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The 1920s was a very prosperous era in the United States. Americans were going through a good time. Women had changed from the "normal" role that they played,  they were more liberal and more independent. Life in general seemed very good, but there were also many set backs. It was an era of progress and change, the 20s had many great and prosperous ideas and conquests, and although there were some setbacks the era helped to influence a lot of great changes that were to come in the United States.

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William G. Harding: November 2, 1865- August 2, 1923
In Office: March 4, 1921 to August 2, 1923
Willam Harding began his political career after winning the election to the Ohio senate, he later became Ohio's lieutenant governor, but in 1906 he lost his chance for governor after his speech nominating Taft for a second term as President. In 1914 he was elected senator, until his presidential inauguration in 1921. Harding defeated the Democratic candidate in what was described at that time as the largest landslide of that time. This election also happened to be the first in which women were allowed to vote as they had been given the right with the ratification of the 19th Amendment.
In office he conserved a pro-business , conservative republican agenda.He lowered taxes particularly wealthy individuals and large corporations.  His presidential term was overshadowed by the misconduct of some of the people that he surrounded himself with while in office. He was popular while he was in office, but after his death America learned of the corruption that happened within his administration. One of the most famous scandals of this event was, The Teapot Dome Scandal, committed by Secretary of Interior, Albert Fall, who rented out public lands to oil companies in exchange for personal loans and gifts. Harding himself was accused of drinking in the White House, which violated the 18th Amendment, and of having extramarital relationships. This misfortunate chain of events led to the disgrace of his reputation and his name.  In hindsight, historians now rank William Harding as one of the worst presidents of all time.
https://www.history.com/topics/us-presidents/warren-g-harding

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Contents

1. Warren Harding's Early Years

2. Warren Harding's Rise in the Republican Party

3. Warren Harding in the White House

4. Warren Harding's Death

The 29th U.S. president, Warren Harding (1865-1923) served in office from 1921 to 1923 before dying of an apparent heart attack. Harding's presidency was overshadowed by the criminal activities of some of his cabinet members and other government officials, although he himself was not involved in any wrongdoing. An Ohio native and Republican, Harding was a successful newspaper publisher who served in the Ohio legislature and the U.S. Senate. In 1920, he won the general election in a landslide, promising a "return to normalcy" after the hardships of World War I (1914-1918). As president, he favored pro-business policies and limited immigration. Harding died suddenly in San Francisco in 1923, and was succeeded by Vice President Calvin Coolidge (1872-1933). After Harding's death, the Teapot Dome Scandal and other instances of corruption came to light, damaging his reputation.

Warren Harding's Early Years

Warren Gamaliel Harding was born on November 2, 1865, on a farm in the small Ohio community of Corsica (present-day Blooming Grove). He was the oldest of eight children of George Harding (1843-1928), a farmer who later became a doctor and part owner of a local newspaper, and Phoebe Dickerson Harding (1843-1910), a midwife.

Did you know? In 1923, as part of a cross-country tour, Harding became the first American president to visit Alaska, which had been a territory since 1912 and would achieve statehood in 1959.

Harding graduated from Ohio Central College (now defunct) in 1882 and moved to Marion, Ohio, where he eventually found work as a newspaper reporter. In 1884, he and several partners purchased a small, struggling newspaper, the Marion Star.

In 1891, Harding married Florence Kling De Wolfe (1860-1924), a Marion native with one son from a previous relationship. The Hardings had no children together, and Florence Harding helped manage the business operations for her husband's newspaper, which became a financial success. She later encouraged Warren Harding's political career and once remarked, "I have only one real hobby-my husband."

Warren Harding's Rise in the Republican Party

Warren Harding, a Republican, began his political career in 1898 by winning election to the Ohio senate, where he served until 1903. He was Ohio's lieutenant governor from 1904 to 1906 but lost his bid for the governorship in 1910. Two years later, he stepped into the national spotlight at the Republican National Convention when he gave a speech nominating President William Taft (1857-1930) for a second term. In 1914, Harding was elected to the U.S. Senate, where he remained until his 1921 presidential inauguration. The congenial Harding had an undistinguished career in the Senate. While he supported high protective tariffs and opposed President Woodrow Wilson's (1856-1924) plan for the League of Nations, Harding was generally a conciliator and took few strong stands on any issues.

At the 1920 Republican National Convention, delegates deadlocked over their choice for a presidential nominee and eventually chose Harding as a compromise candidate. Calvin Coolidge, the governor of Massachusetts, was selected as his vice presidential running mate. The Democrats named James Cox (1870-1957), the governor of Ohio, as their presidential candidate; Franklin Roosevelt (1882-1945), the former assistant secretary of the Navy (and future 32nd U.S. president), was picked as his running mate.

In the aftermath of World War I and the social changes of the Progressive Era, the pro-business Harding advocated a "return to normalcy." He conducted a front-porch campaign from his home in Marion, and thousands of people travelled there to hear him speak. (Due to the high volume of visitors, Harding's front lawn had to be replaced with gravel).

In the general election, the Harding-Coolidge ticket defeated the Democrats in the largest landslide up to that time, capturing some 60 percent of the popular vote and an electoral margin of 404-127. It was the first presidential election in which women across the United States could vote, having gained the right with the ratification of the 19th Amendment in August 1920.

Warren Harding in the White House

Once in office, Warren Harding followed a predominantly pro-business, conservative Republican agenda. Taxes were reduced, particularly for corporations and wealthy individuals; high protective tariffs were enacted; and immigration was limited. Harding signed the Budget and Accounting Act of 1921, which streamlined the federal budget system and established the General Accounting Office to audit government expenditures. Additionally, the United States hosted a successful naval disarmament conference for the world's leading countries. Harding also nominated ex-president Taft as the chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. To date, Taft is the only former chief executive to have held this position.

Harding appointed capable men to his cabinet, including Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover (1874-1964), Secretary of State Charles Evans Hughes (1862-1948) and Secretary of the Treasury Andrew Mellon (1855-1937). However, he also surrounded himself with individuals who were later accused of misconduct. Harding was popular while in office, but his reputation was tarnished following his death when Americans learned of corruption within his administration-even though he had not engaged in any of this criminal activity. In one infamous incident, known as the Teapot Dome Scandal, Secretary of the Interior Albert Fall (1861-1944) rented public lands to oil companies in exchange for gifts and personal loans. (Fall was later convicted of accepting bribes and spent less than a year in prison.) Other government officials took payoffs and embezzled funds. Harding himself allegedly had extramarital affairs and drank alcohol in the White House, a violation of the 18th Amendment.

Warren Harding's Death

In the summer of 1923, Warren Harding embarked on a cross-country tour of the United States to promote his policies. During the trip, the 57-year-old president became sick, and on August 2 he died of what was likely a heart attack (no autopsy was conducted) at a San Francisco hotel.

In the early hours of August 3, Vice President Coolidge was sworn in as America's 30th president at his boyhood home in Plymouth Notch, Vermont, where he was vacationing. Coolidge's father, a notary public, administered the oath of office.

Millions of people across the nation gathered along the railroad tracks to pay their respects to Harding as his body was returned from the West Coast to Washington, D.C. Harding's Marion home was later designated a National Historic Landmark and opened to the public. The president's tomb is also located in Marion.

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PHOTO GALLERIES

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Warren Harding (1865-1923) was the 29th U.S. president, who served from 1921 to 1923 before dying of an apparent heart attack. Harding's presidency was overshadowed by the criminal activities of some of his cabinet members and other government officials, although he himself was not directly involved in any wrongdoing.

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Calvin Coolidge: July 4, 1872 to January 5, 1933
In Office: August 2, 1923 to March 4, 1929
Calvin Coolidge became the 30th U.S. president proceeding William G. Harding.
His presidency followed Harding's, which was riddled with scandal. Cooling led the United States throughout the "Roaring Twenties." He was nicknamed "Silent Cal" for quiet and steadfast nature. He cleaned up the rampant of corruption that was left behind by Harding's administration. He also provided a model of respectability for America during as it underwent a fast-paced modernization. Some of his laissez-faire practices contributed to the economic problems that broke out during the Great Depression. He was responsible for appointing a special counsel to investigate the Teapot Dome Scandal. His reputation for being honest and having integrity helped to restore American's faith in the government. His policies in office were guided by his beliefs in a small government and private enterprises. Coolidge set high tariffs on imported good to protect American businesses, as well as opposing the United States' entry into the League of Nations. During this era he served as a "father" figure, he provided an old- fashioned responsibility and virtue. After nearly a year of his departure from the White House, the stock market crashed. Although he was credited with the prosperity of the 1920s, he took some responsibility for the stock market crash. The crash hurt his reputation and public opinion about his policies. He is often referred to as a "bridge" between the early 1920s prosperity and the 1930s Great Depression.
https://www.history.com/topics/us-presidents/calvin-coolidge

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Calvin Coolidge (1872-1933), the 30th U.S. president, led the nation through most of the Roaring Twenties, a decade of dynamic social and cultural change, materialism and excess. He took office on August 3, 1923, following the sudden death of President Warren G. Harding (1865-1923), whose administration was riddled with scandal.

