Was America a good place to live in the 1920s?

The ‘Booming Twenties’ suggests a time of change, prosperity and excitement. The flappers, motorcars and movie craze all conjure up exciting images of people having fun. Make sure you learn about these because for many young, urban Americans the 1920s was an amazing place to live. What you need to do is look at all aspects of American life – rural and urban, rich and poor, black and white – and reach a balanced conclusion of what life was like that considers the range of experiences.

Let’s start off by watching a video to get an overview:

What were the ‘Roaring Twenties’?

When we did this in class you’ll remember that we looked at several ways in which the 20s were ‘roaring’. Lots of things were changing and many of these seemed to be ‘good things’. However the 1920s brought some changes that were unwelcome, and we’ll look at those too.

Cities

Cities were growing quickly. As we’ve already seen, people living in the cities were doing better than those living in the countryside and many people were moving there to get a better life. For the first time in the USA’s history there were more people living in urban areas that rural areas. The cities were changing quickly too. As we’ll see, many people watched films at the cinema, enjoyed shopping and going to speakeasies, many more people were driving their ford model T cars to and from work, or to the shops or cinemas. Cities had to change to cope with these new things. One obvious change was the building of skyscrapers. These very tall buildings had been built before the 1920s, but because so many people wanted to live and work in cities land became scarce and more and more buildings were built higher and higher.

Leisure Time

Radio

One of the most popular items that Americans bought (often on cheap credit) was a radio set. In 1929 Americans bought $600 million worth of radios every year. These radios allowed young people to hear new types of music, especially jazz which was very popular.

Jazz

Jazz clubs sprang up in all the major cities. Jazz was one of the few ways in which a few black people could become famous and earn lots of money. In the Jazz clubs (that the young drove to in cars) popular new dances such as the Charleston were all the rage. Many parents and older people were very worried about the influence of Jazz on their children – perhaps things haven’t changed so much!

Cinema

By 1927 going to the movies was already really popular. In that year though the cinema became an even more popular place to visit as ‘talkies’ – films with sound were released for the first time. Before that all the films had been silent. At silent movies the film story was shown using ‘titles’ – words that explained what was going on. The first talking film was ‘The Jazz Singer”, staring Al Jolson. Many new stars like Buster Keaton were created by talking films. The cinema was cheap enough that many many people could afford to go.

Life for American women

Before the 1920s middle-class women in America led largely restricted lives. They were not supposed to wear makeup, expose too much flesh and only go on dates with a chaperone. They were expected to be housewives and the only jobs available to them were in poorly paid employment – such as cleaning and dressmaking. The restrictions were even tighter in rural areas.

Things changed in the 1920s (although make sure you do not exaggerate or generalise!). In 1920 women in all states were granted the vote. The First World War had provided an opportunity for women to work in new jobs as the men were away, gaining skills they previously hadn’t been able to develop. The consumerist nature of the boom also made house work quicker and easier through new technologies, like the vacuum cleaner.

Things went further for young women living in the cities of America. They could wear shorter skirts, drink and smoke in public, go out with men unaccompanied…and even kiss in the streets! Women who enjoyed going out dancing in the jazz halls, socialising in shorter dresses developed the nickname flappers.

Changes in womens’ lives

By 1929, there were 10 million women in jobs, which was a 24% rise since the beginning of the decade. Now with some money, women’s importance in society increased as companies now had to appeal to them as well in their advertising. A good example is the Model T Ford’s produced in different colours after 1925.
Women were more likely to seek divorce in unhappy marriages
Films and novels were aimed at women

Limitations on Women’s lives

Women were paid less than men – for the same job!
Women were seen as unelectable so had less political power than men
Many women actually reacted AGAINST the changes and became even more conservative. This happened particularly amongst older generations and in rural areas. There is also little evidence that women were copying the women in films, novels and advertisements.
Many women continued to lead similar lives to their mothers and their mothers’ mothers.
Women in rural America were hit very hard by the problems in farming.

Intolerance against different groups of people

There are several BIG examples of wide scale intolerance in American society. There was prejudice against Communists, immigrants and black people.

Black Americans

By 1920, slavery had been banned for nearly 60 years and many black people had lived in American for many generations. This didn’t mean they were accepted by everyone though. They experienced segregation in some states, a lower standard of education and no access to certain jobs.

