-
1920’s Economy
The manufacturing process was made more efficient by the improved methods of mass production such as the perfected system for manufacturing automobiles by means of an assembly line by Henry Ford. -
1920’s African American Identity
The United Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) was brought to Harlem by Marcus Garvey who advocated individual and racial pride for African Americans and developed political ideas of black nationalism; Garvey established an organization for black separatism, economic self-sufficiency, and a back-to-Africa movement, this idea of thinking helped inspire a later generation to embrace the cause of black pride and nationalism. -
1920’s Politics
Through the 1920s, Republicans controlled the executive branch as well as Congress and while U.S. business boomed, farmers and unions struggled. -
1920’s Economy
President Harding approved (1) a reduction in the income tax, (2) an increase in tariff rates under the Fordney-McCumber Tariff Act of 1922, and (3) establishment of the Bureau of the Budget, with procedures for all government expenditures to be placed in a single budget for Congress to review and vote on. -
1920’s Economy
Government at all levels in the 1920s favored the growth of big business by offering corporate tax cuts and doing almost nothing to enforce the antitrust laws of the Progressive era -
1920's Culture
Jazz became a symbol of the "new" and "modern" culture of the cities. -
1920's Culture
The most significant change in the lives of young men and women of the 1920s was their revolt against sexual taboos. -
Religion
A range of influences caused large numbers of Protestants to define their faith in new ways; modernists took a historical and critical view of certain passages in the Bible and believed they could accept Darwin's theory of evolution without abandoning their religious faith. -
Religion
Protestant preachers in rural areas condemned the modernists and taught that every word in the Bible must be accepted as literally true; a key point in fundamentalist doctrine was that creationism (the idea that God had created the universe in seven days, as stated in the Book of Genesis) explained the origin of all life. -
1920's Literature
Scorning religion as hypocritical and bitterly condemning the sacrifices of wartime as a fraud perpetrated by money interests were the dominant themes of the leading writers of the postwar decade; this disillusionment caused the writer Gertrude Stein to call these writers a "lost generation". -
1920’s African American Identity
The largest African American community developed in the Harlem section of New York City; Harlem became famous in the 1920s for its concentration of talented actors, artists, musicians, and writers, so promising that their artistic achievement was referred to as the Harlem Renaissance -
1920’s African American Identity
The leading Harlem poets commented on the African American heritage, their poems expressed a range of emotions, from bitterness and resentment to joy and hope. -
Prohibition
Prohibition didn't stop people from drinking alcohol either in public places or at home. -
1920's Culture
Electricity in their homes enabled millions of Americans to purchase new consumer appliances of the decade while advertising expanded as business found that consumers' demand for new products could be manipulated by appealing to their desires for status and popularity. -
1920's Culture
Newspapers had once been the only medium of mass communication and entertainment; however, a new medium - the radio - appeared and enabled people from one end of the country to the other to listen to the same programs: news broadcasts, sporting events, soap operas, quiz shows, and comedies. -
1920’s Literature
Other common themes in 1920s literature included sexuality and the human capacity to seek pleasure and happiness. -
1920's Politics
Republican presidents believed that probusiness policies brought prosperity at home and at the same time strengthened U.S. dealings with other nations; thus, they found it natural to use diplomacy to advance American business interests in Latin America and other regions. -
1920's Literature
Poets of the Harlem Renaissance commented on African American heritage, expressing a range of emotions. -
Immigration
Quota laws were two laws passed by Congress that severely limited immigration by setting quotas based on nationality. -
1920's Politics
The Republican presidents of the 1920s tried to promote peace and also scale back expenditures on defense by arranging treaties of disarmament; the most successful disarmament conference - and the greatest achievement of Harding's presidency - was held in Washington, DC which initiated talks on naval disarmament and to relieve tension. -
Immigration
The new Ku Klux Klan not only directed their hostility against blacks but also against anyone "un-American"/ -
Stock Market Crash
Although stock prices had fluctuated greatly for several weeks preceding the crash, the true panic did not begin until Black Thursday, where there was an unprecedented volume of selling on Wall Street, and stock prices plunged. -
Stock Market Crash
While the collapse of the stock market may have triggered economic turmoil, it alone was not responsible for the Great Depression. -
1920's Economy
Europe's difficulties with their economy and repaying war debt contributed to the depression in the United States, which in turn became the worldwide Great Depression. -
Herbert Hoover’s Policies
President Hoover decided to respond to a worldwide depression by signing the Hawley-Smoot Tariff, which was a schedule of tariff rates that was the highest in history increasing from 31 percent to 49 percent on foreign imports; however, European countries enacted higher tariffs of their own against U.S. goods, and proposed a moratorium (suspension) on the payment of international debts which made the international economy suffer. -
Dust Bowl
A severe drought ruining crops in the Great Plains was called to be known as the dust bowl, as poor farming practices coupled with high winds blew away millions of tons of dried topsoil. -
1920's Culture
To supplement the family income during the depression, more women sought work and their percentage of the total labor force increased; however, women were accused of taking jobs from men and many New Deal programs allowed women to receive lower pay than men. -
Dust Bowl
With farmers' farms turned to dust, thousands of "Okies" from Oklahoma and surrounding states migrated westward to California in search of farm or factory work that often could not be found. -
1920’s African American Identity
Racial discrimination continued in the 1930s with devastating effects on African Americans, who were the last hired, first fired; their unemployment rate was higher than the national average. -
1920's Politics
