Culture Studies

Second Year/ LMD

20’S CENTURY AMERICA (Part 1)

1. The Progressive Era

The Progressive Era designates a period taking duration from 1890 till 1920,
describing social activism against the social thoughts that were spread during the Gilded
Age. Later, the activism turned into a movement that aspired to eliminate social problems
caused by urbanization, industrialization and immigration. Principally, the movement
focused on destroying the political machines and companies’ corruption in order to offer
equal opportunities to everyone; and also sought to provide social reforms to education,
health, finance, insurance and transportation.

The era displayed great anthropological work (Gospel of Wealth by Carnegie) and
anti-imperialistic views against taking control over Philippines to avoid the un-American
way of life. It also upgraded services and school in the African American community and
tried to eradicate the segregation implemented in the American society via Jim Crow Laws.
The movement leaders were middle class educated citizens as teachers, lawyers and
journalists who were influenced by Europeans, then it widespread nationally to cause
significant changes (the sixteenth amendment, the seventeenth amendment, the
eighteenth amendment and the nineteenth amendment).

✓ The Sixteenth Amendment: allowing the Congress to levy an income tax without
taking population into account.
✓ The Seventeenth Amendment: senators are elected by state legislatures.
✓ The Eighteenth Amendment: prohibiting making alcohol.
✓ The Nineteenth Amendment: denying voting right on the basis of sex.

People as Theodore Roosevelt, Robert la Folette, Charles Hughes and Herbert

Hoover were progressives who cared for modernization, science and technology as the only
elements standing against waste and corruption. In addition to leaders, magazines and books
made a great contribution in drawing people’s attention to serious national problems as they
exposed the dishonesty of businessmen and companies. Authors and journalists were
describes as ‘muckrakers’; among them, there was the famous Upton Sinclair and his novel
Jungle (published in 1906) which attacked the meat-packing industry that revealed shocking

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facts about the slaughter houses in Chicago. This pushed the congress to pass laws inspecting
meat.

By 1900, people demanded leaders to take action and the government to interfere after
they use to believe in Laissez-Faire policy. Thus, the republican Roosevelt became a
president by 1901 who believed in the ‘fair life for everyone i.e. Square Deal’ and the use of
federal government power to improve life conditions for people. He supported laws that
limited the power of companies and assured the rights of workers. Roosevelt retired by 1909
and tried to be reelected again by 1912, but he was defeated by the democrat Woodrow
Wilson who supported the movement as well and the rights of workers, by initiating a set of
laws between the years of 1913-1917, his policies were called ‘the New Freedom’:

1. He reduced custom duties to encourage trade between USA and other countries.
2. He reformed banking system by introducing federal taxes on high incomes.
3. He limited the power of government by giving more rights for labor unions and
making it easier for farmers to borrow money from the federal government to develop
their lands.

Despite the success and the progress of the movement, it failed at protecting minorities
and stopping violence and the fear of Bolshevism (1917) and Anarchist Bombing i.e. First
Red Scare (1919). The USA made 6000 arrests by 1912 against mainly foreigners in order
to persecute any ideals against it; civil liberties were stripped by acting censorship on media
and suppressing any opinion on any matter going.

2. Imperialism

Imperialism refers to a policy that widespread in the late 1890’s in Europe and
United States by which they attempted to exert their control over other countries
politically, economically and culturally. Countries like France, Germany and Britain were
claiming new territories; thus, some Americans thought of doing the same especially if
colonies overseas meant trade, wealth, prestige and power; they did not appreciate the
isolation policy proposed by Monroe’s Doctrine. Also, Politicians, missionaries,
businessmen and newspapers were joined together to claim ‘the Anglo-Saxon race’ by which

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they meant that Americans and North Europeans must bring the Western Civilization to
peoples of Asia, Africa and Latin America by accepting the Anglo-Saxon race guidance.

