As well as popular music and sports of the era. ,r. Markoe good morning everybody. Today we are going to discuss the jazz age, at least i am, and you are part of the discussion at the end. Please write down any thoughts you have, questions, responses, that would be good. Fromazz age is a period 1919 to 1929, reminds me of the opening lines of a tale of two cities by charles dickens. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. It wasnt exactly the best of times, but for many people it certainly was good times. It was the great age of literature, the golden age of jazz. , music, the 19th amendment to the constitution, which allowed women to vote in National Elections for the first time, radio was becoming popular. It was the early days of , and certainly the age of the automobile, the multi the model t. Automobiles were for almost every budget. Whichare the good times we will discuss. And it wasnt exactly the worst of times, although there were some very bad times. Decade leds of that to the worldwide depression in the 1930s and helped the rise of fascism in europe. So lets begin with talking about the politics of the era. It was a republican decade. Three republican president s, hoover, coolidge and and the republicans controlled the presidency from 1921 until 1933. Or fromress from 1918 the 1980 election until 1930. The 1918 election until 1930. It was the era of laissezfaire. Give business a free hand. That might be surprising to you because we had discussed the progressive era when there were a great many there was the federal trade commission, there were other commissions who controlled business. But in the 1920s, those were manned by people from the industry, so they werent doing much controlling. Internationally we cut our commitments abroad. Failure ofith the the senate to ratify the league of nations, Wilsons League of nations. And these two policies taken together, laissezfaire and our reluctance to take our place in the world, although we were, had emerged from world war i as the most powerful nation, would prove disastrous to the united in theand to the world 1930s. Let me say a few words about each of the presidencies beginning with warren harding. The best thing you can say about warren harding, he looked president ial. That was pretty much it. He looks president ial. It was the most corrupt administration that we had until that time and maybe in all of our history. Of this because he doesnt he died in office. But before that, the most scandalous of all the scandals was revealed when it turned out hadinterior secretary accepted bribes from private oil lands,es to lease Public Public naval oil reserves. Hen harding came from ohio, brought his pals with him. The ohio gang, and they had a very good time. They drank a lot, even though it was during prohibition. Wine,were wine women women and song. They really enjoyed national politics. Then he died rather suddenly, and the person who took his place, his Vice President , calvin coolidge, was probably as different from hurting as two humans can be. Harding, what can you say, he did not do much. He did not even talk. He knew how to talk but he didnt. Taciturn new englander. He came from vermont but had made his name by being governor of massachusetts when there was a police strike. He took a hard line against the police. That made him known nationally. As president he worked for a little. He brought his rocking chair with him, and he would put it out on the porch facing pennsylvania avenue, and he would rock away. This is the person that said the business of america was business. He did not interfere much with business. Market kepte stock going up and up and up. Not for very good reasons or for any reasons. There were warnings about this, that the economy could really bust. There were warnings from the Federal Reserve board and others in his government, but he did nothing about it. There are lots of funny stories about silent cal, as he was called. One was when a woman was invited to the white house to have lunch with him and some other people and she was very chatty, she turned to him and said, mr. President , i have a bit with my friends bet with my friends i can make you say more than two words tonight. He said you lose. That was his conversation for the entire meal. And that he could have easily run for president because the country was quite prosperous. But in fact he decided not to run. He did not tell anybody for a long time. He did not tell his wife, he didnt tell his Campaign Manager but at one point he called reporters together and handed. Ach of them a slip of paper the slip of paper had 10 words on it. Were, i do not choose to run for president in 1928. And then he walked away. The reporters were working walking after him say why are you running and he refused to say anything. He stepped down in 1928. The person who did get the nomination, republican nomination for president was a very different kind and a very interesting person. That was the mining engineer herbert hoover. Herbert hoover probably spend less time in the United States than any president before or since. He was always involved in Great Projects in the world. Orphaned at the age of nine but was sent from iowa but he was sent to live with an uncle in california. The uncle sent him to stanford diversity. Selfmadelly became a millionaire. He was in his 20s when he was a millionaire. He had no political history except for one. He ran for treasurer as a College Student from stanford university, but he was secretary of commerce and he had done a with president wilson. President wilson had sent him to europe when world war i began, and his job was to get in american tourists out of to get american tourists out of europe. He did that, then he helped the belgians. Belgian was over belgium was overrun and he was responsible for belgium relief. When he came back to the United States, he was the food administrator. His job was to see that the military got, the home front got fed