REVIEW PART 1: The Roaring Twenties

As we head into this busy week of both work on our Wikis and studying for our test on Chapters 32-36, I feel like some reviewing and revisiting of the things that we’ve learned is in order. We have a ton of sources: our textbooks, videos and lectures in class, Freedom From Fear, etc. to study from, and a ton of content to study, so I’ve done my best to bring together information from each of these sources so you can read something in one place, rather than have to go through all of the sources that we have and try to study from all of them. In no particular order:

New Technologies

America was making technological strides that would change everything around this time. Some of the biggest innovations of the time included:

- The car: Henry Ford’s Rouge River plant produced a finished automobile every 10 seconds.

It was revolutionary in that it changed the space in which Americans lived and gave them a sense of autonomy and freedom. The automobile industry would blossom to become one of the American economy’s biggest and most important sectors, while at the same time giving rise to other industries.

- It was the harbinger of new industrial methods like the assembly-line (Fordism) and mass-production

- Frederick W. Taylor and Henry Ford made the automobile more efficient and cheaper

- Gave rise to supporting industries: steel, rubber, glass, fabrics, road construction and millions of jobs. It also bolstered the petroleum business.

- Reduced the influence of the railroad industry

- Helped Americans spread out from densely populated urban area

- Electricity: Electricity became more accessible and replaced candles with lights. Though the incandescent bulb had been invented in the 1870s, only in the 20s did it begin to be found in most American households.

- The radio: It was a nationwide phenomenon, and though invented around 20 years ago, wasn’t a commodity that could be sold, as there were no broadcasters.

- By the late 1920s, long-distance broadcasting was possible

- Helped advertising grow, as “commercials” dominated local programming

- Brought the nation and families together as they tuned in to listen to comedy, sports games, music, political speeches, etc.

- Aviation:

- The aviation industry took its first steps, and some companies began to operate passenger lines and airmail routes

- Orville Wright stayed airborne for 12 seconds and 120 feet in 1903

- Charles A Lindbergh became the first person to fly solo across the Atlantic and became immensely popular

- Film: Much of what we think of the Roaring Twenties is because of film that we’ve seen of the time; women dancing, people drinking and having fun, etc.

- The first movie - The Great Train Robbery - was featured in theaters, which were called “nickelodeans (because they cost 5 cents to get into).

- D.W. Griffith’s The Birth of a Nation cast the KKK in a positive light and glorified clan activities; it was one of reasons why the KKK’s power grew to new heights in the 20s.

- With the film industry expanding, films went from being black and white and silent to color and with sound. Actors and actresses received widespread acclaim.

- Other smaller inventions like refrigerators, vacuum cleaners, toasters, made everyday life easier, though they were met with opposition, especially in rural communities, where people were wary of the rapidity of the strides that America was making.

Prohibition and Gangsterism

Progressive reform movement of the time manifested itself in the prohibition of alcohol. With the passing of the the 18th Amendment (1919), both consumption and sale of alcohol became illegal. The Volstead Act was implemented to regulate the manufacture, production, use and sale of alcohol that same year.

Prohibition was:

- Backed mainly by churches and women

- Popular in the South, somewhat in the Midwest

- Opposed by foreign-born people

But, most Americans didn’t find the consumption of alcohol objectionable and the government had little in place to effectively enforce prohibition.

Instead of going dry, people:
- Held speakeasies, parties where a password was required at the door, and drank heavily

- Got liquor from surrounding countries like Canada

- Made a profit off selling illegal alcohol (this led to a spike in crime and gangster activity, as mobsters had another way to make money)

- Battled to control the market of illegal alcohol, which led to an upshoot in violence, gang warfare, and murder rates (Al Capone, gangs)

Gangsters also moved in to become involved in other types of crime: prostitution, gambling, and narcotics (drugs).

Social Strides

In addition to technological advancements, the 1920s saw huge social strides made.

Women- In 1920, the 19th Amendment gave women the right to vote in all federal elections.

- Cars helped women become more independent

- The 20s saw women become more empowered in ways never before seen. Women dressed differently, styled their hair differently, and put on more make-up.

- Social taboos “flew out the window”

- Flappers (according to Mr. Stewart) could be seen as women who pushed the envelope, while vamps could be defined as women who “ripped the envelope up completely”.

