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Of the People

McGerr, Lewis, Oakes, Cullather, Summers, Townsend, Dunak

Volume II

Since 1865

Chapter 21

The Modern Nation 1919—1928

UNIA Parade

Chapter 21 American Portrait: “America’s Sweetheart”

Actress Mary Pickford

One of the wealthiest women in America

New national culture celebrated innovation, modernity

Fascination with youth, independent women

Individualism

A Dynamic Economy

Ford Assembly Line Mass production at work: the assembly line at the Ford Motor Company plant in Dearborn, Michigan, 1928.

The Development of Industry

Switch from coal to electricity

Mass production

Pioneered by Henry For

Increased productivity drove the economy

The Trend Toward Large-Scale Organization

Only large companies could afford mass production

Mergers gave them more control

More efficient organization

Image of big business improved

The Transformation of Work and the Workforce

Scientific management

Increased supervision, mass production resulted in less satisfying work

Growth of white-collar jobs

Move to economy based on sales and service

Women in the workforce

The Defeat of Organized Labor

Did not expand into white-collar jobs

Prosperity

Corporate promotion of welfare capitalism

Court decisions aided the growth of “open shop”

AFL refused to expand to include women, socialists, African American workers

The Decline of Agriculture

Mechanization

Irrigation systems

Depended on size, migrant labor

Midsize farms could not compete

Low prices a result of competition, changing American diets

The Urban Nation

More Americans lived in cities than the country by 1920

Decline of farming

Growth in industrial economy

Rise of the automobile

Growth of suburbs

A Modern Culture

The Jazz Singer Premiere The dazzling allure of a new pleasure— the “talking picture”—draws a big opening-night crowd to Warners’ Theatre, New York City, October 6, 1927.

The Spread of Consumerism

Happiness in leisure and consumption rather than work

Increased efficiency

Higher wages and increased leisure hours

Advertising

Bruce Barton, the Man Nobody Knows

Consumer credit, mortgage loans

New Pleasures for a Mass Audience

Sports, movies, popular music, radio

Spectator sports: baseball and football

Booming attendance at movies

Hollywood and “talking pictures”

Jazz became nationally popular

Phonograph and radio

NBC founded in 1926

A Sexual Revolution

Reformers forced discussions about prostitution, disease

Popular culture was filled with sex

Dances promoted close contact

Growing belief that sexual pleasure was necessary within marriage

Changing attitudes toward contraception

Margaret Snager

Changing Gender Ideals

“New Woman”

Independent, assertive, educated, sexual being

Feminism

Wanted full equality with men

Flappers

Men should seek fulfillment in family rather than work

Struggles for Democracy

Flappers and Feminists

Lois Long, “Lipstick”

Flappers had short hair, short dresses, smoked, drank, danced

Nightlife

Many suffragettes disapproved of lack of political engagement

Individualism, social equality

American Landscape

“Flaming Youth” on Campus

Creation of youth culture

Middle class men and women went to college

Dancing, drinking, smoking

Individualism and conformity

Northwestern Co-eds Women students at Northwestern University show their school spirit by hoisting a banner and megaphones before a campus building, 1929.

The Family and Youth

Families were no longer economic units

Children went to school, parents went to work

Children had more toys and money

Youth culture

The Celebration of the Individual

Sports heroes, movie stars

Corporate consumerism gratified individual needs and desires

Organizations controlled individual life

The Limits of Modern Culture

UNIA Parade A parade organized by the United Negro Improvement Association in Harlem,1920.

The Limits of Prosperity

Low incomes persisted

Many Americans did not own homes

Towns divided by social class

The “Lost Generation” of Intellectuals

WWI represented a failure of civilizations

Many felt alienated from the US, left for Europe

Criticized repression, provincialism, routinized work and superficial pleasures

Expressed ambivalence about modernity

Fundamentalist Christians and “Old-Time Religion”

Rejected liberalism, believed in the historical truth of the Bible

Strongest in the South and West, came to dominate the Southern Baptist Convention

Trial of John Scopes for teaching evolution

William Jennings Bryan

Nativists and Immigration Restriction

Revived by mass migration from Europe

Associated immigrants with anarchism, radicalism

Immigration Act of 1921, 1924

Quotas by country

Excluded Asian immigrants

The Rebirth of the Ku Klux Klan

Inspired by D.W. Griffith’s The Birth of a Nation

Adopted white hoods, cross burnings

Hated Jews, Roman Catholics, immigrants, liberals, in addition to African Americans

Condemned new gender ideals, big business, modern culture, youth culture

Began using advertising, technology to spread their message

Mexican Americans

Increase in Mexican immigration

Unrestricted by Congress

Mexican Revolution, growing US economy

National Origins Act

La Raza

Poverty, discrimination created a common identity

Struggled for economic progress, equal rights

African Americans and the “New Negro”

Booker T. Washington, A New Negro for a New Century

Racial difference, pride

Harlem Renaissance

Development of the NAACP, civil rights movement

Marcus Garvey’s Universale Negro Improvement Association

Economic self-help

A “New Era” in Politics and Government

Declining Voter Turnout, 1896–1928 Why was turnout so much lower in the South?

The Modern Political System

Use of advertising

Media became less partisan

Lobbyists from corporations, professional organizations, reform groups

Less partisan politics reduced voter turnout

The Republican Ascendancy

Warren G. Harding was uncontroversial, conservative

“Return to normalcy”

Plagued by fraud and corruption

Teapot Dome scandal

Calvin Coolidge still won the 1924 election after Harding’s death

The Politics of Individualism

Denounced the activist, progressive state

Less gov’t, more individual freedom

Reduced budget deficits, national debt

Lax enforcement of Prohibition, regulations on business

Hoover’s “associationalism”

Republican Foreign Policy

Washington Naval Conference, 1921-22

Arms reduction

Kellogg-Briand Pact, 1928

Outlawed war as an instrument of national policy

Lacked enforcement mechanism

Increasing economic involvement around the world

Extending the “New Era”

Democrats antagonistic constituencies doomed their chances in national races

Al Smith, Democratic nominee in 1928, was an Irish Catholic

Urban liberalism

Alienated fundamentalists, rural Americans

America and the World

J. Walter Thompson and International Markets

American advertising expanded overseas to sell American products

Acquired GM’s business, opened a branch office wherever they had a factory

Research and reports

Standardized advertising worldwide

Election of 1928

The Election of 1928 Herbert Hoover’s landslide victory extends the Republican “New Era.”