the new era

• Harding becomes president and takes oath to resume to normalcy:
  • during this time, there was a red scare bc Bolshevik Revolution in Russia, 100k dead in WW1 fighting, flu epidemic that killed 20% of the American Population
  • economy tanked and unemployment was 20%
• 1920s was not a normal era: Roaring Twenties:
  • ku klux klan gets revived, stifle immigration, revival to old time religion
  • mass entertainment & radio fueled new economy & new SOL
  • new negro & new woman
  • 1920s were a time of conflict & tension

republican white house

• dismantle wartime controls over industry
• labor movement suffers decline in memberships & workers lost bargaining power + in support of court/public approval
• Harding was most corrupt president as he appointed friends
• Teapot Dome Scandal
  • leased Navy petroleum reserves at Teapot Dome in Wyoming, as well as two locations in California, to private oil companies at low rates without competitive bidding
• Harding dies of a heart attack in 1923
  • Calvin Coolidge becomes president
    • poor guy who was the shop keeper’s son
    • refused to take action against american business
      • reduced taxes to 20% on the rich
• Americans continue activism:
  • 19th amendment (women’s vote) gets approved
    • women are concerned about domestic violence, squalor, poverty women led effort to prohibition
      • propose ERA equal right amendments; did not pass
      • 18th amendment: alcohol cannot be manufactured or sold
• Calvin chooses not to run; Al Smith(catholic immigrant) vs Herbert Hoover(midwest american)
  • Hoover focuses on economic growth & prosperity, wins landslide election

culture of consumption

• Christine Fredrick writes that “women account for 90% of household expenditure”
• industry changed a lot since 1929; output rose beyond demand so American businessmen stimulated new culture of consumer desire
  • department stores —> variety of products
  • innovations in service: restaurants, babysitting etc
• american culture is fostered on use of credit
  • consumer expenditures grew like in cars & household appliances

culture of escape

• americans want to escape constraints of society:
  • automobile/ hollywood films / radio / jazz records / musicals all increasing with popularity
• hollywood is made by the jewish & produced films that potrayed American values of opportunity, democracy, and freedom
• movie attendance skyrocketed; woman majority; african americans excluded
  • stars popularized “flapper” aesthetic
• entertainment at home = radio; sponsored through sale of advertisements and sponsorships
  • expose americans to Jazz