Ch 24.1-24.4 Prosperity and Change in the 1920s PDF

Ch 24.1 Into Prosperity manifested itself in many forms, most notably in advancements in entertainment and technology that led to new patterns of leisure and consumption. Movies and sports became increasingly popular and buying on credit or “carrying” the debt allowed for the sale of more co...

Ch 24.1 Into Prosperity manifested itself in many forms, most notably in advancements in entertainment and technology that led to new patterns of leisure and consumption. Movies and sports became increasingly popular and buying on credit or “carrying” the debt allowed for the sale of more consumer goods and put automobiles within reach of average Americans. Advertising became a central institution in this new consumer economy, and commercial radio and magazines turned athletes and actors into national icons. Movies Increased prosperity provided more disposable income for entertainment. Movie palaces, seating thousands, appeared in major cities. A quarter bought a ticket for a double feature and a live show. Weekly movie attendance reached ninety million people. Silent movies produced the first movie stars like Rudolph Valentino and Clara Bow. Charlie Chaplin was the top box office attraction. ○ He was extremely popular and highly successful at drawing audiences to theaters. The first "talkie," The Jazz Singer, was released in 1927. Hollywood became the center of the American film industry, moving from New York. Filmmakers moved to Southern California to escape patent costs and for favorable climate. By the 1920s, Hollywood had transformed into a majorly profitable industry. Automobiles and Airplanes Mass-produced automobiles and advancements in aircraft technology. Henry Ford's Model T made car ownership affordable for the average American.  Ford perfected the assembly line, reducing the Model T's price and making car ownership widespread. The assembly line reduced labor costs and increased efficiency but had repetitive, boring work. Ford doubled workers' pay and reduced work hours to reduce turnover. The automobile industry boosted related industries like glass, steel, and rubber. Increased oil demand shifted the economy from coal to petroleum. Infrastructure expansion led to motels, restaurants, and new living patterns. Air travel saw advancements, with Charles Lindbergh's solo transatlantic flight in 1927 making him a hero. The small airline industry began to grow in the 1930s with improved technologies. Technological innovations extended to household appliances, improving daily life. Advertising played a key role in promoting mass consumption of new products. Radio emerged as a new medium for advertisers, reaching consumers in innovative ways The Power of Radio and the World of Sports Radios became common in American homes in the 1920s. Hundreds of radio stations emerged, broadcasting news, stories, and speeches. Advertising on radio reached a broad audience without active consumer participation. Radio sped up nationalization and homogenization of American culture. Syndicated programs like Amos 'n' Andy entertained listeners, using racial stereotypes. Radio smoothed out regional differences in dialect, language, music, and consumer taste. Radio transformed sports enjoyment with play-by-play descriptions of events. Sports figures like Jim Thorpe, Gertrude Ederle, Helen Wills, and Babe Ruth became household names. Babe Ruth changed baseball with his hitting, making the game more exciting..2 Into While prosperous, middle-class Americans found much to celebrate about the new era of leisure and consumption, many Americans—often those in rural areas—disagreed on the meaning of a “good life” and how to achieve it. They reacted to the rapid social changes of modern urban society with a vigorous defense of religious values and a fearful rejection of cultural diversity and equality. Nativism Late 19th-century immigration surged, especially from eastern and southern Europe. Diversity triggered anxiety and racial animosity among native-born Americans of northern European descent. Nativists prized White Americans with older family trees and rejected outside influences. Fear of foreign threats was stoked by anarchist assassinations and the Bolshevik Revolution. The trial of Italian immigrants Sacco and Vanzetti exemplified nativist fears and biases. Sacco and Vanzetti were executed despite a lack of direct evidence, sparking worldwide protests. Critics like Felix Frankfurter condemned the trial as driven by political passion and prejudice. The Emergency Immigration Act of 1921 introduced immigration quotas to preserve American homogeneity. The National Origins