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1920-1929 |
Political and
Social History |
Literature |
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1920 |
16 January. The 18th Amendment (Prohibition
Amendment) goes into effect at midnight. Although the law is challenged in
some states (New Jersey), the Supreme Court later declares the law valid.
The 19th Amendment (voting rights for women)
goes into effect.
Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer declares
that a "Red Menace" exists, and authorities begin to raid private homes and
labor headquarters.
5 May. Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti
are arrested on charges of murder and robbery.
Elections: The Republican Party nominates
Warren G. Harding for president and Calvin Coolidge for vice-president. The
Democrats nominate James M. Cox for president and Franklin Delano Roosevelt
for vice-president. The Socialist Labor Party nominates Eugene V. Debs as
its presidental candidate, although Debs is in jail serving a 10-year
sentence for controversial speeches delivered during World War I. Other
parties nominating candidates include the Farmer Labor Party, which will
merge with Robert La Follette's Progressive Party, and the Prohibition
Party. On 2 November, Harding wins the election by a wide margin (nearly two
to one).
2 November. Station KDKA in Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania, initiates regular radio broadcasts, the first station to do
so.
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Sinclair Lewis, Main Street
Edith
Wharton, The Age of Innocence and In Morocco
F. Scott
Fitzgerald,This Side of
Paradise
 Anzia
Yezierska,
Hungry Hearts
Ezra Pound, Hugh Selwyn Mauberly.
For informaton on Pound and other modernist poets, visit the
"Petals on a Wet, Black Bough" exhibit at the Beinecke Museum.
Eugene O'Neill, The Emperor Jones
Robert Frost,
Mountain
Interval
Death of
William Dean Howells (b. 1837)
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1921 |
2 April. Albert Einstein lectures in New York
about his theory of relativity.
The Emergency Quota Act restricts immigration
by setting limits based on the number of foreign-born people already in the
country in 1910. Immigration must not exceed three percent of each
nationality already in the United States in that year.
George Washington Carver of the Tuskegee
Institution presents his innovative ideas on agriculture to the U. S. House
of Representatives.
Former president William Howard Taft is
appointed to the Supreme Court.
July-September. Wage cuts and massive
unemployment cause unrest and an increase in violence. The newly formed
Hoover Commission suggests price cuts and shorter hours rather than an
increase in wages; the average working day is 12-14 hours.
December. By order of President Harding,
Eugene Debs is freed from prison.
American Birth Control League is formed.
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F. Scott Fitzgerald,
Flappers and Philosophers (stories)
John Dos Passos, Three Soldiers
Sherwood Anderson, The Triumph of the Egg (stories);
"The Egg"
Edith
Wharton wins the Pulitzer Prize for literature for The Age of
Innocence. Although some of the judges wished to award the prize to
Sinclair Lewis's Main Street, others believe Lewis's book to be too
negative in its representation of small-town America. Lewis sends Wharton a
gracious note of congratulationsafter his loss, and she responds by praising
Main Street.
James Joyce's Ulysses is published in
Paris; 500 copies imported to America are seized by the U. S. Post Office as
obscene material and burned.
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1922 |
The World War Foreign Debt commission tries to
sort out the issue of war debts owed to the United States, which insists on
full payment and thereby causes ill will among European nations.
The Supreme Court declares the 19th Amendment
(votes for women) to be constitutional.
The Capper-Volstead Act permits farmers to
form cooperatives for buying and selling goods without being prosecuted for
anti-trust violations.
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F. Scott
Fitzgerald,The Beautiful and Damned
T. S. Eliot, The Waste Land (1921-1922)
Sinclair Lewis,
Babbitt
Anzia Yezierska, Salome of the Tenements
Eugene O'Neill, The Hairy Ape
Willa Cather,
One of Ours
Edith Wharton, The Glimpses of the Moon
Katherine Anne Porter, "Maria Conception" (Century)
T. S. Eliot founds Criterion magazine
(1922-1939)
Booth Tarkington wins the Pulitzer Prize for
Alice Adams
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1923 |
The Intermediate Credit Act authorized by
Congress provides relief to farmers through extending loans to cooperatives.
2 August. President Harding dies of an
embolism after suffering ptomaine poisoning followed by pneumonia. Coolidge
is sworn in on 3 August.
The Teapot Dome scandal erupts as the deal
between Harry F. Sinclair of Mammoth Oil and Secretary of the Interior
Albert B. Fall is revealed. Fall had illegally leased federal lands to
Sinclair's company without calling for competitive bids; after the
investigation, Fall is the first cabinet member in U. S. history to go to
jail.
The FBI begins investigating an unusually high rate of murders and
mysterious deaths among the Osage in what Oklahoma newspapers call the
"Osage Reign of Terror." Because of the great wealth of the Osages'
oil-rich land, members of the tribe become the targets of unscrupulous
dealings and violence.
U. S. Steel implements the 8-hour day, a
victory for labor.
