Unit 5: Boom and Bust

1. Unit 5: Boom and Bust

2. 1919-1929 Chapter 15 The Jazz Age Roaring 20s Begin

3. I. A Clash of Values A. War is Over 1. US attempts a return to isolationism * a national policy of avoiding involvement in world affairs a. Shun diplomatic commitments w/ foreign countries b. Denounce foreign ‘radical’ ideas 2. atmosphere of disillusionment a. economic recession b. influx of immigrants c. racial/cultural tensions

4. 3. Scenario • a. immigration stopped during war – up again in 1921 after WWI b. most new immigrants from S & E Europe 1) seen as threat to stability and order 2) seen as threat to returning soldiers who need jobs in an economy with rising prices and unemployment • c. leads to a rise in racism and nativism Post War Intolerance

5. NATIVISM * nativism = a preference for native- born people and a desire to limit immigration

6. 4. The Sacco & Vanzetti Case • a. The Crime: 2 Italian, Anarchist, Immigrants accused of murdering a paymaster and guard during a payroll holdup in Boston. April 1920. • b. The Evidence: Flimsy at best see pg 490-491 • c. The Verdict: Guilty! Says the Judge: “this man, although he may not actually have committed the crime, is nevertheless morally culpable, because he is the enemy of our existing institutions” • d. The Sentence: Death – both executed in 1927

7. Sacco and Vanzetti

8. 4. Eugenics – emphasized that human inequalities were inherited and warned against breeding the unfit or inferior • a. superiority of American stock. WASPs = White, Anglo-Saxon, Protestants • b. led to strict immigration control

9. 5. Plight of Black Americans in the 1920s • a. Great Migration: Southern Rural blacks move to northern, industrial cities • b. Racial Prejudice: poverty, frozen out of many jobs, high unemployment • c. Rise of KKK – devoted to persecuting minorities in US • - blamed immigrants for nations trouble • - attacked blacks, Catholics, Jews etc. • - used threats & violence to frighten “undesirables” • - influence declines in late ‘20s due to scandals & power struggles within organization leadership

10. KKK The Klan: Gainesville, GA

11. B. Immigration Restrictions 1. Anti-immigrant feelings rise – even in big biz a. racism b. fear of competition for jobs c. worries about political radicals (Red Scare)

12. 2. Emergency Quota Act of 1921 a. only 3% of an ethnic grp (already here) admitted (based on 1910 census) - restricted # imms. from all countries - discriminated heavily against people from S & E Europe b. Effect? Ethnic identity & National Origin determined admission into US 3. National Origins Act of 1924 a. made immigration restriction permanent b. quota at 2% (1890 census) – so, larger #s from N & W Europe allowed c. 1929 addition to this act resulted in N & W Europeans = 87% of quota

13. 1. “America realizes that she is no longer a desert country in need of reinforcements to her population. She realizes that her present numbers and their descendants are amply sufficient to bring out her natural resources at a reasonable rate of progress. She knows that her prosperity at this moment far exceeds that of any other land in the world. She realizes that unless immigration is numerically restrained she will be overwhelmed by a vast migration of peoples from the war-stricken countries of Europe. Such a migration could not fail to have a baleful effect upon American wages and standards of living, and it would increase mightily our problem of assimilating the foreign-born who are already here. Out of these thoughts have risen the general demands for limitation of the number of immigrants who may enter this country. 2.” There has come about a general realization of the fact that the races of men who have been coming to us in recent years are wholly dissimilar to the native-born Americans; that they are untrained in self-government-- a faculty that it has taken the Northwestern Europeans many centuries to acquire. America was beginning also to smart under the irritation of her 'foreign colonies'-- those groups of aliens, either in city slums or in country districts, who speak a foreign language and live a foreign life, and who want neither to learn our common speech nor to share our common life. From all this has grown the conviction that it was best for America that our incoming immigrants should hereafter be of the same races as those of us who are already here, so that each year's immigration should so far as possible be a miniature America, resembling in national origins the persons who are already settled in our country. . . ." "It is true that 75 per cent of our immigration will hereafter come from Northwestern Europe; but it is fair that it should do so, because 75 per cent of us who are now here owe our origin to immigrants from those same countries. . . ."

