A Tale of Two Twenties Lecture 10 PDF

Focus Questions Who benefited and who suffered in the new consumer society of the 1920s? In what ways did the government promote business interests in the 1920s? What were the major flash points between fundamentalism and pluralism in the 1920s? A Tale of Two Twenties...

Focus Questions Who benefited and who suffered in the new consumer society of the 1920s? In what ways did the government promote business interests in the 1920s? What were the major flash points between fundamentalism and pluralism in the 1920s? A Tale of Two Twenties History 12 Vernon Creviston  A Tale of Two Twenties I. The Roaring Twenties II. The Reactionary Twenties III. The Great Depression “Century of Progress” Great Gatsby (2013)  Socrative Question According to President Coolidge, “the business of America” is: A. expanding democracy B. ending segregation C. business D. defending personal rights Post-War America: The Roaring Twenties Emergence of national consumer culture: – Manufactured goods increase 64% in 1920s More goods at lower prices; some by 50% – Worker productivity rises by 40% – US economy grows 7% per year from 1922 to 1927 85% of worlds cars, 40% of goods Home products appear – Vacuums, refrigerators, washing machines, etc. Household Appliances, 1900–1930 Women and Washing Mass Culture Advertising campaigns used to sell products: Emphasized desire rather than products Followed example of CPI in WWI: http://historymatters.gmu.edu/images/coty.jpg stress emotion Make outlandish claims  Socrative Question What industry in the 1920s had the most impact on the US? A. Automobiles B. Movies C. Radio D. Plastics Ford Production line 1920s Ladies Home Journal ad, 1925 Motorizing the Nation: “Fordism” Ford pays workers $5/day – Criticized 1920: 8 million cars in US 1940: 23 million 15 million Model T’s sold by 1927 – enjoy leisure time – Connects rural Americans – Family trips become vacations – Women like idea of independence Teens out from under parental supervision  http://imagecache6.allposters.com/LRG/30/3037/TYTBF00Z.jpg Movies – 1922 40 million movie attendance – 1929 80 million Americans go to movies – US dominates entertainment business Movie companies open theater chains http://cdn.funcheap.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/ChaplinImmigrantPurviance1.jpg File:2009-0725-CA-Fresno-WarnorsTheatre.jpg Radio: First broadcast in 1920 – By 1922 400,000 radios sold – 1929 5 million  Jazz: Born in New Orleans in 1890s – Although African-American in roots, appropriated by whites – “cleaned up” to make it more acceptable to white audiences Most popular form of music in 1920s America Youth culture and rebellion, upbeat Modern, rejected Victorian form of music http://www.redhotjazz.com/KingOliversmall.GIF  Harlem The Emergence of Harlem The Harlem Renaissance  Women’s Experiences The Equal Rights Amendment Women’s Freedom “Sheik with Sheba” by John Held Jr., 1925 in Judge Magazine  A Tale of Two Twenties I. The Roaring Twenties II. The Reactionary Twenties III. The Great Depression The Reactionary Twenties Red Scare: – Bolsheviks (Communists) take over Russian gov’t – May 1919 Socialist parades lead to riots in 12 cities Several hundred injured; 3 killed  Espionage Act 1917 & Sedition Act 1918 – Laws that restrict free speech – Dissent or anti-war activity punishable Labor leader of IWW, Eugene Debs (Socialist) imprisoned 1500 arrested under acts Supreme Court sanctions acts in Schenck v. US (1919)  Public blames radical workers – Feds see communist agents – Anarchists conduct bombing campaign – US AG A. Mitchell Palmer leads crusade against radicals 4000 arrested without warrants; 200 deported to Soviet Union States outlaw “radical” unions – Wesley Everest lynched in Centralia, WA Member of the IWW – NY expels 5 Socialist assemblymen  https://rowellsapushistory.wikispaces.com/file/view/ProhibitionPoster.jpg/62371808/ProhibitionPoster.jpg Prohibition – Took effect in 1920 Moral reform of Progressives Allows organized crime easy money http://crisbenitezc.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/23770069.jpg http://www.billiesilvey.com/prohibition_raid.jpg  Mexican Immigration – 1900 app. 300,000 Mexicans live in US – 1910s many flee political instability in Mexico 890,000 – WWI labor shortages lead to more immigration Farmers bring in Ag. workers in West – 1930 Census showed 1.5 mill. Mexicans in US Settle in ethnic “barrios” in major cities of West and North http://blog.oregonlive.com/o_impact/2009/02/large_chinese.jpg “Fitting In”  Nativism: – Use government to control “undesirables” National Origins Act 1924: – limits immigration to 2% of 1890 population (about 150,000) – creates US Border Patrol with 450 agents 1926, Supreme Court approved municipal zoning in Village of Euclid v. Ambler Realty Company – Home sales contracts forbid