The Changing Way of Life in America

1. The Changing Way of Lifein America The Roaring Twenties and The Great Depression VUS.10

2. Essential Understandings • The United States emerged from World War I as a global power. • The stock market boom and optimism of the 1920s were generated by investments made with borrowed money. • When businesses failed, the stocks lost their value, prices fell, production slowed, banks collapsed, and unemployment became widespread.

3. Effects Volstead Act becomes – 18th Amendment Consumption declines Disrespect of the law Increase in lawlessness Bootlegging Smuggling Organized crime Causes Religious groups believe alcohol is sinful Reformers believe government should protect people’s health Reformers believe alcohol leads to crime, abuse Immigrant groups brew beer and alcohol (carry over from WWI Practice of rationing grains during WWI The Prohibition Experiment

4. The Prohibition Experiment

5. Challenging Traditional Values • Traditional religion: Darwin’s Theory, the Scopes Trial • Traditional role of women: Flappers, 19th Amendment • Open immigration: Rise of newKu Klux Klan (KKK) • Prohibition: Smuggling alcohol and speakeasies

6. Science and Religion Clash • Fundamentalist (literal interpretation of the Bible) vs. Scientific Discoveries • Reject Charles Darwin’s Evolution Theory • Billy Sunday • He predicted that with the prohibition of alcohol, the slums would cease to exist, prisons and jails would become nothing more than a memory. • “Hell will be for rent!”

7. Scopes Monkey Trail • March 1925, Tennessee passed law to prevent teaching of evolution • ACLU promised to defend any teacher challenging the law • John T. Scopes - biology teacher from Dayton, TN took challenge • “We have now learned that animal forms may be arranged so as to begin w/the simple one-celled forms and culminate w/a group which includes man himself” • Scopes was arrested and sent to jail

8. Darrow (left) and Bryan during the trial Scopes Monkey Trail • Clarence Darrow, most famous trial lawyer of his day hired to defend Scopes • William Jennings Bryan (Three Times Presidential Candidate) was prosecutor • The trial was a fight over evolution and the role of science and religion in public schools

9. The Roaring Twenties Society Just Ain’t Like It Used To Be!

10. Society Just Ain’t Like It Used To Be! • Birthrate dropped at faster rate in 1920s • Margaret Sanger - 1916, 1st birth control clinic in US • Lots of new technology to make work at home easier • Sliced Bread, vacuum, and refrigerators • Public assistance for elderly • Public health clinics for ill • New sense of independence for women • New Hairstyles • New clothing styles • Jazz Music Ignites • New dancing styles • New “Jazz Clubs”

11. The mass media, movies, spectator sports played important roles in creating the popular culture of the 1920s – a culture that many artists and writers criticized Widespread education meant literate citizens but it took mass media to shape a mass culture. Newspapers increased dramatically and magazines flourished Society Just Ain’t Like It Used To Be! Sinclair Lewis- Babbit – main character ridicules American conformity and materialism (Nobel Prize winner) F Scott Fitzgerald- The Great Gatsby showed negative side of 1920s gaiety even wealthy had hollow lives Ernest Hemingway – The Sun Also Rises – criticized glorification of war

12. Society Just Ain’t Like It Used To Be! Popular culture reflected the prosperity of the era All About Fads! • King Tut • Charles Lindbergh and the Spirit of St. Louis • Movies – “the Talkies” • The Jazz Singer – first “talking” movie • Steamboat Willie – first animated movie • Art of Edward Hopper

13. Society Just Ain’t Like It Used To Be! • The biggest item of the decade for influencing American Culture was the Radio • Everyone in the US could experience the same news, sports, and advertisements at the same time! A shared national experience • Major plus it is privately owned unlike Europe with government owned radio systems

14. The Harlem Renaissance • Flourishing of African American culture • Langston Hughes - best known poet of period • Describes difficult lives of African Americans • Some poems set to jazz tempo • Jazz Music and Jazz Clubs also invention of this period • Louis Armstrong • Duke Ellington • Cab Calloway • Bessie Smith • Ella Fitzgerald • Josephene Baker

