Unit 6

Question 1

The First Red Scare

1920s

Answer 1

• Americans fear that radicals are plotting to overthrow the US government because:
  - Russia just overthrown by communists (1917)
  - Anarchists sent mail bombs to prominent politicians, judges, and stockbrokers on Wall Street
  - Wave of strikes sweeping America in 1919
• Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer raids- targeting suspected troublemakers
  
  • 6,000 socialists, communists, anarchists, and immigrants from Eastern and Southern Europe arrested
    - Palmer used J. Edgar Hoover of FBI to supervise raids
  • 249 “suspected” radicals deported without a trial (Big Bill Haywood) on the “Russian Ark” and sent to the USSR
    - Palmer predicts communists takeover will occur on May 1, 1920. Lack of revolution ends widespread paranoia
• Italian immigrants Sacco and Vanzetti arrested for murder of a private guard
  - suspected bc they were anarchists, Italian, and in the area (ex. of nativism and Red Scare)- executed without strong evidence

Question 2

Popular Culture of the 20s

Answer 2

• Radios and movies help to create a “popular culture”- ppl across America begin to dress, think, talk in a similar manner (less regional differences)
• American culture will change rapidly in cities as Americans are exposed to new technology and culture
  - young men and women will attempt to challenge traditional beliefs around morality and sexual behavior (vamps and flappers) by living a Bohemian lifestyle
• sports become less participatory and more of a spectator event (Babe Ruth) with radio broadcasts
• Radio brings families together as they sit to listen to popular shows (amos and andy, little orphan annie)
• Automobiles push families apart- young ppl have the freedom to spend time away from parents. Automobiles bring families together during sunday family rides
• Jazz music becomes popular- represents the decade bc it breaks previous rules about music (improv) and offers wild upbeat melodies

Question 3

Economy of the 20s

Answer 3

• America’s economy moves from a production economy to consumer economy
• consumption increases due to
  
  • better production techniques make prices drop (Henry Ford’s assembly line)
    
    • advertising techniques develop to help convince consumers to buy more (peer pressure, sex appeal, celeb endorsements)
    • Radio companies emerge (NBC, CBS) = products can be advertised to a larger audience
    • consumers allowed to buy goods in installments = can afford more goods
• Auto industry becomes major focus of industrial production centered in Detroit, MI
  - creates spinoff industries-glass, steel, rubber, oil, road building
• Increasing number of Americans invest in the stock market (“playing the market”)
  
  • bull market- belief that stock prices will continue to ride indefinitely
    
    • investors buy stocks on margin (on credit)
• New industries create jobs- movies (located in Hollywood), airplanes, radio

Question 4

Women of the 20s

Answer 4

• Young women challenged the Cult of Domesticity
  
  • increased number of jobs open to women = economic independence from men
    - urbanization = young women are away from parental influence
    
    • women have suffrage = more control over gov. and their lives
• Flappers- young, urban, single, employed women spend leisure time drinking, smoking, and petting
  - cut hair short and wear loose fitting straight dresses to rebel against previous fashions that emphasize curves
  - raise hemlines and lower necklines to show more skin
• Margaret Sanger advocates for greater access to birth control for women
• National Women’s Party advocates for an Equal Rights Amendment to outlaw gender bias (does not pass)

Question 5

Post WWI Economic Recession

1918-1921

Answer 5

• American economy suffers immediately after WWI
  - Factories go out of business (no more gov orders for war) or shut down to retool (switch from making war goods to consumer goods) = unemployment
  
  • returning veterans create a labor surplus = lower wages
    - inflation increases (prices raise)
    - Scarcity of consumer goods due to retooling
    - workers saved up money during war and want to buy consumer goods = high demand
• Waves of strikes sweep country and disrupt economy
  
  • workers upset about unemployment, lower wages, higher prices
    - 60,000 Seattle longshoremen strike- shuts down western economy
    - Boston police strike- broken when Governor Calvin Coolidge fires the strikers and brings in the National Guard to restore order

