Noelle Pecavar

Gomez 1
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Chapter 22
Intro
-​ Many Protestant nativists believed movies to be dangerous and atrocious, mainly due to
immigrant involvement in the industry as a whole.
-​ Despite the push against Hollywood, movies were unstoppable and its industry
expanded, using their clout to block government intervention by creating regulation to
their business.
-​ Protestants observed American moral decline as progressivism and prosperity were
favored in the economic and social melting pot of the 20’s until the inevitable
Depression.

Conflicted Legacies of World War I

-​ Several conflicts were further revealed in the wake of WWI.
-​ Labor tensions.
-​ Violent riots showing white resistance to African American assimilation.
-​ Foreign radicals.

Racial Strife
-​ After fighting loyalty in WWI and migrating in great hoards from the South, obtaining jobs
in the cities, African Americans began to push for increased representation in politics
and society.
-​ Resulted in white violence such as torching of black houses an lynching
offenders.
-​ Much resentment towards blacks came from their involvement in the labor force, which
already offered few jobs.

Erosion of Labor Rights

-​ Worker conditions had some wins as a result of the war effort, such as increased union
involvement and new prolabor measures that supported these unions.
-​ After the war, these rights were slowly siphoned, resulting in ⅕ workers going on strike in
1919 to combat the resistance from businesses and manufacturers toward unions.
-​ Adkins v Children's Hospital: Voided a minimum wage for women workers in the District
of Columbia, reversing previous gains from the Muller v Oregon case.
-​ Welfare capitalism: system of labor relations that stressed management responsibility for
employees well-being.
Noelle Pecavar
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-​ Pioneered by CEOs like Henry Ford, who paid his employees quite generously.
-​ Unemployed were helped by General Electric and US Steel for healthcare.

The Red Scare

-​ Hatred for immigrants was already established among native born Americans due to the
increased cost of living after the war, which they believed was a result of the influx of
workers.
-​ After the Soviet Union had its Revolution and promoted revolutions to communism
elsewhere, Americans grew paranoid that there were wild immigrant communists among
them.
-​ After some freak accidents with a bomb aimed to kill the newly appointed attorney
general, Mitchell Palmer used the incident to instill public fear.
-​ Red Scare.
-​ Palmer raids: storming of Palmer's agents of headquarters of radical organizations,
capturing thousands of aliens who held revolutionary and anarchist beliefs but were
otherwise innocent.
-​ The phenomenon of the Red Scare impacted sentencing of ‘criminals’ due to the biased
outlook it cast upon the persecuted.

Politics in the 1920’s

-​ The 1920’s favored limited governmental oversight.
-​ Native protestants advocated for dampers on immigration while Republicans
trusted the nations well-being to the businesses.

Women in Politics
-​ Many wanted to use the leverage the 19th Amendment had granted them to advocate
for poverty.
-​ Sheppard-Towner Federal Maternity and Infancy Act: Provided federal funds for medical
clinics, prenatal education programs, and visiting nurses.
-​ Ended up improving health care for the poor and lowered infant mortality.
-​ Equal Rights Amendment was an attempt to increase womens rights as they compared
to mens, but was interfered by other recent labor laws that had been put in place.
-​ Women's international League for Peace and Freedom: denounced imperialism,
stressed human suffering caused by militarism, proposed social justice measures.
-​ Organizations such as these who fostered socialists came under fire during the
Red Scare.
-​ Ultimately, many reforms were unsuccessful, and even the SHeppart Towner program
was put down by Congress in the 1920’s.
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Republicans and Business

-​ In the 1920 election, Democrat Wilson lost to Republican Harding on account of his
overly idealistic and progressive outlook.
-​ Herbert Hoover, head of the Food Administration, is a strong advocate to Harding's
policies and helped create thousands of trade associations that represented companies
in major cities.
-​ Associates state: voluntary business cooperation with the government.
-​ Teapot Dome: in Wyoming, was exposed after Harding's death and the revealing of
corruption in his government to have been where the gov was leasing oil reserves.
-​ Coolidge becomes VP and later runs in 1924, advocating for limited government and
ends up winning over Democratically elected John W Davis.

