PP Notes the 1920s

The Roaring 20’s
America After WWI
“A Return to Normalcy”
This became Warren G. Harding’s campaign slogan when he accidentally messed up the word, “Normality”
Americans loved it and elected him
Fighting the Recession
After WWI, 2 million soldiers were looking for work
Factories were closing because they were no longer getting orders for wartime goods from European nations
Republicans Rule the 1920s
“HARD”-”COOL”-”HOOV”
All the presidents of the 1920s were Republican
The names of the 3 presidents are Harding, Coolidge, and Hoover
Warren G. Harding died in office, probably due to shock
President Harding’s Corrupt Cabinet
Secretary of the Treasury: Andrew Mellon, a wealthy financier
Secretary of Commerce: Herbert Hoover, famous for his food raising efforts during WWI
“Ohio Gang”: Harding’s old friends from Ohio who were corrupt and stole money from the government
Charles Forbes
One of Harding’s old buddies
Head of the Veteran’s Bureau
Stole millions of dollars from the bureau

“I can take care of my enemies all right, but my…friends, they’re the ones that keep me walking the floors at night!” –Hoover

Herbert Hoover was very hard-working and honest, but his friends were not
After a bunch of betrayals, Harding died of a heart attack in August, 1923
The Teapot Dome Scandal
Secretary of the Interior, Albert Fall accepted a bribe to lease government land to oil executives
One of these areas was called “Teapot Dome” in Wyoming
Fall was sent to prison
Vice President Calvin Coolidge Becomes President
“Silent Cal” spoke and spent little (Harding loved to throw parties and give long speeches)

He forced corrupt officials to resign

He was re-elected in 1924 with the slogan “Keep Cool With Coolidge”
From War Goods to Consumer Goods
Coolidge cut regulations on businesses
Americans’ incomes rose
People began to buy refrigerators, radios, vacuums, and other appliances
Businesses began to advertise their products
“Coolidge Prosperity”
“The business of America is business. The man who builds a factory builds a temple. The man who works there worships there.
Calvin Coolidge

What does President Calvin Coolidge believe American Prosperity rests on?
Buying on Credit
Installment Buying= Buying on Credit (Buy now, pay later)
Demands for goods jumped, but so did Americans’ debt
“If we want anything, all we have to do is go and buy it on credit. So that leaves us without any economic problems whatsoever, except that perhaps some day to have to pay for them.”
–Comedian Will Rogers
Soaring Stock Market
By the late 1920s, more people were investing in the stock market
People became rich overnight
Bull Market: Period of rapidly increasing stock prices
Prices of stocks rose more quickly than the value of the companies themselves
American Foreign Policy in the 1920s
Most all Americans (including Harding and Coolidge) wanted to remain “isolationist”
HOWEVER:
1. The U.S. still needed to protect economic interests in Mexico
2. The U.S. gave $10 million in aid to Russia during a famine
3. The U.S. still signed the “Kellogg-Briand Pact” with 61 other nations (which outlawed war)

Women Gain the Right to Vote
19th Amendment in 1920 gave women the right to vote
Carrie Chapman Catt set up the League of Women Voters
This group tried to educate voters and ensure the right of women to serve on juries
Ana Roque de Duprey
Fought for the right to vote for women in Puerto Rico
Puerto Rican women got the right to vote in 1929
Life Changes for Women
Women were told to go back home when the men came home to the factories after WWI
Many women stayed in the workforce as typists, cleaners, cooks, servants, seamstresses, teachers, secretaries, and store clerks
Many women bought ready-made clothing instead of making their own
Many women bought appliances to help them with housework after working a full day outside of the home
Impact of the Automobile
Car sales grew rapidly in the 1920s because Henry Ford’s assembly line made them so cheap
General Motors also became a popular seller of cars

Changing Lifestyles Due to the Automobile
Millions of jobs were created through factories, oil refineries, roads, highways, truck stops, gas stations, restaurants and tourist stops
Many Americans began to move to the suburbs to escape crowded conditions in cities
Mass Culture
Radio

Movies

The Jazz Age
Fashion Fads, flappers
Marathon Dancing
More Fads
Flagpole sitting: Where young people would sit for hours and even days on top of a flagpole. (The record: 21 days!)
The Dance Craze
The Charleston
Has a quick beat
Dancers kick out their feet
Popular dance for Flappers: Women who wore short skirts (to the knees), bright red lipstick, hair cut short, smoked and drank in public, and drove fast cars
New Music
Jazz: Born in New Orleans, created by African Americans, combination of West African rhythms, African American songs and spirituals, European harmonies

Listen to the song “Heebie Jeebies- What different rhythms can you recognize?
Famous jazz musicians: Louis Armstrong, Bessie Smith, “Jelly Roll” Morton
A New Generation of American Writers
Depressed about their awful experiences in World War I
Criticized Americans for being obsessed with money and fun
Many became expatriates (people who leave their own country to live in a foreign land) and moved to Europe
Ernest Hemingway
Wrote about experiences of Americans during WWI and in Europe
Wrote A Farewell to Arms, The Sun Also Rises, The Old Man in the Sea
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Wrote about wealthy young people who go to constant parties but cannot find happiness
He wrote The Great Gatsby
His characters had flappers, bootleggers, and movie makers
Sinclair Lewis
Grew up in a small town in Minnesota and moved to New York City
He wrote books about rural people from a city person’s perspective (making them look stupid)
Wrote Main Street and Babbitt
The Harlem Renaissance
In the 1920s, many African American artists settled in Harlem, New York City
Black artists, musicians, and writers celebrated their African and American heritage

Harlem Renaissance Poets
Claude McKay: From Jamaica, wrote the poem, “If We Must Die” that condemned lynchings

Countee Cullen: Taught high school in Harlem, wrote of the experiences of African Americans
Zora Neale Hurston
Write novels, short essays, short stories
Traveled throughout the South in a battered car collecting folk tales, songs, and prayers of black southerners
Published these in her book, “Mules and Men”
Langston Hughes
Most well-known of the Harlem Renaissance poets
Also wrote plays, short stories, and essays
First poem, “The Negro Speaks of Rivers”
Encouraged African Americans to be proud of their heritage
Protested racism and acts of violence against blacks

Heroes of the 1920s
Athletes:
Bobby Jones: Won nearly every golfing championship
Jack Dempsey: Heavyweight boxing champion for 7 years
Bill Tilden and Helen Willis: Tennis champions
Gertrude Ederle: 1st woman to swim the English Channel
Babe Ruth
Grew up in an orphanage
Often in trouble as a boy
Hit 60 homeruns in one season, and 714 overall
Called the “Sultan of Swat”
Charles Lindbergh
The greatest hero of the 1920s
The first person to fly an airplane across the Atlantic Ocean alone
Flew from New York to Paris
Called “Lucky Lindy” because he had to fly for 33 ½ hours and didn’t carry a parachute, a radio, or a map
“The Noble Experiment”
Prohibition

How did Prohibition help lead to organized Crime????