Nicknamed "Silent Cal" for his quiet, steadfast and frugal nature, Coolidge, a former Republican governor of Massachusetts, cleaned up the rampant corruption of the Harding administration and provided a model of stability and respectability for the American people in an era of fast-paced modernization. He was a pro-business conservative who favored tax cuts and limited government spending. Yet some of his laissez-faire policies also contributed to the economic problems that erupted into the Great Depression.

A Quiet and Serious Young Man

John Calvin Coolidge was born on July 4, 1872, in the small village of Plymouth Notch, Vermont. His father, also named John Calvin Coolidge (1845-1926), was a hardworking and frugal businessman who ran a general store and post office. His mother, Victoria Josephine Moor Coolidge (1846-85), died when her son was just 12 years old. He was raised to be honest, industrious and conservative, with a deep respect for business.

Did you know? Calvin Coolidge was the only U.S. president to be sworn in by his own father. In 1923, while visiting his childhood home in Vermont, Coolidge learned of President Warren Harding's death. As it was the middle of the night, Coolidge's father-a notary public-administered the oath by lamplight.

Coolidge graduated from Black River Academy in Ludlow, Vermont, in 1890, and went on to attend Amherst College in Massachusetts, graduating with honors in 1895. He studied law and passed the Massachusetts bar exam in 1898. After opening a law office in Northampton, he spent the next 20 years handling real estate deals, wills and bankruptcies.

On October 4, 1905, Coolidge married Grace Anna Goodhue (1879-1957), a teacher at a local school for the deaf. They had two sons, John (1906-2000) and Calvin Jr. (1908-24), who died from blood poisoning as a teenager.

Political Career

Coolidge launched his career in politics in 1898, when he was elected to the Northampton, Massachusetts, city council. He then began a quiet but methodical climb up the political ladder, serving in the Massachusetts House of Representatives, as mayor of Northampton, as a state congressman, as a state senator and as lieutenant governor.

During this period, Coolidge studied public policy questions, made speeches and steadily gained influence with Republican Party leaders. He developed a reputation as a pro-business conservative who strove to make government lean and efficient.

In 1918, Coolidge was elected governor of Massachusetts. He was catapulted into the national spotlight the following year when the Boston police force went on strike and riots broke out across the city. Coolidge sent in the state guard to restore order and then took a strong stand against rehiring the striking police officers. In a telegram to labor leader Samuel Gompers (1850-1924), he famously declared that "there is no right to strike against the public safety by anybody, anywhere, anytime."

Coolidge's handling of the situation captured the imagination of the American public. As the 1920 U.S. presidential election approached, rank-and-file delegates to the Republican National Convention chose him as the vice-presidential candidate on a ticket headed by U.S. Senator Warren G. Harding of Ohio.

Coolidge in the White House

The Harding-Coolidge ticket won the 1920 election in a landslide and the men took office in March 1921. Coolidge quickly grew frustrated with his largely ceremonial duties as vice president, but just two years later, Harding's sudden death on August 2, 1923, unexpectedly vaulted him to the Oval Office.

Coolidge's no-nonsense approach and somber nature stood in stark contrast to his predecessor's genial personality and casual leadership style. The differences served Coolidge well as he worked to clean up the corruption that had plagued the Harding administration. He appointed a special counsel to investigate the Teapot Dome oil-lease scandal (in which the U.S. Secretary of the Interior was accused-and later convicted-of accepting bribes to lease federal oil reserves without competitive bidding), and he dismissed Harding's tarnished U.S. attorney general, Harry M. Daugherty (1860-1941). Coolidge's reputation for honesty and integrity helped him restore public faith in the government.

Coolidge ran for president in 1924 and won decisively over the Democratic candidate, U.S. Representative John W. Davis (1873-1955) of West Virginia, and the Progressive Party candidate, U.S. Senator Robert M. La Follette (1855-1925) of Wisconsin. Coolidge's policies in office continued to be guided by his strong belief in private enterprise and small government. He cut taxes, limited government spending and stacked regulatory commissions with people sympathetic to business. Coolidge once said, "The chief business of the American people is business." He also rejected U.S. membership in the League of Nations and set high tariffs on imported goods to protect American industry.

Coolidge remained popular throughout his presidency. The Roaring Twenties were a time of fast-paced social, cultural and technological changes, and many Americans lived boisterously and spent extravagantly. Some young women adopted the "flapper" lifestyle, and drank alcohol, smoked, danced and wore shorter skirts, makeup and bobbed hair. Women also voted, having won that right with the ratification of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in 1920.

Jazz music and Art Deco architecture flourished. Charles Lindbergh (1902-74) made his pioneering solo airplane flight across the Atlantic Ocean in 1927. More people owned automobiles and purchased mass-produced goods such as canned foods. During this era of societal transformation, Coolidge served as a sort of father figure. The quiet, respectable and frugal president provided a comforting symbol of old-fashioned responsibility and virtue.

Post-Presidential Years

Although many people believed that Coolidge could have won re-election in 1928, he publicly announced his decision not to run on August 2, 1927, in a simple note delivered to reporters at a press conference. The physical strain of the job, as well as the death of his father and his youngest son, had depleted his energy and interest in another term. The Republican Party turned to Herbert Hoover (1874-1964), who had served as secretary of commerce under both Harding and Coolidge, as its candidate.

After departing the White House, Coolidge retired to Northampton, where he occupied himself by writing his memoirs and contributing political commentary to magazines. Less than a year after he left office, the U.S. stock market crashed and the economy plummeted into the Great Depression.

Although Coolidge had received a great deal of credit for the prosperity of the 1920s, he recognized that he bore some responsibility for the severe economic downturn. He admitted to friends that he had spent his presidency "avoiding the big problems," as William Allen White quoted him as saying in his biography, "A Puritan in Babylon." Coolidge died of a heart attack at the age of 60 at his Northampton home on January 5, 1933.

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Calvin Coolidge (1872-1933), the 30th U.S. president, led the nation through most of the Roaring Twenties, a decade of dynamic social and cultural change, materialism and excess. He took office on August 3, 1923, following the sudden death of President Warren G. Harding (1865-1923), whose administration was riddled with scandal.

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Teapot Dome Scandal: April 7, 1922
Secretary of Interior, Albert Fall, leased public federal lands to oil corporations in exchange for personal loans and gifts, during the presidency of William G. Harding. Fall secretly granted these lands to Henry Sinclair of the Mammoth Oil Company, exclusive rights to the Teapot Dome reserves. Sinclair was not the only man that Fall granted those similar rights to, Edward L. Doheny of Pan American Petroleum Company was also secretly granted the rights for the Elk Hills and Buena Vista Hills reserves in California. When the lease contracts came under investigation, it was revealed that Fall and family members had received more $300,000 from both Sinclair and Doheny. Congress declared the leases fraudulent and immediately ordered president Harding to cancel the leases, and also ruled illegal Harding's transfer of power to Fall. Fall was later convicted of accepting a bribe in the Elk Hills negotiations and was sent to prison. Doheny and Sinclair were both acquitted of charges of bribery and criminal conspiracy, but Sinclair spent 6 and a half months in prison for contempt of court and contempt of the U.S. senate. The secretary of navy, Edwin Denby, who signed all of the leases, was actually cleared of all charges. Although the Teapot dome Scandal was huge, it had little effect on the Republican Party, as Calvin Coolidge was elected president in 1924.
https://www.britannica.com/event/Teapot-Dome-Scandal

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Table of Contents

What was the Teapot Dome Scandal?

What did the Teapot Dome Scandal reveal about U.S. Pres. Warren G. Harding's administration?

How did the Teapot Dome Scandal affect U.S. Pres. Warren G. Harding's reputation?

This article was most recently revised and updated by

Teapot Dome Scandal, also called Oil Reserves Scandal or Elk Hills Scandal, in American history, scandal of the early 1920s surrounding the secret leasing of federal oil reserves by the secretary of the interior, Albert Bacon Fall. After U.S. Pres. Warren G. Harding transferred supervision of the naval oil-reserve lands from the navy to the Department of the Interior in 1921, Fall secretly granted to Harry F. Sinclair of the Mammoth Oil Company exclusive rights to the Teapot Dome (Wyoming) reserves (April 7, 1922). He granted similar rights to Edward L. Doheny of Pan American Petroleum Company for the Elk Hills and Buena Vista Hills reserves in California (1921-22).