15. The End of it All… The Roaring Twenties Comes to a Close

16. Industry Basic industries railroads, textiles, and steel barely make a profit New forms of transportation Trucks, buses, and automobiles Railroads lose business Mining and lumbering no longer in big demand New forms of energy take away from coal huge profit losses due to new forms of energy Hydroelectric Fuel oil Natural gas By 1930s supply more than ½ the energy that had come from coal Economic Troubles

17. Economic Troubles • Boom industries weaken • Housing industry weakens ~ key indicator • Agriculture suffered the most • During WWI prices rose and international output for crops like wheat and corn soared • Planted more crops • Borrowed money for more land and equipment • Demand fell after WWI and crop prices fell by 40% • Farmers in trouble • Many lost their farms due to foreclosure • Many defaulted on their loans and rural banks began to fall as well • Auctions were being held to recoup losses

18. Consumers Spend Less • Incomes fall ~ people have less to spend on goods and services • Late 1920s ~ Americans are buying less • Rising prices • Stagnant wages, • Unbalanced distribution of income • Overbuying on credit • Production expanding faster than wages

19. Living on Credit • Americans in the 1920s living beyond their means • Bought goods on credit - OVERSPECULATION • Paid on the installment plan with interest • Credit was easily available and encouraged Americans to go into debt • Many had trouble paying back their debts • Consumers begin cutting back on spending

20. Uneven Distribution of Income • The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer • 1920-1929 • Wealthiest 1% of Americans income rose 75% • Rest of Americans income rose 9% • 70% of nation’s families earned less than $2,500 per year • Families earning twice that much could not afford luxuries • Unequal distribution meant most Americans could not participate fully in the economic advances of the 1920s

21. The Great Crashof 1929 The Stock Market Collapses

22. And It All Comes Crashing Down • September 1929 • Stock market peaks and then falls • Confidence fell in the market and some investors sold their stocks and pulled out • October 24, 1929 • Stock market takes a plunge • Panicked investors sell their shares • October 29, 1929 • Black Tuesday • The bottom fell out of the market • 16.4 million shares were dumped that day • Investors sold as quickly as possible

23. And It All Comes Crashing Down

24. And It All Comes Crashing Down

25. And It All Comes Crashing Down • November 1929 • Investors lost about $30 billion • The bubble burst and it all came crashing down • The Stock Market Crash • Signaled the beginning of the Great Depression • People panicked and withdrew their money from banks • Some could not get their money because banks had invested it in the stock market • In 1929 ~ 600 banks closed • By 1933 ~ 11,000 of the nation’s 25,000 banks failed • Millions of people lost their life savings

26. And It All Comes Crashing Down

27. The House of Cards Tumbles • 1929 – 1932 • GNP (Gross National Product) ~ the nation’s total output of goods and services • went from $104 billion to $59 billion • About 90,000 businesses went bankrupt, including automobiles and railroad companies • Million of workers lost their jobs • Unemployment skyrocketed • 1929 ~ 3% • 1933 ~ 25% • 1 out of 4 workers lost his/her job and those who kept them faced pay cuts and shorter hours

28. The Dominoes Fall • Other countries besides the U.S. were hit by the depression • Great Depression limited the amount of European goods the U.S. imported • Americans were having difficulty selling their products abroad • 1930 ~ Hawley-Smoot Tariff passed by Congress • Established the highest protective tariff in U.S. history • Designed to protect Americans farmers and manufacturers from foreign competition • Had the opposite effect causing world trade to drop by 40%

29. The Great Depression The US Hits Rock Bottom … And begins to dig deeper

30. Causes of the Great Depression • Tariffs and war debt policies that cut down the foreign market for American goods • A crisis in the farm sector • The availability of easy credit • An unequal distribution of income • These led to falling demand for consumer goods • Federal government kept interest rates low allowing companies to borrow easily and build up large debts • Borrowed money was used to buy stocks which later led to the crash