From 1895 onwards, the American policy towards imperialism focused more on
Cuba because it was great investment (sugar and tobacco plantations) but Cuba then was a
Spanish colony. The Cubans during the same year ran a rebellion against the Spaniards who
mistreated them and put them into prison camps and caused the death of many. Reports
about the Cubans conditions were daily voiced in Joseph Pulitzer’s newspaper to the
American people who thought that their country must take action and help the Cubans. By
1898, President McKinley announced war against Spain which took place in Cuba and
Philippines. The war ended with a peace treaty after Spain gave most of its lands to
America. USA became a colonial power in less than a year with a lot of non-Americans
under its rule.

This posed a question regarding the faith of these people since America itself used to
be a colony that wished to be self-governed; the answer to such question was that America
was preparing underdeveloped nations for civilization and democracy in self-governance
since it built schools and hospitals, constructed roads and water supplies and put an end
to malarial diseases. Till the middle of the century, a lot of countries became fully
independent, but Cuba was differently treated, it was considered as an independent country
the moment the war ended in exchange of giving them a land in Guantanamo Bay to build
their navy base and agreeing to Platt Amendment which hands America the right to send its
troops to Cuba whenever it felt that its affairs are in danger. For many years, the Americans
sent their soldiers to Cuba to stop a revolution there (1906, 1909, 1912, 1917, and 1919) and
the country was under the USA rule one way or another.

3. World War I

Since the beginning of WWI (1914) between the Allies (France, Great Britain and
Russia) and the Central Powers (Germany and Austria), America had opted to remain
neutral, believing that the matter was strictly European and that it must not interfere. To
describe such position, President Wilson made it clear in his speech by stating that America
should be “impartial in thought as well as in action” and Americans fully agreed.

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 Yet, this neutrality did not stand for long because since the beginning, the British navy
prevented the Germans ships from trading with the USA; paradoxically, the trade between
America and the Allies grew rapidly. By 1915, American factories were making large
quantities of weapons and ammunition to sell them to Britain and France. Consequently,
German leaders were determined to stop the stream of weapons to their enemies as they
announced that all Allies merchant ships in the British Isles are to be sunk. That year, the
British passenger ship Lusitania coming from the USA to Britain was hit by a German
torpedo, resulting 1000 dead passenger, 128 of them were Americans. This caused America
(government and citizens) to be angered as President Wilson made great protests against the
German government which stopped the attacks for a while.

By 1916, Wilson was re-elected because he kept his country out of war. In his speech to
the congress (1917), he appealed to the European nations to settle their differences and stop
the war and make peace which he referred to as “a peace without victory”. However, by
then, the American banks had lent a lot of money to the Allies already; thus, the German
leaders thought that unless the flood of supplies stopped, they would be defeated. After
Wilson’s speech, they decided to return to bombing all ships heading to the Allies ports
even neutral ones. In total, the Germans sank 05 American ships, leaving no choice to
Wilson but to declare war against Germany.

Wilson’s aim was not only to defeat Germany, but also to ensure the future peace and
democracy of the world. According to Wilson, it is a war “to make the world safe for
democracy, the war to end all wars”. America began to recruit and prepare soldiers while
Germany continued to attack France and Britain; its aim was to defeat the Allies and win
the war before the Americans arrive. Eventually, after many attacks and counter-attacks
Germany asked for peace. All welcomed the idea and by 1919 Wilson was in Europe to help
working out the peace treaty, he was called ‘Wilson the Just’.

During laying out the details of the treaty, Wilson and Clemenceau (the French leader)
disagreed fiercely because the latter thought of the former as lacking experience in
international affairs despite their mutual interest in making a war like WWI never takes
place again. Wilson wished to treat the Germans fairly in the treaty to prevent any potential

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revenge war, but Clemenceau thought that the Germans must be made so weak so they would
never fight again.

The treaty (called Versailles Treaty) was finally signed by May, 1919, and Wilson
thought that it was harder on the Germans more than he wished because the treaty made them
take all the blame of the war and pay the damage with millions of dollars. Yet, Wilson’s
greatest disappointment was indeed not the treaty but the failure of his plan ‘League of
Nations’.

