Ch 8 Vocabulary Anarchist* Mass Media Assembly Line* Mass Production Cooperative Individualism* Model T Creationism* Nativism Evolution* Speakeasy Isolationism*

Ch 8 Vocabulary

• Anarchist * Mass Media• Assembly Line * Mass Production• Cooperative Individualism * Model T• Creationism * Nativism• Evolution * Speakeasy• Isolationism * Supply Side Economics

The JAZZ Age

Chapter 8

The Politics of the 1920’s• The HARDING Administration – • “A return to ‘normalcy’” following the war• His easy-going manner was a relief after the war years

• Teapot Dome and Other Scandals• Many of Harding’s appointments were to great, qualified men• Others were to his old friends (unqualified to out-right corrupt)• Many of these men used their positions for their own gain

• One sold medical supplies for veterans and kept the money himself• TEAPOT DOME – Sec. of Int Albert Fall allowed private interests to

lease lands containing Navy oil reserves. In return, Fall received bribes totaling more than $300,000. First Cabinet member to go to prison. Investigation never proved Harding knew/participated in scandal, but it was one of his friends

• Harding will die in 1923 – replaced by Calvin Coolidge

“Silent Cal” takes over• Coolidge kept key qualified members of Cabinet• Coolidge believed that prosperity rested on Big Business’ back• POLICIES OF PROSPERITY• Andrew Mellon – Sec. of the Treasury

• 3 goals – balance the budget, decrease the nations debt, cut taxes• Supply Side Economics

• Lower taxes• Business/consumers spend more• Economy grows• Americans earn more money

• Congress cut taxes• Government began to pass legislation to promote business• Economy surged – but on shaky ground

TRADE AND ARMS CONTROLMyth of Isolationism – American people were tired of foreign entanglements – they wanted to isolate the US

* the US was now too powerful to ignore the rest of the world* too interconnected economically * US would use investments/trade to interact with world

The Dawes Plan – Both France and England owed the US huge war debts they could not afford to pay

* US banks would loan money to Germany* Germany would pay France and England* France and England would accept less reparation

payments but would use the money to repay the US

TRADE AND ARMS CONTROLThe Washington Conference – despite agreements to disarm, major nations kept building navies

* US invited GB, Fr, It, China, Japan, Belgium, Netherlands, Portugal to discuss disarmament

* US, GB, Fr, It, J agreed to limit navies* Japan not happy because their navy smaller than

US, GB

The Kellogg-Briand Pact – Secretary of State Frank Kellogg and French Foreign Minister Aristide Briand proposed a treat to outlaw war altogether

* US and 14 other nations sign the Kellogg-Briand Pact

The London Naval Treaties – 5 nations met in London to re-up the Washington Conference deal – Japan and Italy declined to sign treaty

A Growing Economy

• The Rise of New Industries• Ford – the Assembly Line – the Model T

• Ford adapted the assembly to the production of automobiles• By 1925, a Ford car rolled off the assembly line every 10 seconds• Model T • In 1908, Model T cost $850, by 1914 $490, by 1924 $295• At the same time, worker pay was raised to $5 per day and workday down

to 8 hours• Worker loyalty was very high (people fought for jobs at Ford Motor Co.)• New car companies copied Ford (GM, Chrysler• Huge growth in steel, rubber, glass industries to feed the demand• Cars revolutionized life in America – people became more mobile

• Rural families were now more connected• City workers could live further from work

Consumer Products• First generation with “DISPOSABLE INCOME”• New innovations like electric razors, frozen foods, cosmetics gave

them new goodies to buy• Companies created new products to attract buyers, capitalize on

new technologies (like indoor plumbing)• Household cleaning devises made a women’s job much easier and

changed how she did things at home – more free time

New Industries• Airlines –• 1918 first postal service by air• 1925 – Kelly Act – Post Office could hire local companies to deliver• Air Commerce Act of 1926 authorized building of airports• 1927 – Charles Lindbergh’s solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean• 1928 – 48 Airlines flying to 355 cities in America

• Radio• By 1920 – Westinghouse broadcast the first radio announcement• 1926 – NBC – set up a network of stations to broadcast daily shows• By 1927 – 700 stations broadcast to more than 12 million radios• 1928 – CBS set up a coast to coast network• NBC and CBS sold advertisement, hired musicians, actors, comedians• Radio used in 1928 Presidential elections for first time

The Consumer Society• Early Consumer Credit – earlier, most considered credit shameful• Began believing credit was something they COULD pay back• Saw as a way to have things they would have difficulty saving for• INSTALLMENT PLAN pushed as a way to afford “big ticket” items• Most cars and radios bought “on credit”• Stores offered credit cards (pay a little every month, pay more overall)• Some started spending more than their salaries could afford