14. Flow of immigration under 3% law – based on 1910 census – largest quotas come from countries shaded in black The flow of immigration under 2% law – Smallest quotas come from the lightly shaded countries and those shown in white (Turkey, Spain, Romania, Hungary, etc. ) Largest quotas from countries shaded in black

15. 4. Hispanic Immigration to US a. lack of immigrants in the labor pool led to rise of Mexican immigration b. irrigation jobs ala Newlands Reclamation Act of 1902 open to Mexican immigrants • - 70,000 Mexicans flee to US after Mexican Rev. • - National Origins Act of 1924 exempted natives of Western Hemisphere from quota system

16. C. The New Morality 1. New Morality vs Traditional Values 2. What was the new Morality? a. glorified youth and personal freedom b. more women working outside the home - establish personal identity - independence from parental authority - provide wages – can buy things! c. more women attend college d. increased freedom thanks to auto - provides independence/privacy for youth - shift: socializing at home to socializing w/ friends

17. 3. Women in the 1920s a. more social freedom b. the “flapper” : the symbol of the revolution in manners and morals – young dramatic, stylish, and unconventional woman - short skirts - short hair - danced the tango, foxtrot, and the new Charleston c. intellectual achievements - contribute to science, medicine, law & literature

18. The Flapper Flapper fashion embraced all things and styles modern.  A fashionable flapper had short sleek hair, a shorter than average shapeless shift dress, a chest as flat as a board, wore make up and applied it in public, smoked with a long cigarette holder, exposed her limbs and epitomized the spirit of a reckless rebel who danced the nights away in the Jazz Age.  Hairstyles circa 1922, 1925,1925,1926

20. 4. The Fundamentalist Movement – supporters of traditional values a. saw moral decline in American society - consumer culture - relaxed ethics - increased urbanization b. Fundamentalist beliefs - literal translation of Bible - rejected theory of evolution – supported creationism

21. c. Scopes Monkey Trial - laws against teaching evolution - ACLU determined to overthrow this law - arrange to have John Scopes (Biology teacher), arrested for teaching it - Trial: Defense atty Clarence Darrow vs. prosecuting atty, William Jennings Bryan - Scopes guilty, but Darrow bested Bryan many times in trial – Bryan dies 5 days later - Result? Fundamentalists further isolated from mainstream Protestantism Scopes Trial and Prohibition

22. D. Prohibition 1. Why ban alcohol? (18th Amendment Jan. 1920) a. unemployment b. domestic violence c. poverty 2. Volstead Act a. enforces prohibition b. increased fed. gov’t’s police powers (previously been left to the states)

23. 3. Effects of Prohibition a. Rise in ORGANIZED CRIME - bootlegging - smuggling - speakeasies – illegal bars b. Crime became big biz - gangsters corrupt public officials - most notorious – Al Capone (Chicago)

24. Al Capone

25. 4. Repealing Prohibition a. 21st amendment, 1933 b. defeat for supporters of traditional values & for those who favored the use of fed. police powers to achieve moral reform 5. Lasting effect of Prohibition a. anti-alcohol laws b. alcohol awareness - less drinking at work etc.

27. II. Cultural Innovations • A. Art & Literature • 1. Greenwich Village & the South Side a. Greenwich Village = NYC; South Side of Chicago b. Bohemian lifestyle – artistic and unconventional – perfect place for artists and writers to flourish, focus on creativity

28. 2. Modern American Art a. diverse range of artistic styles b. urban landscapes; cubism, realism Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks depicts isolated people in the city

29. 3. Poets & Writers – varied styles and subject matter a. poet Carl Sandburg glorified Midwest and expansive nature of American life b. poet Vincent Mallay praised women’s freedom and equality c. poet Gertrude Stein – important literary critic d. poet/writer T.S. Elliot concentrated on negative effects of modernism

30. TS Elliot: The Hollow Men A penny for the Old Guy We are the hollow men We are the stuffed men Leaning together Headpiece filled with straw. Alas! Our dried voices, when We whisper together Are quiet and meaningless As wind in dry grass Or rats' feet over broken glass In our dry cellar Shape without form, shade without colour, Paralysed force, gesture without motion; Those who have crossed With direct eyes, to death's other Kingdom Remember us -- if at all -- not as lost Violent souls, but only As the hollow men The stuffed men. T.S.Eliot, author of The Waste Land (1922) and The Hollow Men (1925). This is the way the world ends This is the way the world ends This is the way the world ends Not with a bang but a whimper.

31. e. playwright Eugene O’Neill portrayed realistic characters and situations f. Novelist Ernest Hemingway wrote about disillusionment and reevaluatedmyths about American heroes – result of his WWI experience as an ambulance driver g. writer F. Scott Fitzgerald exposed emptiness and superficiality of modern society The Great Gatsby

32. B. Pop Culture 1. Economic Prosperity a. Americans had more leisure time and more money b. Americans able to enjoy various forms of entertainment/pop culture

33. 2. Baseball, Boxing, and Other Sports a. Media coverage (motion pictures, radios, newspapers, magazines) of sports helped to increase its popularity • Baseball – Babe Ruth famous worldwide • Boxing – Jack Dempsey • College Football – Red Grange of the Univ of IL • Golf – Bobby Jones • Tennis – Bill Tilden; Helen Wills • Swimming – Gertrude Ederle – swam the English Channel in record time

34. 3. Rise of Hollywood a. Silent Movies - live piano players set the tone in the theater - subtitles revealed the plot b. First “talkie”: The Jazz Singer 1927 - golden age of Hollywood began!

