Chapter 25 TRANSITION TO MODERN AMERICA

1. Chapter 25TRANSITION TO MODERN AMERICA America Past and Present

2. The Second Industrial Revolution • U.S. developed the highest standard of living in the world • The 1920s and the second revolution • Electricity replaced steam • Modern assembly introduced p.720

3. The Automobile Industry • Auto makers stimulated sales through model changes, and… • …advertising/marketing crucial to growth • Auto industry fostered other businesses • Autos encouraged suburban sprawl p.720-721

4. Patterns of Economic Growth • New technologies meant new industries: radio and motion pictures • 1929 ~ Successful NBC Radio Network • Structural change • Professional managers replaced individual entrepreneurs • Corporations became the dominant business form • Marketing & national brands spread • Big business weakened regionalism, brought uniformity to America p.721-722

5. Glenwood Stove Ad p.721

6. Glenwood Stove Ad The American economy of the 1920s saw explosive growth in the consumer-goods industries p.721

7. Economic Weaknesses • Railroads poorly managed • Coal displaced by petroleum • Farmers faced decline in exports, prices • Had expanded production to meet WWI needs • Weakest part of the economy • Growing disparity between income of laborers, middle-class managers • Middle class began to speculate in the stock market ~ 1920s were prosperous p.722-723

8. City Life in the Jazz Age • Rapid increase in urban population • Skyscrapers symbolized the new mass culture & most visible symbol of the new cities • Communities of home, church, & school were absent in the cities • New ideas, new creativity, new perspectives • Tribune Tower, in Chicago, won $50k prize for building design p.723-724

9. Women & the Family • Ongoing crusade for equal rights • 19th Amendment ~ 1920 Women’s Suffrage • “Flappers” sought individual freedom • Most women remained in domestic sphere • Discovery of adolescence • Teenaged children no longer needed to work • Indulged their craving for excitement p.724-725

10. The Roaring Twenties • Sports, like golf and baseball, became much more part of national popular culture • Crime waves flourished as well • Decade of celebrities • Gertrude Ederle ~ Olympic Gold Medallist • First woman to swim across the English Channel ~ 1926 • Died 2003 at 98 • Charles Lindbergh • First to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean ~ 1927 • Spirit of St. Louis p.726-727

11. The Flowering of the Arts • Alienation from 20s’ mass culture • "Exiled" American writers put US in forefront of world literature • T.S. Eliot • Ernest Hemingway • F. Scott Fitzgerald • Writers like Sinclair Lewis & H.L. Mencken criticized flaws and contradictions of 1920s • Harlem Renaissance ~ African Americans prominent in music, poetry • Langston Hughes p.727-732

12. The Rural Counterattack • Rural Americans identified urban culture with Communism, crime, immorality • Progressives attempted to force reform on the American people • Upsurge of bigotry • An era of repression p.732-733

13. The Fear of Radicalism • 1919: “Red Scare” • Illegal roundups of innocent people • Forcible deportation of aliens • 1927: Sacco & Vanzetti electrocuted (Italians) • Accused of robbery & murder • Shaky evidence & inappropriate trail proceedings p.733-734

14. Prohibition • 18th Amendment gave fed govt power to pass Volstead Act of 1920 that prohibits production, sale, or transport of alcoholic beverages • Consumption of alcohol reduced • Prohibition resented in urban areas • Bootlegging/crime became big business • Lucrative smuggling business p.734-735

15. The Ku Klux Klan • 1925 ~ Klan membership hit 5M • Attack on urban culture • Defense of traditional rural values • Targets: Catholics, Jews, African Americans, women • Violence & internal corruption resulted in a large reduction in Klan activity by 1930 p.735-736

16. Immigration Restriction • 1924 ~ National Origins Act • 150k person quota on immigration • Quotas favored northern Europeans • Mexican immigrants exempted from quota p.736-737

17. The Fundamentalist Challenge • Fundamentalism ~ Stress on traditional Protestant orthodoxy, biblical literalism • 1925 ~ Scopes Trial discredited fundamentalism among intellectuals • Re: Teaching evolution in school • Dayton, Tennessee • John Scopes ~ Bio Teacher • Fundamentalists strengthened grassroots appeal in new churches p.737

18. Politics of the 1920s • Republican party apparently dominant • Urban wing of the Democratic party emerged as the most powerful force p.737-738

19. Harding, Coolidge, & Hoover • Republican presidents appealed to traditional American values • Harding died in office of heart attack • Bribery scandals broke after his death • Teapot Dome ~ Naval oil reserves • Coolidge honesty & integrity reassured the nation following Harding death/scandal • Hoover represented the self-made man p.738

20. Republican Policies • Return to "normalcy" • Tariffs raised • Corporate, income taxes cut • Spending cut • Coolidge blocked Congressional aid to farmers as unwarranted interference • Government-business cooperation p.738-739

21. The Election of 1924 Beginning in 1922, the Democrats made inroads into the GOP’s majority in Congress. Large cities were swinging toward the Democratic column, foreshadowing increases in strength in urban areas p.740

22. The Election of 1928 • Democrat Al Smith carried urban vote • Governor of New York • Roman Catholic • Republican Herbert Hoover won race • Midwesterner • Protestant • Beneath the surface, there were striking similarities between the candidates • Religion the campaign’s decisive issue p.740-741

23. p.741

24. The Old & the New • Old historical view ~ The Depression ended the spirit of the twenties • New historical view ~ The twenties laid the foundations of modern America p.741

25. End Chapter 25TRANSITION TO MODERN AMERICA America Past and Present