The Twenties 1920-1929

1. 23 The Twenties 1920-1929

2. The Twenties1920-1929 • Postwar Prosperity and Its Price • The State, the Economy, and Business • The New Mass Culture • Modernity and Traditionalism • Promises Postponed • Conclusion

3. Chapter Focus Questions • How did the “second industrial revolution” transform the American economy? • What were the promises and limits of prosperity in the 1920s? • How and why did the Republican Party dominate 1920s politics? • How did the new mass media reshape American culture?

4. Chapter Focus Questions (cont'd) • Which Americans were less likely to share in postwar prosperity and why? • What political and cultural movements opposed modern cultural trends.

5. North America and Hollywood

6. The Movie Audience and Hollywood: Mass Culture Creates a New National Community • 1920s: Movies most popular form of the new mass culture • Huge, national audiences in grand, majestic theaters

7. The Movie Audience and Hollywood: Mass Culture Creates a New National Community (cont’d) • Hollywood, California • A frontier boomtown, dominated by the movie stars who lived opulent lives, Hollywood symbolized Americans’ dreams of freedom, material success, and the chance to remake one’s very identity.

8. The Movie Audience and Hollywood: Mass Culture Creates a New National Community (cont’d) • What visual themes strike you as most powerful? How do they compare to celebrity images of today? Why were male stars portrayed as exotic foreigners?

9. Creating Celebrity

10. Postwar Prosperity and Its Price

11. A&P advertisements, like this one from 1927

12. Postwar Prosperity and Its Price • Harding’s call for a “return to normalcy” masked the profound changes that American experienced during and after World War I. Although production and wealth boomed, the benefits were spread unevenly, foreshadowing the Crash and Depression.

13. The Second Industrial Revolution • Technological innovations made it possible to increase industrial output without expanding the labor force. • Efficiency became the watchword in all areas of economic life. • Driven by electricity and automated machinery, industry concentrated on producing consumer goods.

14. FIGURE 23.1 Stock Market Prices, 1921–32

15. The Modern Corporation • Managerial revolution stressed scientific management and behavioral psychology. • integrated production and distribution • diversified products • expanded industrial research • control of entire industries • Increasingly, a class of salaried executives rather than stockholders made corporate policy.

16. The Modern Corporation (cont'd) • Consumer credit spurred consumption but masked inequities of wealth.

17. FIGURE 23.2 Consumer Debt, 1920–31

18. Welfare Capitalism • To improve worker morale and reduce the challenge of unions, corporations employed “welfare capitalism.” • To undercut unions, businesses promoted an “open shop” in which non-union workers received the same benefits as union workers. • Union membership rapidly declined.

19. Welfare Capitalism (cont'd) • Auto production spurred production of steel, rubber, glass, petroleum • The AFL did not organize workers in the new industries. • Overall, the position of workers remained precarious and insecure.

20. The Auto Age • The car symbolized the rise of the consumer economy. • 1925: Henry Ford’s Highland Park assembly line—a car every 10 seconds • Ford enabled workers to be both producers and consumers of his Model T. ($300—three month’s wages)

21. The Auto Age (cont'd) • Road building promoted new businesses along highways and changed social habits.

22. Finished automobiles roll off the moving assembly line at the Ford Motor Company

23. Cities and Suburbs • The automobile enabled people to move into suburbs. • Cities also grew at a fast pace, not only horizontally, but also vertically as new buildings reshaped the skyline. • Houston grew from 75,000 to 300,000 residents between 1910 and 1930.

24. Cities and Suburbs (cont'd) • Undeveloped land—Grosse Point, Michigan, New York’s Nassau County—became valuable real estate with exploding populations

25. Ford was forced to pay more attention to advertising. This ad was directed at “Mrs. Consumer,”

26. The State the Economy and Business ,

27. The State, the Economy and Business • Pro-business Republican presidents Harding, Coolidge and Hoover dominated national policy, forged government-business alliances and readily claimed credit for “New Era” prosperity.

28. Harding and Coolidge • Warren G. Harding surrounded himself with his Ohio cronies and ran an administration riddled with scandal. • Led by Secretary of the Treasury Andrew Mellon, his administration pursued policies that trimmed the budget and reduced the taxes paid by the wealthy.