When these leases and contracts came under investigation by committees of the U.S. Senate, it was disclosed that shortly after the signing of the Teapot Dome lease, Fall and members of his family had received from an unknown source more than $200,000 in Liberty bonds under circumstances indicating that the bonds came from a company organized by Sinclair and others receiving benefits from the lease. Also, it appeared that prior to the execution of the Pan American contracts and leases, Doheny, at Fall's request, sent $100,000 in currency to Fall as a "loan" that had not been repaid.

When the affair became known, Congress directed President Harding to cancel the leases; the Supreme Court declared the leases fraudulent and ruled illegal Harding's transfer of authority to Fall. Although the president himself was not implicated in the transactions that had followed the transfer, the revelations of his associates' misconduct took a severe toll on his health; disillusioned and exhausted, he died before the full extent of the wrongdoing had been determined. Fall was convicted of accepting a bribe in the Elk Hills negotiations and imprisoned. Doheny and Sinclair were acquitted of charges of bribery and criminal conspiracy, but Sinclair spent 6 months in prison for contempt of court and contempt of the U.S. Senate. Although the secretary of the navy, Edwin Denby, had signed all the leases, he was cleared of all charges.

Though "Teapot Dome" entered the American political vocabulary as a synonym for governmental corruption, the scandal had little long-term effect on the Republican Party. Calvin Coolidge, a Republican, was elected president in 1924.

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica Jeff Wallenfeldt.

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Teapot Dome Scandal | Definition, Facts, & Significance

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Teapot Dome Scandal, also called Oil Reserves Scandal or Elk Hills Scandal, in American history, scandal of the early 1920s surrounding the secret leasing of federal oil reserves by the secretary of the interior, Albert Bacon Fall. After U.S. Pres. Warren G.

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Herbert Hoover: August 4, 1874 to October 20, 1964
In Office: March 4, 1929 to March 4, 1933
Herbert hoover became the 31st president proceeding Calvin Coolidge. Hoover was the Republican candidate, who promised to continue peace and prosperity to the nation. Seven months after taking office though, on October 24, 1929, the stock market crashed in the United States. The economy dropped so bad, it signaled the start of the Great Depression. Nationwide unemployment rates rose from 3 to 23 percent in the matter of only four years. Many Americans lost their homes, jobs, businesses, and savings. The problem was so bad that people had to wait in long lines to receive food and lived in filthy run-down towns called Hoovervilles. Banks and businesses failed as well. His response to the Great depression crisis was guided by his conservative views. He feared that federal intervention would jeopardize capitalism and individualism , he also believed in a limited government role. A few of the various measures that he introduced to stimulate the economy, would later become the key components of relief efforts. The Depression continued and worsened throughout his presidency and critics called him out for being indifferent to the suffering of the American people because they saw no efforts from his part to try and resolve the situation. He failed to secure a second-term election and was defeated by democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt. Roosevelt introduced many relief efforts for the American people, later called a New Deal for the American people. After leaving office Hoover became one of Roosevelt's critics. He wrote articles and books about his conservative views and the dangers of giving the federal government too much power. By the time he died, public opinion regarding him had grown  more favorable. The Great Depression continued for eight more years after Hoover left the White house despite Roosevelt's continuous efforts to help restore the economy and prosperity of America. This causing for some historians to be more sympathetic towards Hoover regarding his presidency.

https://www.history.com/topics/us-presidents/herbert-hoover

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Herbert Hoover (1874-1964), America's 31st president, took office in 1929, the year the U.S. economy plummeted into the Great Depression. Although his predecessors' policies undoubtedly contributed to the crisis, which lasted over a decade, Hoover bore much of the blame in the minds of the American people.

As the Depression deepened, Hoover failed to recognize the severity of the situation or leverage the power of the federal government to squarely address it. A successful mining engineer before entering politics, the Iowa-born president was widely viewed as callous and insensitive toward the suffering of millions of desperate Americans. As a result, Hoover was soundly defeated in the 1932 presidential election by Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882-1945).

Early Years

Herbert Clark Hoover was born on August 10, 1874, in West Branch, Iowa-the first U.S. president to be born west of the Mississippi River. He was the second of three children in a family of Quakers, who valued honesty, industriousness and simplicity. His father, Jesse Clark Hoover (1846-80), worked as a blacksmith, and his mother, Hulda Minthorn Hoover (1848-84), was a teacher. Orphaned at age nine, Hoover was raised primarily by an uncle in Oregon.

Did you know? On March 3, 1931, President Herbert Hoover signed a law that made "The Star-Spangled Banner," based on an 1814 poem by Francis Scott Key (1779-1843), America's national anthem.

After attending Quaker schools, Hoover became part of the first class to enter Stanford University when it opened in 1891. He graduated four years later with a degree in geology and launched a lucrative career as a mining engineer. Intelligent and hardworking, Hoover traveled all over the world to find valuable mineral deposits and establish business enterprises to extract the resources. His work made him a multimillionaire. On February 10, 1899, Hoover married his college sweetheart, Lou Henry (1874-1944), and the couple had two sons, Herbert (1903-69) and Allan Henry (1907-93).

Humanitarian Work

At the start of World War I (1914-18), Hoover dedicated his talents to humanitarian work. He helped 120,000 stranded American tourists return home from Europe when the hostilities broke out and coordinated the delivery of food and supplies to citizens of Belgium after that country was overrun by Germany.

When the U.S. entered the war in 1917, President Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924) appointed Hoover head of the Food Administration. Hoover encouraged Americans to reduce their consumption of meat and other commodities in order to ensure a steady supply of food and clothing for the Allied troops.

Once the war ended, Hoover, as head of the American Relief Administration, arranged shipments of food and aid to war-ravaged Europe. He earned worldwide acclaim for his humanitarian efforts, as well as thousands of appreciative letters from people across Europe who benefited from the free meals known as "Hoover lunches."

Hoover's success earned him an appointment as secretary of commerce under President Warren Harding (1865-1923), and he continued in this position under President Calvin Coolidge (1872-1933). During the fast-paced modernization of the 1920s, Hoover played an active role in organizing the fledgling radio broadcasting and civilian aviation industries, and also laid the groundwork for the construction of a huge dam on the Colorado River between Arizona and Nevada. (Named after Hoover, the dam opened in 1936.)

The Great Depression

In the U.S. presidential election of 1928, Hoover ran as the Republican Party's nominee. Promising to bring continued peace and prosperity to the nation, he carried 40 states and defeated Democratic candidate Alfred E. Smith (1873-1944), the governor of New York, by a record margin of 444-87 electoral votes. "I have no fears for the future of our country," Hoover declared in his inaugural address. "It is bright with hope."

On October 24, 1929-only seven months after Hoover took office-a precipitous drop in the value of the U.S. stock market sent the economy spiraling downward and signaled the start of the Great Depression. Banks and businesses failed across the country. Nationwide unemployment rates rose from 3 percent in 1929 to 23 percent in 1932. Millions of Americans lost their jobs, homes and savings. Many people were forced to wait in bread lines for food and to live in squalid shantytowns known derisively as Hoovervilles.

Hoover undertook various measures designed to stimulate the economy, and a few of the programs he introduced became key components of later relief efforts. However, Hoover's response to the crisis was constrained by his conservative political philosophy. He believed in a limited role for government and worried that excessive federal intervention posed a threat to capitalism and individualism. He felt that assistance should be handled on a local, voluntary basis. Accordingly, Hoover vetoed several bills that would have provided direct relief to struggling Americans. "Prosperity cannot be restored by raids upon the public Treasury," he explained in his 1930 State of the Union address.

Post-Presidential Years

The Depression worsened throughout Hoover's term in office, and critics increasingly portrayed him as indifferent to the suffering of the American people. By the time of the 1932 presidential election, Hoover had become a deeply unpopular-even reviled-figure across much of the country. Carrying only six states, he was soundly defeated by Democratic candidate Franklin D. Roosevelt, the governor of New York, who promised to enact a slate of progressive reforms and economic relief programs that he described as a New Deal for the American people.

After leaving office, Hoover emerged as a prominent critic of Roosevelt's New Deal programs. He wrote articles and books outlining his conservative political views and warning about the dangers of investing too much power in the federal government. Hoover returned to public service in the 1950s, serving on commissions aimed at increasing government efficiency for presidents Harry Truman (1884-1972) and Dwight Eisenhower (1890-1969).

