THE AMERICAN PEOPLE

CREATING A NATION AND A SOCIETY

NASH JEFFREY
HOWE FREDERICK DAVIS WINKLER MIRES PESTANA

7th Edition

Chapter 23: Affluence and Anxiety

Pearson Education, Inc, publishing as Longman 2006

POSTWAR PROBLEMS
Enthusiasm

for social progress evaporated in

1919 and the sense of progress and purpose
that the war had fostered withered
The year following the end of the war was
marked by strikes and violence and by fear
that Bolsheviks, blacks, foreigners, and others
were destroying the American way of life

THE RED SCARE

As

a result of the Russian Revolution,

Americans imagined Communists, rather than
anarchists, as the worst possible threat to
their way of life

In the spring of 1919, the Russians announced a

policy of worldwide revolution
Communist uprisings in Hungary and Bavaria
further frightened Americans
Immediately after the war there were maybe
25,000 communists in the United States

THE RED MENACE AND THE

PALMER RAIDS

Workers in the U.S. suffered from wartime inflation, which had almost doubled the
prices between 1914 and 1919 while most wages remained the same

During 1919, more than 4 million workers participated in 4000 strikes

Wanted higher wages, shorter hours and sometimes more control over their
workplace

The ideals of Socialism and Communism were tied, often erroneously, to the
American labor movement and the strikes were often broken, sometimes with
force
On April 28, 1919, bomb was discovered in a package delivered to the mayor of
Seattle followed by one the next day that blew the hands off the maid of a
former senator from Georgia

Additional bombings occurred in June causing Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer to

organize a special antiradical division within the Justice Department headed by J.
Edgar Hoover and to launch a series of raids in November 1919
Some 5000 suspected radicals were arrested and 600 were deported
Raids fanned the flames of fear and intolerance which continued throughout the
decade though the worst of the Red Scare was over by 1920
Fostered a number of patriotic organizations such as the American Legion and the
Daughters of the American Revolution

THE KU KLUX KLAN

Organized in Georgia by William J. Simmons, the new

Klan, unlike the original which took almost anyone
who was white, was thoroughly Protestant and
explicitly anti-foreign, anti-Semitic, and anti-Catholic

Opposed teaching of evolution; glorified old-time religion;

supported immigration restrictions; denounced short skirts,
petting and demon rum; and upheld patriotism and the
purity of women
Wanted to keep blacks in their place and were willing to use
violence when peaceful aims failed

1920s saw rapid growth of the Klan

THE KU KLUX KLAN

In some states Women of the Klan (WKKK) made up more than

half the membership

At the peak of its power, the Klan had several million members,
many of them middle class

Also campaigned for womens rights and the equal treatment of all
white, Protestant women
For both sexes the Klan served as a social club
At least half the members came from urban areas and the Klan was
especially strong in working-class neighborhoods of Detroit,
Indianapolis, Atlanta and Chicago

In some states, especially Indiana, Colorado, Oregon, Oklahoma,

Louisiana and Texas, the Klan influenced politics and determined
some elections

The Klans power declined after 1925 because of a series of

internal power struggles and several scandals

ETHNIC AND RELIGIOUS

INTOLERANCE

One result of the Red Scare and the fear of foreigners

and radicals was the conviction of two Italian
anarchists, Nicola Sacco and Bartolemeo Vanzetti
who had been arrested in 1920 for murdering a guard
during the robbery of a shoe factory in Massachusetts

The two were convicted and sentenced to die in the summer

of 1921 on what seemed to be flimsy evidence
Case took on symbolic significance and many intellectuals in
the U.S. and Europe rallied to their defense
After a special commission reaffirmed the verdict, the two
were executed in August 1927

A general spirit of intolerance permeated the decade

and became more fixed and formal

A PROSPERING ECONOMY

Economy soared after a postwar depression in 1921

and 1922

Fueled by new technology, more efficient planning and

management, and innovative advertising, industrial
production almost doubled during the decade and the gross
national product rose by 40 percent
Construction boom created new suburbs around American
cities while skyscrapers transformed the cities themselves

While the American economy boomed, much of the

rest of the world suffered

THE RISING STANDARD OF

LIVING

In the 1920s, the enameled tub, toilet and washbasin

became standard in many American homes
Americans of the post-war years had more leisure
time, a shorter work week and more paid vacation
than Europeans
American diet improved during the decade, health
improved and life expectancy increased
Educational opportunities expanded with high school
attendance expanding from 1 in 10 to 6 in 10 and
more than a million people

