American History: A Survey (Brinkley), 13th Edition

Chapter 22: THE NEW ERA

Main themes of Chapter Twenty-two:

• The effect of the automobile boom and various technological breakthroughs on the economic expansion and agricultural malaise of the 1920s



• The attempt by businesses to craft a system of "welfare capitalism," and the reasons for its ultimate failure



• The emergence of a nationwide consumer-oriented and communication-linked culture, and its effect on society and the "new woman"



• The disenchantment of many artists and intellectuals with postwar life, and the broad cultural conflicts over ethnic and religious concerns that plagued the New Era



• The ardently pro-business administrations of Warren Harding and Calvin Coolidge, which, despite their dissimilar personalities, followed a very similar course

• The reasons for the New Era industrial boom after the initial period of economic readjustment following World War I



• The nature and extent of labor's problems in the New Era, particularly with regard to "welfare capitalism"



• The plight of the American farmer in the face of agriculture conglomeration and advancing technology



• The changes in the American way of life and American values in the 1920s in the areas of consumerism, communications, religion, and the role of women



• The reflection of and reaction to these changed values in American literature and art



• The effects of prohibition on American politics and society



• The reasons for xenophobia and racial unrest in the 1920s, and the religious controversies that dominated the era



• The debacle of the Harding administration, and the pro-business tendencies of all Republican administration in the 1920s