By the time Hoover died at age 90 on October 20, 1964, in New York City, assessments of his legacy had grown more favorable. Noting that after Hoover left the White House the Great Depression continued for eight more years despite Roosevelt's active intervention, some historians have argued for a more sympathetic appraisal of Hoover's presidency.

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Herbert Hoover (1874-1964), America's 31st president, took office in 1929, the year the U.S. stock market crashed, plunging the country into the Great Depression. Although his predecessors' policies undoubtedly contributed to the crisis, which lasted over a decade, Hoover bore much of the blame in the minds of the American people.

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John T. Thompson invented the Tommy Gun in 1919. This submachine gun became famous during the Prohibition era, it became a signature weapon for many organized crime groups. It was very common as to see the gun . being used, as it was utilized by law enforcement officers as well as criminals. The Thompson, which was one of the many names for the gun, was favored by soldiers, law enforcement officials, criminals, and civilians for its large cartridge, accuracy, and fully automatic fire. The Thompson Submachine Gun was created by General John T. Thompson in an effort to replace the bolt action service rifles used back then. He found a financial backer, Thomas F. Ryan, and started the Auto-Ordnance Company for the purpose of developing his gun. Once in the works of . producing the gun, the project being titled the "Annihilator." The Thompson was used during World War II by the Allied troops. Troops used the gun in jungle patrols and ambushes, where it was preferred because of its firepower, but it was also criticized for its heavy weight and its poor reliability. Difficulties in supply led to its replacement by other submachine guns such as the Owens and the Austen.
The popularity of submachine guns by gangsters and other criminals in the 1920s and 1930s led the United States government to issue the National Firearms Act. This Act requires fully automatic gun owners to register their guns under the ATF. This law also placed various restrictions on these guns such as, their transport and possession. The original version of the gun is no longer manufactured today, but similar versions of it are. It is now considered to be a "collectors" gun, which are now thought to be priced at $11,000 and up. This gun influenced the 1920s because it was widely used by carious types of people, ranging from criminals like gangsters to World War II soldiers, and it quickly became widely famous for its great power compared to older rifles.
https://www.popularmechanics.com/military/weapons/a25414/tommy-gun-thompson-submachine/

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Bootlegging gangsters of the 1920s and 30s firing a barrage of bullets at the G-men in pursuit-that's the mental picture you might have of the Tommy gun. But while the Thompson submachine gun was designed for the trenches of World War I and gained notoriety as a gangster's weapon, it was the battlefields of World War II that saw it win its place in history alongside the other best-known firearms of all time, with as many as two million made.

General Thompson and His Gun

Brigadier General John Taliaferro Thompson, the force behind the Thompson gun, graduated from West Point in 1882. By the outbreak of the Spanish-American War in 1898, Thompson had risen to the rank of lieutenant colonel and was the chief ordnance officer for the campaign in Cuba. After the war he became chief of the Ordnance Department's Small Arms Division, where he was instrumental in selecting the .45 ACP cartridge-the same round his submachine gun would later fire. (The tests involved shooting human cadavers and live cattle to discover which ammunition had the best stopping power. It was a different time.) He also oversaw the development of the Army's new Springfield M1903 rifle and the adoption of the iconic Colt 1911 pistol.

When Thompson retired in November 1914, he took a job as chief design engineer at the Remington Arms Company. WWI had broken out, and Thompson started trying to think of ways to break the horrible, lethal deadlock on the Western Front. He believed mobile firepower was the key and that U.S. troops needed a "trench broom," so in 1916 he started working on automatic weapons.

His company, the Auto-Ordnance Corporation, had its first prototypes ready in 1918. With the help of Theodore Eickhoff and Oscar Payne, Auto-Ordnance continued development of Thompson's idea for a small machine gun "that will fire 50 to 100 rounds, so light that [a soldier] can drag it with him as he crawls on his belly from trench to trench, and wipe out a whole company single-handed."

Faulty Science

The Thompson design was based on a scientific principle theorized by Commander John Blish, a former U.S. Navy officer. Blish noticed that when fired with a light load, some of the Navy's breech loading heavy gun had their breech block come unscrewed, while larger loads that produced more pressure held a tighter seal. He attributed this to the different metals used in the breech and breech block. He believed that under great pressure, two different metals could adhere together better than two pieces of the same metal. He called it the Blish Principle, around which he designed a breech block which could be used in small arms. He patented his idea in 1915 and Thompson bought the rights to use the idea in his gun. The Thompson used a small bronze H-shaped block which fitted into the gun's steel bolt. According to the Blish Principle, this would slow the bolt's recoil.

There was just one problem: Scientifically, the Blish Principle of metal adhesion does not exist. In reality, the effect Blish was seeing was that his lock merely added mass to the gun's bolt, which, in a blowback gun, simply slows the travel of the bolt. People figured this out during World War II, and British troops using Thompsons frequently removed the Blish lock. Later, when the Thompson was simplified to create the M1, the Blish lock was also abandoned.

With the Blish lock simply adding mass, the Thompson functioned as a simple blowback like many other contemporary submachine guns including the STEN, MP40, and Soviet PPSh-41. When the trigger was pulled, the bolt was released, slamming into the breech. That ignited the round in the chamber and fired the gun. The pressure from the fired round would then send the Thompson's bolt recoiling to the rear, extracting and ejecting the spent case before the process repeated itself.

From the Western Front to the Silver Screen

Thompson himself was recalled to service when the U.S. entered the First World War in 1917, he was promoted to Brigadier General and served as the director of arsenals throughout the war. The early Thompson prototypes came too late to fight the war they'd been designed for, but they had suitably aggressive names Persuader and Annihilator. One early model capable of firing up to 1,500 rounds per minute-an utterly uncontrollable rate of fire. In 1919, the Thompson began to take on its famous classic shape, and by 1921, Auto-Ordnance had a refined its submachine gun to the point it was ready to go to market.

With the great war over, Thompson took his gun to the civilian market, selling it as an "anti-bandit gun." Thompson travelled tirelessly to promote and publicize his gun and its capabilities. In 1921, he embarked on a sales tour of Europe. The British came away impressed by the submachine gun, praising it for being handy and compact. But post-war budget constraints prevented any purchases. In 1927, Thompson tried again, demonstrating an improved model to the French army, who was unimpressed. The Thompson did find some customers with the U.S. Postal Service ordering 200 to protect the mail from violent thieves.

Of course, that's not the end of the story. The Thompson's high rate of fire and large magazine capacity saw it catapulted to infamy as the weapon of choice for lawmen and gangsters during the 1920s and 30s. Thompsons quickly entered the vernacular of popular culture as Tommy Guns or Chicago Typewriters. Two were used during the infamous St. Valentine's Day massacre when 70 rounds (a full 20-round box magazine and a 50-round drum magazine) were emptied into seven members of the Moran Gang in a matter of seconds. The likes of John Dillinger, Baby Face Nelson, the Barker gang, and Pretty Boy Floyd all used Tommy Guns. And while the Thompson was also found in the hands of the law, it has become forever associated with Depression-era gangsters. (Although some police departments had privately bought Thompsons it was not until 1935, that the FBI finally received 115 Thompsons in custom carrying cases. Ironically by then the majority of gang members and gangsters the FBI had been tasked with stopping had already been either killed or captured.)

The movies did their part in this myth-making. During the burgeoning years of Hollywood, the Tommy Gun became extremely popular on the silver screen, with popular gangster films featuring charismatic outlaws wielding the Thompson. By 1935, however, a set of guidelines called the Motion Picture Production Code had been introduced. In an effort to deglamourise outlaws, the code dictated that gangster films should be filmed from the G-Men's perspective. Gangsters could no longer be seen with automatic weapons and the Tommy Gun became the on-screen weapon of the FBI agent. This altered the tone of gangster films with the Tommy guns iconic status helping to glamorise the G-men rather than the gangsters. The Thompson has since appeared in more than a thousand films and TV shows.

Back to Europe

Despite the notoriety, business wasn't good. The Thompson had the dubious honor of being one of the first weapons subject to the 1934 National Firearms Act, which prohibited the use of automatic and concealable weapons by civilians in the U.S. Without large scale military contracts, Thompson's company struggled. Only small batches of his submachine guns were purchased by the US Marine Corps for use overseas. And so, despite decent civilian sales, Auto-Ordnance was on the brink of liquidation by 1929. The company was in a massive $2,200,000 hole of debt.

And then, World War II broke out.

In 1939, the full outbreak of war in Europe, Time magazine described the Thompson as "The deadliest weapon, pound for pound, ever devised by man." General Thompson's gun was about to face its greatest challenge. After the Fall of France in June 1940, Britain needed every weapon the could get and placed an open order for Thompson submachine guns. By April 1942, 100,000 Thompsons had arrived in Britain. They became a favorite of the newly formed elite Commando units who used them in raids on occupied Europe. The US military formally adopted the Thompson in September 1938, but did not order any guns until the summer of 1939. But by February 1942, half a million Thompsons had been made.

