Lecture 7 – The New Era to the Great Depression, 1920-1932

The New Era: The Twenties

• 1920s were an era of contradictions and ambivalence
• Energy turned towards private economic efforts and away from social reform movements
• Heightened sense of individualism develops

The Roaring Twenties

• Many nicknames were actually given to this era, although, for the most part the “roaring twenties” has been the most famous
• Other names include: The Age of the Flapper, the Jazz Age, Age of Flaming Youth: emphasize the growth of youth culture and cultural change
• the Golden Twenties, the Dollar Decade, and the Prosperity Decade: refers to the rising prosperity and rising importance of money in culture

Also called the Lost Generation: emphasizes the lonely confusion often associated with cultural change

Politics in the New Era

• Presidency was controlled by the Republicans from 1921 to 1933
• First of the 3 Republican presidents following Wilson was Warren Harding, who called his campaign “the return to normalcy” after the war

Warren Harding

• Emphasized boosting American business
• Pushed high tariffs to protect American industry
• Supported pricing goods to assist farmers who had suffered in previous economic downturn
• No longer regulated private business
• Above policies made him quite popular

Corruption in Harding’s Presidency

• Despite popular economic policy, Harding was characterized by corruption:
  • 3 of his cabinet members would go to jail
  • Interior Secretary Albert Fall accepted bribes for leasing oil reserves on public land
  • This scandal is called the “Teapot Dome” scandal
• Ultimately, spoils his chance at re-election

Calvin Coolidge

• Before having the chance to be re-elected, Harding dies suddenly of a heart attack on August 2, 1923
• His VP Coolidge takes over office: he continues Harding’s policies towards the economy and business
• Government does not interfere as much in business regulation as it did during the Progressive Era

Economy After World War I

• US emerges from the war with its economy intact and enjoys stunning growth in the 1920s
• New York becomes center of financial industry and US loans the most money to other nations

Foreign Policy After the War

• US, as we recall from our last chapter, did not join the League of Nations
• US aims to establish a global balance of naval power with the Five-Power Naval Treaty of 1922
  • Britain, France, Japan, Italy, and the US agree to reduce their naval forces
  • Scrapped more than 2 million tons of metal from warships

Foreign Policy: Kellogg-Briand Pact

• A pact of roughly 50 countries that pledged to renounce war
• A Compact to end war (we clearly know this was not effective!)
• US signed this as well as an affirmation of peace

Dawes Plan

• American corporate leaders loaned money to Germany, who could not pay back their reparations to France
• Major US effort to keep peace in Europe
• Thought the US did not join the League of Nations, this represented an attempt to fuel prosperity at home.

Domestic Growth

• Automobile industry becomes the largest industry in the US during the 1920s
• Henry Ford creates an assembly line produced automobile
• Employs hundreds of thousands of workers
• Located in Detroit, MI
• Brings about other industries as well: gas stations, garages, fast-food restaurants, motels

Effects of the Automobile Industry

• Cars change where people live, where they can work, how they spend their free time
• Mass production: the assembly-line technological used to build a car becomes standard in almost all factories
• Improves efficiency, but also reduces work to very simple, repetitive and boring tasks

Growth of Consumer Culture

• Mass production fuels corporate profits
• Per capita income increases by 33%
• White-collar workers enjoy more spending money while laborers do not make the same gains
• New products enter the market: radios, cars, refrigerators, washing machines
• Produced a consumer revolution for the middle class

Installment Buying

• Americans start to purchase goods on credit cards
• Many people’s incomes were too small to allow for them to pay for large items like cars
• Create a system of installment purchases, or paying for goods a payment a month
• It became American to spend rather than save

Culture Change in the 1920s

• Prohibition is introduced
• Growth of youth culture
• The idea of the new, more liberated woman grows
• Growth of Mass Culture

Prohibition

• While Republicans tried to curb the power of the government, the government continued to socially control the sale of alcohol
• Supporters of prohibition, or the federal ban of the sale of alcohol, believed it would eliminate crime and raise the morality and productivity of the nation

Effects of Prohibition

• While some may have stopped consuming alcohol, a black market opens up
• Serious criminals take over the sale and distribution of alcohol, such as the gangster Al Capone who ran a bootlegging empire in Chicago
• Suggested that he made $60million in one year alone!

