Lecture 1 The 1920s

Red Scare specific period in the US

Nativism Womens suffrage movementThe Great Migration Prohibition Organized crime The KKK
The 1920s period of transition in the US btw the WWI and the Great Depression.
Several features: A deep transformation of the American society due to the impact
of urbanization, industrialization and technological boom.
A kind of anxiety across the nation caused by the WWI, by the international
developments such as the Bolshevik revolution in Russia and caused by
fundamental changes within American society.
A consequence of these two, this decade was characterized by change and
resistance to change.
A period of transition and a period of contrasts btw prosperity and poverty, the
opposition btw conservatism and the liberalization of culture, btw greater personal
freedom and intolerance and discrimination.

I Economic changes
1. Demographic changes
Urbanization of the Us in connection with the industrialization in the US that
took place in the late19th century and also massive migration. The result is
that during the 1920s, the urban population exceeded the rural population for
the 1st time in national history.
2. Technological progress- there were many invention in the late 19 th century
that changed the American life the cinema, the telephone, the radio. The
most crucial of these changes was electricity that radically transformed the
economy. The progress favored the expansion of new industries such as the
automobile industry (Ford Motor Company major company at the time,
General Motors company), and the movie industry (the first silent movie was
released in 1927). It also transformed framing, farmers replaced mules and
horses by tractors, led to mechanization in farming. It also had a huge impact
on private life, this period right after invention and development of electricity,
witnessed the birth of consumer society, brand of new products, rise of
consumption, and development of advertising.
3. Economic consequences the expansion of industry and blab la created
prosperity, people were consuming goods, this prosperity wasnt shared
among the whole population. The beneficiaries of this expansion were
industrialists and businessmen, became rich mostly thanks to the reduction
of production costs. The victims were industrial laborers and farmeres. This

category was the first affected by the depression that followed the WWI in
1919-1921 a lot of unemployment hard times for poor people. In this
period there was a drop in agricultural prices, and overproduction poverty in
the cities. Many people, workers, couldnt afford to buy the goods that were
produced, as a result there was a widening gap btw the rich and poor. With
the growth of consumer society, those who couldnt afford to buy goods,
bought them on credit. By the end of the 1920s consumer credit had soared
by the end of the decade. This contributed to a false impression of prosperity,
in reality, the economy was not solid.
II the political evolution
1. Pro-business ideology after the WWI the economy went back to laissez-faire
ideology. Introduced notion of regulation of business that curbed the excesses
of capitalism. The national coalitical leadership was controlled by probusiness republicans.
2. The Red Scare (1919-1920) It was triggered by the fear of revolution
(Bolshevik revolution-1917). Anti-communist hysteria following the WWI, and
it especially targeted immigrants from eastern and southern Europe (Sacco
and Vanzetti falsely accused of murder and executed). Fear of communists,
anarchists, socialists.
3. Nativism consists in the rejection of new immigrants, in the fear that new
immigrants who were not White Anglo-Saxon Portestants (WASP) would not
be easily assimilated into the American society, and that they would
overwhelm the whit American society. As a result of this fear, there was a
new immigration policy in reaction to recent waves of immigration from
eastern and southern Europe (diff culture, religion, customs). The main
policy was voted in 1924 The Immigration Act/ National Origins Act. This law
imposed a limit/quota on the number of immigrants allowed to enter the US.
The quota provided immigration visas to 2% of the total number of people of
each nationality in the US as of the 1890 census (goal to accept a majority of
northern and western Europeans, and a minority of eastern and southern
Europeans). Btw 1900 and 1910, 20 000 Italians immigrated per year, after
1924 only 4000 were allowed per year. As opposed to immigrants from
Germany, after 1924, 57 000 Germans were allowed per year. Countries like
Italy and Poland which had contributed few immigrants before 1920s, had
limited visas. This law completely excluded Asians, who were not allowed in
the US anymore. There were no limits on immigration from Latin American
countries. President Coolidge signed the law, he declared: America must be
kept American.
III Society
Several factors contributed to the liberalization of society to the decline of
the traditional moral codes, and the immersion of new values.
1. Women things changed for women in the 1920s. They benefitted from
changes that had occurred from the 1890s. They enjoyed greater individual
freedom thanks to economic, social and political developments. Two main
factors of change for women in the late 19th century: urbanization and