The simplified Thompson M1 and later M1A1 would arm troops fighting in every theatre of operations from the Pacific to North Africa to Europe. This was the final realization of General Thompson's dream of equipping American troops with a small machine gun capable of delivering devastating firepower. Thompson himself, though, did not live to see his weapon become a key part of the Allies' arsenal as he died in June 1940. But his weapon soldiered on and saw service in Korea and Vietnam before it was finally retired from the U.S. military.

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Bootlegging gangsters of the 1920s and 30s firing a barrage of bullets at the G-men in pursuit-that's the mental picture you might have of the Tommy gun.

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The Traffic light with three-lens was invented by a a Detroit police officer, William Potts in 1920. It was installed in 1920 in the corner of Woodward and Michigan Avenues in Detroit.  A two colored traffic light already existed but the quick change from green to red, gave drivers little to no time to make a safe stop. This was noticed by officer Potts, which developed a three light traffic stop by adding the yellow, "caution," color. The yellow was created to give drivers that extra time to make a safe stop. Not only did this new tricolored traffic light impact and revolutionized the 20s but it still impacts modern times. It is still used till today worldwide. Many new innovations were added to Potts' invention but his famous three colors still remain in use.
http://www.marktraffic.com/traffic-lights-invented-by-william-l-potts.php

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41 Ingeniously Smart Inventions of the 1920s You Should Know About

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There were numerous inventions in 1920s that were beneficial for society. Antibiotics like penicillin were produced in this period. Americans remember the 1920s as a period which heralded the era of modern lifestyle and consumerism.

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On November 2, 1920 KDKA made the nation's first commercial broadcast. They chose that day because it was election day. KDKA was an outgrowth of the Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company in order to expand their commercial operations in the radio industry. Westinghouse moved aggressively to establish itself as the number one radio station in the nation. KDKA was a huge success, and it inspired many other stations to start broadcasting. The radio industry influenced the 1920s because it caused an entry of mass communication in the United States. Which meant the development of a mass culture, because for example the same songs were heard across the nation, and news would travel faster.
http://ethw.org/KDKA,_First_Commercial_Radio_Station

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KDKA begins to broadcast
1920

Photo: Beginnings of KDKA, with entire staff of four

On Christmas Eve, 1906, wireless operators on ships off the New England coast wondered if they'd had a religious experience. Out of the midst of Morse code dots and dashes beeping through their headsets came the sound of a voice reading the Christmas story from the Gospel of Luke and a violin playing "Silent Night." The voice wished them a merry Christmas, and then the dots and dashes started up again.

The voice was that of Reginald Fessenden (1866-1932), an inventor and engineer who had been working on producing voice radio since Marconi's first wireless broadcast across the Atlantic. After his Christmas experiment, Fessenden continued working to make voice radio practical. In 1907, Lee de Forest invented a new radio tube called the Audion. It soon made transmitting sound modulations much more effective and became standard radio equipment. The radio tube was gradually improved upon by other inventors, to increased clarity and power.

For 15 years or so, voice radio was the purview of engineers and hobbyists called hams. To most people it seemed amusing, but a novelty that would have no practical application. One obstacle to radio's acceptance was that the equipment was cumbersome and required a fair amount of knowledge and attention. After World War I, prosperity and technological advances -- some the offspring of the war effort -- brought more appliances into the home and created more technologically minded people. Radio companies formed to build and sell ready-made machines.

In 1920, Westinghouse, one of the leading radio manufacturers, had an idea for selling more radios: It would offer programming. Radio began as a one-to-one method of communication, so this was a novel idea. Dr. Frank Conrad was a Pittsburgh area ham operator with lots of connections. He frequently played records over the airwaves for the benefit of his friends. This was just the sort of thing Westinghouse had in mind, and it asked Conrad to help set up a regularly transmitting station in Pittsburgh. On November 2, 1920, station KDKA made the nation's first commercial broadcast (a term coined by Conrad himself). They chose that date because it was election day, and the power of radio was proven when people could hear the results of the Harding-Cox presidential race before they read about it in the newspaper.

KDKA was a huge hit, inspiring other companies to take up broadcasting. In four years there were 600 commercial stations around the country. To keep up with the cost of improving equipment and paying for performers, stations turned to advertisers. In August 1922, the first radio ad, for a real estate developer, was aired in New York City. Networks of local stations developed to share programming and became big business. In 1926, RCA (Radio Corporation of America) formed the first national network, called NBC (National Broadcasting Company). Their first nationwide broadcast was the 1927 Rose Bowl football game from Pasadena. The burgeoning industry made the airwaves so jammed and chaotic that the Federal Radio Commission was established in 1927 to assign frequencies to broadcasters.

The entry of mass communication into American homes meant, among other things, the development of a mass culture. The same songs were heard across the country, news travelled fast, and heroes like Charles Lindbergh or Joe Louis were, in a new way, accessible to all. Technological refinements in radio continued. Early in the 1920s, headsets were replaced with speakers. In 1929, FM radio became available. The development of the transistor in the late 1940s paved the way for the transistor radio's appearance in 1952. Stereophonic sound and personal stereos would continue radio's evolution.

Related Features

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A Science Odyssey: People and Discoveries: KDKA begins to broadcast

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KDKA begins to broadcast1920 Photo: Beginnings of KDKA, with entire staff of four On Christmas Eve, 1906, wireless operators on ships off the New England coast wondered if they'd had a religious experience.

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Alexander Fleming returned from World War 1, to his research laboratory in London. The time he served at war showed him how serious a killer bacteria could be, and he became determined to find a cure.  One day he was arranging his lab which was a jumble because he had so much going on, and he began to move some of his petri dishes around, and discovered one dish that he had left open with bacteria and it had grown some mold on it which evidently he observed killed many of the bacteria. On this day,  February 14, 1929 Fleming introduced his mold product called Penicillin to cure bacterial infections. Although it was completely accidental, his discovery revolutionized medicine, because these agents, now called antibiotics, helped save many lives during World War II. The effect penicillin had on stopping diseases, was thrilling. The fast effectiveness of these drugs, gave them a great deal of publicity and let for people to call it a "miracle drug." Penicillin had such a great impact on the 1920s because it helped cure so many people, and till this day it continuous to help keep the population healthy.
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/penicillin-discovered

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It's hard to imagine life without penicillin. This drug, which many of us take for granted, has saved millions of lives since its discovery by Alexander Fleming less than a century ago.
Each day as part of the Great British Innovation Vote - a quest to find the greatest British innovation of the past 100 years - we'll be picking one innovation per decade to highlight. Today, from the 1920s, the discovery of Penicillin.
It's hard to imagine life without penicillin. This drug, which many of us take for granted, has saved millions of lives since its discovery by Alexander Fleming less than a century ago.

Sir Paul Nurse, President of the Royal Society said, "Just imagine a world without antibiotics, a world where infections that would barely keep you off work or school today, would have actually killed you. That was the world that existed just a little over 70 years ago." listen to 'Sir Paul Nurse' on Audioboo

Today, penicillin continues to fight against infectious diseases. Yet who would have thought you could create such a phenomenal medicine from mould? Fleming, a bacteriologist working at St. Mary's Medical School in London, observed that certain bacteria were killed by mould when he saw a bacteria-free circle forming around a culture dish used to grow microbes, and by 1944 the drug was being mass-produced and proved a powerful weapon in fighting diseases such as pneumonia and syphilis.

Thanks to Penicillin, we lead much longer, healthier lives which is why it deserves your vote as the Greatest British Innovation.

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It's hard to imagine life without penicillin. This drug, which many of us take for granted, has saved millions of lives since its discovery by Alexander Fleming less than a century ago. Each day as part of the Great British Innovation Vote - a quest to find the greatest British innovation of the past 100 years - we'll be picking one innovation per decade to highlight.

