Download MaderaTorres Unit 12 Notes

Raul Madera Torres Unit 12 pt. 2 Education and Youth ● 1920’s, More people going to school than ever before ● High school attendance more than doubles during decade ○ 2.2 to 5+ million ● View of adolescence as distinct period in life was new to 20th century ● School allowed students to define themselves more ○ less of their families, more of peer group The Decline of the “Self­Made Man” ● Idea of Self­made man was more difficult to believe that success could be achieved without education and training than before ● Sense of losing control created a crisis of self­identification among men ● Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, and Charles Lindbergh were what people envisioned of a self­made man ● Americans who were embracing new culture and society didn’t completely let go of past The Disenchanted ● Generation of artist and intellectuals in 1920’s found the society they lived in disturbing ○ instead of trying to fix society like intellectuals in the past, they tried to find personal fulfillment by isolating themselves from society ○ aftermath of WWI was shattering ● Wilsonian idealism ○ nothing had been gained from war ○ suffering and dying had been in vain ● Disillusioning intellectuals found war equally disturbing as American society in peace time ● Debunkers ○ savage critiques of modern society by a wide range of writers ○ H.L Mencken ■ works ridiculed religion, politics, the arts and democracy ○ Intellectuals rejected “success ethic” that dominated American life ○ some disillusionists moved to live in France ■ Made Paris for a time a center of american artistic life ● Some disillusionists adopted hedonistic lifestyles ○ lots of sex, drinking, partying The Harlem Renaissance ● By end of WWI Harlem most influential African­american community ● black artist and intellectuals create flourishing african­american culture ○ nightclubs with lots of jazz music ○ theatres ● Harlem was center of literature, poetry and art drawn from African roots ○ demonstrate richness of their heritage ■ Langston Hughes “ I am a Negro ­ and beautiful” ● Harlem Renaissance advance african­american culture and developed some of the most important american cultural and artistic traditions Nativism and the Klan ● 1921 emergency immigration act ○ annual immigration of people could not exceed 3 percent of the persons of that nationality in 1910 ○ nativists wanted harsher laws ● National Origins Act of 1924 ○ prohibited immigration from east asia ● 1929 more restrictions on immigration, max of 150,000 ● Rebirth of KKK 1915 ○ largely focused on intimidating blacks, like the old one ○ after WWI focused more on Catholics, Jews and immigrants ■ terrorized these groups by boycotting their businesses, threatening families, attempting to drive them out of communities ○ KKK fought to defend its definition of traditional culture, against the values and morals of modernity ○ Fought for traditional gender roles ○ clan declined after 1925 because of internal power struggles ○ by WWII clan was dead/gone Religious Fundamentalism ●
1921 American Protestantism split in two ○ adapt religion to science and realities of modern society ○ keep traditional faith ○ Fundamentalist ■ angry at abandonment of traditional belief ■ opposed teaching of Charles Darwin ■ Bible should be interpreted literally ■ Humans were created from God and not evolved from lower orders of animals ■ evangelical fundamentalists gained political power in some states with demands for legislation to forbid teaching of evolution at public schools ■ In Tennessee 1925 it was made illegal to teach evolution ● American Civil Rights Union came to defend freedom of speech ○ Scopes trial were a biology teacher was being prosecuted for teaching evolution ■ was a traumatic experience for the fundamentalists The Democrats’ Ordeals ● Democrats had two sides ○ Prohibitionists, Klansmen, Fundamentalists ○ Urban workers, Catholics, Immigrants ● 1924 Democratic National Convention ○ tried to get rid of Klan and prohibition ■ failed ● Al Smith ○ First Democrat since Civil war to non carry out entire South ○ Loss to Republican Herbert Hoover in Presidential election Harding and Coolidge ● Warren Harding ○ elected 1920 ○ His intellectual limits were compounded by his weakness ■ gambling, drinking, attractive women ○ not very active president ○ Harding had offices filled by members of “Ohio gang” ■ those people committed fraud using their power ○ 1923 Harding died from two major heart attacks ● Calvin Coolidge ○ less active than Harding ○ received party nomination virtually unopposed 54% popular and 382 of 531 electoral votes ○ could have won reelection in 1928 but decided not to run Government and Business ● Harding and Coolidge most important part of the story of their administration ● much of the federal gov. was working effectively and efficiently ○ while the presidents were passive ○ helped business and industry operate with maximum efficiency and productivity ● Andrew Mellon (rich steel and aluminum tycoon) worked closely with Coolidge ○ helped retire half of nation’s WWI debt ● Hoover’s Associationalism ○ concept that envisioned creation of nation organization of businessmen ■ could stabilize industries and promote efficiency in production and marketing