Warren Harding
29th president of the US; Republican; “Return to Normalcy” (life as it had been before WWI-peace, isolation); presidency was marred by scandal (Teapot Dome; bribes / getting $ to not charge certain people of their crimes)Died + then Coolidge took over. Said to be one of the worst presidents in US history
Charles Evans Hughs
secretary of state, Washington Naval Conference , urged that no more warships be built for 10 years, suggested that United States, Great Britain, Japan, France, and Italy scrap many of their battleships, cruisers, and aircraft carriers.
Andrew Mellon
An American financier, he was appointed Secretary of the Treasury by President Harding in 1921 and served under Coolidge and Hoover. While he was in office, the government reduced the WW I debt by $9 billion and Congress cut income tax rates substantially. He is often called the greatest Secretary of the Treasury after Hamilton.
Harry Daugherty
Attorney General under Harding who sold illegal liquor licenses and pardons under Harding. He accepted bribes, involved in scandals, and a member of the Ohio Gang (Teapot Dome)
Albert Fall
He was Secretery of the Interior during Harding’s administration, and was a scheming anticonservationist. He was convicted of leasing naval oil reserves and collecting bribes, which was called the Tea Pot Dome scandal.
Teapot Dome
Fall accepted bribes for granting oil leases near Teapot Dome, Wyoming
Fordney-McCumber Tariff Act
raised tariff rates to protect post WWI America
Bureau of the Budget
Established under Harding’s Presidency, national budget had to be approved by Congress
Calvin Coolidge
30th President, believed in limited govt. + free market. Kept close watch on budget, vetoed Repub. majority act, Did not allow bonuses for WWI vets. Vetoed McNary-Haugen Bill (would have helped farmers as crop prices fell)
“The business of America is business”
Herbert Hoover
31st President , ran on campaign saying poverty would soon be ended, Stock Market crash, prohibition (18th Amendment)
Alfred E. Smith
Former governor of New York who ran for President against Herbert Hoover. He was against Prohibition. (1928 Election)
business prosperity
-increased productivity in factories (Henry Ford + the assembly line)
-energy technologies ( oil 23% of US energy, electric motors)
-govt. policy = favored big business (tax cuts + rarely enforcing anti-trust laws) large tax cuts = imbalance in incomes + increased speculation in markets. Federal Reserve = low interest rates + relaxed regulation of banks + then tightened $ supply @ the wrong time
standard of living
some were rich some were poor ???????????????
scientific management
Frederick W. Taylor’s method of managing factories through the use of timing each step of assembling the product, and ordering it in a systematic and orderly way to take as little time as possible
Henry Ford
used the assembly line to increase productivity in his factories
assembly line
stimulated business prosperity by increasing productivity. Henry Ford used this method in his factories
open shop
A company with a labor agreement under which union membership cannot be required as a condition of employment.
welfare capitalism
An economic and political system that combines a mostly market-based economy with extensive social welfare programs
consumerism
a movement advocating greater protection of the interests of consumers
electric appliances
consumerism; refrigerators, vacuum cleaners, washing machines,
impact of the automobile
many industries depended on its sales (oil, rubber)
some thought that it directly contributed to the breakdown of youth’s morals
jazz age
1920s: black jazz became popular during this time and led to a free American spirit
radio, phonographs
broadcast music for all to hear, didn’t need to be live
national networks
NBC (National Broadcasting Company) + CBS (Colombia Broadcasting System)
Hollywood
LA , California : film industry + celebrities became a thing in this place.
movie stars
Greta Garbo + Rudolf Valentino. People began looking towards actors and celebrities as “heros” opposed to people looking towards military heros + presidents + politicians
movie palaces
these began getting built + showed talking picture shows
popular heros
shift from political heros to sports heros + movie stars
role of women
@ Home = homemakers + mothers , intro of washing machine + vacuum cleaner
In the labor force
– clerks, nurses, teachers, + domestics, lower wages then men
Sigmund Freud
sexual repression => mental illness
famous in psychology field
morals and fashions
moral revolution.
-premarital sex = invention of the modern age.