35. 4. Popular Radio Shows and Music a. 1920 – KDKA Pittsburgh launched one of 1st commercial radio broadcasts: election results of the 1920 Presidential Election – Harding’s landslide victory • b. Radios • played pop music of the day • comedy shows such as • Amos ‘n’ Andy

36. c. Significance of 1920s mass media? • 1) broke down patterns of provincialism • 2)unified Americans through shared national culture • 3) spread new ideas and attitudes of the times

37. III. African American Culture • A. The Harlem Renaissance 1. Effects of Great Migration a. Black American sought to escape segregated society of South & to find economic opportunities • b. New York City neighborhood of Harlem – area full of night clubs & music – culture movement known as the Harlem Renaissance – significance? • 1) stimulated artistic development • 2) racial pride • 3) sense of community • 4) political organization Harlem Renaissance

38. 2. The Writers a. Claude McKay: immigrant from Jamaica – criticized racism in America b. Langston Hughes: examined the place of blacks in a white world - many of his poems expressed a positive, hopeful message – things may not be good now, but there is hope for the future

39. 3. Jazz, Blues, and the Theater a. Music Biz grew thanks to radio & phonograph b. Most important musical development of the 1920s was JAZZ - American style of music that developed from ragtime & blues and which uses syncopated rhythms & melodies - Louis Armstrong: 1st great coronet & trumpet soloist in jazz music. Known for improvisation - Duke Ellington: bandleader who created his own sound of improvisation & orchestration using diff. combos of instruments Birth of Jazz

40. - Cotton Club – Harlem neighborhood nightspot where many black American artists got their starts (could play there, but couldn’t be a customer!) • Bessie Smith: “empress of the blues” • Eventually, others borrowed heavily from jazz, produced a quieter version that appealed to white audiences ” Big Band” (great for dancing)

41. B. African American Politics 1. Role of Harlem Renaissance: brought int’l fame to many black Americans + sparked a political transformation in the US 2. Great Migration led to increased political power of black Americans – created a strong voting bloc in the north

42. 3. NAACP a. battled discrimination and segregation through the legal system – in the courts • b. led efforts in Congress to pass anti- lynching legislation • c. political strength of black Americans evident with the defeat of Judge John Parker’s nomination to the Supreme Court

43. 4. Rise of Black Nationalism – Marcus Garvey a. glorify black culture & traditions of the past b. Garvey founded the Universal Negro Improvement Assoc. (UNIA) - believed blacks could gain economic and political power by educating themselves c. Eventually, Garvey proclaimed that blacks could never find justice or freedom in the US – developed plan to lead blacks to new homeland in Africa d. $ sent in for his cause was wasted/mismanaged. Garvey jailed, deported back to Jamaica – organization collapsed

44. 1921-1929 Chapter 16 Normalcy & Good Times

45. I. Presidential Politics A. The Harding Administration 1. 1920 Election a. Democratic Platform 1) continue Progressive Mvmt 2) support League of Nations 3) increase role of gov’t in economy b. Republican Platform 1) return to Laissez-Faire 2) avoid foreign entanglements 3) “normalcy” (a return to a state of normal) – Harding’s campaign slogan

46. c. Republicans – Warren G. Harding win - more in tune w/ public mood: tired of wartime wage & price controls; anxious to avoid another foreign war Warren G. Harding

47. 2. The Republican Formula: Lower Spending + Lower Taxes + Higher Tariffs = Economic Growth a. run gov’t more efficiently – return to laissez faire – avoid heavy federal spending • b. appointed Andrew Mellon as Sec. of Treasury (1 of 6 richest men in US) - Who is Sec of Treasury today? c. believed in cutting taxes on industry to spur economic growth d. cut gov’t spending (did by 1/3)

48. US Secretary of the Treasury

49. 3. Political Scandals - Harding: hard working & good natured, but remembered for scandals while in office a. Ohio Gang: a group of political friends from Ohio that Harding appointed to high gov’t posts 1) good appts: Sec of State Charles Hughes, Sec of Commerce Hebert Hoover, Sec of Treasury Andrew Mellon 2) most not qualified – or just plain corrupt 3) stories of misconduct made it to the press

50. - Charles Forbes, head of Vets bureau: swindled country out of $200m • - Reports of Ohio gang selling favors, including pardons & appts to office