as well. He did all of that and he did it very well. Now think of the timing of this. He wasnt a democrat, was in a notcrat or republic was a democrat or republican, both parties wanted him in 1920. Had he run for president in 1920, he would have been president from 1921 to the 1929, during prosperous times. And we would not, as we will be doing next week, talking about hoover bills and president hoover taking responsibility for the depression, but in fact that did not happen. In 1928or president against al smith, the new yorker and he defeated al smith, who was the first catholic to run for president. During the terms of these three president s, the country was disillusioned by the war. This was the war to save democracy. It was the war to end all wars. Ventedple, many people their frustration and anger on antisocial acts and legislation. It was a time in traditional values were shattered but new standards have not yet emerged. They case in point for example was the scopes trial, john scopes, when he faced William Jennings bryan, and the issue evolution inaching a tennessee public school. It was actually against the law. William Jennings Bryan defended a literal interpretation of the bible against evolution. , William Jennings bryan john scopes had in fact violated the law by teaching evolution. With the redgan 1920. Of 1919, it was a response to a series of strikes in the United States. The bestknown one was the one that crippled seattle for five days. It was a strike there. It was also a time when the bolsheviks were in power in russia and had created the comintern. It is what communists international, and it led to the palmer raids in the u. S. , a progressive quaker who was the attorney general of the United States. It resulted in the arrest of 4000 people, immigrants mostly, justf them hardworking workers who did not speak english. They certainly werent going to start a revolution here. But many of them were beaten up. People were denied representation. Most of them had nothing to do with radicalism. But there were bombings. There were a series of bombings in this country including the home of mitchell palmer. There was a bombing on wall street and you can still go down to wall street and see the bullets, where the bullet holes were. It led to some people without representation being sent back to russia, and it was a time in ,he United States that perhaps had it been better known, we would not have had a second red scare. The second of the 1950s, the mccarthy era in this country, that one lasted much longer than the 19191920 one and also damaged the lives of thousands of americans, writers, professors, people from hollywood who were wrongly identified as being enemies of the United States. Xenophobia was very common, a fear of foreigners. Eugenics. Pularity of the i guess i can say pseudoscience of improving the human species by a kind of selective breeding. Both were very popular in the 1920s. I will let that era pretty much speaks for itself. Author, zoologist lawyer named Madison Grant wrote a book published in 1916 called the passing of the great race. Sis thesis was that nordic were responsible for human development. Hitler1930s, adolf wrote a fan letter to madison bible. Alling the book my another writer, a popular writer for the saturday evening post, and millions of americans got the saturday evening post once a week, he urged immigration laws because he said, and this is an exact quote, immigrants would result in a hybrid race of futileas worthless and as the good for nothing mongrels of Central America and south Eastern Europe. Mongrels, a ward word we use for dogs. And then there was henry ford, whose antisemitism was spread in the newspaper, the dearborn independent, beginning in 1920. Americand is the only kampf. Hitler in mein the results of what people believed was very restrictive legislation for immigration in the country. Despite the fact the lady with the lamp was in new york harbor and you know the words, give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to be act, there was a temporary in 1921 that restricted immigration. Then there was another in 1924, the National Origins act. What the National Origins act did was to have a quota based on the population in 1890. The purpose of it was to freeze ethnically, to freeze it ethnically, to say whoever was here already, we will allow in a percentage of those people to enter the country. By the way, not very many. 150,000 a year. And asians were excluded. What that meant in practice was that the people who were allowed in were not necessarily the people who wanted to come. They came from northern europe. They came from western europe. The people who wanted to come or fromy catholics, jews Eastern Europe and southern europe, italy, greece, poland, russia. But there were severe restrictions on those people because there were not a great the 1890hem wanted in election. Counted in the 1890 election. This attitude led to many injustices. The best known was the execution intwo italian anarchists 1927 for a crime they did not commit. When ithe cases of say they were anarchists, these were mild anarchists. They were not bomb throwing anarchists. Country. Divided the do you execute these men were not . By the way, they did not commit the crime they were convicted of having done. It was the murders in south raintree, massachusetts of two people. Passos wrote ahn novel in which he talked of the on theseof the country two people and their attempts to execute. They were executed. The night they were facing execution, all over the world, people at american embassies were protesting the killings by the government of these two people. The novelist wrote a poem to mark the event. He said they have clubbed us off the streets they are stronger, they are rich they hire and fire the politicians, the newspaper , thers, the old judges small men with reputations the College President s, the war dealers listen, businessmen, judges, america will not forget