Postwar Uncertainty

Postwar Uncertainty • New Revolutions in Science • Albert Einstein – German Born – Theory of Relativity; • Sigmund Freud – psychology; believed human behavior is irrational – beyond reason -- this was the “unconsciousness;”

Literature in the 1920s • Devastation of World War I caused writers to question accepted ideas of reason and doubt of traditional religious values • T.S. Eliot, 1922, American poet living in England – Western society lost its spiritual values; Postwar world a “barren wasteland” drained of faith and hope; • William Butler Yeats, Irish poet, wrote about a sense of dark times - “The Second Coming” (1921);

Existentialism • Jean Paul Sartre • Belief that there is no universal meaning to life. Perople create their own mean in life through their choices and actions; • Friedrich Nietzsche, German Philosopher, was influenced by Existentialism; • Western ideas like reason, democracy, and progress stifled creativity. He urged return to ancient heroic values – pride, assertiveness, and strength;

Literature in the 1920s • Czech-born author, Franz Kafka, The Trial, (1925), The Castle, (1926) – people caught in threatening situations they cannot understand nor escape; • James Joyce, Irish author, stream of consciousness novel, Ulysses (1922);

Revolution in the Arts • Artists Rebel against Tradition; • Paul Klee and Wassily Kandinsky – used bold colors and distorted or exaggerated forms;

Surrealism • Surreal – means “beyond or above reality” Used unconscious part of their minds – had an eerie, dreamlike quality to depict objects in unrealistic ways; • Movement that tried to link the world of dreams with real life – inspired by Freud’s ideas. • Salvador Dali, Spanish painter, “The Persistence of Memory,” (1931);

Cubism • Transformed natural shapes into geometric forms; • Objects broken down into differnet parts with sharp angles and edges; • Creator of Cubism; Pablo Picasso, Spanish Painter, Guernica; and • Georges Braque, French painter, The Violin and the Candlestick;

Cubism – Guernica and Violin of Candlesticks

Music • Classical • Movement away from traditional styles; • Russian Composer - Igor Stravinsky, “The Rite of Spring,”—irregular rhythms and dissonances; harsh combinations of sound; • Austrian composer, Arnold Schoenberg – rejected traditional harmonies and musical scales;

Jazz • Emerged from the United States, from most African American artists in New Orleans, Memphis, and Chicago. • Lively, loose beat captured the new freedom of the age;

Society Challenges Convention • Change in Women’s Roles • Women worked in men’s jobs and in war effort, and wanted the right to vote; • Many countries granted women’s suffrage into law such as the US, Britain, Germany, Sweden, and Austria. • Women abandoned restrictive clothing and hairstyles; shorter looser garments and short “bobbed” hair;

Women’s Roles Change • Women wore make up, drove cars, drank and smoked in public; • Most women followed traditional paths of marriage and family; • Margaret Sanger and Emma Goldman risked arrest, speaking out in support of birth control; • Women began to seek careers in medicine, education, journalism, and clerical fields;

Technological Advances Improve Life • Automobiles – after war were more affordable; people traveled for pleasure; • People moved to suburbs and commuted to work in cities; • Airplanes transform travel; International air travel; • Charles Lindbergh – 33-hour solo flight from New York to Paris – Spirit of St. Louis; • Passenger airlines established during 1920s. • Amelia Earhart, American – in 1932 was first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic;

Radio and Movies Dominate Popular Entertainment • Guglielmo Marconi – first successful experiments with radio in 1895; • Radio developed mostly through World War I; • By 1920 the first commercial radio station --- KDKA in Pittsburgh was broadcasting; • Radio swept the nation and soon every major city had stations broadcasting news, plays and live sporting events; • Soon most families would own a radio;

The Politics of the 1920’s

American Postwar Issues • The American public was exhausted from World War I. Public debate over the League of Nations had divided America. An economic downturn meant many faced unemployment. A wave of nativism swept the nation.

Isolationism • Many Americans adopted a belief in isolationism. This meant pulling away from involvement in world affairs.

Fear of Communism • One perceived threat to American life was the spread of Communism—an economic and political system based on a single government party, equal distribution of resources, the prohibition of private property, and rule by a dictatorship.

Communism in theSoviet Union Lenin • In 1917, a revolution in Russia transformed the nation into a Communist state, the Soviet Union. Vladimir Lenin led the Bolsheviks and overthrew the Czarist regime. He was inspired by Marxism, a radical form of socialism that advocates violence. A Communist party was formed in America too.

