Society ChangesAn Age of Uncertainty

(1919 to 1929)

A Forecast of What is to Come…

Society Prior to WWI

1. Certain

2. Traditional

3. Safe

4. Hopeful

An Age of Uncertainty

• Beliefs, tradition, and culture began to be

reshaped at a rapid rate with the progression

of science and technology. The cognitive

dissonance and instability created a society of

doubt and fear, many believed the world was

heading toward complete chaos and anarchy

because of the changes that occurred.

Fundamentalism

• Fundamentalism = belief that the

Bible is literary truth (word for word)

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Fundamentalism

• Challenges to Fundamentalism

1) Science & technology took large role in

everyday life

2) War & society’s problems caused

questioning of God’s existence

3) Scholars questioning the Bible

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Fundamentalism

• Scopes Trial = Tennessee

court case over the

teaching of evolution

• John T. Scopes found

guilty

• Exposed the divide

between rural and urban

America

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Science and Uncertainty

Science challenged deeply rooted

ideas that people had established to

define their lives, themselves, and

the world.

Science and Uncertainty• Albert Einstein

• Theory of Relativity

• NO Absolute Law of Motion / Gravity

• Sigmund Freud

• Human Behavior

• Unconscious

• Id / Ego / Super Ego

Einstein

FreudDream Analysis & Oedipus Complex

Uncertainty Creates Fear…

• People Become Fearful of the Unknown. In

Russia the Russian Revolution Results In A

New Governing System: COMMUNISM

• In the United States people fear a similar

revolution/change… the result is the Red

Scare.

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Red Scare

• Red Scare

– Intense fear of

communism

• Palmer Raids

– Govn’t attempt to root out

groups who were seen as

threats

• Communists

• Socialists

• anarchists

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Foreign Policy• Americans were weary

after the Great War• Warren G. Harding

promised normalcy for Americans

• Isolation– Avoiding political or

economic alliances with foreign countries

• Disarmament– Program where

nations voluntarily gave up their weapons

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Warren G. Harding’s Inauguration

Limit on Immigration

• American feelings on

immigrants

a. Questioned loyalty to U.S.

b. Disliked Catholics & Jews

c. At fault for crime and

slums in the city

d. Took jobs from native

born workers

e. Had political agendas

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Sacco and Vanzetti

• Charged with robbery and

murder weeks after crime

was committed

• Convicted and sentenced to

death

• Public perception negative

was because they were

immigrants with socialist

sympathies

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Limit on Immigration

• U.S. govn’t set a quota

• Quota

– Numerical limit on

immigrants from

specific countries

– Italy, Poland, Russia

– Stopped 100% of Asian

immigration

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Fear Creates Hate…

• Sacco & Vanzetti

• Revival of the KKK.

• Rosewood.

• Duluth Lynchings.

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Racial Tensions

• KKK revival

• Terrorizing African

Americans

– Jews

– Catholics

– Whites sympathetic

to African Americans

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Racial Tensions

• Lynching reaches

all time high

• Public awareness

and backlash lead

to suppression of

KKK by 1927

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Racial Tensions

• Marcus Garvey• Universal Negro

Improvement Association (UNIA)

• Return to “Motherland Africa”

• $10 million raised and “Black Star” purchased

• 1925 jailed on fraud charges

• Inspiration for future black pride movements

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SOCIETY CHANGES…

PROHIBITIONCRIME WOMENENTERTAINMENT &CULTURE

Prohibition

• 18th Amendment

• Prohibition

– Ban on sale &

consumption of alcohol

– Obeyed by 95% of pop.

In Kansas vs. 5% of

pop. In NYC

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Prohibition

• Bootleggers

– Suppliers of illegal

alcohol

• Speakeasies

– Illegal bars

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Prohibition

PROS CONS

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Organized Crime

Al Capone “Scarface”

– Bootlegging

– Gambling

– Prostitution

– Racketeering

– Eventually jailed for tax evasion 27

Women and Society

• Women’s Suffrage• Clothing (Flappers) • Hair Styles• Make-Up• Social Behaviors• Feminism• Margaret Sanger &

Emma Goldman• Jobs• Dating Rituals

Women’s Suffrage

• Proposed June, 4 1919

• Passed August, 18 1920

• 19th Amendment

– No U.S. citizen can be denied the right to

vote because of their sex

• Gives women sense of identity and

personal power

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Changing Role of Women

• Flappers

– Women:

• young, rebellious, fun,

and bold

• Working

– Low paying jobs with

little responsibility

– Rarely made careers out

of positions

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Gertrude Ederle

Jazz Age• 1920s known as the Jazz Age

– Duke Ellington

– Bessie Smith

– Louie Armstrong

34http://youtube.com/watch?v=vnRqYMTpXHc

Jazz

• New Orleans, Memphis, and Chicago were the

birthplace of this musical explosion. Jazz captured

the freedom of the age in a lively loose beat.

Jazz

Duke Ellington

Louis Armstrong

Dance

Swing Charleston Blackbottom

Harlem Renaissance

• Harlem Renaissance = African American

literary awakening of the 1920s

• Attracted bright, young, talented African

Americans to New York

• Brought sense of pride and identity to

African American culture

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Technology and Travel

• Automobiles-Henry Ford

• Planes-Charles Lindbergh-Amelia Earhart

• Radio-BBC

Henry Ford

Charles Lindbergh

Mass Media

• Print and broadcast

information to a large

number of people

• Changes U.S. from

various geographic

cultures to one

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Entertainment & Expression

• Movies• Sound• Hollywood vs. Europe• Charlie Chaplin

Movies

• Hollywood

– Center for industry

• Movies were silent

before 1927

• The Jazz Singer

– 1st “talkie”

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Charlie Chaplin

Newspapers

• Increased by size and number of readers in 1920s

• Created a common U.S. culture– Read same events– Received same

information– Influenced by same

ideas

• William Randolph Hearst– 20+ newspapers in

different cities

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Radio

• National Broadcasting Company = NBC– Connected nation– People heard the

same…• Jokes• Baseball games• Boxing matches• Church sermons• Political speeches

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Babe Ruth

Flag Pole SittingAlvin

“Shipwreck” Kelly

Business Boom• Consumer economy

– One that depends on a large amount of buying

• Before 1920 Americans paid for everything with cash

• Credit

– Installment plan

• Partial payments made in intervals until total

debt is paid off

• Encourage people to buy things they

normally wouldn’t51

Installment Plans were used to purchase…

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80%

70%

60%

90%