Download Calvin Coolidge 1923-1929

Presidency Chart – Calvin Coolidge (30th) (1923 - 1929)
The death of Harding:
Arriving at the Palace Hotel, he developed pneumonia. Harding died of either a heart attack or a stroke at 7:35
p.m. on August 2, 1923. The formal announcement, printed in the New York Times of that day, stated that "A stroke
of apoplexy was the cause of death." He had been ill exactly one week. VP Calvin Coolidge then assumed the
presidency.
The Election of 1924:
Issue: The major emerging issue of the campaign was the Ku Klux Klan, which had surged in popularity across the
state in the early 1920s. Long was reluctant to address the issue; his political support was strongest in Protestant
north Louisiana, the heartland of the Klan. A strong condemnation of the Klan would alienate many of these
supporters. Long ducked this issue, instead arguing that Standard Oil and corporate domination was the true threat
to Louisiana.
Candidates:
 Henry L. Fuqua of Baton Rouge, the manager of Louisiana State Penitentiary, had the support of former
governors Jared Y. Sanders and Ruffin G. Pleasant, and of the Regular Democratic Organization, a
powerful New Orleans-based political machine. He also received funding from the oil industry.
 Hewitt Bouanchaud, a French-speaking lawyer from Pointe Coupee Parish, was the handpicked candidate
of outgoing governor John M. Parker.
 Huey Long, an ambitious young Railroad Commissioner from Winnfield, had announced his intention to run
for governor as early as 1922.
Major Events in Coolidge’s Presidency:
National Origin’s Immigration Act:
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The Dawes Plan:
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The Revenue Act of 1926:
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Coolidge’s relationship with business:
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The Kellogg-Briand Pact
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Coolidge’s relations with Latin America:
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Vetoes the McNary-Haugen Bill in 1927 and 1928:
 Farmers constituted the one group of producers clearly not participating in the decade's
prosperity. Twice Congress passed the McNary-Haugen bill, calling for the federal government to
purchase surplus crops. Twice (1927 and 1928) Coolidge vetoed it, and the economic woes of
American farmers persisted.
 Why did Coolidge veto it twice?
The American economy in this period and the plight of farmers

The re--emergence of the KKK
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Literary and cultural trends:: Poets
T.S. Elliot- was a poet, dramatist, and literary critic. He received the Nobel Prize in Literature in
1948. He wrote the poems The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, The Waste Land, The Hollow Men, Ash
Wednesday, and Four Quartets; the plays Murder in the Cathedral and The Cocktail Party; and the essay
"Tradition and the Individual Talent."
Ezra Pound- was an American expatriate poet, critic and intellectual who was a major figure of
the Modernist movement in early-to-mid 20th century poetry. He was the driving force behind several
Modernist movements, notably Imagism and Vorticism.
e.e. cummings- popularly known as E. E. Cummings, was an American poet, painter, essayist, and
playwright. His body of work encompasses more than 900 poems, several plays and essays, numerous
drawings, sketches, and paintings, as well as two novels. He is remembered as a preeminent voice of
20th century poetry, as well as one of the most enduringly popular.
Literary and cultural trends: Novelists
F. Scott Fitzgerald- Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald (September 24, 1896 – December 21, 1940)
was an American writer of novels and short stories, whose works have been seen as evocative of the Jazz
Age, a term he himself allegedly coined. He is regarded as one of the greatest twentieth century writers.
Fitzgerald was of the self-styled "Lost Generation," Americans born in the 1890s who came of age
during World War I.
Ernest Hemmingway- was an American novelist, short-story writer, and journalist. He was part of
the 1920s expatriate community in Paris known as "the Lost Generation", as described in his memoir A
Moveable Feast. He received the Pulitzer Prize in 1953 for The Old Man and the Sea, and the Nobel Prize
in Literature in 1954.
Sinclair Lewis- was an American novelist, short-story writer, and playwright. In 1930 he became
the first American to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, "for his vigorous and graphic art of
description and his ability to create, with wit and humor, new types of characters".
William Faulkner- was an American novelist, film screenwriter, and poet whose works feature his
native state of Mississippi. He is regarded as one of the most influential writers of the twentieth century
and was awarded the 1949 Nobel Prize for Literature.
H.L. Mencken- was an American journalist, essayist, magazine editor, satirist, acerbic critic of
American life and culture, and a student of American English. Known as the "Sage of Baltimore", he is
regarded as one of the most influential American writers and prose stylists of the first half of the 20th
century.
Harlem Renaissance: refers to the flowering of African American cultural and intellectual life during the
1920s and 1930s. At the time, it was known as the "New Negro Movement", named after the anthology
The New Negro, edited by Alain Locke in 1925.
“The Crisis” by W.E.B. Du Bois- Du Bois published Harlem Renaissance writers Langston Hughes
and Jean Toomer. As a repository of black thought, the Crisis was initially a monopoly, David Levering
Lewis observed. In 1913, Du Bois wrote The Star of Ethiopia, a historical pageant, to promote AfricanAmerican history and civil rights.
Langston Hughes- was an American poet, novelist, playwright, short story writer, and columnist.
Hughes is known for his work during the Harlem Renaissance.
Zora Heale Hurston- was an American folklorist and author during the time of the Harlem
Renaissance, best known for the 1937 novel Their Eyes Were Watching God.
Alain Locke “The New Negro”- was an American folklorist and author during the time of the
Harlem Renaissance, best known for the 1937 novel Their Eyes Were Watching God.
Duke Ellington-was an American composer, pianist, and band leader who was one of the most
influential figures in jazz, if not in all American music. As a composer and a band leader, Ellington's
reputation has increased since his death, with thematic repackaging of his signature music often becoming
best-sellers.
Jelly Roll Morton-was an American jazz pianist, bandleader and composer whom some call the
first true composer of jazz music. Morton was a colorful character who liked to generate publicity for
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himself by bragging. His business card referred to him as the Originator of Jazz, and during his life he
was regarded as a source of rare historical information, despite his penchant for hyperbole.
“The Jazz Singer”The first feature-length motion picture with synchronized dialogue sequences, its
release heralded the commercial ascendance of the "talkies" and the decline of the silent film era.
The rise of a consumer society:
In the midst of excess and hype, Coolidge's palpable reserve, frugality and personal rectitude, his
association with familiar older values, exerted a calming influence and seemed to make consumerism
safe.
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