31. Depression in the Cities • People lost jobs, were evicted, ended up in streets • Sleeping in parks, sewer pipes • Wrapping themselves in newspapers to keep warm • Many built makeshift shacks from scraps • Shantytowns built up throughout cities • Hovervilles • Soup kitchens offered free or low cost food • Breadlines offered free food provided by charitable organizations

32. Depression in the Cities

33. Depression in the Cities

34. Depression in the Cities • African Americans and Latinos had difficulty • Unemployment rates were higher • Racial violence occurred when competing for jobs with whites • 1933 ~ 24 African Americans were lynched • Latinos • Whites demanded that they be deported • 1930s ~ hundreds of thousands of people of Mexican descent relocated to Mexico • Some left voluntarily and other were deported

35. Depression in the Rural Areas • Farmers were also hit hard by the depression • One advantage for farmers • They could grow food for their families • Most farmers lost their land because of debt and falling prices • 1929-1932 ~ 400,000 farms were lost to foreclosure • Farmers turned to tenant farming to survive

36. Depression in the Rural Areas

37. Men in the Streets • Many would walk the streets daily looking for work • 300,000 “Hoboes” wandered the country • Hitched rides on railroads boxcars • Sleeping under bridges • Developed their own hidden language to help them cope as they wandered

38. Riding the Rails

39. The Dust Bowl • Drought hit in the early 1930s on the Great Plains • Farmers used tractors to break up the prairie grasses but eventually they exhausted the land through overproduction • Land became unsuitable for farming • Windstorms scattered the topsoil leaving only sand and gravel • 1934 wind storm carried dust hundreds of miles to east coast cities

40. The Dust Bowl • Regions hit the hardest • Kansas • Oklahoma • Texas • New Mexico • Colorado

41. The Dust Bowl

42. The Dust Bowl • Thousands of farmers and sharecroppers left the area • Packed up their families and headed west following Route 66 to California • Migrants became known as Okies (originally a term for people from Oklahoma), but now a negative term • Found work as farmhands • End of 1930s thousands of farm families had migrated to California and other Pacific states

43. The American Family • Americans believed in traditional values and emphasized the importance of the family even during the depression • Many families with money so tight stayed home to entertain themselves • Played board games like Monopoly, invented in 1933 • Listening to the radio • Movies: Provided escape from Depression-era realities • Sometimes families did break apart under the strain of trying to make ends meet

44. The American Family Original Monopoly Concept

45. FDR and THE NEW DEAL A changing Attitude in America

46. Election of 1932 • Americans were stunned and outraged • Hoover’s popularity suffered • Viewed as “too cautious” • Election of 1932 • Hoover is facing Franklin Delano Roosevelt • Americans are ready for a change • FDR was the Democratic nominee • 2 term governor of New York • Distant cousin of Theodore Roosevelt • Effective reform minded leader • Possessed friendly and confident can-do attitude

47. Election of 1932 Franklin Delano Roosevelt 35th President Herbert Hoover 34th President

48. Roosevelt’s Wait • Roosevelt won in November 1932 but did not take office until March 1933 • 20th Amendment passed in February 1933 moving the inauguration date for the presidency to January • FDR was not idle • Carefully selected a team of advisors including lawyers, professors, and journalists ~ “Brain Trust” • Began to formulate a set of policies • Three goals of the New Deal • Relief for the needy • Economic recovery • Financial reform

49. New Deal (Franklin Roosevelt) • This program changed the role of the government to a more active participant in solving problems. • Roosevelt rallied a frightened nation in which one in four workers was unemployed. • “We have nothing to fear, but fear itself.” • The legacy of the New Deal influenced the public’s belief in the responsibility of government to deliver public services, to intervene in the economy, and to act in ways that promote the general welfare

50. The Hundred Days • Lasted from March 9 to June 16, 1933 • Congress passed over 15 major pieces of New Deal legislation • Laws that expanded the federal government’s role in the nation’s economy • First step • Banking and finance reform • On March 5th he declared a bank holiday closing all banks to prevent further withdrawals