Chapter 20

1. Chapter 20 Norton Media Library Chapter 20 From Business Culture to Great Depression: The Twenties, 1920–1932 Eric Foner

2. I. The Sacco-Vanzetti case

3. II. The Business of America • A Decade of Prosperity • The business of America was business • The automobile was the backbone of economic growth • It stimulated the expansion of steel, rubber and oil production, road construction, and other sectors of the economy • A New Society • Consumer goods of all kinds proliferated, marketed by salesmen and advertisers who promoted them as ways of satisfying Americans’ psychological desires and everyday needs • Americans spent more and more of their income on leisure activities like vacations, movies, and sporting events • Americans considered their “standard of living” a “sacred acquisition”

4. II. The Business of America (con’t) • The Limits of Prosperity • The fruits of increased production were very unequally distributed • Farmers did not share in the prosperity of the decade • California received many displaced farmers • The Image of Business • Businessmen like Henry Ford and engineers like Herbert Hoover were cultural heroes • Numerous firms established public relations departments

5. II. The Business of America (con’t) • The Decline of Labor • Business appropriated the rhetoric of Americanism and “industrial freedom” as weapons against labor unions • Welfare capitalism • Propaganda campaigns linked unionism and socialism as examples of the sinister influence of foreigners on American life • During the 1920s, labor lost over 2 million members

6. II. The Business of America (con’t) • The ERA • The achievement of suffrage in 1920 eliminated the bond of unity among various activists • Alice Paul’s National Women’s Party proposed the ERA • Women’s Freedom • Female liberation resurfaced as a lifestyle, the stuff of advertising and mass entertainment • the flapper • Sex became a marketing tool • New freedom for women only lasted while she was single

7. III. Business and Government • The Retreat from Progressivism • Public Opinion and The Phantom Public repudiated the Progressive hope of applying “intelligence” to social problems in a mass democracy • “manufacture of consent” • In 1929, the sociologists Robert and Helen Lynd published Middletown • Voter turnout declined dramatically

8. III. Business and Government (con’t) • The Republican Era • Government policies reflected the pro-business ethos of the 1920s • lower taxes • higher tariffs • anti-unionism • The Supreme Court remained strongly conservative • Repudiated Muller v. Oregon

9. III. Business and Government (con’t) • The Harding Scandals • The Harding administration quickly became one of the most corrupt in American history • Harding surrounded himself with cronies who used their offices for private gain • Teapot Dome scandal • The Election of 1924 • Coolidge exemplified Yankee honesty • Robert La Follette ran on a Progressive platform in 1924

10. III. Business and Government (con’t) • Economic Diplomacy • Foreign affairs also reflected the close working relationship between business and government • Washington Naval Arms Conference • Much foreign policy was conducted through private economic relationships rather than governmental action • Bankers loaned Germany large sums of money • The government continued to dispatch soldiers when a change in government in the Caribbean threatened American economic interests • Somoza in Nicaragua

11. IV. The Birth of Civil Liberties • The “Free Mob” • Wartime repression continued into the 1920s • In 1922, the film industry adopted the Hays Code • Even as Europeans turned in increasing numbers to American popular culture and consumer goods, some came to view the country as a repressive cultural wasteland • A Clear and Present Danger • The ACLU was established in 1920 • In its initial decisions the Supreme Court dealt the concept of civil liberties a series of devastating blows • Oliver Wendell Holmes

12. IV. The Birth of Civil Liberties (con’t) • The Court and Civil Liberties • Holmes and Louis Brandeis began to speak up for freedom of speech • The new regard for free speech went beyond political expression • Anita Whitney was pardoned by the governor of California on the grounds that freedom of speech was the “indispensable birthright of every free American”

13. V. The Culture Wars • The Fundamentalist Revolt • Many evangelical Protestants felt threatened by the decline of traditional values and the increased visibility of Catholicism and Judaism because of immigration • Convinced that the literal truth of the Bible formed the basis of Christian belief, fundamentalists launched a campaign to rid Protestant denominations of modernism • Billy Sunday • Much of the press portrayed fundamentalism as a movement of backwoods bigots • Fundamentalists supported prohibition, while others viewed it as a violation of individual freedom

14. V. The Culture Wars (con’t) • The Scopes Trial • John Scopes was arrested for teaching evolution in school • The Scopes trial reflected the enduring tension between two American definitions of freedom • The renowned labor lawyer Clarence Darrow defended Scopes • Darrow examined William J. Bryan as an “expert” on the Bible • Fundamentalists retreated for many years from battles over public education, preferring to build their own schools and colleges

