Chapter 20

Give Me Liberty!An American History

Second EditionVolume 2

Norton Media Library

byEric Foner

I. Decade of prosperityA. Prevalence of business valuesB. Industrial boom

1. Surging productivity and output2. Emergence of new industries3. Central role of automobile

C. Consumer society1. Consumer goods

a) Proliferationb) Marketingc) Impact on daily life

1) Telephone2) Household appliances

I.Decade of prosperity (cont’d)C.Consumer society

2.Leisure activitiesa) Vacationsb) Movies

1) Popularity of2) Hollywood’s rising dominance of global film

industryc) Sporting eventsd) Radio and phonographe) Celebrity culture

3.New valuesa) Growing acceptance of consumer debtb) Shifting ideas of purpose and value of work

I.Decade of prosperity (cont’d)D.Limits of prosperity

1. Unequal distribution of wealth, income2. Ongoing concentration of industry3. Scale of poverty, unemployment4. Deindustrialization in the North5. Rural depression

a) Passing of wartime “golden age” for agriculture”b) Drop in farm incomes, rise in foreclosuresc) Decline in number of farms and farmersd) Rural outmigration

I.Decade of prosperity (cont’d)E.Celebration of business

1. Themesa) “American way of life”b) Permanent prosperityc) Christ as business prototype

2. Promotersa) Hollywoodb) Photographers and paintersc) Writersd) Corporate public relationship departments

3. Signs of impacta) Idolization of business figuresb) Growing trust for business, stock market

I.Decade of prosperity (cont’d)F. Decline of labor

1. Postwar business campaign against unionsa) Appropriation of “Americanism,” “industrial

freedom”b) “Welfare capitalism”c) American Plan

1) Open shop2) Rejection of collective bargaining3) Depiction of unionism and socialism as sinister,

aliend) Use of strikebreakers, spies, blacklists

I.Decade of Prosperity (cont’d)F. Decline of labor

2.Ebbing of labor movementa) Decline in numbers organizedb) Union concessions to employersc) Fading of union strongholdsd) Diminishing prospects of labor strikes

G.Fragmentation of feminism1.Aftermath of suffrage amendment2.Social and ideological fault lines

I.Decade of prosperity (cont’d)G.Fragmentation of feminism

3.Debate over Equal Rights Amendment (ERA)a) Terms of ERAb) Feminist support

1) Alice Paul, National Women’s Party2) Commitment to individual autonomy, equal

opportunityc) Feminist opposition

1) Other leading women’s organizations2) Commitment to motherhood, protective

legislation for womend) Defeat of ERA

I.Decade of prosperity (cont’d)H.“Women’s freedom” in the Twenties

1. Mixed legacy of prewar feminisma) Fading of links to political and economic

radicalism, social reformb) Survival and recasting of call for personal freedom

2. Themes and imagesa) Consumer lifestyleb) Sexual freedom as individual autonomy, rebellionc) Youthful “flapper”; Clara Bowd) “Modernizing Mothers”

3. Continued stress on marriage, homemaking as ultimate goals

II. Business and governmentA. Decline of Progressive-era faith in mass

democracy1. Themes of disillusionment

a) Popular ignorance, irrationality, disengagementb) Shift from public concerns to private (leisure,

consumption)

2. Voices of disillusionmenta) Walter Lippman (Public Opinion, The Phantom

Public) b) Robert and Helen Lynd (Middletown)

II. Business and governmentB.Republican era

1. Pro-business agendaa) Content of

1) Low income and business taxes2) High tariffs3) Support for employer antiunionism4) Business-friendly appointees to regulatory agencies

b) Support for in Washington1) Presidents Warren G. Harding and Calvin Coolidge2) Supreme Court

2. Harding administrationa) Hardin’s indifference, lack of dignityb) Rampant corruption; Teapot Dome

II. Business and government (cont’d)B.Republican era

3.Election of 1924a) Coolidge victory over divided Democratsb) Robert La Follette’s third-party Progressive campaign

C.Economic diplomacy1.Retreat from Wilson’s foreign policy principles

a) Internationalismb) Free trade

2.Close interlinking of business interests and foreign policya) Government initiatives

1) Diplomatic pressure for access to foreign markets2) Increased tariffs; Fordney-McCumber Act3) Military interventions to protect U.S. business

interests

II. Business and government (cont’d)C.Economic diplomacy

2.Close interlinking of business interests and foreign policyb. Private initiatives

1) Loans to foreign governments2) Expansion of industrial production overseas3) Acquisition of raw materials overseas