• Mass Advertising – “selling something no one knew they needed”• Advertisers used advertising to ATTRACT CUSTOMERS• Linked their products with qualities people valued (wealth, popularity)• Others played on consumer fear/anxiety (status, weight)

The Consumer Society• The Managerial Revolution – • Companies split into divisions (sales, marketing, accounting, etc)• Professional managers hired to run these divisions• Executives/owners freed from the day-to-day running of the company• This generated more profits – new middle class began to emerge

• Uneven Prosperity• Not all Americans shared in the good times of the 1920’s economic boom• 1,000’s had been laid off after the war• Most minorities had low paying jobs, if they had jobs• Immigrants found it hard to find work• Farmers & Factory Workers made VERY low wages• The poor only saw hard times in the “Roaring 20’s”

The Farm Crisis• Farmers earned less the 1/3 of national average• Technologies helped them produce more, but without increased

demand it meant lower prices• While costs to farm kept going up, prices kept falling• During WWI • High demand & high prices made it a good time to farm• After war, demand fell (as Europe returned to farming)• After war, government set high prices stopped

• “Quiet Depression” for American agriculture• Government tried to help at times• Fordney-McCumber Act raised tariffs• Other countries did the same • Making it hard to sell product overseas • Hurting the farmers more

• Republicans did not believe in government interventions in farming business

A Clash of Values• Nativism & Immigration Policies • Time of turmoil – disillusionment with war – foreign entanglements• Anti-immigrant feeling (nativisim & xenophobia)• Fear and prejudice aimed at Germans & Communists• After WWI, immigration returned to high numbers – blamed for problems

• The Sacco-Vanzetti Case• 2 men robbed and murdered 2 at a shoe factory• Sacco & Vanzetti (anarchists) were arrested• Trial was more about their “radical ideas” than their guilt for that crime• Newspapers reported Sacco owned a gun and it matched the bullets (not true)

• Little evidence connected them to the crime, but they were immigrants and anarchists so most believed they should be punished

• Convicted and sentenced to death – 6 years later, they were executed

A Clash of Values• Return of the KuKluxKlan• KKK not just anti-African American, also anti-immigrant• Also targeted Catholics, Jews, etc• Membership up to 4 million by mid-1920’s

• National Origins Act – legislation became more restrictive• Immigrants a source of cheap labor• But 1920’s saw calls for restrictive laws (Emergency Quota Act)• National Origins Act made permanent quotas by race (2% of 1890 census)

• Increasing Mexican Immigration• To fill need for cheap labor, Mexican workers will come to America• Southwest already using large numbers of Mexican workers to farm• By end of 1920’s, more than 700,000 had immigrated to US

A Clash of Cultures (the new morality)

• Changes for Women – having won the vote, many wanted to be “free”• College, careers used to break free (financial independence)• Women’s fashions changed “the flapper”• Women made contributions to the fields of medicine, science, etc

• Religious Fundamentalism – bible literalism• Evolution / Creationalism• Scopes Monkey Trial – could a teacher teach evolution in schools?

• (scopes monkey trial overview clarence darrow vs. bryant – bing video)

• Prohibition (Volstead Act – Treasure Dept power to enforce)• People flocked to illegal serving rooms known as “SPEAKEASIES”• Huge profits for importing liquor from Canada – organized crime• Mob bosses (like Al Capone) pursued by newly created FBI• Mobs bribed/bought off police, judges, other officials• 21st Amendment put an end to prohibition and the violence the brought

Art and Literature• Greater freedom of expression saw artist flourish in the 1920’s• Modern American Art - cubism/realism showed disillusionment

and isolation many felt (Sheeler, Hopper, O’Keefe)• Poets and Writers – greatly varied styles• Writers: * Playwrights

• Carl Sandburg * Eugene O’Neal• Willa Cather• Sinclair Lewis• Edna St. Vincent Millay

• Poets:• Amy Lowell• Ezra Pound• William Carlos Williams• TS Elliot

• Others disillusioned with WWI - “the Lost Generation”• Gertrude Stein F. Scott Fitzgerald• Ernest Hemingway

“ O kinsmen! We must meet the common foe!Though far outnumbered let us show us brave,And for their thousand blows deal one deathblow!What though before us lies the open grave?Like men we’ll face the murderous, cowardly pack,Pressed to the wall, dying, but fighting back!”

