The Devil’s in the Details: America’s Great Experiment

1. The Devil’s in the Details:America’s Great Experiment The USA between Wars 1919 - 1939 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDQpZT3GhDg

2. USA’s Isolationism • By 1900, the USA had become the greatest industrial nation in the world • WWI further contributed to the US’s industrial expansion • Following WWI, wished for an supported the European nations to recover, despite her policy of isolationism.

3. USA’s Isolationism • Americans took an isolationist (is a foreign policy which combines a non-interventionist military policy and a political policy of economic nationalism (protectionism). • In other words, it asserts both of the following: • Attitude against the rest of the world after WWI-looking inward.

4. USA’s Isolationism • Wilson set up the League of Nations, but the USA did not join. • American politicians stated that they would only get involved internationally when the security and prosperity of the USA was directly affected.

5. Immigration to the USA • Prior to the 1920s, the USA was home to a variety of people – a mixture of all the worlds ethnicities, nationalities and religions. • After WWI (really started during), the “Open Door Policy” closed – Originated in 1900. • The politicians wanted assimilation and set into motion immigration acts that restricted the number of “undesirables” let into the USA under the direction of President Warren Harding.

6. Immigration Acts • The “Melting Pot” concept of America began to shut down with stricter regulations on Immigration through the Immigration Acts of 1920s and the Neutrality Acts of the 1930s. • Were a series of acts that focused on US isolation and non-intervention.

7. Immigration Acts • To combat so many coming into America, the government decided to introduce literacy tests and in 1921 the Immigration Quota Act stated that no more than 357,000 immigrants could enter America each year. This figure was cut to 150,000 by 1929. • Discrimination was alive and festering in 1920’s USA.

8. Racism in the USA: The KKK • Racial tensions mounted, slavery had been abolished in 1865, but between 1920-25, 5 million Americans joined the Ku Klux Klan (KKK, The Klan) • Established in the 1860s; leader was called the Imperial Wizard; followers were called Knights = Members adopted white costumes: robes, masks, and conical hats, designed to be outlandish and terrifying, and to hide their identities.

9. Racism in the USA • The KKK was (is) an anti-black, anti-Jewish, anti-communist, anti-everything except White Power organization! A terrorist organization. • In other words, a far right hate group whose avowed purpose is to protect the rights and further the interests of whites by violence and intimidation.

10. Racism in the USA • America's "Anglo-Saxon" and "Celtic" blood, harking back to 19th-century nativism and claiming descent from the original 18th-century British colonial revolutionaries. • Supported prohibition = Fundamental Christian morals.

12. The American Economy • To protect America’s economy, the government introduced tariffs. • These were taxes that any foreign country had to pay to America to get their goods into America. • This made all foreign imports more expensive than American goods so people in America naturally bought home produced goods.

13. American Tariffs = Economy Boost • Tariffs further boosted the American economy and lead to huge employment but foreign countries retaliated by introducing taxes (their own tariffs) against American goods going into Great Britain, for example. • However, the American market was so strong that this did not hurt her even as America moved into a policy of isolation. • America isolated herself from the rest of the world and continued to gain prosperity - though not everyone benefited.

14. Expansion/Immigration • Developments in industry led to mass production and mass consumerism: • The motor car • Radios • Household appliances = tools for creating efficiency

15. Expansion/Immigration • The expansion of the American economy (protected by the Fordney-McCumber Act (1922). • Introduced the aforementioned tariffs on foreign goods. • Lead to masses of jobs being created and this attracted many to immigrate to America (albeit with restrictions).

16. Prohibition: To Drink or Not to Drink • The Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU – est. 1874) campaigned against one of the great evils of the time – ALCOHOL • Anti-saloon League - leading organizationlobbying for prohibition in the United States in the early 20th century (est. 1895). • This movement was called Prohibition or the Temperance (virtue + goodness) Movement.

17. Prohibition http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btdveVwvTvU • Prohibition in the United States was a measure designed to reduce drinking by eliminating the businesses that manufactured, distributed, and sold alcoholic beverages. • The Eighteenth Amendment (XVIII) (ratified Jan. 1919) of the U.S. Constitution led to prohibition: • Took away license to do business from the brewers, distillers, vintners, and the wholesale and retail sellers of alcoholic beverages.

18. Dry America • The leaders of the prohibition movement were alarmed at the drinking behavior of Americans, and they were concerned that there was a culture of drink among some sectors of the population that, with continuing immigration from Europe, was spreading. • They believed that the biggest enemy of women and children because it encouraged/took away from the family - money earned by men was drowned (spent) on alcohol.

19. Dry America • In January 1920, America went dry -banned the consumption, distribution or creation of liquor. • This was a political movement to rid society of the evils of drink and was religious in its base.

20. “Prohibition makes anything precious.” ~ Mark Twain

21. Speakeasies • Alcohol drinking went underground in the form of “speakeasies.” • When the US went dry more underground bars (“clubs’) opened up than ever before the Act was passed = 300,000 saloons by the end of the 20th Century.

22. Speakeasies • All the Act really did was to create speakeasies(illegal, underground bars, rumrunners/ bootleggers) = “Satan’s Seat.” • And made criminals of everyday people. • People were going to get it if they wanted it = if there was demand there would be supply (supply and demand).

23. The Mobsters: Citizens into Criminals and Criminals into Kings • Prohibition had allowed for the success of mobsters who made millions bootlegging alcohol. • Dutch Schultz and Al Capone “scarface” “The Chicago Outfit” made huge profits, as the gangsters took over the illegal trade. • Others: Luciano, Rothstein, Costello, Torio, Fleisher, Bernstein (NY, Cincinnati, Boston, Seattle etc.)

