Texas in the 20th CenturyExam review on Thursday and then FNL quizBig gray scantronThe Prosperity Decade - 1920 - 1929At one time historians actually described the 1920s as a decade of sterility in which little happened but economic excesses that brought on the stock market crash and the depression.Compared with the progressive era that preceded itReformsNew Deal Era reforms that would follow itNow, however, historians focusing more than just politics realize that amazing vitality drives the 20sst cruciaThe mol formative decade of the modern USWhere the US that we recognize started to take shapeAmerica urbanized and industrialized at in increasing rateRuled the world in mass production and consumptionBoth of those factors - production and consumption - sped the breakdown of traditional habits and thought patterns in areas such asReligionfolkwayscultural traditionsDressMoral standardsThe ways that Americans and Texans used their leisure timeThe popular image is of the Roaring 20s of this decadeFlapper girlsFordsRaccoon coatsJazzMoviesRadioSpeak EasiesBootleggersGangstersAl CaponeCharles LindbergBut societies and Texas is no exception - do not give up old ideals and attitudes easilyConflicts between the people of the old order and those progressives that wanted change and a new day were at times bitter and extensiveTexans reaction to the cultural conflict of the old and new, between conservative and liberal, stasis and progress is of central importance to understanding this time period in the stateEconomyThe words prosperity decade” summarized the US in the 1920s.Across the nation, basic economic activitiesResidential and commercial construction boomed and new industriesAutomobilesRadiosSynthetics - plasticsGrew with unimaginable speedFor most Southerners, the dominate theme of the 1920s was economic expansionIf electrical power was the regional builder in the SE USA, petroleum assumed that role in the SW (OK, LA, and TX)Rather than growth in manufacturing, it was oil production that boosted the economyOnce agricultural and on timberThe oil production fueled the growing automobile industry in the nationBy 1929 - 1 automobile for every 4 TexansBusiness men and politicians called the 20s a new era and spoke confidently in ending poverty in AmericaPaid little attention to weaknesses in ag and other key industriesIgnoring the overconcentration of wealth and income in the hands of relatively few people.In 1929, it all crashed as the worst financial panic and economic depression in the history of the world hit.During this “new Era” one underlying weakness was struggling ag.Farm tenancy rate rose to 61% during this time period.By 1930.Means that when financial panic hit, most Texans hardly knew it.Barely recognized the difference between their Texas of the 20s and the Great DepressionThey say the stock market fell, but we were so poor we couldn’t tell.Society and CultureDuring the 20s, the decade following WWI, change swept over the social lives of Texas, striking some as modern and exciting while bewildering and angering othersJoseph Bailey, sounded a warning in 1920, “the stately old dances have been supplanted by the Fox Trot and the Bunny Hug”Replacing the stately waltz as the music and dancing only became more risquéJazz and the CharlestonClothing styles became less modestNewly liberated independent womenWore short skirts!OH MYALMOST showed their kneesSmoked and drank.And wore cosmeticsYoung men and women attended lewd movies and took late night automobile rides together.Sexual promiscuity increased or atleast critics were certain that it did.Only a minority of Texans had the time or the money to be modern and few fit the flapper stereotypes or the college boys wearing raccoon coatsMost Texans were aware of these cultural changes and they also atleast had had some experience with the developments that were tearing down the traditional and bringing in the newIncreasing urbanization put more people together in limited areas.Rise and spread of popular cultureHard to create and share when you’re spread out on different farms. Get them together and big boomFirst social networking sites = citiesAll of this change is going to piss people off.Change, Good or Bad?On the one hand, you have the goodAutomobilesEasy and rapid means of transportation for Texans to reach and move about in the cities and enjoy all of the culture that cities offeredBattery powered radios made the newest music widely availableAdvertised the latest fashions and took city culture to rural areas.Motion pictures allowed Texans to see how the sophisticated world dressed and behavedChange in social institution of the family changedBirth control didn’t gain wide acceptance until the Great DepressionFamily size decreased dramaticallyMore women worked outside the home than ever beforeDivorce more than doubled during the 1920sAll of these trends were more pronounced in urban areasThey fueled traditionalists concern over societies declineSome blamed popular cultureOthers blamed the lifestyle of urban blacks and mexican AmericansBlack RenaissanceWhite kids were buying itThey liked the jazz musicWent and stood shoulder to shoulder among the blacks just because they liked the musicPop culture did more to dismantle prejudice than anything elseTo the traditionalist, this seemed like a betrayal to white supremacy and separatismThey reacted in so many ways.The Red Scare that happened in the 20s, where everyone got really anti-immigrant after WWIDidn't hit Texans all that hard, simply because those radicals in other NE cities started out in unions and Texas wasn’t a union stateWasn't an antiradicalism that you saw in the NE communities.Our immigration came from Southern states - they were other white AmericansSome areas when Texans did fear changeTexans did fear during this time acknowledging what science might portend for themThe Anti-Evolution movement rose in the 1920sTennesseeHeavily embraced in TexasSaw evolutionary science as undermining biblical moralityTheir main issue was because they thought that Darwinism was contradicting GenesisIf it was going to overthrow the creation story, it would get people to think that biblical morality wasn’t real.Proposals to prohibit the teaching or learning of evolutionary science in