-dances, movies, + books encouraged promiscuity
Margaret Sanger
advocate for birth control
high school education
universal high school education
by the end of 1920’s # of high school grads doubled to 25%
Frederick Lewis Allen
Journalist who wrote “Only Yesterday” breath taking change from 1919 to 1920 overnight. Book had Mr. and Mrs. Smith who emulated typical 20’s family and how progressed: can foods, radio, bob hair cuts, smoking , clubs, etc.
Only Yesterday
Written by Frederick Lewis Allen, showed change from 1919 -> the 20’s through a typical family of the time
Gertrude Stein
Coined the term the “Lost Generation” during a conversation with Hemingway. “All of you young people who served in the war. You are a lost generation… You have no respect for anything. You drink yourselves to death.” Stein was good friends with many of the great writers + painters of the lost generation
Lost Generation
Writers + Painters who commonly flocked to Paris in the 1920’s . Scorned religion + the sacrifices made in war. Were often characterized by their disgust in the materialistic glamour of the time + were more interested in existential, and somewhat cynical views with their expressed disillusionment w/ the ideals of an earlier time + w/ the materialism of a business culture. Many succumbed to alcoholism in a way to escape their harsh disattachment from the society of the time
F. Scott Fitzgerald
wife Zelda, famous for his work on The Great Gatsby, part of the Lost Generation, became good friends with Hemingway but ultimately ended the friendship in a spat , alcoholic
Ernest Hemingway
the most recognized writer of the Lost Generation , moved to Europe to express his distaste in America, “mans man” , wrote Farewell to Arms where he expressed the horrible sacrifices of war + his distaste for it (ruined everything + everyone) Cynical, boxer , writer
Sinclair Lewis
United States novelist who satirized middle-class America in his novel Main Street (1885-1951)
Lost Generation
Ezra Pound
Poet of the Lost Generation
chief prophet of modernism in Long, deeply concerned with creating new and often difficult styles of modernist expression. As a foreign editor of Poetry, Pound became the conduit through which many American poets achieved publication
T.S. Eliot
Poet of the Lost Generation
portrayed a world of growing desolation but eventually hoped cautiously for humanity’s salvation
Eugene O’Neill
Lost Generation
plays which expressed disillusionment with the ideals of an earlier time + with the materialism of a business-oriented culture. Alcoholic
industrial design
Art Deco -> Chrysler building + Empire State building
Art Deco
Art style of the 1920s and 1930s based on modern materials and repetitive geometric patterns. Chrysler building + Empire State building
Edward Hopper
painter , painted scenes of loneliness + isolation of urban life. i.e. his painting Nighthawks + Night on the El Train
regional artists
Grant Wood + Thomas Hart Benton (painters) who celebrated the rural people + scenes of the heartland of America
Grant Wood
regional artist who celebrated the rural people + scenes of the heartland of America
George Gershwin
classical composer who mixed it w/ Jazz. Rhapsody in Blue
northern migration
African Americans migrated to North from the South
Harlem Renaissance
African Americans developed Harlem in NYC
lots of talented actors, artists, musicians, + writers came out of Harlem
Countee Cullen
American romantic poet closely associated with the Harlem Renaissance.
Langston Hughes
African American poet who described the rich culture of african American life using rhythms influenced by jazz music. He wrote of African American hope and defiance, as well as the culture of Harlem and also had a major impact on the Harlem Renaissance.
James Weldon Johnson
NAACP leader and Harlem Renaissance writer; he wrote poetry and, with his brother, the song “Lift Every Voice and Sing.”
Claude McKay
A poet who was a major figure in the Harlem Renaissance movement and wrote the poem “If We Must Die” after the Chicago riot of 1919.