Dollar Diplomacy
-​ There was still a major focus on foreign affairs among the US government, with
president's working to further business interests like private banks for foreign loans.
-​ They wanted loans to stimulate the economy in the US.
-​ The US forced Bolivia to accept a profitable loan and to agree to financial oversight by
commission under the control of the banks.
-​ El Salvador experienced similar treatment with their government.
-​ The US also ended up dispatching their military to many foreign countries, many of them
Southern American, in order to secure the payment on their loans.
-​ As a result of the increase in Americans in SA, interest in their religions and
perpetuation of stereotypes of its people being savages prevailed.
-​ Dollar diplomacy: what critics called the loan guarantees and military interventions.
-​ Dollar diplomacy was not entirely effective because even though the loans were
repaid the money often went into the coffers of local elites rather than used to
build actual foreign markets overseas.

Culture Wars
-​ US cities expanded in population and in abundance.
-​ Population in NYC and LA respectively was 7mil and 1.2mi

Prohibition
-​ Prohibition: (of liquor), promoted for the most part by rural and native-born Protestants
which had roots in the belief that drinking beer was unpatriotic (German immigrants
instilled this belief).
-​ Consumption ends up declining as Congress limits brewers and distillers of grains.
-​ By 1920, manufacture, sale, or transportation of alcohol was illegal.
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-​ Pros argued: prohibition reduces violence, drunkenness, promotes health, good morals,
and more.
-​ In the western hemisphere, the availability of alcohol in Mexico caused many Americans
to flock to Tijuana and Mexicali to smuggle in alcohol despite the anger from
pro-prohibitionists.

Evolution in the Schools

-​ Curriculums that denied the Divine creation of man as in the Bible were banned in states
starting in 1925.
-​ American Civil Liberties Union: protected free speech rights, challenged the law’s
constitutionality.
-​ Scopes trial: occurs when a biology teacher attempted to teach his class the theory of
evolution, which he was prosecuted for.

Nativism
-​ With over 23 million immigrants occupying the US, nativists couldn't help but use that
fact to account for American moral decline.
-​ The National Origins Act was passed as a result of nativist protest to limit European
immigration that brought with it anarchism and socialism.
-​ Quote that states each country could not exceed 2% of that nationality's
percentage of the uS population as it stood in 1890.
-​ These new laws, however, did allow for unrestricted immigration from the
Western hemisphere.

The National Klan

-​ Ku Klux Klan (KKK): white supremacist group formed in the post-Civil War South.
-​ After their revival in 1915, the KKK was on the offensive and targeted not only blacks but
immigrants and religious minorities.
-​ The Klan garnered clout and even support after president Woodrow Wilson showed his
support for the revivalist-Klan film Birth of a Nation.
-​ Some Klan members were directly involved with their local governments to promote
prohibition.

The Election of 1928

-​ Points of interest in this election were race, religion, and ethnicity.
-​ The division of the political parties' typical demographic due to the presence of
the Klan and other social factors created a unique atmosphere.
-​ Democrats nominate Governor Al Smith, who advocates for the urban working class and
was a self-proclaimed Catholic.
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-​ Smith is dominated by Hoover, who promoted the technological age and conversational
campaigns.
-​ Another factor that contributed to the landslide win by Hoover was the fact that
many Protestants wouldn't vote Catholic.

Intellectual Modernism
-​ Post WWI encouraged intellectuals to discuss civilization, progress, and Western
superiority over other cultures and ways of life.

Harlem in Vogue
-​ In NY, the Great Migration tripled the black population there, with key districts such as
Harlem being perfect places for blacks to come together and popularize new cultural art
forms.

Black Writers and Artists

-​ Harlem Renaissance: the sentiment of pride that had taken over the black population of
Harlem that was expressed through various forms of black-inspired art.
-​ The renaissance promoted many black artists who were able to publish new cultural
material.

Jazz
-​ One of the most famous products of the Harlem Renaissance, jazz was born in Harlem,
New Orleans, and other Southern cities out of the mosh of rag, blues, and more.
-​ At first jazz was dominated by black artists, but later, classically trained whites from the
US and Europe joined in on the genre.
-​ Key figures included Louis Armstrong, who played brothels and saloons and served as
an inspiration for other jazz artists.
-​ Jazz spread along with the Great Migration and eventually filled music halls in the
busiest cities.
-​ After seeing Jazz’s success among immigrant populations, record labels rushed to
sponsor and publish other jazz artists, ushering in the Jazz Age in the 1920s.

