Back to Normalcy: The Decade of the 1920s

This episode of The American Story, written by historian Quincy Howell, chronicles American cultural, political and economic trends in "Back to Normalcy: The Decade of the 1920s."

The narrator, Merle Evans, describes William G. Harding's short and sordid presidency followed by Calvin Coolidge's business focused presidency. This recording includes a clip of Coolidge speaking about his priorities on the campaign trail in 1924.

Coolidge is criticized for ignoring the flourishing "Seven Lively Arts" such as vaudeville, film and popular fiction. Coolidge asserted that the "business of America is business," however by the time Edgar J. Hoover took office in 1928, the American economy was on its way to the rapid decline marked by the stock market crash of 1929. "The nation that invented mass production failed in the 1920s to solve the problem of mass distribution."

Audio courtesy of the NYC Municipal Archives WNYC Collection

WNYC archives id: 150121
Municipal archives id: LT6363