America In the Roaring 20’s

 

Theme: A disillusioned American turned away from idealism after World War One and toward a new mass-consumption, pro-business economy and exciting new forms of popular culture that undermined many traditional values.

 

1. Americans “turned inward” as a disillusioned reaction to WWI. The rise of the KKK, the “Red Scare” and immigration restriction especially reflected a desire to preserve America against “alien” influences.

 

2. The Scopes trial was a focal point of the deep conflicts over religion and culture in the 1920’s.

 

3. innovations such as credit buying, advertising, and automobile travel weakened the old Protestant ethic with a new emphasis on pleasure and excitement.

 

4. American culture was radically transformed in its moral and sexual values due to such developments  as movies, birth control, Freudian psychology, jazz, and writers who focused on moral hypocrisy of previous generations. Women were especially effected.

 

 

The Politics of Boom and Bust

 

Theme: The Republican administrations of the prosperous 20’s pursued conservative, pro-business policies at home and economic unilateralism abroad.

 

Theme: The Great Crash of 1929 led to severe, prolonged depression that devastated the American economy and the spirit of the American people.

 

1. Republican economic and political conservatism of the 20’s was characterized by a pro-business bias, hostility to progressive social and economic regulation, and high tariffs to isolate the US economy from a troubled world economy.

 

2. The roots of the Great Depression are a complex mixture of a parochial view of the American economy, lack of adequate “controls” and regulation, overproduction, false optimism, and greed.

 

3. Herbert Hoover, an honest and compassionate man, was the prisoner of his own beliefs. His actions to aid business but not individuals could not cope with the magnitude of the crash.