Essential Question: To what extent did Republican dominance in the 1920s represent a change from Gilded Age &

; Progressive politics?
Warm-Up Question:

What was the more important phenomenon of the 1920s: the consumer good revolution OR the attack on urban values (prohibition, fundamentalism)?

The 1920s were dominated by Republicans in the White House & in both houses of Congress:

Politics of the 1920s

Limited Progressive reforms Developed a close relationship between the govt & business that promoted private enterprise Advocated a foreign policy based on economic investment of U.S. business in the world

Republican Presidents of the 1920s

Warren Harding won the 1920 election TR set aside a return in WY & CA for the navy; promising oil fields to normalcy; his Hardings Secis rememberedAlbert Fall accepted presidency of the Interior for two things:

$400,000 to :lease oil reservesgraft in the Corruption prohibition bribery, to businesses

Veterans Admin, & the Teapot Dome scandal Treasury Sec Andrew Mellons cutback on govt spending, increase in protective tariffs, & reduction of income taxes

Teapot Dome Scandal

became president become the least president Coolidge aspired to & won his own term in 1924: the country ever had; he attained his desire

Republican Presidents of the 1920s Four-fifths of our troubles in this life would disappear died would & VP down & be still Harding if we in 1923just sitCalvin Coolidge
Coolidges honesty & integrity was reassuring, but Silent Cal was not much of a leader Coolidge continued Hardings policies of less govt spending, lowering income taxes, & limiting Congressional legislation

But urban The Divided Democrats the voters had clearly had turned to Democratic Party, theydominated the While the Republicans just needed a charismatic leader to unite govt, Democrats were split:the party

Neither urban nor rural Dem candidate Thecould win majority so compromise Democratic Natl Convention in NYC for thecandidate, John Davis of WV 1924 presidential nomination
exposed this polarity

Rural Dems in the south & west favored prohibition, traditional Protestant values, & the Klan Urban Democrats were mostly immigrants

Davis received fewer popular votes of any Democratic candidate in 20th century

The 1928 election reflected a divided USA:

Herbert Hoover

Alfred Smith

Republican Protestant For prohibition Native-born Self-made millionaire committed to business & volunteerism

Democrat Catholic Wet Of immigrant parents Rose through Tammany Hall to be a progressive NY governor

A Smith appealed to bloc was revealed inbut new urban voting new voters in cities 1928: alienated old-line Democrats; the majority For the 1st time, Democrats won Catholicism of hurt Smiththe 12 than anything else votes in more largest U.S. cities

Herbert Hoover Instead of the laissez-faire of Gilded Age, the Republican presidents of the 1920s pioneered Herbert Hoover proved to be business a close relationship with the most
effective of the Republican presidents of the 1920s:

He believed in free enterprise & tried to He was experienced having served as strengthen U.S. trade by allying business with the head of Wilsons Food Admin & as govt He doubled the size of the U.S. bureaucracy Commerce Sec for Harding & Coolidge by creating bureaus to oversee housing, transportation, & mining

Conclusions: The Old and the New

The Old and the New

Urban culture & industrial production dominated the 1920s:

Mass-produced consumer goods, mass media, advertising spread a new American culture Much to the dismay of a rural America trying to cling to traditional values

Progressive reforms were no match for technology & prosperity