industrialization of the US resulted in development of womens education

and as a consequence more access to work, women were nurses, teahcers,
some worked in factories, black women were kept apart from these
develoments still victims of discrimination and racism. The majority of them
were agricultural laborers or domestic workers. The Suffrage Movement
womens suffrage had been an issue since the 19 th century. It reemerged in
the early 20th century with the Suffragist Movement that still excluded black
women from their fight. In 1920 there was a national victory, with the
ratification of the 19th amendment, women were officially entitled to vote.
2. African Americans suffered from segregation, major difference btw the north
and the south. In the south segregation was legal. In the 1920s, southern
blacks had lost virtually all their right (voting, free access to most public
places, degrading jobs, treated as inferior by whites, victims of direct violence
such as lynching). Lynching was considered as an act of justice in the
segregated society of the South. In the north racism and discrimination
existed, but were not imposed by law, institutionalized. De facto/de jure
segregation
Lynching existed in the West too as an act of justice. Many white people were
lynched in the west as well, thieves, delinquents. The system existed up until
1960s. Many black people decided to move to north and leave south. In 1915
massive migration of southern blacks to the large cities of the north (NYC,
Chicago, Detroit), and cities in the mid-west (St. Louis). It was called the
Great Migration, btw 1915-16 and 1970, 6 million blacks migrated. They
suffered from segregation and discrimination in the north as well. This
migration also resulted in creation of ghettos (negative). Positive
consequence emergence of a new black culture. With its birth came the
assertion of a new identity, when black people started saying they were
proud of being black. Example The Harlem Renaissance (Richard Wright
Black Boys, American Hunger).
3. Conservative reactions to change a clear geographical divide btw north and
south that existed long before, with it you can see a clear separation btw very
conservative people (traditionalists) who lived mostly in rural areas in the
mid-west and the south, and more liberal (progressive) people living in cities
in north and east. This geography is reflected in 2 major movements of the
period that symbolized the change Prohibition = voted in 1919 when the
18th amendment was ratified (legislative decision) and it instituted prohibiton
which banned the sale, manufacture and transportation of alcohol, it was
known as the Noble experiment. This system was questioned right from the
start, and people came up with diff systems, and ways to get round the ban
(some ppl got cases of alcohol before, some had drs prescription) byt 1924 it
was a failure. Organized crime was born as a result of prohibition, it organized
the illegal production and sale of alcohol they smuggled in rum from the
Caribbean, whiskey from Canada, and people had homemade stills. These
people became businessmen and made fortunes out of this system, it was
illegal, but they became rich Al Capone. Prohibition was repealed in
December 1933 by the 21st amendment. The second movement of the period
was the KKK- in the 1920s was a different version of the KKK. First KKK was in

the period of reconstruction after the Civil war 1869 The 1 st version was
dedicated to the restoration of white supremacy after the defeat of the south
in the civil war, and it was limited to the south and it didnt last very long, just
a few years. The second clan was not limited to the south, it was created in
1915 and developed in the mid-west in the far-west and the south. The main
goals were also to defend white supremacy, Americanism and to defend
Protestant Christianity. They were anti-Catholic (Irish), anti-Semitic, and
nativists. They were very conservative, they supported prohibition, and
fundamentalist religion (scriptures, literal reading of the bible). This second
version reached its peak in 1925, it was very influential in politics for a few
years, and then rapidly declined.

The 1920s presented the US entry into the modern age. Many controversial issues
that emerged then are still alive today. Among those issues tension btw religion of
science, the role of the government in the economy, the definition of the American
national identity, the role of the US in international relations and affairs.
The tension btw religion of science took a form of debate btw creationism/intelligent
design (earth and human beings created by God) and evolutionism (Darwin). Most
of the southern states but also in the west are attached to creationism. In the 1920s
there was a very famous event the Scopes (Monkey) Trial 1925 in Tennessee
Scopes was a biology teacher and wanted to test the ban, he was supported by the
ACLU (about civil liberties), he taught evolutionism and it all went to court because
he was not allowed to do that. He lost the trial because it was forbidden to teach
evolutionism. The lawyers who represented him and the schools were covered by
the media in the US nad the rest of the world. He lost the trial, but evolutionists won
bc they managed to prove how ridiculous the creationists arguments were.