February 21: 1920s: Culture of Hierarchy

 

Read:

·         Give Me Liberty 769-799

·         Voices of Freedom, 117-132

·         “Stop the Influx of the Foreign”

·         Excerpts from the Imperial Nighthawk

·         Who Was Shut Out?: Immigration Quotas, 1925–1927

·         Eugenics Popularization this url will take you to the site, but you will need to look on the left side to click on the material for Eugenics popularization. Click on that to read the essay with the images. I encourage you to browse some of the other material at the site as well, especially on immigration and eugenics. To print out the essay without images, click on this url

 

Questions to consider as you read

o        Using the documents and the text explain how the meaning of freedom was transformed in the 1920s. Be sure to be able to give specifics from the readings to justify your generalization

o        Reinhold Neibuhr stated in the 1920s that America was “rapidly becoming the most conservative nation on early.” List 5 examples that might illustrate that perception

o        The 1920s is usually defined at the “roaring twenties” in high school history textbooks. Document who was and who was not, “roaring” in the 1920s. Your answer ought to illustrate the dichotomy of the decade that Foner dicscusses

o        One newspaper of the day declared that “the American citizen’s first importance to his country is no longer that of a citizen bu8t that of a consumer.” Analyze the validity of that statement. Be sure to include a comment from the Voices of Freedom excerpt

o        Why did immigration restrictions and eugenics grow in popularity during this decade?

 

 

 

RECOMMENDED SITES

 

Succoring business in the 1920s

·         Calvin Coolidge on the Spirituality of Commerce

·         “A Man’s Thanksgiving”: A Hymn to the God of Business

·         “Business . . . the Salvation of the World”: Celebrating Big Business

 

 

Red Scare of 1919-1921

·         Basic Background to the Red Scare

·         Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer Makes “The Case against the Reds”

·         “The Making of a Red” –satire on how easy it was to label someone as unpatriotic

·         Emma Goldman Describes Her Deportation in the Era of the Red Scare –you’ve already read this for previous class, so don’t choose it as extra

·         Red Scare- major set of photographs from the Literary Digest, a mainstream publication, depicting the great fear of subversion

 

 

Sacco/Vanzetti Case

·         The Sacco and Vanzetti case- a summary and links

·         Felix Frankfurter on Sacco and Vanzetti-essay from The Nation (1927) with links about the nature of the judicial system and why this case was remembered by legal scholars and historians and activists through the 1990s

·         “They Are Dead Now”: Eulogy for Sacco and Vanzetti

·         “Save Sacco and Vanzetti”: The Defense Committee’s Plea

·         “March On, O Dago Christs”: Sacco and Vanzetti Memorialized

·         “We Stand Defeated America”: Sacco and Vanzetti in John Dos Passos’ U.S.A.

·         Ballad for Sacco and Vanzetti  Joan Baez’ ballad

·         The Trial of Sacco and Vanzetti

·         The Sacco and Vanzetti case- a summary and links

 

Eugenics/Social Darwinism reemerges

·         American Eugenics Society—(founded 1922) goals, by the Eugenics Watch group. The main page of this site also has other useful information, though it launches charges against groups like Planned Parenthood that are not sustained with evidence. Nevertheless, it has a great deal of useful information, including a database of those famous people who were eugenics supporters

·         “The Civilizing Force of Birth Control”: Margaret Sanger Becomes a Moderate (how eugenics ideas merged with the birth control movement)

·         Madison Grant, The Passing of the Great Race –modern Eugenics emanating from the Progressive Era-==entire book on-line

·         Madison Grant on New Immigrants as Survival of the Unfit 1918

·         Forgotten History of Eugenics

 

Immigration Restriction in the 1920s

·         Who Was Shut Out?: Immigration Quotas, 1925–1927

·         Shut the Door: A Senator Speaks for Immigration Restriction

·         An “Un-American Bill”: A Congressman Denounces Immigration Quotas

·         “The Senate’s Declaration of War”: Japan Responds to Japanese Exclusion

·         Not All Caucasians Are White: The Supreme Court Rejects Citizenship for Asian Indians

 

 

Ku Klux Klan

·         Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s

·         Collection of KKK documents from the 1920s and beyond –29 documents, including some published in Chicago

In particular see America For Americans: The Creed of Klanswomen  & Roman Catholic dynamites Bath public schools:--once you get to this opening page of these 2 documents, you will need to click on “next page” at the bottom to access and read the entire document. Questions: What are the arguments put forth in this document? How does it relate to broader developments in the 1920s? Who is targeted for inclusion and exclusion in the Klan, and why?