Prohibition Repealed

• Because of the crime that comes along with the illegal sale of alcohol, the 18^th amendment is eventually repealed in 1933
• This is the only amendment to be overturned!

The New Woman of th 1920s

• Alternative ideas of the role a woman should play in society were offered
• Caused heated debate
•  More women went to college and worked

Stereotype of the New Woman: The Flapper

• Images of women who went to college, drank gin cocktails, wore flashy and skimpy dresses, and smoked cigarettes in speak-easys (or saloons were illegal alcohol was sold) become the stereotype for the New Woman
• Women are liberated by the right to vote, but no other real political gains follow

The New Negro

• African Americans begin to challenge the racial caste system that suggested that blacks belonged at the lowest rung of society

WEB Dubois

• African American intellectual founds the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)
• Pursues an anti-lynching law to counter mob violence against blacks in the South

Marcus Garvey

• A new African American leader that appeals to many poor blacks
• Urged African Americans to take pride in their African heritage
• Suggests that blacks should not marry or accommodate white life
• Wants African Americans to gain political dominence outside of white society

Harlem Renaissance

• Emergence of the “New Negro” coincides with the movement called the Harlem Renaissance
• Black artists emerge and fight racism with poetry, literature, and other forms of art
• Produces amazing literary talent including Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston

Growth of Mass Culture

• Popular culture, like purchasable goods, are mass-produced
• Growth in movies, music, and sports
• Growth of a national American culture
• Hollywood develops as the center of the movie industry
• Interest in baseball as a national pastime rises

Dark Side of the 1920s

• Rebirth of the Ku Klux Klan: now reaches beyond the South and also targets other groups aside from African Americans and champions white supremacy
• Sacco and Vanzetti Trial: two men, Sacco and Vanzetti are arrested and sentenced to death for committing robbery and murder, but not given a fair trial and likely found guilty because of their radical political views
• New anti-immigration laws enacted

The Scopes Trial

• Major court case in Tennessee
• First live radio covered trial
• After several southern states passed laws against teaching the theory of evolution, a young biology teacher, John Scopes, agreed to test the states’ ban
• Taken to trial, which quickly became a media circus
• The law was upheld and Scopes was fined
• Case seen as a battle between the city and the rural southern states
• Sometimes dubbed the “monkey trial”

Herbert Hoover’s Presidency

• In 1929, Hoover told the American people, “Given a chance to go forward with the policies of the last eight years, we shall soon with the help of god be in sight of the day when poverty will be banished from this nation.”
• These words ironically preceded the beginning of the Great Depression which began only months later

Hoover’s Early Years as President

• He became president in 1929
• Considered an excellent humanitarian and had worked his way to success from a modest beginning

Distorted Economy

• In 1929 – US was quite prosperous, but
  • Europe was still hurting after WWI and the US banks were extending credit to foreign customers
  • Wealth was also poorly distributed
  • Farmers continued to suffer
  • Wages of laborers did not increase
  • Top 1% of society received 15% of all income
  • Rich spent lavishly but the middle class did not have much spending money
  • Overextension of credit and the nation was in debt
  • Construction, automobile sales slow
  • Workers are laid off

The Crash of 1929

• Wide speculation of stocks leads to a major crash in the market
• When the market showed a dip in 1929, many rushed to sell their stocks at once
• Resulted in a significant drop in the market on October 24, 1929

Life in the Great Depression

• In 1930 – the US finds itself in massive depression
• Many go hungry
• Factories sit idle
• Gap between the rich and poor grows dramatically
• National income drops from $88 billion to only $40 billion
• Unemployment had increased from 3.1% to 25%
• By 1932, more than 9,000 banks closed

Human Suffering During the Depression

• Rural poverty crushed the human spirit
• 8.5 million people in the south live in cabins without plumbing, electricity, or running water
• Many are diseased by dietary and vitamin deficiencies
• No federal assistance set up to meet these social devastations

Working Class Hit Hardest

• Nation’s working class suffered the most
• wage laborers were paid only 25 cents an hour in some places
• Workers were exploited because people were desperate for jobs

Conclusion

• The Great Depression demonstrated that capitalism could fail
• Brought back interest in socialism and the Communist Party grew in America
• Overall, the Depression hurt all Americans but the poor were affected the most
• By 1932, the Great Depression nearly destroyed the power of the United States
• It would take another world war and a massive social works program to lead the US to recovery