29. Harding and Coolidge (cont’d) • Harding’s death in 1923 brought stern, but honest, Calvin Coolidge to office. Coolidge continued the business-government partnership of Harding’s term, reducing federal spending, cutting taxes, and blocking congressional initiatives.

30. Harding and Coolidge (cont’d) • Coolidge won reelection easily in 1924 over Democrat John Davis and Progressive Robert La Follette.

31. Herbert Hoover andthe “Associative State” • The most influential figure during the period, serving as secretary of commerce under Harding and Coolidge • Created trade associations and coordinated conferences to promote business efficiency and facilitated the growing concentration of corporate wealth

32. Herbert Hoover andthe “Associative State” (cont'd) • A popular and wide-admired president after his election in 1928, he did nothing to change course.

33. War Debts, Reparations, and Keeping the Peace • After WWI, U.S. strongest economic power and world’s most important creditor • Officials insisted that former allies pay back the money they had borrowed during the war. • In the 1920s, the U.S. helped Germany refinance their reparations debt and reduced their payments.

34. War Debts, Reparations, and Keeping the Peace (cont'd) • U.S. joined in the idealistic Kellogg-Briand Pact renouncing war.

35. Global Commerce and U.S. Foreign Policy • The ultimate foreign policy goal, however, remained economic expansion. • Business and government collaborated to expand United States investments and markets overseas, particularly in Latin America.

36. Global Commerce and U.S. Foreign Policy (cont'd) • Economically beneficial to America, these policies undermined economic and political development in much of the hemisphere.

37. Weakened Agriculture, Ailing Industries • Despite the boom in business, many farmers suffered from overproduction and global competition. • Agricultural profits steadily declined and the gap between farm and non-farm income widened. • Coolidge vetoed efforts to aid farmers weighed down by debts incurred during wartime expansion.

38. Weakened Agriculture, Ailing Industries (cont’d) • Other sick industries included: • coal mining—which faced competition from oil and natural gas • railroads—which faced competition from cars and trucks • New England textiles—which faced competition from low-wage southern producers

39. The New Mass Culture

40. This 1926 publicity photo shows Louis Armstrong and his Hot Five

41. The New Mass Culture • New media shaped the 1920s. Movies, radio and sound recording all increased Americans’ access to entertainment but, redefining the “good life,” undermined traditional values and cultural distinctiveness in ethnic and rural communities.

42. Movie-Made America • The early movie industry was centered around New York City, but moved to Hollywood and expanded rapidly. • Movie ticket sales soared, but studios and moguls dominated the industry. • Publicists whetted American appetites by creating an elegant image for movie stars.

43. Movie-Made America (cont'd) • Attacked by conservative groups for sexual permissiveness, Hollywood studios came up with a plan of self-censorship by hiring Will Hayes as a morals czar.

44. Radio Broadcasting • Radio—nation’s first comprehensive mass entertainment medium • Large companies formed national networks that aired a variety of programs to homes across the country. • “Amos ‘n’ Andy” was the first national radio hit show. • Advertising and sponsors supported and influenced programming.

45. Radio Broadcasting (cont'd) • Radio—nation’s first comprehensive mass entertainment medium • Radio also helped to commercialize previously isolated forms of music and build a mass following for sports.

46. New Forms of Journalism • 1920s: newspaper tabloids emphasized crime, sex scandals, gossip columns, sports • Walter Winchell’s slangy gossip column • Advertisers appealed directly to working class and immigrant readers. • Journalism saw the trend towards consolidation.

47. New Forms of Journalism (cont'd) • 1920s: newspaper tabloids emphasized crime, sex scandals, gossip columns, sports • The Hearst chain controlled 14 percent of the nation’s circulation.

48. Advertising Modernity • Advertising became a thriving industry that promoted consumerism. • Influenced by psychologist John B. Watson, advertising agencies employed market research and psychology to stress consumer needs, desires, and anxieties rather than the qualities of the product. • They celebrated consumption as a positive good.

49. The Phonograph and the Recording Industry • By 1914, durable pre-recorded discs became widely available and popular. • Fueled in part by dance crazes, the recording industry transformed American mass and regional popular culture. • In the later ‘20s as sales declined, record companies focused on regional and ethnic markets to maintain sales.

50. The Phonograph and the Recording Industry (cont'd) • Records made American music popular worldwide.