THE RISE OF THE MODERN

CORPORATION

Corporate mergers began to increase at a rate greater

than anytime since the 1890s

A new type of professional manager emerged

By 1930, the 200 largest corporations controlled almost half

the corporate wealth
Marketing and advertising became as important as production
Many businesses began to spend more on research
To encourage workers to be efficient, managers introduced
incentives such as pensions, recreation facilities, cafeterias,
paid vacations and profit-sharing planswelfare capitalism

Planning was key to the new corporate structure

ELECTRIFICATION
1920s

marked the climax of the second

Industrial Revolution powered by electricity
and producing a growing array of consumer
goods

By 1919 more than two-thirds of American homes

had electricity
Electricity brought dozens of gadgets and labor
saving devices into the home though the actual time
the average housewife spent was not reduced
For many poor urban and rural women all that
changed was a greater sense of the difference
between their lives and that of those better off

A GLOBAL AUTOMOBILE CULTURE

The manufacture of the automobile underwent enormous growth in the

postwar years, stimulating the rubber, steel, and petroleum industries

Auto also led to the decline of the small crossroads store as well as
many small churches

The auto forced the construction and improvement of streets and highways
which was done, in part, with federal aid after the passage of the 1916 Federal
Highway Act
The auto also created new suburbs along with filling stations, the diner and the
overnight cabin.
Traffic lights, stop signs, billboards and parking lots appeared as did increasing
levels of pollution

Tractor changed method of farming and trucks altered the marketing of

farm products
Buses began to eliminate the one-room schoolhouse while cars allowed
young people to escape the chaperoning of parents

Automobile also became a sign of status and transformed advertising

A GLOBAL AUTOMOBILE CULTURE

By 1926, three-fourths of the cars sold were bought on some

kind of deferred-payment plan

Installment buying spread to a number of other consumer items

In the 1920s, the car came within the reach of middle-class

buyers and by the end of 1929 there were 27 million registered
cars

Most European autos were custom made and many European

companies did not adopt the assembly line production system until
the 1930s
European governments subsidized car production for military
purposes which delayed the creation of inexpensive cars
European government also adopted safety standards and required
national licenses for vehicles and drivers before the United States
did because in America the states created the rules

HENRY FORD

Ford adapted the assembly line and the concept of interchangeable parts
to the production of autos
In 1914, announced he was increasing the minimum pay to $5 per day
(almost twice the national average for factory workers)

Ford ruthlessly pressured his dealers and used them to solve his financial
difficulties

Did it to ensure a dependable workforce

Work was repetitious and numbing and if line shut down, workers were
released without pay

Used spies on the assembly line and fired workers and executives at the least
provocation

While Fords Model T set the standard when it was first made, by the late
1920s, Fords refusal to make major changes put the Model T at a major
disadvantage behind other sleeker, more modern cars

Fords wages dropped below the industry average

In 1927, Ford introduced the Model A and built the gigantic Rouge River plant
to mass produce it

THE EXPLODING METROPOLIS

Automobile led to a decline of the streetcar and the

trolley
New suburbs, carefully planned and restricted to
whites, emerged
Automobile also allowed industry to move into the
suburbs
Biggest land boom of all occurred in Florida until the
1926 hurricane temporarily ended it

Detroit and Los Angeles also experienced tremendous

growth

Cities expanded horizontally in the 1920s but city

centers grew vertically

A COMMUNICATIONS REVOLUTION

During the 1920s, the number of homes with

telephones increased from 9 to 13 million

By end of the decade, half of American homes were still

without phones

Radio symbolized the technological and

communicational changes of the 1920s

First radio station began broadcasting in Detroit in 1920 and

by 1922 there were 500 stations
Classical music was soon joined by news analysis and
coverage of important events and then live dramas
Serials made radio a national medium
By the end of the decade, people in all sections of the
country were humming the same popular songs

A COMMUNICATIONS REVOLUTION

Movies grew rapidly during the 1920s

By mid-decade movie production had moved to Hollywood

and giant firms dominated the industry
Movies created well known stars and attracted viewers across
class, regional and generational lines

Movies had the power to influence attitudes and ideas

Sports figures also became stars as increased leisure
time, the auto, radio and mass-circulation newspapers
turned sports into mass spectator events
1927 marked the beginning of the new age of
mechanization and progress

Among the many firsts was the solo flight of Charles Lindbergh
across the Atlantic