Claude McKay“If We Must Die”

• Well, I Have Lost You by Edna St. Vincent Millay

Well, I have lost you; and I lost you fairly;In my own way, and with my full consent.Say what you will, kings in tumbrel rarely Went to their deaths more proud than this one wentSome nights of apprehension and hot weepingI will confess; but that’s permitted me;Day dried my eyes; I was not one for keepingRubbed in a cage a wing that would be free.If I had loved you less or played you slylyI might have held you for a summer more, But at the cost of words I value highlyAnd no such summer as the one before.Should I outlive this anguish – and men do –I shall have only good to say of you

Popular Culture• Movies and Radio• Silent Movies (chaplin, pickford, fairbanks, valentino)• Radio shows – serials, music,• Mass Media UNIFIED the nation – shared experience

• Sports• Baseball – Babe Ruth• Boxing – Jack Dempsey• Media coverage built enthusiasm for sports

• College Football• Gertrude Ederle

ESSAYS• 1. The 1920’s were known as the “Roaring Twenties”. This

meant good times. Explain why this is how the 20’s are remembered. Who was left out of the good times of the 20’s and why?

• 2. Women’s lives changed dramatically in the 1920’s. Explain what their lives were like before WWI and how that changed in the 1920’s. How were these changes “SEEN”?

• 3. Nativism/Xenophobia was strong in the 1920’s. Explain what this is. Give specific examples of individual actions and government actions that demonstrated this feeling.

• 4. The 1920’s was a period of artistic expansion. How did writers of the time portray/see the world? What was the Harlem Renaissance? How was it different than the other expressions of art of the era?

Harlem Renaissance• Great Migration brought 100,000’s to northern cities• Artistic development, racial pride and political organization drove a

“Harlem Renaissance”

• The Writers• Claude McKay, Zora Neale Hurston, Countee Cullen, Dorothy West• Wrote of racism, african american experience, women as lead characters

• Jazz, Blues and the Theater• Jazz – truly American form of music – syncopated rhythms

• - Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, The Cotton Club• Blues – soulful, evolved from African American spirituals

• - Bessie Smith – sung of poverty, oppression, unfulfilled love• Theater – written by and for African American performers

• Showboat, Emperor Jones, Shuffle Along• Josephine Baker – singer/dancer on Broadway

The Incident by Countee Cullen• Once riding in old Baltimore,

Heart-filled, head-filled with glee,I saw a BaltimoreanKeep looking straight at me.

Now I was eight and very small,And he was no whit bigger,And so I smiled, but he poked outHis tongue, and called me, 'Nigger.'

I saw the whole of BaltimoreFrom May until December;Of all the things that happened thereThat's all that I remember.

African Americans and 1920’s Politics

• Growing Political Power in the North• The Great Migration north had a big impact on politics• African Americans voted, elected Oscar DePriest (1st AA Rep in Congress from northern states)

• NAACP Battle Injustice (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People)

• Worked thru the court system to try to win equality for African Americans• Protested against lynching and tried to get anti-lynching laws passed• NAACP will join with labor unions to block a Supreme Court nomination

• They lost, but the Senate refused to confirm the man showing power of NAACP

• Black Nationalism and Marcus Garvey• Marcus Garvey called for BLACK NATIONALISM – black pride, separatism

• Black Pride and Unity• Economic power would mean political power (educate selves, buy from within)• Even proposed leading African Americans back to Africa because he believed white

America would never grant them equality• He will fail, but his “Black Pride” movement will take hold

Compare/Contrastwrite ½-1 page answering the question below

• How did politics differ for whites and African Americans during the 1920’s• A. How did white people go about changing how/what the government was doing?• i. Were they successful? WHY/WHY NOT?

• B. How did African Americans go about changing how/what the government was doing?• i. Were they successful? WHY/WHY NOT?

Essays• 1. The 1920’s were known as the “Roaring Twenties”. This meant

good times. Explain why this is how the 20’s are remembered. Who was left out of the good times of the 20’s and why?

• 2. Women’s lives changed dramatically in the 1920’s. Explain what their lives were like before WWI and how that changed in the 1920’s. How were these changes “SEEN”?

• 3. Nativism/Xenophobia was strong in the 1920’s. Explain what this is. Give specific examples of individual actions and government actions that demonstrated this feeling.

• 4. The 1920’s was a period of artistic expansion. How did writers of the time portray/see the world? What was the Harlem Renaissance? How was it different than the other expressions of art of the era?

Need to Knows• Politics of the 1920’s• Economic Goals & Policies of the Republicans

• The Growing Economy• Who benefitted/lost out due to economic policies

• The Clash of Values• Shared culture (movie, radio, sports, etc)

• Cultural Innovations• Artistic expression• Lost Generation

• African American Culture and Politics• Harlem Renaissance• Marcus Garvey/NAACP

Vocabulary

• Anarchist * Mass Media• Assembly Line * Mass Production• Cooperative Individualism * Model T• Creationism * Nativism• Evolution * Speakeasy• Isolationism * Supply Side Economics