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Crash Course 32 on the 1920s

Added Feb 16, 2017 •

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The post WWI period and the "Roaring Twenties"

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hi I'm John Green this is Crash Course US history the 1920s 20s gave us a jazz movies radio Nowlin Coors illegal wicker to the twenties also gave us prosperity although not for everybody and gangsters and a consumer culture based on credit and lots of prejudiced against and eventually the worst economic crisis the US has ever seen Gatsby what sound does trailed in the wake of his dreams didn't temporarily closed out my interest in the abortive sorrows and short-winded Elations of men stereotypical view of the 1920s as the sing twenties a decade of exciting change and new cultural touchstones as well as increased personal freedom and dancing and it really was a time of increased wealth put up the decade has to go to our famously taciturn president from Massachusetts Calvin Coolidge who said the chief business of the American people is business Jay-Z relator update 21st century noting I'm not a businessman I'm a businessman the government help business grow gangbusters this is known as laissez-faire capitalism or lez a Faire capitalism if you're good at speaking French which Conservative Republican the federal government Hyun to the policies favored by business lobbyists including lower taxes on personal income and business profits and efforts to weaken the power of President Harding Coolidge and Hoover stock the boards of the Federal Reserve and the Federal Trade Commission with men who share their pro-business news Shifting the country away from the regulation that have been favored by Progressive at least in the short run stration of Warren G Harding Harding himself wasn't terribly corrupt but he picked terrible friends included attorney general Harry Dougherty who accepted money to not prosecute criminals and carrier secretary Albert Fall who took half a million dollars from private business in exchange for Lisa's to government oil Reserves at Teapot Dome you convicted of a felony but on the other hand businessman trees like Aviation chemicals and electronics grew up to provide Americans with new products and new jobs during the 1920s annual production of cars tripled to 4 point new automobile companies were gradually Consolidated into the big three that we know today Ford Chrysler and Harley-Davidson General Motors 29 half of All American families owned a car and thus began the American love affair with the automobile which is also where love affairs were often consummated which is why in the 1820s cars came to be known as skoodilypooping chariots with that they were called brothels on wheels is an American foreign investment with greater than that of any other country the dollar replace the pound is the most important currency for trade in by the end of the decade America was producing 85 the world's cars and 40% of its overall manufactured goods stand can I get a liver Taj turn down all kinds of labor-saving devices like vacuum cleaners posters refrigerators and not having to spend all day washing your clothes or turning over your own toast like some kind of commoner meant that Americans had more time for leisure and this was provided by radios and baseball games boxing matches vacations dance crazes I mean before Gangnam are there was the windy and the Charleston the most significant movies and I'm not just saying that because I'm staring into a camera more World War one because land was cheap and plentiful all that Sunshine meant that you could shoot outside all year round and it was close to everything desert mountains ocean plastic surgeon at by 1925 the American film industry had a Clips to all of its competitors and become the greatest in the world especially if you count by volume what Quality Time or more people had money to go see those movies thanks to Consumer Debt credit and layaway what came to be seen as the American standard of living and this was a huge change in Attitude play new ideas was another feature of American life in the twenties that is still with us celebrity or singer Enrico Caruso has often been called the first modern celebrity but now he's a lot less play mr. Charlie Chaplin Rudolph Valentino of the decade was Charles Lindbergh fly across the Atlantic by himself without stopping although he did use an airplane which makes it slightly less impressive truly contemporary celebrity in the sense of being famous for being yes but he wants a business more than a businessman this was the age of The Lost Generation of American Writers many of whom lived in Europe Erica had its own version of Paris in New York continued migration of African American people from the South to cities in the north and Harlem became the capital of black and speaking of migration let us know migrate to the chair for the mystery documents  rules here are simple I guess the author the mystery document on my the right or I get shocked shut it not be like Hogs hunted and pendant while round us bark the mad and hungry making their mock at our accursed lot like men will face the murderous cowardly pack press to the wall dying but fight back stand thank you for the Poetry I appreciate that it's not some obscure of document from 18th century blah blah blah Harlem Renaissance poet the poem is called the if we must die it's only thing in the world I'm actually good at that would figuratively and literally make up the moms at the lynchings with the giveaway here is the ultimate sentiment that we will fight back this was part of the spirit of the Harlem Renaissance rejected stereotypes and Prejudice and sought to celebrate African American Experience first kept their hair and skirts short smoked and drank at legally in public and availed themselves of birth control and marketers encourage them to buy products like cigarettes Chris and torches of free I'm by Edward Bernays to marry have children and their freedom at home through the use of