Sacco & Vanzetti • Fear of Communism took the form of a Red Scare (anti-communist hysteria) and fed nativism in America. Italian anarchists Sacco & Vanzetti, a shoemaker and a fish peddler, were convicted of robbery and murder, despite flimsy evidence. Their execution was symbolic of discrimination against radical beliefs during the Red Scare.

The Klan Rises Again • As the Red Scare and anti-immigrant attitudes reached a peak, the KKK was more popular than ever. By 1924, the Klan had 4.5 million members.

Congress Limits Immigration • In response to nativist pressure, Congress decided to limit immigration from southern and eastern Europe. The Emergency Quota Act of 1921 established a quota system to control and restrict immigration. America changed its formally permissive immigration policy.

A Time of Labor Unrest • Strikes were outlawed during WWI, however, in 1919 there were more than 3,000 strikes involving 4 million workers.

Boston Police Strike • Boston police had not received a raise in years and were denied the right to unionize. In response to the strike, the city called the National Guard and hired new policemen.

Steel Mill Strike • In September, 1919, the United States Steel Corporation refused to meet with union representatives. In response, over 300,000 workers went on strike. Scabs were hired and strikers were beaten by police and federal troops. The strike was settled in 1920 with an 8-hour day but no union.

Coal Miners’ Strike Lewis • In 1919, United Mine Workers led by John L. Lewis called a strike. Lewis met with an arbitrator appointed by President Wilson. Lewis won a 27% pay raise and was hailed a hero.

1920s: Tough Times for Unions • The 1920s hurt the labor movement. Union membership dropped from 5 million to 3.5 million. Why? African Americans were excluded from membership and immigrants were willing to work in poor conditions. Ford Foundry workers in 1926; only 1% of black workers were in Unions at the time.

Warren G. Harding • Warren G. Harding’s modest successes include the Kellogg-Briand Pact which renounced war as a means of national policy (signed by fifteen nations, but difficult to enforce), and the Dawes Plan which solved the problem of post-war debt by providing loans to Germany to pay France/Britain who then paid the U.S. Harding 1920-1924

Scandal • The president’s main problem was that he didn’t understand the issues. Several of Harding’s appointee’s were caught illegally selling government supplies to private companies.

Teapot Dome Scandal • The worst case of corruption was the Teapot Dome Scandal. The government set aside oil-rich public land in Teapot, Wyoming. Secretary of Interior Albert Fall secretly leased the land to two oil companies. Fall received $400,000 from the oil companies and a felony conviction from the courts

The Business of America • The new president, Calvin Coolidge, fit the pro-business spirit of the 1920s very well. His famous quote: “The chief business of the American people is business . . .the man who builds a factory builds a temple – the man who works there worships there” President Calvin Coolidge 1924-1928

American Business Flourishes • Both Coolidge and his Republican successor Herbert Hoover, favored governmental policies that kept taxes down and business profits up. Tariffs were high, which helped American manufacturers. Government interference in business was minimal. Wages were increasing.

The Impact of the Auto • The auto was the backbone of the American economy from 1920 through the 1970s. It also profoundly altered the American landscape and society. The Ford Model T was the first car in America. It came only in black and sold for $290. Over 15 million were sold by 1927.

How Auto Changed America • Paved roads, traffic lights, motels, billboards • Home design (garages, driveways) • Gas stations, repair shops, shopping centers • Freedom for rural families • Independence for women and young people • Cities like Detroit, Flint, Akron grew • By 1920 80% of world’s vehicles in U.S.

Airline Transport Becomes Common • The airline industry began as a mail carrying service and quickly “took off.” By 1927, Pan American Airways was making the transatlantic passenger flights. When commercial flights began, all flight attendants were female and white.

American Standard Of Living Soars • The years 1920-1929 were prosperous ones for the U.S. Americans owned 40% of the world’s wealth. The average annual income rose 35% during the 1920s ($522 to $705). Discretionary income increased

Electrical Conveniences • While gasoline powered much of the economic boom of the 1920s, the use of electricity also transformed the nation. Electric refrigerators, stoves, irons, toasters, vacuums, washing machines, and sewing machines were all available.

Say It with Flowers Modern Advertising Emerges • Ad agencies no longer sought to merely “inform” the public about their products. They hired psychologists to study how best to appeal to Americans’ desire for youthful, beauty, health and wealth. The “Say it with Flowers” slogan actually doubled sales between 1912-1924.

A Superficial Prosperity • Many during the 1920s believed the prosperity would go on forever. Wages, production, GNP, and the stock market all rose significantly

Problems on the Horizon? • Businesses expanded recklessly. Iron & railroad industries faded. Farms nationwide suffered losses due to overproduction. Too much was bought on credit including stocks.

Postwar Uncertainty