sales to “non-whites” Illegal to sell land to Japanese in CA Map of Fresno, 1936  Redlining In the 1900s, the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation based the grades on favorable and detrimental influences. Several factors were weighed in including terrain and age of buildings, and “threat of infiltration of foreign-born, negro, or lower grade population.” Birth of a Nation Charlottesville VA (1924) Creation of Confederate Monuments  Socrative Question What made the “Second” Klan different than the first? A. The Klan of the 1920s recruited women B. The Klan of the 1920s spread to areas outside the South C. The Second Klan targeted many minority groups besides black Americans D. The Second Klan presented itself as a defender of “American values” Women KKK members: New Castle, IN 1923 KKK march, Ashland, OR 1920s https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQ-ZKAxbqtuEfAAf0135QAoi9lphSG2OJUsTIxyQa6yXaQm_HiQSw Tulare, CA 1920s  Return of the Klu Klux Klan – Jim Crow had made KKK irrelevant – “Second Wave” brings organization back – Movies like “Birth of a Nation” popularized group – Nativists see Klan as savior of “white America” KKK dedicates itself to protect “White Protestant Culture” http://hisvorpal.files.wordpress.com/2008/06/kkk_1925.jpg Fighting for Legal Equality The Great Migration  Clicker Question The Scopes trial illustrated a divide between: a. modernism and fundamentalism. b. Progressives and Democrats. c. liberalism and conservatism. d. cultural diversity and nativism. Tulsa Riots  Billy Sunday A 1923 lithograph by George Bellows of the Give Me Liberty!: An American History, 4th Brief Edition Evangelical preacher Billy Sunday Copyright © 2014 W. W. Norton & Company  Sister Aimee Radio minister Aimee Semple McPherson – Popular in 1920 – Radio programs carried across country – First “megachurch” Scopes Monkey Trial (1925): Evolution seen by these groups as threat to ideology – TN first state to bar teaching of evolution, other Southern states follow John Scopes, biology teacher, challenges law – Defended by C. Darrow & ACLU; prosecution gets W. J. Bryan – Broadcast on Radio Inherit the Wind (1960)  Sparks Letter to the Editor At the time the bill prohibiting the teaching of evolution in our public schools was passed by our legislature I could not see why the mothers in greater number were not conveying their appreciation to the members for this act of safeguarding their children from one of the destructive forces which... will destroy our civilization. I for one felt grateful for their standing for the right against all criticism. And grateful, too, that we have a Christian man for governor who will defend the Word of God against this so-called science.... The Bible tells us that the gates of Hell shall not prevail against the church. Therefore we know there will always be standard-bearers for the cross of Christ. But in these times of materialism I am constrained to thank God deep down in my heart for... every... one whose voice is raised for the uplift of humanity and the coming of God’s kingdom. Mrs. Jesse Sparks Pope, Tennessee Source: Mrs. Jesse Sparks, letter to the editor, Nashville Tennessean, July 3, 1925. Mrs. Sparks was one of many citizens who wrote letters to Tennessee’s newspapers in response to the Butler Act.  Butler Act In 1925, Tennessee passed the following law, called the Butler Act: It shall be unlawful for any teacher... to teach any theory that denies the story of the Divine Creation of man as taught in the Bible, and to teach instead that man has descended from a lower order of animals.  Malone’s Trial Speech What is the issue that has gained the attention, not only of the American people, but people everywhere? Is it a mere technical question as to whether the defendant Scopes taught the paragraph in the book of science? You think, your Honor, that the News Association in London [is here] because the issue is whether John Scopes taught a couple of paragraphs out of his book? Oh, no.... The least that this generation can do, your Honor, is to give the next generation all the facts, all the available data, all the theories, all the information that learning, that study, that observation has produced—give it to the children in the hope of heaven that they will make a better world of this than we have been able to make it. We have just had a war with twenty million dead. Civilization is not so proud of the work of the adults. Civilization need not be so proud of what the grown-ups have done. For God’s sake let the children have their minds kept open—close no doors to their knowledge; shut no door from them. Make the distinction between theology and science. Let them have both. Let them both be taught. Let them both live.... We feel we stand with progress. We feel we stand with science. We feel we stand with intelligence. We feel we stand with fundamental freedom in America. We are not afraid. Where is the fear? We meet it! Where is the fear? We defy it! (Profound and continued applause.) (The bailiff raps for order.  