1920s

Known as the "Roaring Twenties"  The economy roared except for 2 brief periods and the automobile was central to the boom. 

Movie industry most popular form of entertainment:  KDKA out of Pittsburgh was the first commercial radio station. 
Sports grew:  Boxing, Baseball, Football

Red Scare

The "FLAPPER" was the new woman

Writers expressed disillusionment:  Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Henry Mencken, Sinclair Lewis

African Americans continued to experience discrimination:  Marcus Garvey estab. United Nego Improvement Association to promote black pride and nationalism;  eventually found guilty of defrauding investors and deported.

Harlem Renaissance:  a period of exceptional black writing and expressed black nationalism:  Langston Hughes was known as the poet laureate of Harlem, Alaine Locke was the first black to be awarded a Rhodes Scholarship; black musicians:  Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington

Strong anti-immigrant mood in America:  NATIVISM; Sacco-Vanzetti was a prime example

KKK revival:  re-organized  in 1915 by Methodist minister William Simmons at Stone Mountain, Georgia; a new movie, "The Birth of a Nation" glorified the Klan

Fundamentalism emerges as science clashed with religion:  The Scopes Monkey Trial in Dayton, TN was evidence of this; two famous attorneys:  Clarence Darrow and William Jennings Bryan

PROHIBITION was an issue:  18th Amendment banned sale of alcohol;  didn't work as "Speakeasies" were started in larger cities;  mobsters such as Al Capone and "Bugsy" Moran become famous

President Warren G. Harding, elected in 1920, died of a massive heart attack in August, 1923.  He had campaigned on the slogan, "A Return to Normalcy."  This resonated with Americans following World War I.  Calvin Coolidge became President.

Election of 1924:  Coolidge (Republican) defeated John Davis, the Democrat nominee; was division in the Democratic party; some supported Al Smith, New York governor, a Catholic, and William McAdoo, as strict prohibitionst from California; the party chose Davis.

Election of 1928:  Coolidge chose not to run:  Herbert Hoover, Republican, defeated Al Smith after the Republicans attacked Smith and his Cathoic religion and urbanism.  Republicans carried 5 southern states.....they had not done this since Reconstruction.  Huge voter turnout. 

Charles Lindbergh flight, housing growth, credit buying, raise in standard of living, 19th amendment

1929:  BEGINNING OF THE GREAT DEPRESSION:  Started with the collapse of the Stock Market in October, 1929.  Investors lost life savings.  Hoover received much of the blame but he was not responsible for its start:  the American economy had collapsed; Nothing that Hoover tried to end the depression would work.  Americans elected FRANKLIN DELANO ROOSEVELT in 1932, a Democrat. 

ELECTION OF 1932:  Roosevelt (FDR) elected overwhelmingly carrying 42 of 48 states, 89% of the electoral vote and democrats gained a majority in both houses of Congress.  FDR said "Happy Days Are Here Again" which was a popular campaign song.

Roosevelt's plan for ending the depression was known as THE NEW DEAL.  The first thing he did as part of this was to declare a Banking Holiday in which all banks were closed to assess their assets.  Many interesting and new initiatives were part of his New Deal, many which still exist today:  Example:  FDIC, SOCIAL SECURITY, TENNESSEE VALLEY AUTHORITY, BOULDER DAM, GRAND COULEE DAM

ELECTION OF 1936:  FDR re-elected by landslide, defeating Alfred Landon of Kansas

Supreme Court did not support many of FDR's initiative, striking them down as unconstitutional, resulting in FDR attempting to reform the Supreme Court, one of his worst mistakes.  He was attempting to get justices who would support his new programs. 

Another economic downturn in 1937 also weakened FDR's popularity.

I MUST EMPHASIZE THAT FDR'S NEW DEAL NEVER ENDED THE GREAT DEPRESSION and by 1939, the New Deal was dead.  It is said that FDR went too far to the LEFT ideologically. 

While the world was dealing with economic depression in the 1930s, totalitarian governments were rising in Europe and Asia:  Hitler and the Nazis in Germany, Mussolini and the Fascists in Italy, and a military government in Japan. 

A strong ISOLATIONIST attitude existed in the United States following World War I and continued into the 1930s.  This will affect how the United States responded to events involving these totalitarian governments in the 1930s.
EXAMPLES:  Japan seized Manchuria in northeastern China in 1931 and invaded more of China in 1937 and sank the USS Panay, killing 2 Americans.  In 1935, Benito Mussolini attacked Ethiopia and captured it in 1936.  Adolph Hiter, who had become Chancellor of Germany in 1933, ordered German troops to move into the Rhineland, a part of Germany, and this was in direct violation of the Treaty of Versailles and sent German troops to assist the Fascist, Francisco Franco, in overthrowing the government of Spain. 

FDR realized that the U.S. needed to be involved in international affairs.  He attempted to establish warmer relations with the Soviet Union by recognizing  them in 1933.

WORLD WAR II
Officially stared on September 1, 1939 when Hitler invaded Poland.  The United States declared our neutrality.  The United States will clearly support Great Britain against Germany, Italy, and Japan, known as the Axis powers.  The United States will not enter the war until after the Japanese attack teh United States at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on December 7, 1941.