Roaring 20’s and the Great Depression

Section 1: Society in the 1920s

Bell Ringer

•On Edmodo

Bell Ringer

• Who do you think is the greatest athlete of all time and why?

The Great War Ends

• November 11, 1918• The US economy was booming for war related

industries• America was changing, people were partying

and enjoying themselves more and more• The 18th Amendment pass in 1919 – buying,

selling, manufacturing, and transportation of alcohol– 1925 – 30k-100k speakeasies in New York

Election of 1920• Warren Harding vs James Cox• People wanted the US to the security we had before WWI• Warren G. Harding won the election on the platform of

normalcy– Return to isolationism, less social reform, more economic growth

• 1923– Teapot Scandal

• Albert Fall, Sec. of the Interior, granted oil drilling to companies in California and Teapot Dome, Wyoming for $300,000 in illegal gifts and payments

• Fall goes to Jail

– Harding dies from heart problems

Flappers• Flapper symbolized the

changing times in the U.S.• Young women, rebellious,

energetic, fun loving, bold– Disapproved of by society

• Fashion changes, less modest• Hair styles• Drank stronger drinks• Smoked more cigarettes• More make-up

Flapper Culture

• Many women took the new style of dress because of its practicality, but did not embrace flapper lifestyle

• Employers rarely trained women for jobs beyond the entry level, and did not pay them on the same scale as men

• Female doctors and lawyers were discriminated against

• Women still do not have equal pay as men

Women’s Suffrage

• 19th Amendment was adopted in 1920, allowed women to vote

• Most women voted in a similar way to men, many women did not vote– Lived in rural areas and could not make it to the

polls– Families discouraged their voting– Uncomfortable with voting– Took time for the habit to develop

Acts

• Sheppard-Towner Act of 1921– First major federal welfare measure concerned

with women’s and children’s health• Equal Rights Amendment: A failed attempt to

obtain “equal rights for men and women throughout the United States”

Election of 1924

• Calvin Coolidge (Republican) vs John Davis (Democratic) vs Robert La Follette (Progressive)– Coolidge wins• Vice President to Harding and takes office in

1923 when he dies

• Coolidge– Support big business and laissez-fair

economics• Believed business cycle would fix any

problems in the economy

Stock Market under Coolidge• “The business of the American people is business.”• Believed the government should not interfere with

the growth of business and that the natural business cycle would fix any problems in the economy

• Stock market reached new highs during this era• People began buying on:– Speculation - High-risk investments in hopes of making

high returns on their money– Buying on margin – investors purchased stocks for only a

portion of the cost, then borrow the difference and pay interest on the loan

Demos• Demographics are the statistics that describe a

population, such as data on race or income– First time in history MORE Americans lived in urban

areas than in rural areas– Farming life was a struggle so many Americans

moved into cities• Crop prices falling, production prices rose

– Congress attempted to bills to help but Coolidge vetoed them saying it was unconstitutional

– Industrial and commercial economy began to boom– 6 million people moved from rural to urban areas

Results of Migration

• Public HS attendance rose from 2.2 million in 1920 to 4.4 million by 1930– Changed the way labor worked– Traditional kids worked their family farm and had

to drop out of school– In cities, kids needed a strong education to be able

to compete in industrial and commercial jobs (urban-based economy)

• Cities shifted away from traditional values

African Americans

• Great Migration: the mass migration of southern Blacks to northern cities

• Faced extreme discrimination in all walks of life

• Women worked for very low wages as household help for whites

• Boom in northern industries encouraged the Great Migration to happen

Other Migration

• During the 1920s, Congress attempted to limit immigration, mostly from Europe and Asia

• Limits did not apply to the Americas, Canadians and Mexicans came to the U.S. to work low paying jobs

• Migrants took jobs in cities• Barrio - a predominantly Spanish-speaking

neighborhood – East Los Angeles, Spanish Harlem

• Puerto Ricans migrated in hope for a better life

American Heroes

• Charles Lindberg: 1927 Flew from New York to Paris in 33.5 hours– Became a celebrity and an icon of American spirit– Fame brought tragedy when his infant son and

was kidnapped and murdered• Amelia Earhart: accomplished aviator– Attempted to fly across the world, disappeared

Sports

• Babe Ruth-baseball• Jim Thorpe - everything, Congress declared

him the greatest athlete of all time in 1999• Gertrude Elderle- swam the English channel,

crushing the male record by 2 hours• More time for leisure

Section 1 Review

1. How were women’s roles changing during the 1920s?2. How were the nation’s cities and suburbs affected by

Americans on the move from rural areas?3. Who were some American heroes of the 1920s?