III. Birth of civil libertiesA. Persistence of WWI-era repression,

censorship into 1920s1. Targets of

a) Political dissentb) Sexual themes in the arts

2. Agents of a) Mob violenceb) Government agenciesc) Local crusadesd) Self-censorship; Hollywood's’ Hays code

3. Disaffection of Lost Generation

III. Birth of civil liberties (cont’d)B. Wartime formation of Civil Liberties Bureau

1. Reaction to Espionage and Sedition Acts2. Predecessor to American Civil Liberties Union

C. Evolving position of Supreme Court1. Initial blows to civil liberties

a) Upholding of Espionage Act (Schneck case); Oliver Wendell Holmes’s “clear and present danger” doctrine

b) Upholding of Eugene V. Debs convictionc) Further cases

2. Signs of a shifta) Defenses of free speech by individual justices

1) Holmes; marketplace of ideas doctrine2) Louis Brandeis: democratic citizenship doctrine

b) Pro-civil liberties rulings

IV. Culture warsA. Fundamentalist reaction against modern urban

culture1. Sources of alarm

a) Religious and ethnic pluralismb) Urban vice

1) Mass entertainment2) Alcohol3) New sexual mores

c) Entry of “modernist” outlook into Protestant mainstream

2. Manifestationsa) Billy Sundayb) Nationwide presencec) Prohibition

IV. Culture wars (cont’d)B.Scopes trial

1. Clash of traditional and modern perspectives

a) Fundamentalism vs. secularismb) Darwinian science vs. scripturec) “Moral” liberty vs. freedom of thought

2. Face-off of Clarence Darrow and William Jennings Bryan

3. Outcome and aftermath

IV. Culture wars (cont’d)C.Resurgence of Ku Klux Klan

1. Roots in wartime “Americanism” obsession2. Profile and influence

a) Rapid growthb) Wide following among white, native-born

Protestantsc) Nationwide presence

3. Diverse range of targets

IV. Culture wars (cont’d)D.Immigration restriction

1. Earlier legislative precedents2. 1921 temporary restriction measure3. 1924 permanent restriction measure

a) National quotas for Europeansb) Exclusion of Asians (exception for Filipinos)

Admittance and curtailing of Mexicansc) Emergence of “illegal alien” classification

4. Ideological underpinningsa) Conservative nativismb) Progressive assumptions about “race”

IV. Culture wars (cont’d)E.Pluralism

1. Scholarly challenges to prevailing racial thought

a) Pioneering voices1) Horace Kallen; “cultural pluralism”2) Anthropologists Franz Boas, Alfred Kroeber, Ruth

Benedictb) Minimal immediate impact

IV. Culture wars (cont’d)E.Pluralism

2.New immigrants and the pluralist impulsea) Urban ethnic enclaves, community institutionsb) Self-reinvention as “ethnic” Americansc) Resentment of cultural hostility and coerciond) Claims to equal rights, mainstream acceptance,

cultural autonomy.e) Antidiscriminatory campaigns

3.Antidiscriminatory rulings by Supreme Court, federal courts

IV. Culture Wars (cont’d)F. Black urban life and Harlem Renaissance

1. Ongoing migration from South, West Indies2. Emergence of Harlem; “capital” of black

America3. “Exotic” Harlem vs. real Harlem4. Harlem Renaissance

a) Poets, novelistsb) Actors, dancers, musiciansc) “New Negro”

1) In poltics2) In art – Claude McKay’s “If We Must Die,” page 748

5. New black assertiveness; Henry O. Sweet case

IV. Culture wars (cont’d)G.Election of 1928

1. Republican candidate Herbert Hoovera) Background and careerb) Embodiment of “new era” of American capitalism

2. Democratic candidate Alfred E. Smitha) Background and careerb) Embodiment of urban, Catholic, Progressive

outlook

3. Outcome and significancea) Hoover victoryb) Reflection of “culture wars”c) Preview of new Democratic coalition

V. The Great DepressionA. Stock market crash of 1929

1. Black Thursday2. Onset of Great Depression

B. Precursors of Depression1. Frenzied real estate speculation

a) Undeveloped land

2. Unequal distribution of income, wealtha) Failing banks, mortgage foreclosures

3. Rural depression4. Stagnating demand for consumer goods

a) Auto, home, household, etc.

V. The Great Depression (cont’d)C. Repercussions of crash

1. Magnitude2. Scope of devastation

a) Business and consumer confidenceb) Solvency of investment companies, businesses, banks

1) 26,000 business failed in 19302) US Steel: $262/$22 (1929-1932)3) US Steel: 225,000 f/t /0 f/t (1929-1932)4) GM: $73/$8 (1929-1932)

c) Gross national productd) Life savingse) Employmentf) Wages

3. Persistence of downward slide

V. The Great Depression (cont’d)D.Americans and the Depression

1. Material hardshipa) Hunger; breadlinesb) Homelessness; Hoovervillesc) Meagerness of public reliefd) Reversal of movement from farm to city

V. The Great Depression (cont’d)D.Americans and the Depression

2.Patterns of popular responsea) Collapse of faith in big businessb) Personal resignation, self-blamec) Stirrings of protest

1) Spontaneous incidents2) Bonus March3) Rallies for jobs and relief, against eviction4) Farmer’s Holiday campaign5) Communist party

V. The Great Depression (cont’d)E.Hoover and the Depression

1. Hoover’s approacha) Acceptance of business cycleb) Aversion to government reliefc) Preference for voluntary, “associational” initiativesd) Regular forecasts of recovery

2. Perception of Hoover as indifferent, out of touch

3. Ill-fated remediesa) Hawley-Smoot tariffb) Tax increasec) Federal Home Loan Bank System & Reconstruction

Finance Corporation