HOPES RAISED, PROMISES

DEFERRED

CLASH OF VALUES

During the 1920s, radio, movies, advertising and masscirculation magazines promoted a national secular culture which
emphasized consumption, pleasure, upward mobility and even
sex which clashed with traditional values of work, thrift, church,
family and home
The Scopes Trial in Dayton, Tennessee, pitted those who had
accepted the views of Charles Darwin against evangelical
Christians who believed faith in the Gospel message was crucial
to living a virtuous life on earth

Clarence Darrow was hired by the American Civil Liberties Union as

attorney for the defense while William Jennings Bryan was engaged
by the World Christian Fundamentalist Association to act for the
prosecution
Despite Darrows destruction of most of Bryans points, the jury
found Scopes guilty

RELIGIOUS FUNDAMENTALISM

Fundamentalists believed in the literal interpretation

and the infallibility of the Bible and that Jesus Christ
was the only road to salvation

Rejected secularism, liberal theology, pluralism, the Social

Gospel and any sense that reform on earth could lead to
perfection
Throughout he 1920s and 1930s, attendance and Christian
colleges and the circulation of fundamentalist periodicals and
newspapers increased dramatically

Evangelical ministers such as Billy Sunday and Aimee

Semple McPherson reached large audiences

Radio spread the message of the fundamentalist preachers

and attracted numerous converts to those ministers who could
readily adapt to the new communications technology

IMMIGRATION AND MIGRATION

Immigrants and anyone else perceived as unAmerican seemed

to threaten the old ways
An act passed in 1882 prohibited the entry of criminals, paupers
and the insane and special agreements between 1880 and 1908
restricted Chinese and Japanese immigration
First strongly restrictive immigration law was passed in 1917
over Wilsons veto and it required a literacy test and prohibited
the immigration of certain political radicals

1921: Congress limited European immigration in any one year to 3

percent of the number of each nationality present in the country in
1910
1924: changed the quota to 2 percent of those in the country in 1890
and effectively prohibited Japanese immigration
1927: National Origins Act set an overall limit of 150,000 European
immigrants a year with more than 60 percent coming from Great
Britain and Germany

IMMIGRATION AND MIGRATION

Restrictive immigration policies sponsored by the Republicans

helped attract Poles, Jews and Italians to the Democratic party
Immigration restriction cut off the stream of cheap labor though by
exempting the Western Hemisphere, new laws opened the country
to Mexican laborers who poured into California and the Southwest
as well as northern industrial cities
African Americans migrated north in large numbers between 1915
and 1920

Most were unskilled

While they improved their lives through migration, most were crowded
into segregated housing and faced prejudice and hate
Often black men moved first and brought their families later

In 1919 in Chicago there was a race riot that killed several dozen
and wounded hundreds in four days of rampaging through the
black sections of the city

Race riots broke out in numerous other cities as well

Mexican Population, 1930

MARCUS GARVEY: BLACK

MESSIAH

Marcus Garvey, a Jamaican, saw self-help as a means of

political empowerment by which African peoples would reclaim
their homelands from European powers

By 1919 had established 30 branches of his Universal Negro

Improvement Association in the U.S. and the Caribbean
Also set up the newspaper The Negro World, the Black Cross
Nurses, and a chain of grocery stores, millinery shops and
restaurants
Advocated the return of blacks to Africa
Won converts mainly among lower-middle-class blacks especially
through his message that blacks should be proud to be blacks
After his Black Star shipping line collapsed, Garvey was sentenced
to 5 years in jail for using the mail to defraud investors
President Coolidge commuted the sentence and deported Garvey

THE HARLEM RENAISSANCE

A group of black writers, artists and intellectuals who settled in

Harlem after the war led a movement that explored the
ambivalent role of blacks in America while celebrating their pride
in being black

Jazz was an important force in Harlem and many prosperous

whites came to listen to black musicians

Alain Locke was the father of the movement

Langston Hughes
Claude McKay
Jean Toomer
Zora Neale Hurston

Jazz was also an extremely successful export to Europe

Problem for many Harlem writers was how to be both black and
intellectual

Many African American writers felt alienated from American society

THE LOST GENERATION

Many white intellectuals, writers and artists also felt

alienated from the materialism, conformity and
provincial prejudice they saw dominating American life

F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, E.E. Cummings and

T.S. Eliot moved to Europe
Sherwood Anderson, Sinclair Lewis, and H.L. Mencken
criticized American society without leaving the country