15. V. The Culture Wars (con’t) • The Second Klan • Few features of urban life seemed more alien to rural and small-town native-born Protestants than their immigrant populations and cultures • The Klan had been reborn in Atlanta in 1915 after the lynching of Leo Frank, a Jewish factory manager accused of killing a teenage girl • By the mid-1920s it spread to the North and West

16. V. The Culture Wars (con’t) • Closing the Golden Door • Some new laws redrew the boundary of citizenship to include groups previously outside it • Efforts to restrict immigration made gains when large employers dropped their traditional opposition • In 1924 Congress permanently limited immigration for Europeans and banned it for Asians • To satisfy the demands of large farmers in California who relied heavily on seasonal Mexican labor, the 1924 law established no limits on immigration from the Western Hemisphere

17. V. The Culture Wars (con’t) • Race and the Law • James J. Davis commented that immigration policy must now rest on a biological definition of the ideal population • The 1924 immigration law also reflected the Progressive desire to improve the “quality” of democratic citizenship and to employ scientific methods to set public policy

18. V. The Culture Wars (con’t) • Pluralism and Liberty • “Cultural pluralism” described a society that gloried in ethnic diversity rather than attempting to suppress it • Horace Kallen • Franz Boas and Ruth Benedict • The most potent defense of a pluralist vision of American society came from the new immigrants themselves • Immigrant groups asserted the validity of cultural diversity and identified toleration of difference as the essence of American freedom • In landmark decisions, the Supreme Court struck down laws that tried to enforce Americanization

19. V. The Culture Wars (con’t) • The Emergence of Harlem • The 1920s also witnessed an upsurge of self-consciousness among black Americans, especially in the North’s urban ghettos • New York’s Harlem gained an international reputation as the “capital” of black America • The Twenties became famous for “slumming” • The Harlem Renaissance • The term “New Negro” in art meant the rejection of established stereotypes and a search for black values to put in their place • Claude McKay

20. VI. The Great Depression • The Election of 1928 • Hoover seemed to exemplify what was widely called the “new era” of American capitalism • Hoover’s opponent in 1928 was Alfred E. Smith of New York • Smith’s Catholicism became the focus of the race

21. VI. The Great Depression (con’t) • The Coming of the Depression • On October 21, 1929, Hoover gave a speech that was a tribute to progress, and especially to businessmen and scientists • The stock market crash did not, by itself, cause the Depression • The global financial system was ill-equipped to deal with the crash • In 1932, the economy hit rock bottom

22. VI. The Great Depression (con’t) • Americans and the Depression • The Depression transformed American life • The image of big business, carefully cultivated during the 1920s, collapsed as congressional investigations revealed massive irregularities among bankers and stockbrokers • Twenty thousand unemployed World War I veterans descended on Washington in the spring of 1932 to demand early payment of a bonus due in 1945 • Only the minuscule Communist Party seemed able to give a political focus to the anger and despair

23. VI. The Great Depression (con’t) • Hoover’s Response • Businessmen strongly opposed federal aid to the unemployed • Hoover remained committed to “associational action” • Some administration remedies made the economic situation worse • In 1932 Hoover created the Reconstruction Finance Corporation

24. VI. The Great Depression (con’t) • Freedom in the Modern World • In 1927 freedom was defined as celebrating the unimpeded reign of economic enterprise yet tolerating the surveillance of private life and individual conscience • By 1932, the seeds had already been planted for a new conception of freedom

25. The Presidential Election of 1928 The Presidential Election of 1928 • pg. 799

26. Figure 20.1 • pg. 778

27. Table 20.1 • pg. 794

28. fig20_02.jpg

29. fig20_05.jpg

30. fig20_03.jpg

31. fig20_07.jpg

32. fig20_09.jpg

33. fig20_10.jpg

34. fig20_11.jpg

35. fig20_12.jpg

36. fig20_13.jpg

37. fig20_16.jpg

38. fig20_17.jpg

39. fig20_18.jpg

40. fig20_19.jpg

41. fig20_20.jpg

42. fig20_23.jpg

43. fig20_24.jpg

44. fig20_25.jpg

45. fig20_26.jpg

46. fig20_27.jpg

47. fig20_28.jpg

48. http://www.wwnorton.com/foner/ Go to website

49. End chap. 20 This concludes the Norton Media Library Slide Set for Chapter 20 Give Me Liberty! An American History by Eric Foner W. W. Norton & CompanyIndependent and Employee-Owned