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Willa Cather, A Lost Lady
Wallace Stevens, Harmonium
William Carlos Williams, Spring and All
Jean Toomer, Cane
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1924 |
Congress passes a new and more restrictive
immigration law; quotas are now set at only 2 percent of existing
nationalities in the U.S. in 1920, and Japanese immigration is suspended.
Calvin Coolidge is elected by a large margin
over the Democratic candidate, John W. Davis, and the Progressive candidate,
Robert La Follette.
Nellie Ross of Wyoming and Miriam Ferguson of
Texas are elected governors of their states.
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Edith Wharton, Old New York (novellas)
Eugene O'Neill, Desire under the Elms
H. L. Mencken and George Jean Nathan found
The American Mercury
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1925 |
February. A diphtheria epidemic in Alaska
captures the country's attention as dog teams drive through the winter
weather to deliver antidiphtheria serum to Nome.
July. The Scopes trial begins as John T.
Scopes of Tennessee is arrested for teaching Darwin's theory of evolution.
Clarence Darrow defends Scopes as William Jennings Bryan heads the
prosecution. In an unusual move, Bryan takes the witness stand to defend his
strict interpretation of the Bible. Scopes loses the trial and is fined
$100, but the trial publicity has given the debate over evolution national
attention.
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F. Scott
Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby
Ernest Hemingway, In Our Time
Willa Cather, The Professor's House
Theodore Dreiser, An American Tragedy
Gertrude Stein, The Making of Americans
Alain Locke, The New Negro
Anzia Yezierska, Bread Givers
John Dos Passos, Manhattan Transfer
Edna Ferber's So Big wins the Pulitzer
Prize.
The New Yorker is founded by Harold
Ross. Its unofficial motto: "Not for the little old lady from Dubuque."
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1926 |
The Air Commerce Act regulates civil aviation;
the Army Air Corps is established. This occurs just one year after Col.
William "Billy" Mitchell had been suspended from the Army for 5 years
without pay for insisting on the importance of air power in the national
defense.
A land boom in Florida comes to a halt as a
massive tornado causes enormous damage.
Richard Byrd makes the first flight over the
North Pole.
U. S. Marines land in Nicaragua to suppress a
revolt and will stay until 1933.
Gertrude Ederle swims the English channel in
14 hours, 31 minutes.
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William Faulkner, Soldier's Pay
Ernest Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises
Hart Crane, The Bridge
Langston Hughes, The Weary Blues
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1927 |
20-21 May. Charles Lindbergh flies The
Spirit of St. Louis from New York to Paris, traveling 3600 miles in 33
and a half hours.
Catholic presidential candidate Alfred Smith
of New York answers questions about whether his loyalty to the Vatican would
supersede his loyalty to the U. S. by saying, "I recognize no power in the
institution of my Church to interfere with the operations of the
Constitution of the United States or the enforcement of the law of the
land."
Refusing a nomination for reelection in what
will become a famous statement, Calvin Coolidge says, "I do not choose to
run."
23 August. Still protesting their innocence,
Sacco and Vanzetti are executed after judicial appeals are exhausted.
October. The Jazz Singer, starring
Broadway star Al Jolson, debuts as the "first" talking picture, and its
success spells the beginning of the end for silent movies.
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Willa Cather, Death Comes for the
Archbishop
Countee Cullen, Caroling Dusk (anthology)
and Copper Sun
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1928 |
Elections: In the presidential election,
Republican Herbert Hoover, whose party's slogan is "A chicken in every pot,
a car in every garage," beats Democratic candidate Al Smith. Democrat
Franklin D. Roosevelt is elected governor of New York.
The Kellogg-Briand Pact proposes to substitute
diplomacy for warfare as a means of settling international disputes; 62
nations ultimately sign the pact. The U. S. Senate approves the pact in
1929.
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Eugene O'Neill, Strange Interlude
Nella Larsen, Quicksand |
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1929 |
14 February. In the "St. Valentine's Day
Massacre," six gangsters from the "Bugs" Moran mob and another man are
gunned down in a Chicago garage.
1 July. Enforcement of the the Immigration Act
of 1924 begins.
24-29 October. On "Black Thursday," 24
October, 13 million shares are sold on the New York Stock Exchange; despite
efforts to shore up prices by J. P. Morgan and John D. Rockefeller, prices
fall again on 29 October, "Black Tuesday," as 16 million shares are sold.
By 13 November, $30 billion has been lost in devalued stocks. Although all
of the effects are not felt immediately, the stock market crash marks the
beginning of the Great Depression.
The
Academy of
Motion Picture Arts and Sciences gives out its first awards, which are
not called "Oscars" until 1931.
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William Faulkner, The Sound and the Fury and Sartoris
Ernest Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms
Katherine Anne Porter, "Flowering Judas"
Countee Cullen, Black Christ and Other
Poems
Nella Larsen, Passing
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