Question 6

Prohibition in the 1920s

Answer 6

• The 18th amendment was passed during the closing years of the Progressive Age to
  
  • aid immigrants and the poor by eliminating the “cause” of poverty, violence, immoral behavior
    - Keep WWI soldiers sober and save grain for WWI soldiers
• Congress passes the Volstead Act (1919) to enforce the 18th amendment= illegal to produce (bootlegging), import, or distribute alcohol
  - enforcement is difficult- many gov officials like to drink, many people do not think it is a crime, alcohol is easy to make (bathtub gin)
  - strongly supported in South, West, and rural areas- portrayed as protecting traditional Protestant American values
• Crime organizations (Mafia) distribute alcohol and gain large profits (Al Capone)
  
  • crime in cities increases- gangs compete for control of city
    - gangs open up secret bars (speakeasies) to sell alcohol
• consumption of alcohol decreases (harder to get) and attendance at work goes up slightly
• consumers drink less beer but more hard alcohol (easier to transport)

Question 7

African Americans in the 20s

Answer 7

• Great Migration of WWI era brings thousands of African Americans into northern cities
  - still face discrimination, but have access to higher paying factory jobs
• Harlem Renaissance (NY)
  - Langston Hughes- writes poetry that celebrates A-A culture
  - Marcus Garvey- advocates for A-As to move back to Africa or separate themselves from white society and only support A-A businesses
  - Founds the United Negro Improvement Association
  - “New Negro”- A-A that are successful, educated, and northern
• Jazz music originates in New Orleans and moves to northern cities during the Great Migration
  - A-A musicians (Louis Armstrong) popularize music and it is adopted by White audiences

Question 8

Nativism in the 1920s

Answer 8

• Many Americans seek to limit immigration in the 20s (part of Red Scare)
  - fear immigrants are radicals
• 100% Americanism (anti-hyphenated Americanism)- nativists demand that immigrants drop their native culture and embrace American culture, Protestantism, and English language
• Emergency Quota Act of 1921- Immigrant numbers limited to 3% of ethnic group in America in 1890 = severely limits number of “New Immigrants” without affecting “Old Immigrants”
• Immigration Act of 1924- limits number of immigrants to 2% of numbers in 1890, also completely bans Japanese immigrants
• KKK reemerges- claim they are protecting traditional American values against a quickly changing society
  - strong in South, West, and rural areas
  - anti- Immigrant, alcohol, Judaism, Catholic, Communist, Socialist, union, African American, flappers
  - influence decreases after corruption scandal

Question 9

Conservatism in the 1920s

Answer 9

• As America experiences rapid social change, ppl in the South, West, and rural areas reject new culture
• KKK reemerges
• Nativism reemerges
• Fundamentalism rejects evolution and new Bohemian lifestyle
  
  • Monkey Scopes Trial: example of clash btwn modernists and fundamentalists
    - Tennessee teacher John T Scopes fired and fined for teaching evolution
    - trial attracts national attention (radio)
    - William Jennings Bryan acts as prosecutor
    - Scopes found guilty but verdict overturned on a legal technicality
• Bruce Barton writes a book (The Man Nobody Knows) that states that Jesus was a businessman- justifying accumulation of wealth

Question 10

The Lost Generation

Answer 10

• Writers of the 1920s were intensely disillusioned, blaming western culture for causing the horrors of WWI
  - Critical of marriage, Christianity, democracy, capitalism, patriotism
• H.L. Mencken- father of movement in America
• F. Scott Fitzgerald- The Great Gatsby (critical of shallow search for wealth and consumerism)
• e.e. cummings- critical of traditional rules of grammar -too constraining (advocates stream of consciousness writing)
• Ernest Hemingway- A Farewell to Arms (critical of War)
• William Faulkner- The Sound and the Fury (critical of Southern society and uses stream of consciousness writing)