles and radios, which were created using new techniques of mass production that additionally helped to drive down prices.
Consumers also used credit to purchase stocks, and as the stock market escalated, investors began to take advantage of margin loans provided by their brokers. Their primary targets were industries involving new technologies, such as the automobile, aircraft, and motion picture, and aircraft industries. Radio stocks boomed, rising by 400 percent in 1928 alone, and the stock market attracted an immense public following. The practice of "buying on margin" refers to the use of loans to buy stocks. Often stocks themselves were used as collateral to secure the loans. Such a system worked well as long as stock values climbed steadily, but when the market dipped this practice set of a catastrophic chain reaction that ultimately lead to the failure of many banks. On September 3, 1929, just before the stock market crash, the Dow Jones Industrial Average reached its high for the year.
1920s Soaring Stock Market Companies sell stocks to gain the money they need to expand their business. Investors buy the stocks and hope the value of them will increase The 1920s were a Bull Market where stock prices rose rapidly. Often the price rose not because the company was improving but simply because investors expected the price to rise. Investors became rich overnight, buying stocks and selling them for more not long afterwards. As long as prices continued to rise all was well.