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On August 12,1908 Henry Ford launched his infamous, in that time, Model T Ford. In 1903 Ford established his Ford Motor Company, and five years later he launched his revolutionary vehicle, Model T. "Tin Lizzie", a nickname that was given to the Model T, was a huge success. The vehicle was such a big success, that in order to fulfill the immense demand for it, he created another revolutionary and highly successful solution, the assembly line. The assembly line would allow ford to mass produce his cars by appointing one of his employees to do one specific job, in order to produce hundreds of the same pieces that would be put together to make the cars. The assembly line made it much quicker for Ford and his Company to keep up with large demands for the Model T. This new method was tremendously influential in the industry world and also helped keep costs of products low. By 1918, half of America's cars were Model Ts. Henry Ford greatly influenced he 1920s with his Model T and the assembly line. Many industries if not all of them began utilizing the assembly line in their companies as well, and by 1927 Ford Motor Company was the largest automotive manufacturer in the world. His company opened many plants and and operations around the world.

http://www.american-historama.org/1881-1913-maturation-era/henry-ford-model-t.htm

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Henry Ford - Facts & Summary - HISTORY.com

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Find out more about the history of Henry Ford, including videos, interesting articles, pictures, historical features and more. Get all the facts on HISTORY.com

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On January 16, 1919 the 18th Amendment was rarified, which prohibited the making, transporting, and the drinking of alcohol in the United States. In the late 1800s, movements across the nation began for the prohibition of alcohol, but it wasn't until 1919 that the 18th amendment was passed. In 1873 the Women's Temperance Movement allied with an even more powerful group called the Anti-Saloon League called for the abolition of the sale of alcohol. In 1906 the ASL led a new call for prohibition, but this time it was at a state level. The group used speeches, advertisements, and public demonstrations, they tried to convince people to join their fight against alcohol. They were pretty successful that by 1916, 23 out 48 states had anti-saloon legislations. That same year, after the congressional election, "dry" members, which were those who were in favor of prohibition, won two-thirds of the votes majority against "wet," those who were in opposition of the prohibition of alcohol, in the U.S. Congress. The following January the 18th amendment was passed.  Prohibition proved to be very difficult to manage and enforce, as it failed to have eliminated crime and other social problems. The opposite happened, it rose organized crime rates because it led to the public to illegally produce bootleg alcohol. A large number of Americans came to blame prohibition for the moral decay and disorder, and began to quickly condemn its dangerous infringement on the freedom of the individual. On December 5, 1933 Congress ratified the 21st amendment which repealed the 18th. A couple of states continued prohibition in 1933, but by 1966 all of them had abandoned it. The 18th and 21st amendments greatly influenced the 1920s because it prove that alcohol consummation could not be controlled by the government.
https://constitutioncenter.org/interactive-constitution/amendments/amendment-xviii
https://constitutioncenter.org/interactive-constitution/amendments/amendment-xxi

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By the late 1800s, prohibition movements had sprung up across the United States, driven by religious groups who considered alcohol, specifically drunkenness, a threat to the nation. The movement reached its apex in 1920 when Congress ratified the 18th Amendment, prohibiting the manufacture, transportation and sale of intoxicating liquors. Prohibition proved difficult to enforce and failed to have the intended effect of eliminating crime and other social problems-to the contrary, it led to a rise in organized crime, as the bootlegging of alcohol became an ever-more lucrative operation. In 1933, widespread public disillusionment led Congress to ratify the 21st Amendment, which repealed Prohibition.

Origins of Temperance Movement

A wave of intense religious revivalism that swept the U.S. during the 1820s and 30s led to the formation of a number of prohibition movements driven by religious groups who considered alcohol, specifically drunkenness, a "national curse." (This revivalism also helped inspire the movement to end slavery.) The first temperance legislation appeared in 1838, in the form of a Massachusetts law prohibiting the sale of spirits in less than 15-gallon quantities. Though it was repealed two years later, Maine passed the first state prohibition law in 1846, and by the time the Civil War began, a number of other states had followed suit.

As early as 1873, the Women's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) of Ohio called for the abolition of the sale of alcohol. They were soon joined in the fight by the even more powerful Anti-Saloon League (ASL), founded in 1893 in Ohio but later expanded into a national organization that endorsed political candidates and lobbied for legislation against saloons. Beginning around 1906, the ASL led a renewed call for prohibition legislation at the state level. Through speeches, advertisements and public demonstrations at saloons and bars, prohibition advocates attempted to convince people that that eliminating alcohol from society would eliminate poverty and social vices, such as immoral behavior and physical violence. One prominent temperance advocate, Kentucky-born Carrie Amelia Moore Nation (she called herself "Carry A. Nation"), became known for particularly violent tactics against what she called "evil spirits." In addition to making protest speeches, Nation was known for breaking saloon windows and mirrors and destroying kegs of beer or whiskey with a hatchet. She was arrested numerous times, and became a household name across the country for her "saloon-smashing" campaign.

From State to Federal Prohibition Legislation

By 1916, 23 of 48 states had passed anti-saloon legislation. Many went further, prohibiting the manufacture of alcoholic beverages as well. After the congressional elections that year, "dry" members (as those who favored a national prohibition of alcohol became known) won a two-thirds majority over "wet" in the U.S. Congress. On January 29, 1919, Congress ratified the 18th Amendment, which prohibited the manufacturing, transportation and sale of alcohol within the United States; it would go into effect the following January.

Later in 1919, the National Prohibition Act-popularly known as the Volstead Act, after its legislative sponsor, Representative Andrew J. Volstead of Minnesota-was enacted in order to provide the government with the means of enforcing Prohibition. Loopholes in this act-such as the fact that liquor used for medicinal, sacramental or industrial purposes remained legal, as did fruit or grape beverages prepared at home-as well as varying degrees of government support throughout the 1920s hampered the enforcement of Prohibition, and it would remain more of an ideal than a reality.

Unexpected Events

Under Prohibition, the illegal manufacture and sale of liquor-known as "bootlegging"-occurred on a large scale across the United States. In urban areas, where the majority of the population opposed Prohibition, enforcement was generally much weaker than in rural areas and smaller towns. Perhaps the most dramatic consequence of Prohibition was the effect it had on organized crime in the United States: as the production and sale of alcohol went further underground, it began to be controlled by the Mafia and other gangs, who transformed themselves into sophisticated criminal enterprises that reaped huge profits from the illicit liquor trade.

When it came to its booming bootleg business, the Mafia became skilled at bribing police and politicians to look the other way. Chicago's Al Capone emerged as the most notorious example of this phenomenon, earning an estimated $60 million annually from the bootlegging and speakeasy operations he controlled. In addition to bootlegging, gambling and prostitution reached new heights during the 1920s as well. A growing number of Americans came to blame Prohibition for this widespread moral decay and disorder-despite the fact that the legislation had intended to do the opposite-and to condemn it as a dangerous infringement on the freedom of the individual.

Calls for Prohibition's Repeal

If public sentiment had turned against Prohibition by the late 1920s, the advent of the Great Depression only hastened its demise, as some argued that the ban on alcohol denied jobs to the unemployed and much-needed revenue to the government. The efforts of the nonpartisan group Americans Against Prohibition Association (AAPA) added to public disillusionment. In 1932, the platform of Democratic presidential candidate Franklin D. Roosevelt included a plank for repealing the 18th Amendment, and his victory that November marked a certain end to Prohibition.

In February 1933, Congress adopted a resolution proposing the 21st Amendment to the Constitution, which repealed both the 18th Amendment and the Volstead Act. The resolution required state conventions, rather than the state legislatures, to approve the amendment, effectively reducing the process to a one-state, one-vote referendum rather than a popular vote contest. That December, Utah became the 36th state to ratify the amendment, achieving the necessary majority for repeal. A few states continued statewide prohibition after 1933, but by 1966 all of them had abandoned it. Since then, liquor control in the United States has largely been determined at the local level.

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By the late 1800s, prohibition movements had sprung up across the United States, driven by religious groups who considered alcohol, specifically drunkenness, a threat to the nation. The movement reached its apex in 1920 when Congress ratified the 18th Amendment, prohibiting the manufacture, transportation and sale of intoxicating liquors.

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The first oil well was found in Oil Springs, Ontario, Canada in 1858. The history of the Oil industry in the United States can be traced back to the early 19th century. By the 1920s the United States was referred to as the Oil Age. There was an oil boom in the U.S., which caused it to overtake the Roman Empire as the leader in petroleum output. In the 20s oil was cheap and available. By 1919 the oil industry created an agency called, the American Petroleum Industry, which in that time became a major force in the nations economy and business. As the United States became so dependent on cheap oil that the demand for it continuously rose for it. The Oil Industry not only influenced the 1920's, but still until today the U.S. consumes about two-thirds of the world's petroleum. Many historians argue that, oil should be considered the keystone of the standard of living in the United States.
https://www.history.com/topics/oil-industry

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Oil Industry - Facts & Summary - HISTORY.com

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Find out more about the history of Oil Industry, including videos, interesting articles, pictures, historical features and more. Get all the facts on HISTORY.com

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Consumerism began in the early 1920s because of its great prosperity. it was the idea that Americans should continue to buy goods in outrageous numbers. People bought items in large quantities, such as, automobiles, washing machines, sewing machines, and radios. These "outrages" purchases were made because people were given the chance to buy many items at one time without having to pay at full price at that time, the plan would be that they could pay them off at a later time in small monthly payments. This became a major reason that Americans did not have any savings. Consumerism became a major influence in the 20s because, so many people believed that they were going to continue to be very prosperous. This indefinitely led to the Great Depression in the late 20s and began in the 1930s.
https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/ap-us-history/period-7/apush-1920s-america/a/1920s-consumption

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Consumerism in the 1920's was the idea that Americans should continue to buy product and goods in outrageous numbers. These people neither needed or could afford these products, which generally caused them to live pay-check to pay-check. People bought many quantities of products like automobiles, washing machines, sewing machines, and radios. This massive purchasing period led to installment plans. These were plans for people in which they were able to purchase their products and pay for them at a later time in small monthly payments. This was the reason why "80% of Americans during the 1920's had no savings at all - they were living pay-check to pay-check" (Textbook). This consumerism later became a contributing factor to the start of the Great Depression because it greatly increased the amount of consumer debt in America.

