Check out these notes for help with the module!

1. Prosperity and Depression (1919-1939)
What was life
like during the
1920s?
• Great
prosperity
• Consumer
ism:
People were buying more goods than
ever
• Lost Generation had died in World War
I
• People wanted to “eat, drink, and be
merry!”
oFlappers
oMargaret Sanger encouraged
women to use birth control to
prevent unwanted pregnancies
• New technology changed American life
oAutomobiles

2. oAirplanes
 Charles Lindbergh made the first
transatlantic flight
• Despite the
prohibition of
alcohol (18th
Amendment)
people
continued to
drink
• People went to speakeasies
oSecret clubs where you could drink
alcohol
• Bootleggers made alcohol or snuck it
into the country
• Prohibition increased crime and was
eventually repealed with the 21st
Amendment
The Jazz Age
• Most popular music of the day
oBegan in New Orleans

3. o Louis Armstrong was the most
famous musician
• People listened to music on the radio
• First movies
oSilent films and “talkies”
oThe Jazz Singer
Writers also embraced the Jazz Age
• F. Scott Fitzgerald: The Great Gatsby,
This Side of Paradise
oCriticized upper class extravagance
• Ernest Hemingway: The Sun Also
Rises, A Farewell to Arms
• Sinclair Lewis: Babbitt
9.04 Describe challenges to traditional
practices in religion, race, and gender.

4. What was the
Harlem
Renaissance?
• Emergence of
black artists and
writers
• Began in
Harlem, New
York
• African
American
culture was
celebrated by blacks
• Whites began coming to black clubs and
bars and reading literature of African
American writers
• Famous Harlem Renaissance Writers
oLangston Hughes: Famous poet
oZora Neale Hurston: Wrote about
struggles of blacks during the Great
Migration
• Two Themes of Harlem Renaissance:

5. o1.
o2.
Segregation and Lynching Continue
• South was more dangerous for blacks
than the North
• Ku Klux Klan reemerged to fight blacks
and immigrants
UNIA (Universal Negro Improvement
Association)
• Led by Marcus Garvey
• Urged blacks to move “back to Africa”
to form their own independent nation
• Lost popularity when Garvey was
arrested for mail fraud
NAACP
• Led by DuBois they continued to fight
for laws against lynching

6. The Scopes Trial
• Teacher was fired
for teaching
evolution in school
• Christian
fundamentalists
argued that it
conflicted with the
Bible
oFundamentalism: Belief that the
Bible is literally true
oBilly Sunday, Aimee Semple
McPherson and other conservative
leaders encouraged this belief
• Did not want students being taught that
we “evolved from monkeys”
oAlso known as the Scopes “Monkey”
Trial
Sacco and Vanzetti
• Two immigrants were accused of murder

7. • Despite lack of evidence, both were
sentenced to death
• Many people felt their trial was unfair
and verdict was due to nativism
1924 Native American Suffrage Act
• Gave Native Americans full US
citizenship
• Right to vote was handled by states
Warren G. Harding’s Presidency
• Teapot Dome Scandal
oSecretary of the Interior Albert Fall
leased government land to oil
companies
oReceived a bribe for $400,000
oCompanies removed all the oil from
the land, decreasing its value
oFall was convicted of felony bribery

8. What caused the Great
Depression?
• Government practiced
laissez-faire
oDid not regulate
businesses or the stock
market
• Hawley-Smoot Tariff raised the tariff
even higher
oDecreased foreign demand for our
products
• Americans were in debt from easy
credit
oBought items they could not afford
on installment plans
• Factories were overproducing goods
oToo many to sell
• People even speculated and bought
stock with borrowed money
oBuying on the margin

9. • S
t
o
c
k
market crash
oKnown as Black Tuesday (October
29, 1929)
oPrices of stocks went down, people
panicked and tried to sell all their
stocks
oOvernight many people went into
debt or lost all of their savings
oSince people had bought with credit,
they could not pay their loans back
Herbert Hoover’s Presidency
• Had promised Americans “a chicken in
every pot and a car in every garage”

10. • Did not believe in direct relief to
Americans
oThought it would make them lazy
oRugged Individualism
• Americans began to demand action
The Great
Depression
• Almost all
Americans were
living in poverty
• Banks closed and
Americans lost
all their savings
• 90,000
businesses
closed
• 25% unemployment in 1933
The Dust Bowl
• For years farmers had been clearing the
grasses from the Great Plains

11. • There were no trees or grasses to hold
the dirt in place
• A drought followed by heavy winds
stirred up the dust and carried it long
distances
• Dirt from Oklahoma was found on ships
in the Atlantic Ocean
• The hardest hit region (KS, OK, TX,
NM, CO) was called the Dust Bowl
• Farmers picked up and moved to
California and other states looking for
jobs

12. Life during the Depression
• People could not pay
rent or mortgages
• Ended up living in
shantytowns nicknamed
Hoovervilles

13. • Hardworking Americans were forced to
go to soup kitchens and bread lines to
get food
What was the
Bonus Army?
• World
War I
veterans
were
promised
bonuses in 1945, but wanted them early
• Went to Washington to meet with
Hoover and protest
• Military used tear gas to make them
leave
• Damaged Hoover’s reputation and led to
his defeat in the 1932 election

14. Roosevelt’s New
Deal
• Franklin
Delano
Roosevelt
(FDR) was
elected
president
• Used fireside chats over the radio to
share his plan with the American people
• Appointed the first female cabinet
officer
oSecretary of Labor Frances Perkins
• FDR believed in Deficit Spending
oGovernment must spend money to
get out of the Depression
oSome people criticized him for
spending money we didn’t have
• The New Deal had 3 components:
1. Relief for the needy
2. Economic recovery
3. Financial reform

15. Act Purpose Relief,
Recovery
or
Reform?
What do
you
think?
Creation of the
FDIC (Federal
Deposit
Insurance
Corporation)
• Insures
individual bank
accounts up to
$5,000 (now up
to $100,000)
Creation of the
SEC
(Securities and
Exchange
Commission)
• Regulates the
stock market
Agricultural
Adjustment
Act (AAA)
• Paid farmers
subsidies to
produce less
food
• Raised crop

16. prices
Tennessee
Valley
Authority
(TVA)
• Renovated and
constructed dams
• Created jobs and
hydroelectric
power
Civilian
Conservation
Corps (CCC)
• Created 3
million jobs
• Built roads,
parks, and
planted trees
National
Industrial
Recovery Act
(NIRA)
• Created the
Public Works
Administration
(PWA)
• Money to the
states to create
jobs
Social Security • Old-age
insurance for
retirees 65 and
older

17. • Unemployment
compensation
• Aid to families
with dependent
children and the
disabled
Works
Progress
Administratio
n (WPA)
• Hired anyone
who needed a
job
• Built many
public buildings,
projects and
roads and
operated large
arts, drama,
media and
literacy projects
• Fed children and
redistributed
food, clothing
and housing

18. National
Labor
Relations Act
(NLRB)
• Protects the
rights of workers
to join unions
Fair Labor
Standards Act
• maximum
workweek of 44
hours
• minimum wage
• no hazardous
work for people
under 18
Critics of the New Deal
• Some thought it did too much
• Some thought it did too little
• Father Charles Coughlin
oWanted everyone to have a
guaranteed annual income
• Huey Long
oSenator from Louisiana
oShare-Our-Wealth plan

19. oAssassinated