washing machines but the picture of pretty is as usual more complicated than it had first appears the fact that so many Americans were going into debt in order to pursue the American dream meant if the economy faltered and did it was going to be lots of trouble let's go to Industrial wages Rose by a quarter between 19 you too in 1929 but corporate profits Rose at twice death rates by 1929 1% of the nation's Banks controlled 50% of the nation's financial resources and the wealthiest percent of Americans share of national income exceeded that of the bottom 60% an estimated 40% of Americans lived in poverty how many Americans celebrated big biz in Wall Street was often seen as heroic possibly because by 1920 about 1.5 million Americans own some kind of stock but big business also meant that smaller businesses to during the 1920s the number of manufacturing workers declined by 5% the first time this class of workers and seen its numbers drop but not the last to know some of these jobs were made 4X new jobs in Retail Finance and education but as early as the 1920s New England was beginning to see unemployment industrialization as textile companies move there relations to the South where labor was cheaper and Working Class People still made up the majority of Americans and they often couldn't afford these newfangled device like in 1930 75 Bank of American homes didn't have a washing machine and only 40% of them had a radio during World War 1 when the government subsidize Farm prices order to keep Farms producing for the war effort but when the subsidies ended production didn't subside largely due to mechanization and increased use of fertilizer Farmers incomes drop Dewey and many Saw Banks foreclosed upon their property for the first time in American history the number of farms declined during the 1920s for Farmers the Great Depression began thanks. Bubble the federal government did nothing to help farmers or workers this is the only segment of the government kept any Progressive ideas alive began to craft a system of ideas that we called the jurisprudence of civil liberties the people have the right to express dissonant views in what Oliver Wendell Holmes called The Marketplace of ideas where's a 1927 Justice Brandeis was writing that freedom to think as you willing to speak as you think are indispensable to the Discovery and spread of political but despite increased free speech in porches of Liberty in Flappers in the Harlem Renaissance the 1920s was in many ways a reactionary period in American history the Resurgence of the Ku Klux Klan in the new and improved form and by improved I mean much more terrible on by the hyper patriotism that was Foster during World War 1 the clan denounced send Jews and Catholics as less than 100% American and buy the mid-twenties the clan claimed more than three million members and was the largest private organization here in my home state of Indiana immigrants coming from Southern and Eastern Europe who were often Catholic and Jewish white Protestants became more and more concerned about losing their current position in the social order spoiler alert it turns out okay for you white Protestants immigration restriction bill was passed in 1921 limiting the number of immigrants from Europe to 357,000 in 1924 a new immigration law drop that number to 150,000 established quotas based on national origin the numbers of what's allowed from Southern and Eastern Europe were drastically reduced into Asians except for Filipinos were totally forbidden accorded for filipinos with set at 50 per year although we're still allowed to immigrate to Hawaii because their labor was needed there waivers from Mexico where two people of color and as President Coolidge himself declared when he signed the 1924 immigration law America must be kept American how American you are are you Cherokee or cream or Lakota the 1920s also saw increased tension between Science Education in the United States and religious beliefs are examples of what's the trial of John Scopes in Tennessee in 1925 Scopes was tried for breaking the law against teaching evolution which had been encouraged to do by the ACLU as a test case freedom of speech with prosecuted by William Jennings Bryan whom you will remember his having recently resigned as Secretary of State and it would become a leader of the fundamentalist movement 10 Scopes was defend play Clarence Darrow that famous defense attorney who contemporary defense attorneys always point to to argue that defense attorneys aren't all scum open the case Drew national attention and ultimately that to Evolution being taught in more American schools victory for free thinking and Science and modernism was it was but for me it's more a symbol of the contradictions of the 1920s the decade that gave us Mass consumer culture and celebrity worship which are important and very legacies of the birth of modern conceptions of civil liberties it was a period when tolerance became an important value but at the same time it's all a rise in lynching immigrants were Terry for the economic boom of the 1920s but at the same time their numbers were restricted as they were seen as a threat to traditional American values and that raises a question that we're still struggling with today what are those values I don't mean that rhetorically let me know in comments thanks for watching I'll see you next week to do some directed by Stan Miller our script supervisor is marriage the associate producer is Danica Johnson to show his written by my high school history teacher Raul my Rosie on Rojas and myself and our Graphics team is thawed Cafe I nailed that every week There's a new captain for delivery charge suggest your own in comments or ask questions about today's video that will be answered by our team with the story and thank you for watching crash course it you enjoyed today's episode make sure you subscribe to this we say in my hometown how to be awesome

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Crash Course 32 on the 1920s

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