The Roaring Twenties

- Section 2 Desire For Normalcy- Section 3 Booming Economy

President Warren G. Harding• Warren G. Harding• Elected President in 1920• 1st election that women

were allowed to vote • Promised a return to

“normalcy” • His cabinet was known as

the “Ohio Gang” members were friends from his home state

• Supported Big business and lower taxes

Trouble with the Ohio Gang• Cabinet members were

very unethical: numerous scandals occurred (though Harding was considered very honest)

• Teapot Dome Scandal: Harding’s secretary of the Interior, Albert Fall, took bribes from oil companies in Teapot Dome Wyoming

• President Harding dies in office : August of 1923

Calvin Coolidge

• Assumes presidency after the death of Harding

• Attempts to clean up the mess from the scandals of the Harding administration

• Elected President in 1924

“The business of America is business”

• Supported a laissez faire theory of economics: Leave business unregulated and it will thrive

• Businesses grow and many Americans become extremely wealthy

• Did not support the farmers who were suffering from lower food prices because of technological inventions

Foreign Policies

• Like Harding he was an isolationist: Stay out of other nation’s problems

• Major peace effort was the Kellogg-Briand Pact of 1928: 15 nations agree not to go to war unless it was in self defense

A Booming Economy

Post war economics

Post War Economics

Technology Changes American Life

• America becomes very wealthy during the Roaring Twenties

• Average income rises greater then 35 %

• Automobiles have the greatest impact on 1920’s life

• Ford’s Model T was a very popular & affordable car

Ford perfects the assembly line production

Consumer goods on the rise

Shopping

• Advertising entices people to buy products

• Fuel becomes readily available & affordable (petroleum & electricity)