What made them popular with the American public?4. How did the flapper symbolize change for women in

the 1920s5. What conditions brought about the demographic

shifts of the 1920s?

Bell Ringer

•On Edmodo

Mass Media, the Jazz Age, and Harlem Renaissance

Mass Media• Prior to the 1920s each part of the country

had their own radio and film industries• Film industry takes off in Hollywood– Large workforce, great scenery

• Mass media made the flapper movement a cultural norm

• Mass media is print, film, and broadcast methods of communicating information to large numbers of people

Movies

• Between 1910 and 1930 the number of theatres in the US rose from 5K to 22,500

• 1929 – US population was just under 125 million– 80 million movie tickets sold each week– Moviemaking had become the 4th largest business in

the country• The Jazz Singer was the first movie with sound– Called “talkies”

• Talkies took over the movie industry

Newspapers and Magazines

• Began following lives of movie celebrities• 1900 NY Times was only 14 pages by 1915 it was

50+ pages• Independent newspapers fell as bigger papers

were buying and merging with others– The start of the Tabloids replacing serious news• Entertainment, fashion, sports, crimes, and scandals

• Magazine purchased increased to 200million by 1929

Radio

• Barely existed in the early 1920s• Frank Conrad set up a radio transmitter and began

sending recorded music and baseball scores– Set first commercial radio station Pittsburgh KDKA

• NBC – National Broadcasting Company began linking individual stations together bring the county together– began listing to the same jokes, commercials, music,

sporting events, and religious services

The Jazz Age

• Rhythms and improvisations were too suggestive to traditional Americans– Flappers and younger generation loved it

• Started by the Great Migration and the new popularity of the radio– 1929 2/3 of all radio was devoted to the jazz

• Jazz clubs and dance halls open up around the country– 500 in Harlem– The Charleston was the popular dance that went along

with Jazz music

Painters

Edward Hopper

Georgia O’Keeffe

Literature

• Novelist Sinclair Lewis attacked American society– Main Street 1920, Babbit 1922, Arrowsmith 1925, Elmer

Gantry 1927 – 1930 became the first American to win the Nobel prize

for literature• Playwright Eugene O’Neill– Wrote dark and poetic tragedies about everyday

American life– Showed American theatre could rival European theatre

The Lost Generation

• Group of American writers who rejected the “new” postwar America

• Left the US for Europe– Felt Europe was more “intellectually stimulating”

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

• Gertrude Stein coined the term Lost Generation – a group of people disconnected from their country and its value

F. Scott Fitzgerald

• Helped create the flapper movement with his novel This Side of Paradise

• Part of the Jazz Age and the Lost Generation• Wrote The Great Gatsby, The Curios Case of

Benjamin Button

Harlem Renaissance

• Harlem became the center for jazz and African-American literary awakening

• Most famous Harlem writer is Langston Hughes– Poet, short stories, journalist, and playwright– Wrote about the difficulties and joys of being a

human, American, and black

I, too, sing America.

I am the darker brother.They send me to eat in the kitchenWhen company comes,But I laugh,And eat well,And grow strong.

Tomorrow,I’ll be at the tableWhen company comes.Nobody’ll dareSay to me,“Eat in the kitchen,”Then.

Besides,They’ll see how beautiful I amAnd be ashamed—

I, too, am America.

“I, Too” by Langston Hughes

Election of 1928

• Herbert Hoover (Republican) v. Al Smith (Democrat)

• POTUS Calvin Coolidge decides not run for reelection

• Hoover win the election by a landslide– Smith only wins 7 states• Arkansas, Louisiana, Alabama,

Mississippi, Georgia, South Carolina, and Massachusetts

Hoover

Hoover as President

• Takes office just before the economy collapses• October 29, 1929 – Black Tuesday – stock market

crash and price dropped drastically– People who bought on speculation or buying on margin

lost everything– Banks were no longer able to collect payment of loans– The beginning of The Great Depression

• Believed the economy would eventually fix itself and took limited steps to fix it

Hoover during the Depression

• Began to take limited steps to correct the Depression– Signed the Hawley-Smoot Tariff – imposed a tax on over

200k imported goods• Hoover’s popularity dropped as the depression grew

worse and worse• People began looking more and more to the gov’t for

help• Hoovervilles began popping up – name for towns

built by homeless people during the Great Depression

Hooverville

Hoovervilles