her betrayers. Ll right, you have won you will kill the brave men, our friends tonight. All right. We are two nations. Madison grant was also responsible or acted in the movement to prevent intermarriage between whites and africanamericans, which leads us to another subject. That is the second ku klux klan. Your member the first ku klux war . Ight after the civil this was the second one and in some ways it was the same and in some ways it was very different from the first one. T actually was rather small it didnt amount to much until it was taken over by two professional fundraisers, edward clark and elizabeth tyler. They made their money, they saw an opportunity by selling sheet, sheets in childrens sizes, adult sizes, and the second kkk million had 5 cardcarrying members. This was not a fringe organization. It was very powerful in the midwest. Indiana was the leading clan members. H 300 if 2000 their targets like the first klan, africanamericans. ,ut mostly catholics and jews but they also went after bootleggers. This was during prohibition. Also there was a kind of auxiliary that was very popular wkkk, very powerful, the the womens ku klux klan. There were no women in the first ku klux klan. They acted quietly, but they did a lot of damage. They were taught as they were hanging up their clothes behind their homes, they would talk butcher, italian saying he was roman catholic, or , and all ofhoemaker a sudden the italian butcher and jewish shoemaker would not have any customers. They didnt know why. People who had been their customers for years suddenly were not their customers anymore. They would have to move away because they didnt have any businesses. It was mostly important in small towns, and the small town americans, many of them, out tod they were losing urban americans, and by the way, inthe 1920 the first time 1920, urban americans, there were more urban americans than rural. Was brutal. There were murders, church burnings, brandings, and then it ended suddenly. It ended when the grand dragon, as he called himself, of the ku klux klan in indiana was convicted of the kidnapped, raped and murder of the a young woman. And since the clan prided itself on protecting young women especially young protestant women, a lot of people give up their membership at that time. Did stay alive and had people became a little more interested in the kkk in the 1928 election when al smith, a roman catholic, ran for president. The 1920s was the time of prohibition. The 18th amendment went into effect in 1919. It is the only part of the constitution that was ever repealed. It was revealed in 1933 in the 21st amendment of the constitution. It was not just an experiment that failed. It turned out most americans did not want to be told they could not by alcohol. Courseto the rise of of speakeasies, who did you know, liquor being imported into the country, much of it through lakes, but iteat did not begin organized crime but organized crime was very small until prohibition. But this is the era of al capone , chicago, and also a great disrespect for the law and gang wars. And then when prohibition ended, it did not end organized crime. By then they moved into other fields, prostitution, protection and so forth. The 1960s, into actually when Bobby Kennedy was much of general, for that, not all of it, but for much of it to end. Enough about the bad times. Lets Say Something about the good times. , 1927, the boy whenr, he was 25 years old he left Roosevelt Field on long island to go to paris. 25 years old and he flew solo. He was probably the bestknown person in the world in the mid 1920s. Becauseost his luster he accepted a metal from hermann. Oering in nazi germany he was very taken with the German Air Force and was trying to make the point that we were not as well prepared as germany. Which was the case. Literatureeat age of. I know some of you read the great gatsby. The great gatsby more than any other book is the novel of the decade. F. Scottfitzgerald fitzgerald. A year later the sun also rises, Ernest Hemingways book, was published. It was a golden era for American Literature and also the age of the harlem renaissance. Musicians, artists who we know today from the harlem renaissance were not from new york. But harlem became the center of this renaissance. The center of the center was the the daughter of madam cj walker. I remember wonder if you are member of her. She is the only woman millionaire, not to inherit her wealth in an earlier era . And she had a daughter. 136thr brownstone on street in harlem was the center of the center. In 1931, the writer Langston Hughes said the harlem renaissance is over. By my a painting up there favorite artist of the harlem renaissance. You can take a closer look when you leave. Of course it was the age of jazz , cap calloway, suv blake, louis armstrong, Duke Ellington and so many others. It was a very rich timeframe. And there was a sexual revolution in the 1920s. I think sometimes students think that is the 1960s. It was another one. The 1920s. There were actually new words in the lexicon. Sexy, the word sexy dates from the 1920s. The expression sex appeal dates from the 1920s. And why . Part of it was liberation of women. A lot of women going to college for the first time, women gaining the right to vote, the age of jazz, the age of hollywood, sigmund freud. It wasnt so much that people read him, but they had a sense of what he was talking about when he talked about sex. He came to the United States. The charleston, the black bottom , and it was the age of the flapper. The flapper were essentially liberated women. My favorite line, and you got to listen closely to this, from wordnet word neck ceased to be a noun, became a verb, immediately lost all anatomical precision. Mean anything . Neck, ceased to be a noun, abruptly became a verb, immediately lost all anatomical precision. Tolywood added a great deal the sexual revolution. There were films like up in maples room. And compared t