Though the 1920s were a time of advancements, there were still people with reservations about new technologies and social norms, particularly in rural areas. Though many embraced these new ideas, they were too liberal and foreign for others. Many others were caught in a deadlock: people wanted to embrace the pace of change and the advancements of the time, but also wanted the familiar comforts that they had lived with their entire lives.

The Resurgence of the KKK and Nativism

The Second Era of the KKK

With the American “people anxious about the dizzying pace of social change in the 1920s” (Textbook) and the psychological tensions of the time building (the ones I mention above), intolerance towards immigrants and people who were in any way different built up. This anxiety was one of the driving forces of the resurgence of the KKK and immigration reform of the 20s.

The resurgence of the KKK (the second era of the clan, the first being during Reconstruction) in the 1920s brought the clan’s membership to an all-time high of around 4 million members. This second era of the clan saw it reach the pinnacle of its political influence and take political control in 7 states, notably outside of the South. It was in this decade that the Klu Klux Klan came closest to having major political influence.

The clan was antiforeign and expanded its hate to a number of groups; it was antiforeign and hostile to Catholics, blacks, Jewish, pacifists, communists, internationalists, evolutionists, bootleggers, gamblers, etc. It was pro-WASP (White, Anglo-Saxon, Protestant).

Public demonstrations were wide and varied and included lynching and tar and feathering people, setting crosses on fires in public areas, holding konclaves (flag-waving parades), and rallying to sing clan songs. The law barely made an effort to step in; the sheriffs of a town often turned a blind eye to clan violence.

But it wasn’t the ideals of hate that drew people in. The clan preached “good American ethics and morals”, and claimed that it envisioned for America to be a more simple place. As the textbook says, “it capitalized on the typical American love of on-the-edge adventure and in-group camaraderie”. (Read about The Birth of a Nation in the film section of New Technologies).

But as Mr. Stewart said, “It’s difficult to maintain a group that is based on the hate of other people.” Eventually, people began to see through the clan movement. The clan’s $10 initiation fee was exposed, and a congressional investigation on Klan officials’ embezzling was launched, taking away its credibility. The Depression also took attention away from the clan as people began struggling to make ends meet.

(Check out Sitara’s post about the resurgence of the KKK here: http://ushaplahs2013.blogspot.com/2013/11/re-emergence-of-ku-klux-klan-in-1920s.html

and Mehr’s post about the KKK in modern times here: http://ushaplahs2013.blogspot.com/2013/12/the-ku-klux-klan-then-and-now.html)

Immigration Reform

With all this social anxiety taking over, national attention turned to stemming the flow of eastern European immigrants. Some big legislation regarding immigration during the time:

1. Emergency Quota Act of 1921: Restricted immigrants from Europe to 3% of the people of their nationality living in U.S. in 1910 → Replaced by:

2. The Immigration Act of 1924. The 3% quota was cut to 2%. The act also shut the door on Japanese immigrants completely, but Canadians and Latin Americans were exempt from it.

Science vs. Christian Fundamentalists

With education booming (high school graduation rates doubled in the 1920s to ¼), and new emphases being placed on such ideals as “education for life”, progressive education, and science, the stage was set for a clash between religious fundamentalists and scientific theory.

The courtroom battle between John T. Scopes, a teacher in Tennessee and Presbyterian Fundamentalists (including former presidential candidate Williams Jenning Bryan), came to be known as the “Monkey Trial”. Scopes, charged with teaching Darwin’s theory of evolution, was found guilty and fined $100. But the trial’s significance lay less in the decision and more in modern science’s growing role in American society, at the expense of religion’s.

The Harlem Renaissance

- The 1920s were profoundly influenced by jazz music, which was a birthchild of Harlem culture.

- Artists at the forefront of this new type of music included Lil Hardin Armstrong and “Duke”

- Black poetry, fashion, and music, for the first and perhaps only time (to this magnitude) had a profound effect on popular culture of the time, despite Jim Crow laws

- The “New Negro” came to be known as someone who stood up for the Negro, someone who was proud to be black who advertised their contributions to popular culture

Sources: Mr. Stewart in class

Videos in class

The American Pageant