This document provides an overview of several key themes and events of the 1920s in the United States. It discusses how the country became more isolationist after WWI. It also describes the Red Scare and fear of communism following the Russian Revolution. Additionally, it outlines the passage of restrictive immigration laws, the Great Migration of African Americans to northern cities, and the rise of the second Ku Klux Klan. The document also summarizes economic and cultural trends of the decade like the boom in automobile ownership, rise of mass media, and prohibition of alcohol.

1. The Roaring 20’s

2. Unit Themes
The 1920s are “roaring” and crazy times
• America leaves Europe and becomes
isolationist
• The Red Scare: Fear of Communists
• Immigration reform
• Laissez-faire presidents
• Booming economy

3. Themes, cont.
• Birth of the automobile culture
• Trends in dance, music and
fashion
• Rise of the consumer economy
• The Great Migration and the
Harlem Renaissance

4. Isolationism
• Policy of avoiding political or
economic alliances with
other countries

5. Russian Revolution
• Czar Nicholas II is
unpopular due to WWI
and high casualties
• Forced to give up power
• Leads to a communist
revolution in 1917

6. Communism
• A form of government
where private
ownership is banned
and the means of
production are
owned by the
community as a
whole and controlled
by the government

7. Vladimir Lenin
• Communist leader who
takes control of Russia
• Seizes all private property
and puts ownership in
hands of the government
• His followers are called
“Bolsheviks” and “Reds”

8. Labor Strikes Make U.S. Leaders
Nervous
• 1919: A wave of labor strikes sweeps nation
after Armistice
• Boston Police Strike
• Steel and Coal Strikes

9. Strikes Broken Up By Force
• Nervous business
owners fear
Communists have
infiltrated their workers
• In reality, cost of living
is twice what it was
before the war

10. Red Scare
• An intense fear of communism and other
ideas considered extreme

11. Palmer Raids
• A campaign of raids to
identify and root out groups
whose activities posed a
"clear and present danger"
to the country, such as
communists, socialists and
anarchists

13. Sacco & Vanzetti
• Two Italian immigrants
and anarchists whose
arrest, conviction and
electrocution caused
public outrage and
controversy due to the
perception that they
did not receive a fair
trial

15. Immigration
• 1920 is at the end of the
greatest wave of
migration in U.S. history
• 1880-1920: more than 25
million foreigners arrive
• By 1920: 42% of New
Yorkers are foreign-born;
41% of Chicagoans; 42%
of San Franciscans

16. “New Immigrants”
• Immigrants from Southern
and Eastern Europe arriving
in large numbers from 1890-
1920
• Over 80% after 1890 are
"New Immigrants”
• Between 50% and 80% of
New Immigrants eventually
return home
• The exceptions are Jews (4%
repatriated) and Irish (9%),
due to religious persecution,
political oppression, and
poverty back home

17. Quota
• Numerical limit on
immigrants from each
foreign nation
• Quotas set low for
Eastern and Southern
Europe
• Asian immigration
banned

18. New Immigration Laws
•1921 Emergency Quota
Act: Sets quota for each
country to the # of people
from that country living in
the U.S. in 1910
•1924 Immigration Act:
Sets quota for each country
to the # of people from
that country living in the
U.S. in 1890
•Reduces immigration of
“New Immigrants” by 97%

19. Great Migration

20. Reasons to Move North
• Jim Crow laws & discrimination
• Boll Weevil infests cotton crops in
1910, forcing many sharecroppers
to find other work
• Factory jobs during WWI
• Sudden halt of immigration
reduces job competition
• Great Mississippi Flood of 1927
displaces hundreds of thousands
of African-Americans

21. Racial Conflict
• African-Americans face
anger and hatred from
whites
• Whites fear job
competition
• Black women often
domestics in white
households for low wages

22. 2nd Rise of the Ku Klux Klan
• During 1920’s Klan
membership explodes to 4-5
million
• Still anti-black, but now
anti-immigrant, anti-
Catholic, anti-Semitic, anti-
evolution, anti-drinking, and
anti-sex

23. Some Factors That Lead to Rise of KKK

24. Film: Birth of a Nation
•1915 silent film glorifying
the KKK during the Civil
War era
•Highest-grossing film of
the silent era
•Remained highest-
grossing film for 22 years
•Helps to revive the KKK,
which had mostly died out
in the 1870’s

25. • "History writ with lightning, and my only
regret is it's all so terribly true."
– President Woodrow Wilson, commenting on
the pro-KKK film Birth of a Nation

26. KKK Influence
• Claim to defend
“purity” of American
values
• Take over leadership of
town councils in some
places
• Up to 15% of white
male population join
• Quickly dies out

27. Estimated peak
membership in the Ku
Klux Klan during the …
1870s: 500,000
1920s: 4 million
1960s: 20,000

28. KKK Parade, 1925

31. Warren G. Harding, (R) 1921-1923
• Elected on campaign of “a return to
normalcy”
• Considered by some historians to be
worst president in history
• Hostile to government regulations from
Progressive era
• Staffs regulatory agencies with officials
from the industries meant to be
regulated
• Many regulators are philosophically
opposed to government regulation and
deeply corrupt Worst President Ever?