The Ku Klux Klan

The KKK were a white supremacy group operating largely in the rural Southern states who used violent methods in order to intimidate black people. These methods included beatings and lynching. Thousands of black Americans were murdered this way, often in front of cheering crowds. They became increasingly powerful in the 1920s with examples of policemen, teachers, judges and politicians as members. This level of discrimination led to hundreds of thousands of black people migrating to the northern cities, such as New York and Chicago.

Improvements in some black people’s lives.

In the northern urban areas it became easier for black people to find jobs or obtain a good education. For instance, Howard University was set up just for black students
Black people became celebrities, such as musicians and actors (Paul Robeson is a good example)
Some black people entered politics. Marcus Garvey’s Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) was increasingly popular and hit a peak in the 1920s.

Overall life didn’t improve much for black people. Their life expectancy was still significantly lower than white people and many who moved to the northern cities lived in poverty. In all sectors black people were discriminated. Immigrant gangs in Chicago formed gangs (calling themselves ‘athletic clubs’) and beat up black people wishing to share facilities in their neighbourhood. Black people even turned on each other as wealthier blacks resented the new poorer migrants from the southern states and blamed them for the increase in racism in the 1920s.

The Red Scare

America is famously a country made up of immigrants. It is a ‘melting pot’ of different ethnicities and cultures. During the 1920s attitudes towards immigrants became increasingly negative, partly because of the fear of Communism. The Russian Revolution in 1917 followed by strikes amongst American workers in the early 1920s had politicians and voters fearful of the spread of Communism.

There are some examples of this fear being justified; for instance, many immigrants did hold radical views.

However, it was a largely a racist, intolerant movement against immigrants

Evidence against suspected Communists was often minimal
Rounding up and arresting immigrants was popular amongst the public so was carried out unnecessarily. Famously, Edgar Hoover built up files on 60,000 suspects and informed 10,000 individuals they were to be deported from the USA in 1919-20.
It was the same groups who were accused – trade unionists, black people, Jews and almost all minority groups.

In 1924 the fear of Communism and radical views scared the Government into action. They restricted immigration/ Between 1900-1910 over one million immigrants a year had come to America. By 1929 it had fallen to 150,000. Of these, the majority came from north west Europe where immigrants would be white and supposedly less likely to have radical views.

Sacco and Vanzetti

In 1920 Sacco and Vanzetti were two immigrants arrested as part of the Red Scare. They were anarchists (they didn’t like the current leaders) and were charged with armed robbery and murder. The case had little evidence and relied largely on racist slurs against their Italian background. The judge showed his fairness when he declared they were ‘anarchist bastards’. In 1927 the two men were executed. This caused a scandal across the world and highlights just how intolerant some people in America had become. The picture opposite is of a protest against their execution in Shepherds Bush in London.

Urban life versus rural life

Life in the cities

There were a number of things that made cities exciting places to live in the 1920s.

Skyscrapers were growing, providing a symbol of power and prosperity.
More people were moving to the cities.
The entertainment industry was growing as people increasingly listened to the radio, visited jazz clubs and went to the cinema. The movie-craze started in Hollywood with actors like Charlie Chaplin become international superstars. By 1927 the first ‘talkie’ was made – a film where you could hear the actors speaking!
The car made more things possible – live in the suburbs and drive to work, go on family holidays, visit loved ones and go to the cinema.
Sexual morals became loosened as people began to discuss issues they previous couldn’t have. Films, advertisers and magazines picked up on this. Contraceptive advice was available for the first time.

There was a very clear divide between the changing urban and conservative rural areas. This has been seen in attitudes to women and racism experienced by black people. This was largely because of the radical Christian views held in the ‘Bible-belt’ – the God fearing rural southern states. They feared that America was changing too much and that their values would be lost and forgotten. This conflict came to a head in the 1920s with prohibition and the Monkey Trial.

Prohibition

In 1919 the Volstead Act was passed, becoming law in January 1920. This banned the making, transporting and selling of alcohol in America. This lasted for the whole of the Roaring Twenties. Prohibition is a key example for highlighting the intolerant nature of much of American society in the 1920s.

Why was prohibition introduced?

There had been ‘temperance’ movements in the rural areas of the USA since the 19^th century. These were largely Christians who saw the evils of alcohol, such as the breakup of family life. An example is the Anti-Saloon League.
Some state governments had already been persuaded to ban alcohol – 21 states by 1916.
There was a national campaign to ban alcohol, with some powerful supporters. Industrialists who saw the effects of alcohol on their workers called for the ban.
Politicians in the rural areas realised it was a vote winner so endorsed a ban.
The ‘dries’ (supporters of prohibition) claimed 3000 babies were smothered by drunk parents each year.
Drinking alcohol was seen as unpatriotic. Beer is traditionally brewed in Germany – America’s rival in WW1, while vodka was seen as the drink of Bolsheviks in Communist Russia.