The League of Nations was to be an organization where representatives of the world’s

nations would meet and settle their differences by discussion instead of war. He tried for
months to persuade the Allies and congress for months to accept it because the Americans
refused to be involved in the problems of Europe. After he returned to his country, he ran on a
tour to plead for his people to accept the League of Nations but the tour was interrupted by a
severe stroke. As his health broke, the Senate voted against the idea of LON by 1920 and
the idea was dropped completely. The last words of sick Wilson on the matter were “we had
a chance to gain the leadership of the world. We have lost it and soon we shall be
witnessing the tragedy of it all”.

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 Culture Studies
Second Year/ LMD

3. Roaring Twenties

The Roaring Twenties or the Golden Twenties designates a period (a decade) during the
20th century in the western society. It is distinguished by being the aftermath of WWI, and
prosperity in all domains and cultural accounts in America and Europe. Great monopolies
such as New York, Paris, London and Berlin celebrated the dynamics in culture and arts. It
was the age of Jazz, sports, literature, flapper, speakeasies, radio, cinema, media and
celebrities, automobiles, technology, art deco, Wall Street and luxurious lifestyle. It was a
large scale development in the spirits of modernism.

The United States was very rich in these years because of the money other countries
owned it. Girls were dancing in Charleston. Gangsters in suits were carrying guns. Charlie
Chaplin was playing comical tricks. These were the pictures of Wild Times in 20th century
America. It had plenty of raw materials and plenty of factories. The national income was
higher than Britain, France, Germany and Japan in together. The American factories produced
more products every year and the busiest were those making automobiles (between 1922
and 1927 the number of cars raised under 11 million to over 20 million). Also, hundreds
of thousands of refrigerators, vacuum cleaners, stoves and radios were made and rapidly sold
as vast quantities of these customer goods made life easier and raised its demands.

The growth of industry made Americans take high investments in successful firms.
Businessmen were considered to be heroes; men like Henry Ford were widely admired for
building nation’s wealth. Economically, President Coolidge explained the policies of the
American government which was controlled by the Republicans as the former is to look after
the interests of businessmen for the welfare of the country, means that if the firms are doing
well, they will take on more workers and pay more wages; so, all people will be rich. The
government placed high duties on imported goods to make them more expensive in order to
lessen the competition with local manufactured good; at the same time, the congress
reduced taxes on high incomes and company profits. This made the rich richer.

The policy was not successful because a lot of Americans remained poor given their
small wage. Farmers and workers were still starving with their families. By 1921, Europe no
longer needed the American food; immigration had fallen so not much food also is needed

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too. By 1924, 600,000 farmers were bankrupt. Eventually, the bankruptcies grew bigger as
the Wild Times ended with the Great Depression.

4. Great Depression and New Deal

The Great Depression (or Wall Street Crash) marks the end of the Roaring Twenties
as it began in the late 1929 and lasted till late 1930. Its history began in Wall Street, the home
of Stock Exchange; dealers who were called stockbrokers buy and sell valuable documents
(shared certificates) which represent a certain amount of money invested in a company.
Owning shares in a successful firm gave the Americans the right to a share of its profits, or
they can make money by buying them at one price and selling them for higher price.

By 1929, buying and selling shares ‘playing the market’ became a national hobby; in
1923 the number of shares was 236 million but by 1928 it had grown to 1,125 million. So,
with hundreds of dollars cash they would buy thousands of dollars worth of shares. Many
people borrowed large amounts of money from the banks to buy shares, it was called ‘on the
margin’. Most of them were gamblers who would spot shares that would quickly rise buy
them and resell them few weeks later for higher price. Eventually, they would pay the bank
and make a profit easily.