Act of 1924 further restricted immigration from southern and eastern Europe. Both labor unions and the Ku Klux Klan supported restrictive immigration laws. The Ku Klux Klan  Concern over a White, Protestant, Anglo-Saxon U.S. being under siege extended to internal threats. The 1915 film The Birth of a Nation depicted the Klan as heroes, boosting its popularity. The Klan was reestablished in 1915 at Stone Mountain, Georgia, under William Simmons. The new Klan embraced Protestantism, anti-Catholicism, and anti-Semitism, gaining mainstream support. Women also joined the Klan, participating in both reform activities and Klan-specific actions. By 1924, the Klan had six million members across the U.S. Despite publicly eschewing violence, the Klan used intimidation, violence, and terrorism. Anti-masking laws and public scandals reduced the Klan's influence. Influential figures and organizations condemned the Klan's actions. The Great Depression led to a decline in Klan membership and power until the 1950s. Faith, Fundamentalism, and Science Postwar urbanization led to rural discontent over rapid cultural change. Cities grew as centers of opportunity, attracting diverse populations. Rural Americans felt threatened by urban ways perceived as sinful. Tennessee's Butler Act targeted the teaching of evolution, reflecting urban/rural conflict. The ACLU challenged the Butler Act, leading to the Scopes Monkey Trial. William Jennings Bryan prosecuted, representing fundamentalist views. Clarence Darrow defended, highlighting the trial as a clash of beliefs. Scopes was found guilty, but the trial showcased the urban/rural divide. Billy Sunday, a former baseball player, became a prominent evangelist supporting fundamentalism. Aimee Semple McPherson gained fame with her Hollywood-style Pentecostal preaching.  Fundamentalism saw a revival, with figures like Sunday and McPherson exemplifying the era's contradictions.3 Into Many young people, especially those living in big cities, embraced a new morality that was much more permissive than that of previous generations. A new mortality Many young women of the era adopted the dress and mannerisms of a flapper, the Jazz Age female stereotype, seeking the endless party. Flappers wore shorter skirts, shorter hair, and more makeup, and they drank and smoked with the boys. The signature bob haircut of the flapper became almost universal. Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood, launched an information campaign on birth control to give women a choice in the realm. Automobiles offered to teenagers and unwed couples also contributed to changes in sexual behavior. Flappers and sheiks also took their cues from the high-flying romances The “New Woman” The Jazz Age and flapper lifestyle were part of a larger women’s rights movement, not just postwar disillusionment. The early 1920s saw the expansion of women’s political power, especially with the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment. Flappers flaunted social and sexual norms to match political gains with social equality. Women broadened liberation to include new forms of social expression like dance, fashion, and professional forays.  Congress passed the Sheppard-Towner Act in 1921 and the Equal Rights Amendment was promoted in 1923, but the Progressive movement lost momentum by the late 1920s. Women’s participation in the labor force increased, but they often earned less than men and faced social stigma, particularly married women. The Harlem renaissance and new negro African Americans embraced the “new Negro” concept, with over half a million moving north to escape Jim Crow laws. Despite segregation in the North, schools and voting offered some progress; Harlem became a center for Afro-centric culture. The Harlem Renaissance saw a strong cultural expression, rejecting emulation of American culture and fostering racial pride. Key figures included Claude McKay, Langston Hughes, and Zora Neale Hurston, promoting Black culture and literature. W. E. B. Du Bois and Marcus Garvey promoted Negro nationalism and Pan-Africanism, though their approaches differed. Garvey’s “Back to Africa” movement and the UNIA influenced later movements like Black Power in the 1960s. Prohibition Simultaneously, African Americans and women were exploring new social expressions while the U.S. underwent social reform through alcohol prohibition. After decades of effort, temperance groups and the Anti-Saloon League succeeded with the Eighteenth Amendment in 1919, banning the manufacture, sale, and transportation of intoxicating liquors. The law was hard to enforce, leading to illegal alcohol importation, home-brewed liquor, and organized crime.  