32. Teapot Dome Scandal
• Harding’s Secretary of the
Interior, Albert B. Fall, gives
away oil drilling rights on
federal land for $300,000 in
bribes
• Fall later goes to jail
• The worst of several scandals
in Harding’s administration
• Harding dies before full extent
of scandal comes to light

33. Teapot Dome in Wyoming

35. Calvin Coolidge (R), 1923-1929
• Harding's replacement
• Also an economic
conservative
• Reputation for respectability
• Most famous for saying "the
business of America is
business”
• ‘Coolidge Prosperity’ defines
the 20s: Robust economic
growth and widespread
affluence
Known as “Silent Cal”
Show
me the
money

36. A Great Time to Be Rich
• Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon lowers
income tax rates for wealthiest Americans
from 73% to just 25%
• Investors enjoy one of the greatest
periods of market growth in U.S. history
• The Dow Jones Industrial Average peaks
in 1929 at more than six times its value in
1921
• Less than 1% of U.S. population owns
stock, so directly benefits only the
wealthy

37. A Terrible Time to Be a Farmer
• Collapse of agricultural prices
in 1920
• Poverty, crushing debt and
foreclosures
• During WWI U.S. farmers
benefit from high demand and
high prices throughout the
world
• Many European farmers can’t
produce during war, which
drives up prices

38. Farmers Left Behind
• From 1920 to 1921, farm prices
fall at catastrophic rate
• Price of wheat falls by ½
• Price of cotton falls by ¾
• Farmers suddenly can’t make
payments
• Rural wealth falls far behind
urban wealth
• More than 90% of U.S. farms
still lack power into the 1930’s
• Rural access to telephones
actually falls during the 20’s

39. Herbert Hoover (R), 1929-1933
• "We in America today are nearer
to the final triumph over poverty
than ever before in the history of
any land... we shall soon, with the
help of God, be in sight of the day
when poverty will be banished
from this nation."
– Presidential candidate Herbert
Hoover, 1928
• Stock market crashed 8 months
into his term
• Tried to combat Depression with
voluntary efforts to get industries
to hire and increase production
• Failed and lost re-election
Worst Luck Ever

40. Ford Model-T
• Most popular car in
America in the first three
decades of the 20th
century
• $1000 when introduced in
1908
• Model T's cost fell every
year
• Less than $300 in 1927

41. • More than 15
million sold

43. Ford River Rouge Complex
• Massive production
facility cut costs
• Mastered assembly line
process
• Copied by other
manufacturers
• Lower costs led to low
prices for consumer
goods
• Consumption
skyrockets

44. Supply and Demand
As PRODUCTION
PRICES
And CONSUMPTION

45. • 1920: One car
for ever 15
people
• 1929: One car
for ever 5
people
Result:

46. Rise of a Consumer Economy
• Consumer
economy: An
economy that
depends on a
large amount
of buying by
consumers—
individuals
who use (or
“consume”)
products

47. Buying on Credit
• Installment plan:
A system that lets
customers make partial
payments (installments)
over a period of time
until the total debt is paid
• Consumers buy things on
credit they otherwise
wouldn’t buy

48. • By 1929, most middle-class
Americans in cities or towns
would most likely own:
--Car
--Washing machine
--Radio
--Refrigerator
--Other small appliances

49. Mass Media Creates a National Culture
• Chain stores, branch
banking, national
brands, etc.

50. Mass Media
• National Radio
Shows
• Hollywood
Movies
• National
celebrities

51. • Seeing same movies, listening to same radio
shows
• Creates common ground that breaks down
ethnic boundaries in America's cities
• What does that today?

52. Rise of the National Celebrity
• Hero worship: Intense or excessive admiration
for a hero or a person regarded as a hero;
seen widely in the 1920’s

53. Babe Ruth
• Baseball hero of
1920’s pop culture
• Helped popularity of
baseball to explode
• 714 career home
runs and 2,814 hits

54. Charles Lindberg: Celebrity Pilot
• First non-stop flight across the Atlantic in 1927

57. Prohibition
• Alcohol banned
nationwide 1920
• Already banned in 16
states
• Promoted as a pro-war
measure

58. Underground Market Booms
• Estimated income of bootleg liquor
industry in 1929: $3 billion
• Entire United States federal budget in
1929: $2.9 billion18

59. Speakeasy
•Illegal,
underground
saloons that
operated
during the
Prohibition
era

60. Speakeasies are Everywhere
• Estimated number of speakeasies (illegal
saloons) in United States during prohibition:
200,000-500,000
• In 1919 Cleveland had 1,200 legal bars
• In 1923 it had over 3,000 illegal speakeasies
• Estimated 3,000 residents sold alcohol
• Estimated 100,000 residents made homebrew
or bathtub gin for themselves and friends

63. Prohibition Raids

64. Unenforcable
• Original amount Congress approved for
enforcement: $5 million
• Several years later, government estimates
enforcement would cost $300 million
• Quickly loses public support
• When prominent city leaders are caught in
speakeasies, enforcement efforts stop
• By 1925, 6 states pass laws preventing
investigations of violations

65. Organized Crime
• Widespread criminal activities,
such as bootlegging, prostitution,
interstate theft, or illegal
gambling, that occur within a
centrally controlled formal
structure.
• Bootlegging: the act of making or
transporting alcoholic liquor for
sale illegally

66. Rise of Organized Crime
• Prohibition created huge
consumer market unmet by
legitimate means
• Meant that criminals ran the
market
• Criminals get rich
• In 1927 Al Capone makes $60
million
• Organized crime gains
power in cities
• Increases lawlessness
Al Capone

67. Weakened Law Enforcement
• Leads to public contempt for police
• Organized crime leaders, bootleggers and
speakeasies pay bribes to cops
• In 1927, Al Capone had half of Chicago’s police
on his payroll

68. Resistance to Prohibition

70. Prohibition Ends in 1933