Was Prohibition a failure?

Prohibition lasted until 1933 and saw a 30% fall in the consumption of alcohol. It was very popular in some states. It was enforced by prohibition agents who hunted out people still trying to manufacture and consume alcohol. They had plenty of opportunities to catch offenders – Isadore Einstein made 4392 arrests simply by entering speakeasies (illegal bars) and ordering a drink.

However, on the whole, it was a disaster and a complete failure.

Agents were not paid much and had to cover huge areas so lost their effectiveness. Law enforcers also became very susceptible to bribes and many policemen would even point people in the direction of the nearest speakeasy if asked. One in 12 agents was dismissed but judges and senior policemen were also involved.
The alcohol tipped away was only a fraction of that being produced.
Millions of Americans simply refused to follow the law – Al Capone made $60 million a year from selling alcohol.
There were more speakeasies by 1925 than there had been legal bars in 1919.
Illegal stills (place to make alcohol) were everywhere as people made moonshine (homemade whiskey)
Bootleggers (people making their own alcohol) could easily smuggle alcohol in – mainly from Canada but also by sea.

A study in lawlessness – the Chicago gangsters

Gangsters generally rose from poor immigrant communities with little education but they were clever and ruthless. The gangs fought each other over the control of alcohol trade, prostitution and gambling, all of which were pivotal to speakeasy life. They used new technologies, such as the Thompson sub-machine gun and the motor car to be deadly effective. In Chicago Al Capone built up a huge network of corrupt officials, including the mayor! Despite being a gangster, he was a popular figure, often cheered at baseball games. By the end of the decade he had seen off all other rivals. The most noteworthy act was in the 1929 Valentine’s Day Massacre. Using a police car and police uniforms, Capone’s gang murdered seven of Bugsy Moran’s rival gang. This got a lot of press attention and was a wakeup call to Americans that this could not go on.

Ultimately, prohibition made normal people into criminals, criminals into saviours, and society became corrupt and lawless. By the 1930s America was also missing an opportunity to provide jobs to thousands of jobs in the alcohol industry and millions of dollars in alcohol tax, at a time when America was in the Great Depression. The ‘noble experiment’ had failed.

The Monkey Trial

Most schools taught Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution. This was accepted as fact by most urban people. In the rural areas, however, they still believed God created the world in a week. In 1925 William Jennings Bryan managed to pass a law which banned the teaching of evolution in SIX STATES. When John Scopes, a biology teacher, broke the law he was taken to trial. The trial caught the nation’s attention as the traditionalists from rural areas battled the modernists from urban areas in the courtroom. At the trial the anti-evolutionists were shown to be ignorant and were publicly mocked. They never recovered, and evolution has been taught in American schools to this day.

So was American a good place to live?

Absolutely! It was perhaps one of the most exciting period in American history! The radical change of attitudes to society were revolutionary. The movie-craze, the fashions, loosening of taboo subjects (like sex), all beneath the stunning backdrop of the skyscrapers watching the motorcars whiz round, would have made America great to live in.

That is as long as you could turn a blind eye to the racism experienced by blacks and immigrants, the conservative repression of women in rural areas, the intolerance of scientific theories, the fact that during prohibition millions of Americans were criminals in a corrupt society, the millions living in poverty because of the Republican policies,,, you get the idea. In answering the question you need to look at many different aspects and consider the different people that had very different experiences in the 1920s. There is certainly not an easy answer!

Activities

There’s quite a lot to learn this week. We suggest that you read through these notes, and jot down key ideas under the following headings:

What was life in the cities and countryside like in the ‘Roaring Twenties’? How well were black people and immigrants treated in US society?

What did the monkey trial show about how some Americans felt about new ideas?

Why was prohibition introduced, and then later ended?

How far did the roles of women change during the 1920s?

When you’ve done that you might be asked by your teacher to try this test paper:

Other Sites

The BBC bitesize page has a slightly different take on this topic.

Mr Ross’s website has a great page of links about this topic.

As ever, Mr Clare’s site is excellent on this topic.

The second part of this podcast by Mr Giles would be another great thing to listen to

GCSE History Revision 2011-12