The New Era: The 1920s in America

I. Introduction

• Warren G. Harding's Presidency (1921):
  • Promised a "return to normalcy."
  • Nation reeling from WWI, racial violence, political repression, and Red Scare.
  • Post-war challenges: 115,000 American soldiers dead, a flu epidemic causing 700,000 American deaths.
  • Economic struggles: labor strikes, 20% national unemployment, high farmer bankruptcy rates.
• The 1920s Nicknames:
  • Known as the New Era, Jazz Age, Age of the Flapper, Prosperity Decade, and the Roaring Twenties.
  • Mass production and consumption, new economy, mass entertainment, and cultural shifts.
  • Conflicts over political and economic reforms, immigration, religion, and race.

II. Republican White House (1921-1933)

• Harding's Goals:
  • Restore high protective tariff, dismantle wartime controls.
  • Hard presidency noted for corruption (e.g., Teapot Dome Scandal).
  • Died in 1923, succeeded by Calvin Coolidge.
• Calvin Coolidge's Presidency:
  • Focused on business, lowered taxes for the wealthy.
  • Women's suffrage and activism post-19th Amendment.
  • Introduction of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) and women's involvement in various reforms.

III. Culture of Consumption

• Consumer Culture:
  • Industrial expansion led to consumer product availability.
  • Emergence of department stores.
  • New marketing techniques fostered consumer desire.
  • Rise of automobiles, radios, mail-order catalogs.
  • Use of credit for automobile purchases and household appliances.

IV. Culture of Escape

• Mass Entertainment:
  • Film, radio, and jazz popularity soared.
  • Hollywood's growth led by Jewish immigrants.
  • Moviegoing as a shared cultural experience.
  • Radio popularized jazz beyond racial barriers.
• Sports and Heroes:
  • Rise of public enthusiasm for sports and figures like Babe Ruth and Charles Lindbergh.

V. The New Woman

• Flapper Culture:
  • Rejection of Victorian values, embracing new freedoms.
  • Greater independence in work and social life.
  • Changes in gender norms and representation.

VI. The New Negro

• Racial Tensions and Resistance:
  • Continued racial violence and segregation.
  • Great Migration increased Black population in northern cities.
  • Harlem Renaissance fostered cultural and artistic expression.
  • Rise of the New Negro Movement.

VII. Culture War

• Nativism and Immigration:
  • Fear of radicals led to Sacco and Vanzetti executions.
  • Stringent immigration laws restricted non-northern European immigrants.
• Christian Fundamentalism:
  • Dispute between modernist and fundamentalist Protestant views.
  • Scopes Trial highlighted the evolution debate.

VIII. Rebirth of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK)

• Second Wave of the KKK:
  • Expansion beyond anti-Black agenda to broader xenophobia.
  • Political influence and violent acts across the U.S.

IX. Conclusion

• Economic Warning Signs:
  • Herbert Hoover's optimism masked underlying economic inequities.
  • The impending Great Depression would reveal these vulnerabilities.