The New EraUrban role in the New Era—1920 marks

urban/rural divide

Aimee Semple McPherson, who disappeared May 18, 1926,

while swimming near Venice Beach. Not a trace of her body

could be found. After 32 days, Aimee stumbled out of the desert near Douglas,

Arizona. She claimed that she had been kidnapped, tortured,

drugged, and held for ransom in a shack in Mexico.

It was soon noted that her shoes showed no sign of a 13-

hour hike. And the shack where she claimed that she had been

held could not be found.

However, in support of her story, there had been threats

against Aimee's life in the previous year, and a plot to

kidnap her had been foiled in September 1925.

Billy Sunday, who was more noted for

his "fire-and-brimstone"

approach to evangelism.

The Roaring Economy of The Jazz Age, The Era of Wonderful Nonsense, The Roaring Twenties, The Decade of Fear and Intolerance

Henry Ford—standardization,

mass production and assembly line; “a motor car for the multitude”:spin-off industries multiply

Doctrine of high wages–

Ford’s “Five-Dollar Day” good for national economy, but factory workspawned “Fordization of the Face”

A car culture—fueled urban

sprawl, roadside culture, youth rebellion

The garage where Henry Ford began his auto career; Ford next to his $290 Model T, and later in life

A typical rebellious youth.

Corporate consolidation—Feds allow oligs; Mom/Pops dying

Managerial elite—managers separated from owner/shareholders; scientific management

The American Plan—union busting + welfare capitalism

Role of Advertising—not products but desires

Installment buying as credit— “borrow against tomorrow” misled producers and consumers

Ads from the 1920’s for a luxury Packard and a railroad.

A Mass Society

Margaret Sanger—90% college

educated using contraception by the 30’s

Equal RightsAmendment—opposed by men

and those afraid women would lose protections and benefits

Motion picturesCharles Lindbergh—and a couple salami sandwiches

0521: May 21, 1927  

A scene from The Great Train Robbery, the first

feature-length film; Theda Bara, “the vamp”; and

Charlie Chaplin, who played “the little tramp”

in many films.

Charles Lindbergh, the

“Lone Eagle” and his Spirit of

St. Louis.

Invention of TelevisionPhilo T. Farnsworth got the idea for television when he was 14 years

old, living on a potato farm in Idaho. His high school science teacher had gotten him interested in electricity, and he studied electrical engineering in his spare time. One day, he was tilling a potato field, walking with the horse back and forth, when he suddenly had a vision of a machine that could break an image down, line by line, and then reconstruct it on a screen.

He finished high school in just two years and then went to Brigham Young University. But dropped out to pursue his dream of creating the electric television. He got some investors together and set up a laboratory in San Francisco. And it was there that he pointed his Image Dissector at a picture of a single line and turned on the receiver, which showed the same picture of a single line. Farnsworth then rotated the picture 90 degrees, and the people watching the receiver saw it rotate. When the demonstration was complete, Farnsworth said, "There you are, electronic television."

But Farnsworth never got much credit for his invention. He turned down offers from both RCA and General Electric because he wanted to be an independent. But he had little business expertise, and instead of spending his time developing television for a mass audience, he got bogged down in a series of lawsuits. The biggest battle of Farnsworth's life was a court battle with RCA over the control of his patent. RCA claimed that one of their engineers already held a patent on the technology Farnsworth had developed. Farnsworth finally won the case in 1934, but RCA decided to just wait until Farnsworth's patents ran out before they began manufacturing televisions without paying Farnsworth anything.

Farnsworth never became famous for his invention, and later felt that he'd created a kind of monster. He never owned a television himself, and refused to let his son watch it.

Spectator sportsJazz

Babe Ruth, the “Sultan of Swat”; Jack Dempsey, the “Manassas

Mauler”; and the “Four Horsemen” of Notre Dame.

Louis Armstrong, one of the

Jazz greats of the

1920’s and beyond.