24. The Mobsters • Influenced via terror and bullets = 12 years of gang warfare with 100s dead. • They also gained fame from the public and the media because they were hard to catch criminally. • Bribed/worked with state + federal government officials, judges, police etc.

25. The Mobsters • 13 years later, prohibition was abolished with its long lasting effects being turning regular people into lawbreakers, criminals into mobsters, and of course helped to create the Mafia. • The 18th Amendment was repealed in 1933 with the 21st Amendment that ended prohibition = America was one again “wet.”

27. Industrial Breakthrough • 1917-1929, rapid and powerful growth. • The Assembly line created by Henry Ford and the Ford Motor Company allowed products to be rapidly made at less cost = mass production/ basis of a capitalist economy. • Concrete mixers, dump trucks, telephone switchboards, rayon, synthetics, radios, cameras, vacuums, washing machines, and especially cars.

28. Industrial Breakthrough • The silent film industry boomed in Hollywood, making huge profits (Charlie Chaplin). • Radio became very big, with film were used as vehicles for advertising. • Union membership dropped as the concept of workers uniting was seen to be Communist and un-American.

30. The Roaring 20’s • From 1923-29, Calvin Coolidge (Republican)was President and the stock market was booming. • Herbert Hoover (Republican) was President from 1929-33 and declared American economic progress as unstoppable. • He declared: “We in America are nearer to the financial triumph over poverty than ever before in the history of our land. The poorhouse is vanishing among us.” • Hoover would be president during the Great Depression, eating his words.

31. Booming Investment • People were rapidly investing in the countries future by buying company stocks and shares. • As industry boomed, the value of the stocks increased, so more people invested.

32. Booming Investment • People bought onthe Margin (buying on the margin): • The buyer bought with a small percentage of cash, and the rest was covered by loans. • Brokersprovided the loans - they got loans from banks and companies.

33. Speculation • Speculation buying was buying and hoping the value of the shares would rise, sell at a profit before repaying your debt, and then re-invest in more shares on the margin. • Between 1926-29, just about everyone with cash was in.

34. Flappers • The term flapper in the 1920s referred to a "new breed" of young women who wore short skirts, bobbed their hair, listened to jazz, and flaunted their disdain for what was then considered acceptable behaviour. • Flappers were seen as brash for wearing excessive makeup, drinking, treating sex in a casual manner, smoking, driving automobiles and otherwise flouting social and sexual norms.

35. Flapper Behaviour • Flappers' behaviour was unheard of at the time and redefined women's roles forever. • Flappers went to jazz clubs at night where they danced provocatively, smoked cigarettes through long holders, sniffed cocaine (which was legal at the time) and dated freely. • They rode bicycles and drove cars and drank alcohol openly, a defiant act in the American period of Prohibition.

36. Breaking the “Rules” • Petting became more common than in the Victorian Era. • Petting Parties, where petting ("making out" and/or foreplay) was the main attraction, became popular.

37. Breaking the “Rules” • Flappers also began taking work outside the home and challenging women's traditional societal roles. • They also advocated voting and women's rights. • With time came the development of dance styles then considered shocking, such as the Charleston, the Shimmy, the Bunny Hug and the Black Bottom.

38. Flapper Slang • Flappers had their own slang, with terms like "snugglepup" (a man who frequents petting parties) and "barney-mugging" (sex). • Their dialect reflected their promiscuity and drinking habits: • "I have to go see a man about a dog" often meant going to buy whiskey, and a "handcuff" or "manacle" was an engagement or wedding ring.

39. Flapper Slang • Also reflective of their preoccupations, they had many ways to express approval such as: • "That's so Jake" or • "That's bee’s knees," • or a more popular one, "the cat’s pyjamas."

40. Fashion Influence • In addition to their irreverent behaviour, flappers were known for their style, which largely emerged as a result of French fashions, especially those pioneered by Coco Chanel; and by the effect on dress of the rapid spread of American jazz and the popularization of dancing that accompanied it.

41. Fashion Influence • Called garçonne in French ("boy" with a feminine suffix), flapper style made them look young and boyish = androgynous. • Short hair, flattened breasts, and straight waists accentuated the look.

42. Coco Chanel

43. Fashionable “Unconventional” Looks • Although the appearance typically associated now with flappers did not fully emerge until 1926, there was an early association in the public mind between unconventional appearance, outrageous behaviour and the word "flapper".

44. Fashionable “Unconventional” Looks • Despite all the scandal flappers generated, their look became fashionable in a toned-down form among even respectable older women. • Most significantly, the flappers removed the corset from female fashion, raised skirt and gown hemlines and popularized short hair for women.

45. Louise Brooks

46. Joan Crawford

47. The Jazz Age • The Jazz Age describes the period after the end of WWI, through the Roaring 20s, ending with the onset of the Great Depression. • The age takes its name from popular music, which saw a tremendous surge in popularity.

48. Jazz and Modernism • Radio stations proliferated at a remarkable rate after 1922, and with them spread the popularity of jazz. • Jazz became associated with all things modern, sophisticated, and also decadent. • Men tended to sing in a high pitched voice, typified by Harold Scrappy Lambert, one of the popular recording artists of the decade.

49. Sweet Music = Race Music • The music that people consider today as "jazz" tended to be played by minorities. • In the 1920s, the majority of people listened to what we would call today "sweet music", with hardcore jazz categorized as "hot music" or "race music."

50. Sweet Music = Race Music • Louis Armstrong marked the time with improvisations and endless variations on a single melody, popularizing scat singing: • An improvisational vocal technique in which nonsensical syllables are sung or otherwise vocalized, often as part of a call-and-response interaction with other musicians on-stage.