·         Women in the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s (see previous entry for women in KKK as well) Beliefs, Activities

                  (Excerpts from Kathryn Blee’s Women in the Klan)

·         Klan violence was broad, not just against African-Americans

·         Mystic City, A Klan Tune

 

Women/Gender in the 1920s

·         “Love and Companionship Came First”: Floyd Dell on Modern Marriage

·         40 Documents and Images on “New Woman of the 1920s”—from Roland Marchands teaching site

·         “I Am Only a Piece of Machinery”: Housewives Analyze Their Problems

·         Who Won the Debate over the Equal Rights Amendment in the 1920s?—several documents

·         Pacifism vs. Patriotism in Women's Organizations in the 1920s:--several documents

·         How Did the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom Respond to Right-Wing Attacks, 1923-1931?

·         “When the Whistle Blows . . . I Come Home and Get Supper”: Women and Work in the Interwar Years

·         The New Woman of the 1920s: Debating Bobbed-Hair

·         Bobbed Hair Blues: A Mexican-American Song Laments “Las Pelonas”

·         Pay Gap By Occupation – find out how the pay gap established in the early 20th century still affects you (You can also consult the explanation for why this is still the case  (see other useful links on the left side of the page)

 

African-Americans

·         The Struggle of Negro Women for Sex and Race Emancipation”

·         How Did the National Woman's Party Address the Issue of the Enfranchisement of Black Women, 1919-1924?

·         Tulsa Race Riot of 1921

·         A White Tulsan’s Perspective on the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921

·         Marcus Garvey movement (Origins of black nationalism--see bottom of this link for additional links)

·         A Black  High-School Student Tells What 1920s Movies Meant to Him

·         "The New Negro": "When He's Hit, He Hits Back!"

·         "Let Us Reason Together": W. E. B. Du Bois Defends Black Resistance

 

Consumption and Popular Culture

·         100,000,000 Guinea Pigs: The Dangers of Consumption (critics of advertising in the 1920s)

·         From Cowboys to Clara Bow: A College Student’s  Motion Picture Autobiography

·         Kissing Rudy Valentino: A High-School Student Describes Movie Going in the 1920s

·         Frustration versus Fantasy: How the Movies Made Some People Restless

·         “Complete Nudity Is Never Permitted”: The Motion Picture Production Code of 1930 (Mae West)

·         Jazz History before 1930

·         “Love and Companionship Came First”: Floyd Dell on Modern Marriage

 

 

Baseball becomes the national pastime

·         Baseball in the 1920s –poet Carlos Williams paean to the national pastime

·         The Rise of the Baseball Fan in the 1920s

·         Paying Homage to “Babe” Ruth

·         Trial of the Chicago Blacksox of 1921- explore the power issue behind the famous 1919 team’s sellout

 

Suburbanization

·         The Intolerable City: Lewis Mumford Attacks Unplanned Growth

In this selection, one of the earliest critics of suburbanization suggested that unplanned

suburban growth would lead to sterile conformity in American life, harm to green space and a blight on democracy

 

Prohibition and Fundamentalism

·         “Shall the Fundamentalists Win?”: Defending Liberal Protestantism in the 1920s

·         Scopes “Monkey Trial” – battle over evolution

Including “Hell and High School” –attack on teachers who teach evolution

·         Prohibition

·         “Not Rum but Righteousness”: Billy Sunday Attacks Booze

·         “Shall We Gather at the River?”: Aimee Semple McPherson on Prohibition

 

 

Imperialism in Latin America

·         Objecting to the Occupation of Haiti

·         Justifying the Occupation of Nicaragua—be sure to review the materials on Latin America imperialism so that you understand this document

 

 

Other

·         Southern Mill Town in the 1920s

·         11 cents cotton, 40 cents meat written in 1932, but speaks to the agricultural and textiles depression of the 1920s

·         Warning Against the “Roman Catholic Party”:  Catholicism and the 1928 Election

·         “I Was More of a Citizen”: A Puerto Rican Garment Worker Describes Discrimination in the 1920s

·         Bobbed Hair Blues: A Mexican-American Song Laments “Las Pelonas”