Prohibition led to a new subculture with illegal importers, speakeasies, and the organized crime of liquor trafficking, revealing deep political divisions. The Democratic Party was divided between urban "wets" and rural "dries," allowing the Republican Party to gain prominence. Prohibition sparked a rise in organized crime, exemplified by Al Capone's Chicago Outfit, involved in bootlegging, prostitution, gambling, and more, earning over $100 million annually. Capone's charitable acts, like running soup kitchens during the Great Depression, likened him to a modern-day Robin Hood, but he was eventually imprisoned for tax evasion. The Lost Generation Prohibition effects led many young intellectuals to a sense of disillusionment, known as the Lost Generation, including F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Sinclair Lewis, Edith Wharton, and John Dos Passos. Writers expressed hopelessness and despair, criticizing the middle class, often living as expatriates in cities like Paris, Rome, or Berlin. F. Scott Fitzgerald exemplified the 1920s mood with novels like "This Side of Paradise" and "The Great Gatsby," depicting the disillusionment of the era. Ernest Hemingway lived an adventurous lifestyle, drawing from his war and travel experiences for novels like "The Sun Also Rises," "A Farewell to Arms," and "For Whom the Bell Tolls." Sinclair Lewis's writing was influenced by Progressivism, satirizing American middle-class life in works like "Babbitt." Edith Wharton celebrated old New York society in "The Age of Innocence," drawing from her wealthy background and European experiences..4 Into The 1920 election marked the decline of the Democratic Party, with the deaths of Progressive leaders and waning Red Scare zeal. Americans, weary of reform and witch hunts, sought a return to "normalcy." The 1920s saw a shift to pro-business government, reminiscent of the laissez-faire politics of the Gilded Age. Calvin Coolidge's statement, "the business of America is business," epitomized the era's dominant attitude. Warren Harding and Normalcy In the 1920 election, Republicans nominated Warren G. Harding, a manageable candidate who promised a return to "normalcy." Harding, known for enjoying golf, alcohol, and poker, was shrewd and politically astute, winning the election by a significant majority. His cabinet, including Herbert Hoover and Andrew Mellon, reflected a pro-business agenda, promoting efficiency and partnerships between government and businesses. Harding signed tax rate cuts and the first formal budgeting process into law, reducing World War I debt and increasing American purchasing power through the Emergency Tariff of 1921. In foreign policy, Harding worked to preserve peace through international cooperation and armament reduction, though these efforts ultimately fell apart in the 1930s. Harding's administration was marred by scandals, including the Teapot Dome scandal and corruption in the Veterans' Bureau, leading to a tarnished legacy despite his personal honesty and popularity. A Man of Few Words Coolidge ended the scandals but did little beyond that, with Walter Lippman noting his "genius for inactivity." Known as "Silent Cal," Coolidge had a strong belief in the Puritan work ethic and a clean image capable of cleaning up Harding's scandals. His first term focused on eliminating the taint of scandal, adhering to the creed: "The business of America is business."  Coolidge believed the rich were worthy of their property and that poverty was the wage of sin, advocating minimal federal intervention in business affairs. Silence and inactivity characterized Coolidge's presidency, with his legendary reserve becoming famous in Washington society. In the 1924 election, Coolidge easily won over the divided Democrats, who struggled to nominate a candidate, and Midwesterner Robert M. La Follette, who attempted to resurrect the Progressive Party. The Election of 1928 The cultural battle between reaction and rebellion culminated in the 1928 election, marking the height of Republican ascendancy. On August 2, 1927, Coolidge announced he would not run in the 1928 election, saying, "I choose not to run." Republicans promoted Herbert Hoover, while Democrats nominated Governor Alfred E. Smith of New York, who was Irish, Catholic, anti-prohibition, and a big-city politician. Hoover won easily with twenty-one million votes over Smith's fifteen million, as Republican prosperity carried the day. The stock market continued to rise, and many Americans invested, believing in continued prosperity. However, less than a year into Hoover's presidency, the bubble burst, leading to a harsh reality.