Marcus Garvey and the UNIA

-​ Universal Negro Improvement Association: mobilized black workers and to champion
black separatism.
-​ 4 mil followers, recent black migrants, and more.
-​ pan-Africanism: argument that those of African descent had a common destiny and path
and should cooperate when tackling political issues.
Noelle Pecavar
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Critiquing American Life

-​ So many people were affected by WWI after facing it head on (Lost Generation).
-​ Authors published works that presented the pointlessness of war.
-​ Plays and novels delved into darker themes like sexual impulses and black dictatorship
which catered to the inherent American interest in Haitian people.
-​ Writers during the 1920’s explored the conflict of hypocrisy of small town and rural life.

From Boom to Bust

-​ In the 1920’s, credit came easy and economic growth quickly expanded American
business.
-​ However, economical deficits in agriculture from WWI had not yet recovered and
soon the Roaring 20’s was undermined by the baseless credit that had
contributed to the economy's initial spike.

The Postwar Economy

-​ After WWI, inflation increases, and recession follows that increases unemployment
before the economy evens out and improves more consistently.
-​ Large businesses thwart smaller ones as they overtake the economy and merge with
other large businesses.
-​ Wall Street grew in economic power and importance as the financial center of the
nation.
-​ Americans continue to inflate their economy by investing in foreign
plantations and farms.
-​ Agriculture never really had recovered from WWI, though, and the same went for those
working in coal and textiles, which contributed to the bottom 40% of American families
living the decade in poverty.

Consumer Culture
-​ New products like cereal in foods and Ford Model T in cars were only a few examples of
popular items beloved by the public.
-​ American families saw an increase in material holdings.
-​ Consumer culture and politics overlapped, shown in how some race riots targeted
well-to-do black families and took items like radios to send the message that only whites
could participate in the new economic trends.
-​ Familial tensions arose due to this cultural phenomenon as money was now being
dispensed for leisure.
-​ Consumer credit: Loans taken out by poor and rich families alike to grant them the ability
to purchase the products they needed or desired.
Noelle Pecavar
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The Automobile
-​ Cars were extremely popular, having played a huge part in the uptrend in the economy.
-​ Cars stimulated steel, petroleum, rubber, and glass corporations and created nearly 4
million jobs.
-​ Highways were financed in the billions.
-​ Many Americans bought cars through credit because they were so expensive, which was
risky for the economy as a whole b because if the borrowers didn't pay their loan the
banks would be left hanging.
-​ Cars changed how Americans spend their leisure hours, taking vacations using that
rather than trains.

Hollywood
-​ California was the center of the growing movie industry due to its environment and
affordability .
-​ Immigrants were a strong presence in the movie industry and many founded 5 cent
theaters in major cities.
-​ Hollywood: world's movie capital, producing nearly 90% of all films.
-​ Flapper: young woman who flaunted a boyish figure and wore knee-length skirts and
makeup, dominating the movie industry.
-​ Flappers represented sexual liberty for women and encouraged them as well as
immigrant women to go out dancing and to embrace jazz and whatever else.
-​ Soft Power: exercise of popular cultural influence.

The Coming of the Great Depression

-​ Consumer lending was a 7 billion per year business.
-​ Stocks were stuck at permanently high plateaus, and profits were so high that many
companies dumped them into stocks.
-​ Stock market began to fall in 1929 and did not receive an adequately worried response,
partly due to the US being used to sudden economic drops that had in the past been
followed by spikes.
-​ Then, consumer spending dropped even further, worsening the crisis.

Summary
-​ US involvement in WWI strengthened its economy but also weakened its agricultural
institutions.
-​ Labor unrest grew as union rights were stripped in the aftermath of the war.
-​ The Red Scare prompted national unrest and fear of immigrants.
-​ Women reform policies were largely unsuccessful as they tried to ride on the coattails of
the 19th Amendment.
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-​ KKK influence soared and led to even more immigrant restrictions.

-​ New forms of artistic expression emerged in post-war culture along with the Harlem
Renaissance and Great Migrations like jazz.
-​ Material spending increased and a rise of consumer culture was observed.