Photo of newspaper from the 1920s. News advised people to buy as much as they can because of the "Invincible Stock Market". Evidence of consumerism and false prosperity during this time.

False Prosperity:

False Prosperity was the time where the economy was believed to be thriving, however, it was really suffering. As a result of consumerism, where people were buying much more than they really needed, it seemed like the economy was doing well. People created installment plans so they would be able to buy more yet pay for them at a later point. This created many people to struggle for money since they were relying on their next incoming paycheck to pay for the goods they were buying. The purchasing of products made it seem like the economy was doing well, yet it only hid the fact that it was actually suffering and most people were in debt.

Political Cartoon showing the false prosperity in America. The cartoon shows how the prosperity of the country was being fed propaganda to convince American consumers that the economy was thriving.

The income gap of the 1920's was the difference in income between the top 1% of wealthy Americans and the rest of the average earnings. Within this income gap, "60% of Americans earned below the poverty level. The top 1% of wealthy American's saw their incomes increase by 75% during the 1920's... the other 99% of Americans saw their income increase by only 9%... not enough to justify the huge expenditures on consumer products that most Americans were making" (Textbook). This shows that there was a great split between those who earned an average income or less compared to the wealthy who earned a considerably larger amount of money.

The graph above shows the income gap of the top 10% of the average American income of above $104,700, in red, compared to the top 1% of American earners making over $382,600, in black. As shown, there is not many people between these two groups resulting in an income gap.

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Consumerism in the 1920's was the idea that Americans should continue to buy product and goods in outrageous numbers. These people neither needed or could afford these products, which generally...

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Jazz music became a staple in the 1920s. Also called the Jazz Age, the 20s was led by jazz music. Louis Armstrong born on August 4, 1901, became probably the world's most famous influential musician in the United States. By the end of the 20s he had played around the world with nearly every famous jazz musician. Armstrong is known as the foundation of jazz. He in many ways was responsible for popularizing the genre of jazz throughout the world. He influenced many young African-American jazz artists that came after him, they would talk about his importance, as he opened may doors for them. He died on July 6, 1971 To this day Jazz music remains very popular in the United States. .
https://www.biography.com/people/louis-armstrong-9188912

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Amos N' Andy's show became an American phenomenon in the 1920s. The show released its very first radio episode on March 19, 1928. The show was the first comedy series to be aired on radio in the 1920s. It quickly gained popularity throughout the nation. It was written and voiced by two white actors, Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll. These two actors played the role of two African American men, whom in that time dominated the country's listening habits for 15 minutes, five days a week, but also significantly dominated their daily lives and habits.When the show moved to television, African American men took the roles of the characters and white characters were infrequent. The show greatly influenced the 20s because the show did not pretend to address all social repercussions of humorous depictions of African Americans in the mass media, but it did provide a well represented analysis of the history in that time period.

https://www.nytimes.com/1991/07/07/books/what-was-it-about-amos-n-andy.html

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What Was It About ‘Amos ‘n’ Andy’? (Published 1991)

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The Flapper, was a term used to describe the new woman of the 1920s. These new woman broke away from the traditional Victorian or conservative views. They wore short skirts, usually had short hair, wore excessive makeup, smoked, drank, partied, and treated sex as a casual thing. The term originated from Great Britain, and it was used to describe young teenage girls whom hadn't reached womanhood.  Flappers became icons of the Roaring Twenties. The Flapper lifestyle ended after the Wall Street Crash, and following The Great Depression. Flappers influenced the 1920s by changing the image of women, they were more liberal and strived away from the "boring" good girl image of women during that time period. Although they helped liberate most woman, it also had negative effects. Some men thought flappers were unfit to marry because of their erotic and dangerous lifestyle choices. Many historians argue that the flappers helped to ultimately lead into the direction of the fight for women's roghts.
https://www.thoughtco.com/flappers-in-the-roaring-twenties-1779240

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In the 1920s, flappers-young women with new ideas about how to live-broke away from the Victorian image of womanhood. They stopped wearing corsets and dropped layers of clothing to increase ease of movement, wore make-up and cut their hair short, and experimented with extramarital sexuality, creating the concept of dating. In breaking away from conservative Victorian values, flappers created what many considered the "new" or "modern" woman.

The "Younger Generation"

Before the start of World War I, the Gibson Girl was considered the ideal woman. Inspired by Charles Dana Gibson's drawings, the Gibson Girl arranged her long hair loosely on top of her head and wore a long straight skirt and a shirt with a high collar. In this image, she both retained femininity and broke through several gender barriers, for her attire allowed her to participate in sports, including golf, roller skating, and bicycling.

Then World War I started, and the young men of the world became cannon fodder for an older generation's ideals and mistakes. The attrition rate in the trenches left few with the hope that they would survive long enough to return home.

The young soldiers found themselves inflicted with an "eat-drink-and-be-merry-for-tomorrow-we-die spirit." Far away from the society that raised them and faced with the reality of death, many searched (and found) extreme life experiences before they entered the battlefield.

When the war was over, the survivors went home and the world tried to return to normalcy. Unfortunately, settling down in peacetime proved more difficult than expected.

Post-World War I Changes

During the war, the young men had fought against both the enemy and death in faraway lands, while the young women had bought into the patriotic fervor and aggressively entered the workforce. During the war, both the young men and women of this generation had broken out of society's structure. They found it very difficult to return. As Frederick Lewis Allen reported in his 1931 book Only Yesterday,

"They found themselves expected to settle down into the humdrum routine of American life as if nothing had happened, to accept the moral dicta of elders who seemed to them still to be living in a Pollyanna land of rosy ideals which the war had killed for them. They couldn't do it, and they very disrespectfully said so."

Women were just as anxious as the men to avoid returning to society's rules and roles after the war. In the age of the Gibson Girl, young women did not date; they waited until a proper young man formally paid her interest with suitable intentions (i.e. marriage). However, nearly a whole generation of young men had died in the war, leaving nearly a whole generation of young women without possible suitors. Young women decided that they were not willing to waste away their young lives waiting idly for spinsterhood; they were going to enjoy life.

The "Younger Generation" was breaking away from the old set of values.

The "Flapper"

The term "flapper" first appeared in Great Britain after World War I, as a term which meant a young girl, still somewhat awkward in movement and who had not yet entered womanhood. In the June 1922 edition of the Atlantic Monthly, U.S. psychologist and educator G. Stanley Hall described looking in a dictionary to discover what the evasive term "flapper" meant:

"[T]he dictionary set me right by defining the word as a fledgling, yet in the nest, and vainly attempting to fly while its wings have only pinfeathers; and I recognized that the genius of 'slanguage' had made the squab the symbol of budding girlhood."

Authors such F. Scott Fitzgerald and artists such as John Held Jr. first brought the term to the U.S. reading public, half reflecting and half creating the image and style of the flapper. Fitzgerald described the ideal flapper as "lovely, expensive, and about nineteen." Held accentuated the flapper image by drawing young girls wearing unbuckled galoshes that would make a "flapping" noise when walking.

Many have tried to define flappers. In William and Mary Morris' Dictionary of Word and Phrase Origins, they state, "In America, a flapper has always been a giddy, attractive, and slightly unconventional young thing who, in [H. L.] Mencken's words, 'was a somewhat foolish girl, full of wild surmises and inclined to revolt against the precepts and admonitions of her elders.'"

Flappers had both an image and an attitude.

Flapper Clothing

The Flappers' image consisted of drastic-to some, shocking-changes in women's clothing and hair. Nearly every article of clothing was trimmed down and lightened in order to make movement easier.

It is said that girls "parked" their corsets when they were to go dancing. The new, energetic dances of the Jazz Age, required women to be able to move freely, something the "ironsides" of whalebone didn't allow. Replacing the pantaloons and corsets were underwear called "step-ins."