President Hoover believed the nation could get through the difficult times if the people took his advice about exercising voluntary action and restraint and hesitated to ask Congress for legislative action on the economy, afraid that government assistance to individuals would destroy their self-reliance; however, he recognized the need for direct government action, but took the traditional view that public relief should come from state and local gov't not federal gov't. -
Herbert Hoover’s Policies
President Hoover tried to install domestic programs such as the Federal Farm Board, which was authorized to help farmers stabilize prices by temporarily holding surplus grain and cotton in storage, but the program was too modest to handle the continued overproduction of farm goods, and the Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC) which was created as a measure for propping up faltering railroads, banks, life insurance companies, and other financial institutions. -
New Deal Programs
F.D.R.'s New Deal programs were to serve the three R's: relief for people out of work, recovery for business and the economy as a whole, and reform of economic institutions. -
Prohibition
The 21st amendment repealing the 18th amendment was ratified, and millions celebrated the new year by toasting the end of Prohibition. -
1920's Politics
The twentieth amendment (known as the lame-duck amendment), shortened the period between presidential election and inauguration, setting the new date to January 20th for the started of a president's term in office. -
New Deal Programs
To restore confidence in those banks that were still solvent, President Franklin D. Roosevelt ordered the banks closed for a bank holiday, and went on the radio to explain that the banks would be reopened after allowing enough time for the government to reorganize them on a sound basis. -
New Deal Programs
Roosevelt kept a campaign promise to enact repeal of Prohibition and also raised needed tax money by having Congress pass the Beer-Wine Revenue Act, which legalized the sale of beer and wine. -
New Deal Programs
Roosevelt went on the radio to present the first of many fireside chats to the American people; the president assured his listeners that the banks which reopened after the bank holiday were now safe. -
New Deal Programs
Roosevelt persuaded Congress to enact the following measures: The Emergency Banking Relief Act authorized the gov't to examine the finances of banks closed during the bank holiday and reopen those judged to be sound, The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation guaranteed individual bank deposits up to 5000, The Home Owners Loan Corporation provided refinancing of small homes to prevent foreclosures, and The Farm Credit Administration provided low-interest farm loans and mortgages -
New Deal Programs
Roosevelt created programs for relief for the unemployed such as: The Public Works Administration allotted money to state and local govt's for building roads, bridges, dams, and other public works, The Civilian Conservation Corps employed young men on projects on federal lands and paid their families small monthly sums, The Tennessee Valley Authority hired thousands of people in the nation's poorest regions to build dams, operate electric power plants, control flooding and erosion, etc. -
New Deal Programs
President Roosevelt established the industrial recovery program which combined immediate relief and long-term reform to create the National Recovery Administration which was an attempt to guarantee reasonable profits for business and fair wages and hours for labor, it also gave workers the right to organize and bargain collectively. -
New Deal Programs
President Roosevelt created a farm production control program in which farmers were offered a program similar in concept to what the NRA did for industry; the Agricultural Adjustment Administration encouraged farmers to reduce production by offering to pay gov't subsidies for every acre they plowed under. -
New Deal Programs
President Roosevelt enacted: The Civil Words Administration which hired laborers for temporary construction projects sponsored by the federal gov't, The Securities and Exchange Commission to regulate the stock market and to place strict limits on the kind of speculative practices that had led to the Wall Street crash, the Federal Housing Administration gave both the construction industry and homeowners a boost by insuring bank loans for building new houses and repairing old ones. -
New Deal Programs
Roosevelt's first two years in office were largely focused on achieving one of the three R's: recovery; when he was reelected, his second New Deal was launched concentrated on the other two R's: relief and reform. -
New Deal Programs
Relief programs such as the Works Progress Administration was much larger than the relief agencies of the first New Deal, the WPA spend billions of dollars between 1935 and 1940 to provide people with jobs and one part of the WPA, the National Youth Administration, provided part-time jobs to help young people stay in high school and college or until they could get a job with a private employer. -
New Deal Programs
Another relief program was the Resettlement Administration which provided loans to sharecroppers, tenants, and small farmers; it also established federal camps where migrant workers could find decent housing. -
New Deal Programs
The National Labor Relations (Wagner) Act replaced the labor provisions of the National Industrial Recovery Act and guaranteed a worker's right to join a union and a union's right to bargain collectively; it also outlawed business practices that were unfair to labor and the National Labor Relations Board was empowered to enforce the law and make sure the workers' rights were protected. -
1920’s Economy
While the economy showed signs of gradually pulling out of its nosedive, it once again had a backward slide and entered into a recessionary period. -
1920’s Economy
The writings of economist John Keynes taught Roosevelt that he had made a mistake in attempting to balance the budget; As federal spending on public works and relief went up, so too did employment in industrial production; however, while the economy improved, there was no boom and problems remained. -
1920’s Literature
The writings of British economist John Maynard Keynes taught Roosevelt that had made a mistake in attempting to balance the budget and stated that deficient spending was acceptable because in difficult times the gov't needed to spend well above its tax revenues in order to initiate economic growth -
1920's Literature
The Grapes of Wrath was an economic heartbreak that was written by John Steinback and told about the hardships of the farmers during the dust bowl. -
1920’s African American Identity
An executive order set up a committee to assist minorities in gaining jobs in defense industries.
