the roaring 20s Flashcards
What was the Harding Administration?
President Harding appointed his friends to his cabinet
What was Hardings goal?
a “return to normalcy”
What was the name for the group of men Harding appointed?
the Ohio Gang
Who was Charles Forbes?
- head of Veterans Bureau
- defrauded taxpayers out of millions
Who was Albert Fall?
Secretary of Interior
What scandal was Albert Fall a part of?
- Teapot Dome Scandal
- allowed private companies to drill for oil on US Navy land
Who was the Attorney General?
Harry Daugherty
What was Harry Daugherty investigated for?
taking bribes
When did Calvin Coolidge become president?
when Harding died in 1923
What kind of President was Coolidge?
- distanced himself from Harding and kept government out of business
- “cool cal”
What happened while Coolidge was president?
- country prospered
- economy improved
- became best industrial country
Who was Charles Evans Hughes?
Secretary of State
Who was Andrew Mellon?
Secretary of Treasury
What and who was a debtor nation?
- owed more money than they brought in
- the United States was a debtor nation before WWI
What happened the the US after WWI?
- went from debtor to creditor
- WWI brought in $10 billion
- more intertwined with international trade
- worlds dominant economic power
What was the myth of isolationism?
- many Americans favored isolationism
- traded with too many countries to be isolated
What did the United Sates promote?
peace based on economics and arms limitations
What was the goal of the US?
increased trade
What was the Daws plan?
- former allies and Germany had difficult time laying off war debts
- 1924, Charles G. Dawes made an agreement that the US would give loans to Germany
- Britain and France would accept less in reparations and pay back more on their war debts to the U.S.
What limited new warships?
Washington Conference and the London Naval Treaties
What was the Kellogg-Brand Pact?
US and 14 other nations agreed to anandon war and settle all disputes by peaceful means
What started to prosper in the 1920s?
automobile, aircraft, radio, consumer products
What benefits did the assembly line provide?
- 12hr —> 1.5hr to make a car
- cut down costs of cars and to make cars
What was the role of the radio in the 1920s?
- advertised consumer products
- connected Americans to live audio entertainment and news
- NBC
What caused a boom in consumer products?
- higher wages, shorter work days, consumer credit
- credit was easy to obtain
What are examples of products part of the consumer economy?
refrigerator, toaster, waffle maker, washing machine, iron
What was the farm crisis?
- farmers suffered a “silent depression”
- borrowed equipment during the war because of the demand of food
- new technologies produced, but the demand was lower
- prices decreased and it was harder to pay off debts
- Coolidge vetoed legislation to help the farmers
How was prosperity uneven?
- wealthiest Americans made over $10,000 a year
- $2,500 was “necessary” to live
- 60% of families made under $2,000
- black sharecroppers averaged $350 a year
- Native Americans less than $200 a year
What was changing in the 1920s?
- women won the right to vote, flappers, wanted to break free of traditional roles
- religious fundamentalists rejected the idea of evolution
What was the 18th Amendment?
- outlaw of alcohol
- cause production of bootleg alcohol, increasing federal police to enforce prohibition
- led to rise of mafia
What was and what caused the Red Scare?
- fear of communism
- immigration from communist nations
What is nativism?
the belief that one’s native land must be protected from immigrants
What was an example of nativism?
- Sacco-Vanzetti
- executed despite probably not being guilty
- they were italian
How was the Ku Klux Klan different than before?
- before they were located in the south
- Great Migration caused the klan to become nation wide
- anti immigration
- anti black
- anti semitic
- anti catholic
- favored immigrants from northern Europe
Who started the KKK again in the 1920s?
Nathan Bedford
- he eventually thought it got too violent
How did art and literature affect the 1920s?
- artists, musicians, and artists expressed American freedoms and challenged traditional ideas
What was the Harlem Renaissance?
period of African American racial pride
What were African American politics?
- organizations such as the NAACP fought segregation and discrimination
Who led a movement of African American pride?
Marcus Garvey
What happened to Marcus Garvey?
- Coolidge had him deported
- Garvey inspired hope for later civil right movements