The outer clothing of flappers is even today extremely identifiable. This look, called "garconne" ("little boy"), was popularized by Coco Chanel. To look more like a boy, women tightly wound their chest with strips of cloth in order to flatten it. The waists of flapper clothes were dropped to the hipline. Flappers wore stockings-made of rayon ("artificial silk") starting in 1923-which the flapper often wore rolled over a garter belt.

The hem of the skirts also started to rise in the 1920s. At first, the hem only rose a few inches, but between 1925 and 1927 a flapper's skirt fell just below the knee, as described by Bruce Bliven in his 1925 article "Flapper Jane" in The New Republic:

"The skirt comes just an inch below her knees, overlapping by a faint fraction her rolled and twisted stockings. The idea is that when she walks in a bit of a breeze, you shall now and then observe the knee (which is not rouged-that's just newspaper talk) but always in an accidental, Venus-surprised-at-the-bath sort of way."

Flapper Hair and Make-Up

The Gibson Girl, who prided herself on her long, beautiful, lush hair, was shocked when the flapper cut hers off. The short haircut was called the "bob" which was later replaced by an even shorter haircut, the "shingle" or "Eton" cut.

The shingle cut was slicked down and had a curl on each side of the face that covered the woman's ears. Flappers often finished the ensemble with a felt, bell-shaped hat called a cloche.

Flappers also started wearing make-up, something that had previously been only worn by loose women. Rouge, powder, eye-liner, and lipstick became extremely popular. Sneered a shocked Bliven,

"Beauty is the fashion in 1925. She is frankly, heavily made up, not to imitate nature, but for an altogether artificial effect-pallor mortis, poisonously scarlet lips, richly ringed eyes-the latter looking not so much debauched (which is the intention) as diabetic."

The flapper attitude was characterized by stark truthfulness, fast living, and sexual behavior. Flappers seemed to cling to youth as if it were to leave them at any moment. They took risks and were reckless.

They wanted to be different, to announce their departure from the Gibson Girl's morals. So they smoked. Something only men had done previously. Their parents were shocked: American newspaper publisher and social critic W. O. Saunders described his reaction in "Me and My Flapper Daughters" in 1927.

"I was sure my girls had never experimented with a hip-pocket flask, flirted with other women's husbands, or smoked cigarettes. My wife entertained the same smug delusion, and was saying something like that out loud at the dinner table one day. And then she began to talk about other girls.

"'They tell me that that Purvis girl has cigarette parties at her home,' remarked my wife. She was saying it for the benefit of Elizabeth, who runs somewhat with the Purvis girl. Elizabeth was regarding her mother with curious eyes. She made no reply to her mother, but turning to me, right there at the table, she said: 'Dad, let's see your cigarettes.'

"Without the slightest suspicion of what was forthcoming, I threw Elizabeth my cigarettes. She withdrew a fag from the package, tapped it on the back of her left hand, inserted it between her lips, reached over and took my lighted cigarette from my mouth, lit her own cigarette and blew airy rings toward the ceiling.

"My wife nearly fell out of her chair, and I might have fallen out of mine if I hadn't been momentarily stunned."

Smoking wasn't the most outrageous of the flapper's rebellious actions. Flappers drank alcohol. At a time when the United States had outlawed alcohol ( Prohibition), young women were starting the habit early. Some even carried hip-flasks so as to have it on hand.

More than a few adults didn't like to see tipsy young women. Flappers had a scandalous image, defined in Jackie Hatton's "Flapper" entry in the 2000 St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture as the "giddy flapper, rouged and clipped, careening in a drunken stupor to the lewd strains of a jazz quartet."

The 1920s was the Jazz Age and one of the most popular past-times for flappers was dancing. Dances such as the Charleston, Black Bottom, and the Shimmy were considered "wild" by older generations.

As described in the May 1920 edition of the Atlantic Monthly, flappers "trot like foxes, limp like lame ducks, one-step like cripples, and all to the barbaric yawp of strange instruments which transform the whole scene into a moving-picture of a fancy ball in bedlam."

For the Younger Generation, the dances fit their fast-paced lifestyle.

Driving and Petting

For the first time since the train and the bicycle, a new form of faster transportation was becoming popular. Henry Ford's innovations were making the automobile an accessible commodity to the people.

Cars were fast and risky-perfect for the flapper attitude. Flappers not only insisted on riding in them: they drove them. Unfortunately for their parents, flappers didn't just use cars to ride in. The back seat became a popular location for the new popular sexual activity, petting. Others hosted petting parties.

Though their attire was modeled after little boys' outfits, flappers flaunted their sexuality. It was a radical change from their parents' and grandparents' generations.

The End of Flapperhood

While many were shocked by the flapper's skimpy attire and licentious behavior, a less extreme version of the flapper became respectable among the old and the young. Some women cut off their hair and stopped wearing their corsets, but didn't go to the extreme of flapperhood. In "A Flapper's Appeal to Parents," self-described semi-flapper Ellen Welles Page said:

"I wear bobbed hair, the badge of flapperhood. (And, oh, what a comfort it is!) I powder my nose. I wear fringed skirts and bright-colored sweaters, and scarfs, and waists with Peter Pan collars, and low-heeled "finale hopper" shoes."

At the end of the 1920s, the stock market crashed and the world was plunged into the Great Depression. Frivolity and recklessness were forced to come to an end. However, much of the flapper's changes remained.

Allen, Frederick Lewis. "Only Yesterday: An Informal History of the Nineteen-Twenties." New York: Harper & Brothers Publishers, 1931.

Andrist, Ralph K., ed. "The American Heritage: History of the 30's & 20's." New York: American Heritage Publishing Co., Inc., 1970

Baughman, Judith S., ed. "American Decades: 1920-1929." New York: Manly, Inc., 1996.

Bliven, Bruce. "Flapper Jane." The New Republic 44 (Sept. 9, 1925): 65-67.

Douglas, George H. "." Saybrook Publishers, 1986.

Fass, Paula S. "The Damned and the Beautiful: American Youth in the 1920's." New York: Oxford University Press, 1977.

Hall, G. Stanley. "Flapper Americana Novissima." Atlantic Monthly 129 (June 1922): 771-780.

Hatton, Jackie. "Flappers." St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture. 2000.

Page, Ellen Welles. "A Flapper's Appeal to Parents." Outlook 132 (Dec. 6, 1922): 607.

Saunders, W. O. "Me and My Flapper Daughters." The American Magazine 104 (Aug. 1927): 27, 121.

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Flappers in the Roaring Twenties: Not Their Mother's Gibson Girl

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In the 1920s, a new woman was born. Flappers abandoned their corsets, chopped off their hair, and wore make-up. They smoked, drank, danced, and voted.

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The Ku Klux Klan was founded in 1866, but in the 70s Congress passed a legislation that was designed to curb the Klan's terrorism against African Americans and non-white people. After a long period of decline from the group, it arose again in the 1920s. They began burning crosses and staging rallies against Catholics, African Americans, Jews, and organized labor. The Ku Klux Klan organized themselves with the beginning of the post-Civil War Reconstruction. The Ku Klux Klan dedicated themselves to an underground campaign against Republican leaders and voters regardless of race in order to reverse the policies of Radical Reconstruction and restore white supremacy in the south. As African Americans won elections, and because of this they became victims of violence , and at least 7 out the 10 African American legislatures were killed. The group was revived in 1915, inspired by their romantic view of the old south and Thomas Dixon's book "The Clansman." The organization took as its symbol a burning cross, it held rallies, parades and marches. At its peak in the 1920s the Klan had exceeded 4 million group members nation wide. The Great Depression in the 1930s caused a depletion of the organization and a brief dismembership in 1944, but the civil rights movements in the 1960s saw another resurrection of the KKK.The KKK had huge impact in the 20s because it had great success in spreading their ideology as they gained millions of supporters in that time period. It was such an important impact that even after its downfall in the 30s it came back and regained power and supporters in the 1960s.
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/12/second-klan/509468/

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Following the Civil War, the Ku Klux Klan emerges to suppress and victimize newly freed slaves.

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The 20s had many great and prosperous ideas and conquests, but there were also some setbacks in the political and economical worlds, yet the 20s helped to influence a lot of changes that were yet to come in the United States. The population was greatly influenced by each and every part that made up the United States. Changes happened that were beneficial to the world that we now live in , in the United States. In my opinion the 20s helped the United States innovate itself for the better, one example of this was the great influence of the flappers. The flappers ultimately led women to fight for their rights in later years to come. Overall the 1920s had many great qualities that forever have impacted the United States.