Rev. John Straton Article on Trial The real issue at Dayton and everywhere today is this: “Whether the religion of the Bible shall be ruled out of the schools, while the religion of evolution, with its harmful results, shall be ruled into the schools by law.” John Scopes' lawyers left New York and Chicago, where real religion is ignored, where crime is most widespread, and they came to Tennessee to save a community where women are still honored, where men are still polite, where laws are still respected, where home life is still sweet, where the marriage vow is still sacred. Think of the nerve of it! and the enormous vanity of it!  New York Times Article on Trial Cranks and Freaks Flock to Dayton: Strange Theories are Preached and Sung Visitors to Scopes Trial are Mostly Tennessean Mountaineers. Tennessee came to Dayton today in overalls to attend the trial of John Scopes for the teaching of evolution. The Tennesseans came from mountain farms near Dayton, where work, usually begun at day light, had been deserted so that gaunt, tanned, toil-worn men and women and shy children might see William Jennings Bryan’s “duel to the death” with “enemies of the Bible.” They stood in groups under the trees, listening to evangelists, moved by the occasion to speak for the “Word.” They listened to blind minstrels, who sang mountain hymns and promises of reward for the faithful, and to a string quartet of negroes. They walked up and down hot, dusty Market Street, with its buildings hung with banners, and lined with soda-water, sandwich, and book stalls, as for a carnival. Religion and business had become strangely mixed. Modernity vs. Traditionalism Scopes Monkey Trial (1925): rural Americans threatened by modern world – Literal interpretation of Bible – Saw themselves as defenders of Christianity – About science vs. faith; NOT atheism vs. Christianity – Rural v. urban – Modern v. tradition Bill Nye (the Science Guy) and Ken Ham (founder of the Creation Museum) debate creationism v. evolution in 2014 2020 Election by County  A Tale of Two Twenties I. The Roaring Twenties II. The Reactionary Twenties III.The Great Depression The US Economy: At end of WWI US leading industrial power – 1924 Dawes Plan US promised to stabilize German economy Allies agree to repay war debt to US – US economic expansion fueled by “speculation” Loans taken out to invest in business or stock market Corporate profits soar by 80% in 1920s Top 1% of US own 36% of nation’s wealth But, Farmers left out as prices crash after WWI boom 1/3 of all Americans still dependent on farms for income Three months before the stock market crash The Great Crash Round 1: Oct. 24, 1929 – BLACK THURSDAY – $3 billion lost in 1 day – 35 investment houses declare “worst is over” Round 2: Oct. 29, 1929 – BLACK TUESDAY – Loss of $10 billion in market value in 5 hours – At peak in 1929 market worth $87 billion, by 1933 $18 billion End of Roaring Twenties Underlying Economic Problems: (1) 1920s – Agriculture recession – Farmers 25% of workforce – Post WW I – demand/prices dropped (2) Textile industry recession – Post WW I drop (3) Under-consumption of new industries Why? – Increased productivity ≠ increased wages – Investing, not spending; easier to loan money for stocks than open factory Responding to the Great Depression Hoover enacts: Smoot-Hawley Tariff (1930) to protect US business – Other nations retaliate and reduces trade even further Reconstruction Finance Corp (1932) – $500 million into economy; lend money to banks and big business – Helps stabilize banks Failures drop from 70/week to 1 week Glass-Steagall Banking Act (1932) – Adds $2 billion to money supply for bank loans But, Hoover raises taxes to cover costs American public sees Hoover as uncaring: – Saving banks, NOT people – Homeless gather in “Hoovervilles” – 1932 20,000 WWI vets gather in Wash DC Country turns to Dems and FDR in 1932 elections – FDR seen as compassionate – Cared about common man – Declares that real “Liberty” serves common man Gov’t required to solve probs Conclusion: 1920s a polarizing decade – Rise of mass culture movies, radio, books, magazines, automobiles Advertising Consumer products – Divisions in American society Nativism, return of the KKK Rural vs urban – Rural: seen as backward, religious fundamentalists – Urban: modern, but decadent – wealth not shared equally – Economy fueled by speculation in late 1920s  Focus Questions Who benefited and who suffered in the new consumer society of the 1920s? In what ways did the government promote business interests in the 1920s? What were the major flash points between fundamentalism and pluralism in the 1920s?