Despite writers criticisms of business-dominated

American culture, literature flourished in the 1920s

WOMEN STRUGGLE FOR EQUALITY

Women acquired more sexual freedom in the 1920s

Contraceptives, especially the diaphragm, became more readily available

Margaret Sanger organized the first American birth control conference in
1921 though most states still made the selling or prescribing of birth
control illegal and federal laws prohibited sending information about it
through the mail
Family size declined from 3.6 children in 1900 to 2.5 in 1930 and young
people were more inclined to marry for love rather than security
More women expected sexual satisfaction in marriage and felt that divorce
was the best solution for an unhappy marriage
Double standard still persisted

Electricity, running water, washing machines, vacuum cleaners and

other labor-saving devices made housework easier for the middle
class though they did not affect rural or urban working-class women

Even middle-class women discovered the time it took to do housework

had not been reduced as standards of cleanliness went up

WOMEN STRUGGLE FOR EQUALITY

More women worked outside the home though their share of

manufacturing jobs fell

The image of the flapper in the 1920s promised more freedom and
equality for women then they achieved

Greatest expansion of jobs was in white collar occupations that were becoming
feminizedsecretary, bookkeeper, clerk and telephone operator
While more married women had jobs, they were low paying jobs and most
single women expected marriage to end their employment
For secretaries and teachers marriage often led to dismissal from their jobs
Disparity between male and female wages widened during the decade with
women only earning 57 percent of male wages in 1930

Flapper was frivolous and daring, not professional and competent

Winning the vote for women did not ensure equality

National League of Women Voters was organized to educate women about

politics
An Equal Rights Amendment was opposed by many women who felt the
amendment would cancel special legislation to protect women in industry

RURAL AMERICA IN THE

1920s

American farmers, as a rule, did not share in the prosperity of

the 1920s.

Advancements in agriculture (pesticides and advanced

fertilizers) and use of tractors increased yield per acre and
allowed more acres to be cultivated thereby increasing
production just as demand was declining

A vicious cycle of overproduction to meet demands continually

lowered market prices of produce, forcing many farmers into the
poorhouse

Many farmers were also vulnerable to the forces of nature

Large commercial farmers using mechanized equipment

produced most of the cash crops

Small farmers found themselves unable to compete with

agribusiness and increasing numbers left the farms
Few farmers could afford the products of new technology
No relief came from Congress

THE WORKERS SHARE OF

PROSPERITY

While hundreds of thousands of workers improved their standard

of living in the 1920s, inequality grew

Real wages increased 21 percent between 1923 an 1929 but

corporate dividends went up nearly two-thirds in the same period
Richest 5 percent of the population increased their share of the
wealth from a quarter to a third and the wealthiest one percent
controlled 19 percent of all income

Among workers there was a great disparity

Employees on the auto assembly line or in new factories producing

radios saw their wages go up and their hours decline
Yet the majority of working class families did not earn enough to
move much beyond subsistence
Labor union membership fell during the 1920s and many unions
struggled

THE BUSINESS OF POLITICS

Big

business prospered in the 1920s and the

image of the businessman rose further
Government reduced regulation, lowered
taxes, and cooperated to aid business
expansion at home and abroad

Business and politics were especially aligned

during the decade

HARDING AND COOLIDGE

Since Theodore Roosevelt died in 1919, Republicans nominated

Warren G. Harding as president and Calvin Coolidge as vicepresident

Teapot Dome Scandal: Albert Fall, secretary of the interior, had

illegally leased government-owned oil reserves in Wyoming

The Democrats nominated Governor James Cox

Harding won in a landslide but died of a heart attack in August 1923
Only after Hardings death, did the full extent of his friends
corruption and scandals come out

Illegal activities were also discovered in the Veterans Administration

and elsewhere throughout the government

Coolidge was honest and no scandal touched his administration

so he was easily re-elected in 1924

His secretary of the treasury, Andrew Mellon, set out to lower

individual and corporate taxes

HERBERT HOOVER
As

secretary of commerce, Hoover used the

force of the federal government to regulate,
stimulate, and promote but he believed firmly
in free enterprise and local volunteer action to
solve problems
Hoover believed that the primary role of the
federal government was to educate and
promote

GLOBAL EXPANSION

The U.S. cooperated with many league agencies and

conferences, though it did not join the League or the World
Court, and it took the lead in trying to reduce naval armaments
and solve the problems of international finance caused by the
war
The 1920s was a decade of dramatic expansion in business,
finance, and trade for the United States

US became a creditor nation and maintained involvement in Latin

America

US called the Washington Conference on Naval Disarmament in

1921 that resulted in fixing the tonnage of capital ships at a ratio
of US and Britain, 5; Japan, 3; and France and Italy, 1.67

Japan agreed only after the U.S. agreed not to fortify its Pacific
island possessions

