Chapter 4 : America during the 1920s

• What's the first "Red Scare" ?

  • Paranoia surrounding communists in the US
  • After a series of bombings targeting conservative politicians and buisnessmen, A. Mitchell Palmer (US Attorney General) organized raids to arrest 6,000 suspects & punish leftist organizations
• What marked the Republican revival in the 20s ?

  • Three Republican president during the decade
  • Conservative offered a response to progressivism
  • After WW1, popular ideas : "return to normalcy" & "business as usual"
• Prohibition was introduced in the 18th amendment in 1919
• Why the prohibition ?

  • Alcohol was associated with social ills : domestic abuse, poverty, crime, disease
  • Also associated alcohol with immigrants (Irish in particular) bringing to the U.S. negative aspects of their cultures
• Reformists thought the abolition of alcohol would bring social progress, make the need for prisons and asylums obsolete, decrease crime
• Contrary to was the reformists thought, crime actually prospered during the Prohibition : organized crime smuggled alcohol and sold it on the black market
• With what did the prohibition end ?

  It ended in 1933 with the 21st amendment
• What meant consumption and consumerism ?

  Americans went from subsistence to enjoyment. Less money wa spent on necessities (food & utilities) and more on appliances and recreation
• Consumerism led to a generalization of the department store : everything under one roof and buying made into a "joy"
• Consumerism meant a rise of marketing techniques & experts, it also meant easier access to cars, generalization of electricty and the telephone transformed the American landscape
• The 20's were the golden age of hollywood : 700 movies in a year
• As well as Hollywood, Music industry booming too thanks to the phonograph and the radio
• What's "Slumming" ?


  The late night excursions by rich white individuals to Harlem cabarets where African American performed but weren't allowed in
• The 20's also meant some culture wars with the Christian fundamentalism and the rebirth of the Ku Klux Klan
• Christian fundamentalism is a blacklash against progressivism, science, and secularism. It fought the theory of evolution.
• The Protestant movements of Christian fundamentalism supported a literal interpretation of the Bible and clashed with Catholicism
• After public defeats from supporters of the Christian fundamentalism, they focused on local actions
• What's the Ku Klux Klan ?

  A White supremacist organization banned in 1877 that targeted African Americans, Catholics, Jews, & bootleggers
• In the 20's, The Ku Klux Klan expanded to Northern states, had public activities, endorsed politicians, between 3 and 5 millions members before fading
• Date of the Great Migration

  1910s-1930s
• Great Migration : In reaction to living conditions in the South, 1.6 million African Americans moved to the North. It led cities to adopt residential segregations plans (i.e. all-black neighborhoods)
• The Harlem Renaissance in the 20s was known at the time as the "New Negro movement", popularized by Alain Locke to express the new place of African Americans and African American culture in the U.S.