Expatriates— “nihilism” or no

meaning in life; anti-American dream

Marcus Garvey– “Up you mighty race”

Harlem Renaissance

Expatriate American writers like Ezra

Pound, T.S. Eliot, and Ernest Hemingway rejected American

values and headed overseas.

White New Yorkers

went “slumming

” to Harlem and the Cotton Club to

see black entertain-

ers

Decade of Fear and Intolerance

Sacco and Vanzetti—foreign birth/

political beliefs, not evidence fries them

Mexican Americans—labor demand

causes Southwest populations to explode, eastern cities, too

National Origins acts—3% quotas

aimed at specific areas of world: Asians, eastern and southern Europeans virtually excluded

Sacco and Vanzetti (above) and a cartoon

that equates their conviction and

execution to a witch hunt.

END OF READING

Eighteenth Amendment—can’t make, sell, transport, or import more than 0.5 alcohol

Consequences of Prohibition—hard liquor,

women’s rights, crime

Protesters against the 18th; police making a raid; men in a “speakeasy”; and mobster Al

“Scarface” Capone, who dominated Chicago alcohol,

prostitution, and crime.

The Fundamentals—Bible’s every word literally true

Scopes trial—creation vs. evolution

Charles Darwin, who during his voyage to the

Galapagos Islands on board The Beagle developed ideas

that would lead to his theory of evolution.

John Scopes, who “test taught”

evolution in Dayton,

Tennessee.

The packed courtroom.

Attorneys Clarence

Darrow and William

Jennings Bryan.

KKK—Indianapolis center of storm;6 govs., 3 senators

Klan marches and

demonstrations in Washington,

D.C., Lincoln, Nebraska

(below), and Georgia; a Klan

couple.

Klodes, klasps, klaverns, Kleagles and Grand Wizards

Republicans Ascendant

Warren G. Harding– “normalcy,”

the scandalized version

Calvin Coolidge—minimalist government

Calvin “Silent Cal” Coolidge; Teapot Dome cartoon.

Warren G. Harding and his “buddies” Attorney General Harry Daugherty and Secretary of

the Interior Albert B. Fall.

Coolidge was a man of few words, famous for his dry wit. One Sunday morning, reporters were waiting outside a church where the president was attending services. When he emerged, a reporter asked, “What was the sermon about, Mr. President?” Coolidge replied, “Sin.” The reporter persevered: “What did the preacher say about sin, Mr. President?” “He’s against it,” Coolidge said. Another time, a woman approached him and said, “I bet my friend I could get you to say more than two words.” President Coolidge said, “You lose.”

Associationalism—Hoover’s

cooperation between government and business: actually helped consolidate big business power at expense of public interest

The Dawes Plan—German reparations reduced,

American loans made so European debts could be repaid

Kellog-Briand Pact—wars outlawed but who’s

the sheriff?

Andrew Mellon, treasury secretary for both Harding and Coolidge, who

believed that wealth “trickled down,” so he cut taxes for wealthy;

Commerce Secretary Herbert Hoover, who believed in “Associationalism” in

the public interest.

Businessman Charles G.

Dawes (above) and Secretary of State Frank

Kellogg.

The Great Bull MarketNew blood—new super-aggressive investors push out conservatives

New money—expanded money supply encourages bulls to borrow to buy stock; “buying on margin” averaged 50% of price: banks, brokers, borrowers vulnerable

Role of the Crash—did not cause GD, but emptied pockets of many, crushed optimism

The scene outside the New York Stock Exchange on

Wall Street on “Black Tuesday.”

Consumer debt and uneven distribution of wealth—1% controlling 36% of wealth can’t spend fast enough to sustain economy

Banking system—half bankers/half brokers too speculative

Corporate structure and public policy—no government

regulation of stock exchange: money makes people “shady”

“Sick” industries— “Roaring 20’s

missed central industries, farming Economic ignorance—high

U.S./European tariffs trump trade; easy money, low interest rates spur speculation