Duke Ellington
jazz musician associated with Harlem Renaissance
Louis Armstrong
jazz musicians associated with Harlem Renaissance, influenced future generations of musicians
Bessie Smith
blues singer , Harlem Renaissance
Paul Robeson
multi-talented singer + actor, Harlem Renaissance
Back to Africa movement
Marcus Garvey advocated for a “back to Africa” movement
Marcus Garvey
African American leader durin the 1920s who founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association and advocated mass migration of African Americans back to Africa. Was deported to Jamaica in 1927.
black pride
Marcus Garvey inspired later generations to embrace the cause of black pride + nationalism
modernism
historical + critical view of bible passage + believed they could accept Darwin’s theory of evolution w/o abandoning their faith
fundamentalism
taught every word of the bible as TRUE , doctrine = creationism (idea that God had created the universe in 7 days) explained all life
revivalists : Billy Sunday, Aimee Semple McPherson
radios preached fundamentalism, “Bill Sunday” attack drinking , gambling, + dancing. Aimee Semple McPherson condemned communism + jazz music
Scopes trial
Darwinian (influenced by jazz age and new scientific ideas) against Fundamentalist (the Bible and Creationism); John Scopes convicted for teaching Darwinism (defended by Clarence Darrow); Scopes found guilty
Clarence Darrow
A famed criminal defense lawyer for Scopes, who supported evolution. He caused William Jennings Bryan to appear foolish when Darrow questioned Bryan about the Bible.
Volstead Act (1919)
This law that established a Prohibition Bureau within the Treasury Department was under budgeted and largely ineffective, especially in strongly anti-prohibition states
organized crime
The work of a group that regulates relations among criminal enterprises involved in illegal activities, including prostitution, gambling, and the smuggling and sale of illegal drugs. Prohibition basically poured gasoline all over this caused it to become rampant in american cities
Al Capone
Chicago gang leader, fought for control of bootlegging trade. Organized crime increased, people made millions off sale of illegal booze + it allowed gangs to expand to prostitution, gambling + drugs
21st Amendment
people saw that prohibition = public resentment + increased criminal activity, w/ Great Depression, economic reason added to argument. This Amendment repealed the 18th Amendment (prohibition)
quota laws of 1921 and 1924
1921- limited immigration to 357,000 people
1924- 2% of immigrants allowed into country (to limit Southern + Eastern Europeans)
Sacco and Vanzetti Case
these two Italian immigrants were convicted of robbery + murder. Liberals protested that they were innocent + had been accused just bc they were Italian immigrants + anarchists. Later executed in 1927
Ku Klux Klan
Terrorized + target anyone “un-American” , white hoods, burn crosses, whips, tar + feathered, lynching. Strong political influence @ times
Birth of a Nation
convinced people to join the KKK bc it portrayed KKK members during Reconstruction as HEROS
blacks, Catholics and Jews, foreigners and communists
The KKK hated these types of peoples
disarmament
Occurred to Germany after World War I; It was enforced to have very reduced numbers of tanks, aircraft etc. Definition- The reduction of the number of weapons that are under the use of a Nation
Washington Conference (1921)
Secretary of State Charles Evans Hughes initiated talk on navel disarmament (stabilize size of US Navy to that of other powers + resolved conflicts in the Pacific)
Belgium, China, France, Great Britain, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, + Portugal in attendance
Five-Power Naval treaty
Largest Naval powers agreed to following ratio of ships, US:5 , Great Britain:5 , Japan:3 , France:1.67 , Italy:1.67 . US and Great Britain agreed NOT to fortify their possessions in Pacific, no limit for/ob Japanese
Nine-Power Naval treaty
All 9 nations present @ the Washington Conference agreed to respect the Open Door policy by guaranteeing the territorial integrity of China
Kellogg-Briand Treaty (1928)
This Treaty renounced the aggressive use of force to achieve national ends; almost all the nations of the world signed it. It proved ineffective because it 1) permitted defensive wars 2) failed to provide for taking action against the violators of the treaty. .
Latin America policy
US removed military influnce here, but by doing so our economic impact skyrocketed. US investments in Latin America doubled between 1919-1929
war debts
US wanted Great Britain + France to pay up the $10 billion they lent them, they didn’t want to + couldn’t bc of our high tariffs + bc they felt they suffered greater losses in the war. Treaty of Versailles required Germany to pay $30 billion to allies but they were bankrupt w/ tons of inflation + were near anarchy so they could not
reparations
Payment for damages after a war
Dawes Plan (1924)
plan for US to get $ back from war debts
US banks lend Germany $ -> Germany rebuild economy + pay back Great Britain + France -> Great Britain + France would use the $ to pay back the US
Stock market crash messed up the whole thing!