Chapter 31: American Life in Roaring Twenties

Oh no, it’s COMMUNISM

• Russia turns to Soviet Union and Communism in 1917– What is communism?• a : a theory advocating elimination of private property

b : a system in which goods are owned in common and are available to all as needed

– Simulation?

Red Scare

• Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer– Rooted out radicals, socialists, communists,

anarchists– House was bombed– Led to anti- communist hysteria– Liberals and radicals not wanted in USA– Led to many conservative victories

Anti- Immigration

• Sacco and Vanzetti– Arrested and killed for murder– Murky details of case, probably innocent?– Shows anti immigration and anti radical feelings

KKK

• More “pro-white” than anti- African American• WASP- White Anglo Saxon Protestant• 5 million join in 20s• Popular in “bible belt” of south• Birth of A Nation

Stopping Immigration

• New Immigrants never really liked• Emergency Quota Act- restrictions • Immigration Act- more restrictions• Immigration Act 1924- no Japanese• Randolph Bourne and Horace Kallen led

attacks on anti- immigration crusades

Questions!

• Why were we so fearful of Communism?• How did America's nativism and isolationism

get out of control?• Construct an argument of a Nativist who

supports anti- immigration measures.• What are the underplaying cause and effects

of this anti- foreign attitude? Make a chart.

Prohibition

• 18th Amendment/ 21st Amendment• Largely ignored– Speakeasies, bootlegging, mafia– Led to increased organized crime, more binge

drinking• Benefits– Bank savings went up, skipping work went down,

spousal abuse down, public drunkenness down

Gangsters

• Bribery, wars, murder, bootlegging• Al Capone was most famous– Murdered as many as 30, jailed for tax evasion

• After Prohibition ended- gambling, drugs, etc• Kidnapping was big as well– Charles Lindbergh’s baby

Scopes Trial

• Darwinism a fairly new idea• Taught by John Scopes to challenge the law

that said it can’t be taught– ACLU backed him

• Fundamentalists hated Darwinism– William J. Bryan won the case

• Fundamentalism wins

Mass- Economy

• Giant industries sparked by automobile• Henry Ford used assembly line– Model T first affordable car

• Advertising became necessary• Sports were big business

Transportation

• Impacts of Mass- Production of Cars– Gasoline industry, new car

companies, Detroit, millions of jobs, oil production, urban sprawl, road construction, schools larger, deaths, freedoms

• Airplanes– Wright brothers- 1903– Lindbergh- 1927 across

ocean– War

Radio

• KDKA first radio station in USA

• 1920’s TV• Famous shows and actors• Sports more popular• News more accessible

Movies

• 1903- first movie “The Great Train Robbery”• 1915- “Birth of a Nation” KKK movie• Anti- German Propaganda in WWI• 1927- The Jazz Singer was first “talkie”• Standardized American Culture– Everybody from all cultures watching and hearing

and ultimately enjoying the same thing led to a unique American Culture instead of fragmentations of various European cultures….

DO NOW!

• Read page 738- The Dynamic Decade and list all progressive/ liberal happenings in the 1920s

Culture

• People to know: – F. Scott Fitzgerald- Great

Gatsby– Ernest Hemmingway- A

Farewell To Arms– William Faulkner- The

Sound and The Fury– Frank Lloyd Wright-

Architect• Things to know:

– Harlem Renaissance, Lost Generation, Greenwich Village, Architecture

CRASH!

• Speculation, over production, credit drove economy out of control

• One day of panic selling started a domino effect that created the Great Depression

Questions

• Were the 1920s liberal or conservative?

• What was the biggest contribution to American culture and society during the 1920s?