1920s
A New Era
Politics
Through the 1920s, three Republican
presidents would control the
executive branch
 Warren Harding, Calvin Coolidge,
and Herbert Hoover

Politics

Congress was
solidly
Republican
Republican Control
U.S. business
boomed
 Farmers & labor
unions struggled

Business Doctrine

Limited
government
regulation as an
aid in helping
business
Business Doctrine

The nation would benefit if business
& the pursuit of profits took the lead
in developing the economy
New Culture

The Census
reported that, for
the first time, more
than half of the
American
population lived in
urban areas
New Culture
Culture of the cities was based on:
 Popular tastes
 Habits of mass consumption

New Culture

Increasingly at
odds with the strict
religious and
moral codes of
rural America
New Culture
Jazz Age
 Harlem Renaissance
 Consumerism
 Impact of the Automobile

New Culture
Entertainment (radio, rise of movie
industry)
 Popular heroes (Jack Dempsey, Babe
Ruth, Bobby Jones)

Literature of Alienation

Many leading writers of the postwar
decade bitterly condemned the
sacrifices of wartime as a fraud
perpetrated by money interests
Lost Generation
Disillusionment caused writer
Gertrude Stein to call these writers a
“lost generation”
 F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest
Hemingway, Sinclair Lewis

Lost Generation

Expressed disillusionment with the
ideals of an earlier time & with the
materialism of a business-oriented
culture
Cultures in Conflict

Dominant social and political issues
of the 1920s expressed sharp
divisions in U.S. society
Cultures in Conflict: Divisions
Between young & old
 Between urban modernists & rural
fundamentalists
 Between prohibitionists & antiprohibitionists
 Between nativists & foreign-born

Impact of Automobiles
Helped the economy to boom
 Spurred the building of paved roads,
service stations, garages
 Gave people freedom to travel
 Led to urban sprawl
 Gave Americans a new status symbol

Impact of Automobiles
Company or Product: Model T Ford
 Cost - $290 (Model A - $495)
 Available in colors (Model A – black
only)

Airplane Industry


Established a new
means of
transportation for
people and goods
Gave people
greater freedom to
travel
Electricity – Alternating Current
Made it possible to distribute electric
power over greater areas
 Led to the electrification of homes
and widespread use of electrical
appliances
 Made housewives’ work easier—
freeing them up for other activities

Electricity – Alternating Current
Helped the economy to boom
 Company or Product—Electric
refrigerator

Advertising
Created greater demand for consumer
goods
 Increased sales and profits
 Turned luxuries into necessities
 Helped the economy to boom
 Company or product - Listerine

Installment Plan
Helped the economy to boom
 Helped to create a false sense of
prosperity
 Allowed people to buy goods over an
extended period of time without
having to put up much money at the
time of purchase

Installment Plan

Company or Product - Automobiles