By 1929, buying shares was a fever as the prices went up higher. Yet, doubts began to
compile since American firms has been decreasing, the profits and the share prices were
falling too. Soon, people were selling their shares as the prices started to fall. On October
24th, 1929 (Black Thursday) a panic began, 13 million shares were sold and on the next
Tuesday October 29th, 1929; 16,5 million were sold. By the end of the year, the prices of
shares dropped by 40,000 million. This left people ruined with debts to the point that most of
the businessmen opted for suicide.

Many questioned the causes of Depression and blamed either politicians or stockbrokers,
but all of them shared their uncertainty about the future. Therefore, many decided to save
money instead of buying any of the commercial goods, the reason why many factories were
making more goods than they could sell and they had now even fewer customers locally
and internationally. Indeed, post-war European countries relied heavily on the American
banks during 20’s to buy the American goods; after the crash, banks demanded their money

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which countries like Britain and France do not have; this led to dried up sales, short of cash,
piled up and unsold goods in the factories and unemployment (one out of every four was
unemployed).

The Crash was more seen in towns with shut down factories, closed shops, and hungry
people lining up for charity meal, even farmers no one could afford their crops anymore. By
1932, people of every kind demanded President Hoover to take action as they shouted in the
streets “in Hoover we trusted; now we’re busted”. Hoover believed that only two things could
be done to end Depression. The first was to “balance the budget” which is to make sure that
the government’s spending does not exceed its income. The second was to restore the
confidence of businessmen in the future to employ workers again. Hoover’s solution was far
from being practical and effective; that’s when Roosevelt came to the scene again.

Roosevelt was devoting time and energy for the devastated people who trusted him as he
promised them help and end to their nightmare ‘New Deal’ and said that the federal
government must take responsibility and action to fight Depression. Hoover condemned
Roosevelt’s policies and warned people that things would only get worse, yet people ignored
him and elected Roosevelt as their president.

In 1933 and during the Hundred Days, Roosevelt sent hundreds of proposals for new
laws to the congress which were the answer to Depression. Many of these laws set up
government organizations called “agencies” to help in the recovery of the nation:

The Civilian Conservation Crops Finding work for thousands of young man.
(CCC)
The Federal Emergency Relief Giving individual states government money to help their
Administration (FERA) unemployed and homeless individuals.
The Agricultural Adjustment Set out to raise crop prices by paying farmers to produce
Administration (AAA) less.
The Tennessee Valley Authority Built a network of dams to make electricity and stop
(TVA) flood in poor southeastern region in the US.
National Recovery Worked to make sure that businesses paid fair wages and
Administration (NRA) charged fair prices.

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Works Progress Administration Aimed to sent people to jobs that are useful to
(WPA) community

Roosevelt believed that the first and foremost task is to find people work; thanks to
CCC by August 1933 250,000 young men were put in camps around the country cutting
fire-lanes through forests, strengthening river banks against flooding, planting trees in
exchange for food, shelter and money. By 1937, the workers had built thousands of miles of
new roads, schools and hospitals; even unemployed writers and artists found a job via WPA.
Between 1935 and 1942 millions of jobs were offered (WPA alone offered 8 million). Thus,
people were finally able to support themselves and their families, trade was back into life,
shops were reopening and factories employed workers again.

By putting money in people’s pockets again, he believed, the engine of the country
would work again. He, also, helped industrial workers in other ways; in 1935, he persuaded
the congress to pass a law that protects the rights of workers to join labor unions in order
to offer them a better chance to bargain with their employers. But some of the latter,
dismissed any worker who joined labor unions, so strikes and fighting soon broke out in
industrial areas as unions struggled to gain recognition. To stop the trouble, Wagner Act was
passed giving every worker the right to join any labor union. Also, they set up a body called
the National Labor Board to protect this right.

To secure the future of Americans and rest their fears, Roosevelt once again brought
the Social Security Act. One part gave government pensions to people who are unable to
provide for themselves as elders and the blind. The other part is the US first system of
unemployment system where the benefited money came from special taxes paid by workers
and employers. Finally, despite the criticism of New Deal, it is still argued that Roosevelt
saved his country in the darkest times as he led them toward a new respectful position.