GLOBAL EXPANSION

American foreign policy in the 1920s tried to reduce the risk of international
conflict, resist revolution and make the world safe for trade and investment

At the end of the war, European countries owed the US $10 billion but
France and Britain could not pay and tried to get the US to forgive the debt

By the end of the decade, the US controlled the financial affairs of 10 Latin
American countries
In Nicaragua, the marines left in 1925 only to return the next year to try in vain
to contain the revolution of Augusto Sandino who would be murdered in 1934
by General Anastasio Somoza, who, followed by his two sons, controlled the
country for the next 40 years
Mexico began to nationalize foreign oil and mineral holdings in the mid-20s but
the US solved the issue through negotiations

European ability to pay was further undermined by high US tariff barriers and by
the inability of Germany to pay the reparations it owed under the Versailles
Treaty
US backed a plan engineered by Charles Dawes to restructure German
reparations, helping with a loan to Germany

In 1928 the Kellogg-Briand pact sought to outlaw war

THE SURVIVAL OF
PROGRESSIVISM
The

Sheppard-Towner Maternity
Act of 1921 allotted 1 million
dollars a year to educate
expectant mothers on proper
self-health issues and child care

Controversial from the start, the

law was repealed in 1929

TEMPERANCE TRIUMPHANT

In 1919, Congress passed the Volstead Act which banned the

brewing and selling of alcoholic beverages with more than one-half
of one percent alcohol

Prohibition probably reduced total drinking in the U.S., especially in

rural areas and working-class neighborhoods

In June 1919, the Eighteenth Amendment, prohibiting the manufacture,

sale and transportation of intoxicating beverages was ratified

Fewer arrests for drunkenness occurred and deaths from alcoholism

declined
Most people who wanted to drink found a way
Bartenders invented the cocktail to disguise the taste of cheap alcohol
and middle and upper class women began to drink in public for the first
time

Prohibition also produced great bootlegging rings that were often

tied to organized crime
Many supporters of prohibition gradually came to support its repeal

THE ELECTION OF 1928

In

August 1927, Coolidge announced he did

not plan to run again and the Republicans
nominated Herbert Hoover
Democrats nominated Alfred Smith, who was
Catholic

While on the surface the candidates appeared

different, especially in religion and ethnic
background, they were actually very similar
Hoover won in a landslide though the campaign
revitalized the Democratic party

STOCK MARKET CRASH

The

prosperity of the decade came to a

screeching halt in 1929 with the collapse of
the nations stock market

Many investors had responded to the booming

economy by buying stocks on margin (borrowing to
invest) though even at the peak of the boom only
about 1.5 million Americans owned stock
An overextension of the market caused a crash
with a represented loss of over $26 billion on paper

DISCOVERING U.S. HISTORY

ONLINE
Red Scare (1918-1921)
http://www.newman.baruch.cuny.edu/digital/redscare/default.htm

The Trial of Sacco and Vanzetti

http://www.courttv.com/archive/greatesttrials/sacco.vanzetti/

Automotive History
www.mel.lib.mi.us/business/autos-history.html

Emergence of Advertising in America

http://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu/eaa/

Chicago: Destination for the Great Migration

http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/african/afam011.html

Titanic
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/society/ngo/explorer/titanic/movie.html

Ernest Hemingway
http://www.npg.si.edu/exh/hemingway/

DISCOVERING U.S. HISTORY

ONLINE
Tennessee vs. John Scopes
http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/scopes/scopes.htm

The 1920s
http://www.louisville.edu/~kprayb01/1920s.html

The Marcus Garvey and Universal Negro Improvement Association

Papers Project
http://www.isop.ucla.edu/africa/mgpp/

Harlem 1900-1940: An African American Community

http://www.si.umich.edu/CHICO/Harlem/

Photographs from the Golden Age of Jazz

http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/wghtml/wghome.html

Negro League Baseball

http://nku.edu/~diesmanj/harlem_intro.html

Urban Leisure
http://www.jazzagechicago.com/

DISCOVERING U.S. HISTORY

ONLINE
The Harlem Renaissance
http://www.nps.gov/inde/visit.html

Temperance and Prohibition

http://prohibition.osu.edu

The Coolidge Era and the Consumer Economy, 1921-1929

http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/coolhtml/ccpres00.html

Calvin Coolidge
http://www.potus.com/ccoolidge.html

Herbert C. Hoover
http://www.potus.com/hchoover.html

October 24, 1929

http://sweb.uky.edu/~msunde00/hon202/p4/nyt.html