The Jazz Age
Published on Nov 18, 2015
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PRESENTATION OUTLINE
NATIVISM RESURGES
As the 1920s opened, an economic recession, an influx of immigrants, and racial and cultural tensions combined to create an atmosphere of disillusionment and intolerance. The fear and prejudice many felt toward Germans and Communists expanded to include all immigrants. This triggered a general rise in racism and in nativism, the desire to protect the interests of old-stock Americans against those of immigrants.
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THE SACCO AND VANZETTI CASE
The Sacco and Vanzetti case created a furor, as newspapers around the country revealed that the two immigrants were anarchists, or people who oppose all forms of government. They also discovered that Sacco owned a gun similar to the murder weapon and that the bullets used in the murders matched those in Sacco’s gun. Although no one at the time knew if Sacco and Vanzetti were guilty, many people leaped to that conclusion because the two men
were Italian immigrants and anarchists.
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PSEUDO-SCIENTIFIC RACISM
Nativist and racist feel- ings in the 1920s were reinforced by the beliefs of the eugenics movement. Eugenics is a pseudo-sci- ence (or false science) that deals with improving hereditary traits. Developed in Europe in the early 1900s, eugenics emphasized that human inequali- ties were inherited and warned against breeding the “unfit” or “inferior.” Eugenics fueled the nativists’ argument for the superiority of the “original” American stock—white Protestants of northern European descent. Political, intellectual, and cul- tural figures like Woodrow Wilson and Henry Cabot Lodge embraced eugenics. By doing so, they lent authority to racist theories, which reinvigorated the nativist argument for strict immigration control.
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THE RETURN OF THE KU KLUX KLAN
At the forefront of the movement to restrict immigration was the Ku Klux Klan, or KKK. The old KKK had flourished in the South after the Civil War and used threats and vio- lence to intimidate newly freed African Americans. The new Klan had other targets as well—Catholics, Jews, immigrants, and other groups believed to rep- resent “un-American” values.
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CONTROLLING IMMIGRATION
After World War I, American immigration poli- cies changed in response to the postwar recession and nativist pleas to “Keep America American.” Even big business, which previously favored unre- stricted immigration as a source of cheap labor, now feared the new immigrants as radicals.
In 1921 President Harding signed the Emergency Quota Act, which established a temporary quota sys- tem, limiting immigration.
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The National Origins Act of 1924
In 1924 the National Origins Act made immigrant restriction a permanent policy. The law also tightened the quota system, setting quotas at two percent of each national group residing in the country in 1890. By moving back the year to 1890, an even larger pro- portion of the quotas were allotted to immigrants from northwestern Europe.
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Hispanic Immigration to the United States
The immigration acts of 1921 and 1924 reduced the available labor pool in the United States. While workers and unions rejoiced at the reduction in competition for jobs, employers desperately needed laborers for agriculture, mining, and rail- road work. Mexican immigrants helped to fill this need.
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The New Morality
Ideals of the loving family and personal satisfaction—views popular- ized in magazines and other media—influenced popular views on relationships. As the loving and emotional aspects of marriage grew in impor- tance, the ideas of romance, pleasure, and friendship became linked to successful marriages. Advice books in the 1920s dispensed such hints as, “Have lots of pleasure that both husband and wife enjoy . . . and above all, be good friends.”
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The Fundamentalist Movement
While many Americans embraced the new moral- ity, millions more feared that the country was losing its traditional values. To these Americans, the mod- ern consumer culture, relaxed ethics, and growing urbanism symbolized the nation’s moral decline. Many of these people, especially those in small rural
towns, responded by joining a religious movement known as Fundamentalism—a name derived from a series of pamphlets titled The Fundamentals, pub- lished by oil millionaire Lyman Stewart.
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Fundamentalist Belief
Fundamentalists believed that the Bible was literally true and without error. They defended the Protestant faith against ideas that implied that human beings derived their moral behavior from society and nature, not God. In particu- lar, Fundamentalists rejected Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution, which said that human beings had developed from lower forms of life over the course of millions of years. Instead, they believed in cre- ationism—the belief that God created the world as described in the Bible.
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The Scopes Trial
Fundamentalists believed that the Bible was literally true and without error. They defended the Protestant faith against ideas that implied that human beings derived their moral behavior from society and nature, not God. In particu- lar, Fundamentalists rejected Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution, which said that human beings had developed from lower forms of life over the course of millions of years. Instead, they believed in cre- ationism—the belief that God created the world as described in the Bible.
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Prohibition
The movement to ban alcohol had been building throughout the late 1800s. By the early 1900s, many progressives and traditionalists supported prohibi- tion. Many people believed the prohibition of alcohol would help reduce unemployment, domestic violence, and poverty. Their support helped pass the Eighteenth Amendment, which took effect in January 1920.
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(Continued)
To try to enforce the amendment, Congress passed the National Prohibition Act, also known as the Volstead Act. Enforcing Prohibition became the responsibility of the U.S. Treasury Department. Treasury agents had enforced federal tax laws for many years, but police powers—a government’s power to control people and property in the interest of public safety, health, welfare, and morals—had generally been reserved for the state governments. The Eighteenth Amendment granted federal and state governments the power to enforce Prohibition, mark- ing a dramatic increase in federal police powers.
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