American Gangsters

American Gangsters

(Pictured above Al Capone)

In class we discussed Prohibition and American Gangsters such as Al Capone.

First off, the accepted historical narrative of Prohibition is that it gave way to organized crime but that it was a way to help marriages and people in general because people were not going out and spending their money on alcohol.  It was also possibly related to anti-German sentiment since most of the beer produced in the country was produced by Germans.

Organized crime was huge during Prohibition and it gave rise to men like Al Capone who was a huge gangster during this time and he's probably one of the most well known gangsters of our time. There has not been a criminal in recent years that has achieved the recognition and the prestige that Al Capone received.

Al Capone was extremely ambitious. He was the son of immigrants and overall he was a good-business man. Do I believe that he would've been able to be a great gangster had not Prohibition occurred. Prohibition was the reason why he became as great as he did.

Many immigrants perhaps idolized him because of how he was able to move up in society and rise to such power. It was like the ultimate American dream and for awhile Al Capone was living it.

Fashion of the gangsters was almost just as important as the gangsters themselves.

Men wore suits but there were just a little bit flashier to show off the wealth they had. They were almost making fun of the white collar people. They were able to purchase more and more extravagant clothing in a time where material to produce these suits were very scarce.

The suits became almost like a uniform that these men wore. People could tell they were gangsters from just watching them walk, the way they dressed and the way they talked. But at the same time, they seemed to blend into everyday society to a point.

There were a lot of gangster films produced during this time and at one point actors started dressing like gangsters and gangsters started dressing like the actors, it was like a mix of the two worlds combining and sort of blending into one another.


But in a nutshell, the 1920s gave birth to gangsters, new political ideals, new fashion trends and it was period of prosperity and overall change within our nation.

The Progressive Era and Historical Narratives.

In class, we discussed the Progressive Era, reforms, social changes and historical narratives.

The first thing is The Progressive Era itself. The definition for this time period is huge and it's a period of time where there was so much going on but it's a time where people didn't want big government, they wanted a more laizze-faire approach to things.

During this time many Progressives combined their beliefs into social life itself. There was an implementation of Christianity, people were doing charity work because it was the Christian thing and there might have been some that did it out of the kindness of their hearts but there were others who did it for other reasons to make a point.

There was a point where some progressive reforms sought social control and it was during this time where history sees laws and acts implemented to control people's behavior. Some of these laws include film censorship, prohibition and no work on Sundays just to name a few.

On top of these laws and acts, there was other social, economic and political changes during this time as well. 

The Maternity Act was passed and it set up federal and State funds for women to get the healthcare they needed during their pregnancy because at the moment there was still a high death rate for mothers and infants during this time. However, due to pressure from the American Medical Association this Act is dead by 1929.

On top of discussing social reforms, we also discussed more about historical narratives.

A Historical Narrative is history which involves a story and it is told in a story based form.

Traditional Narratives are in chronological order and they are event driven. A example would be Henry VIII of England died on January 28th, 1547 afterward, his son Edward VI took the throne at the age of nine on February 20th, 1547.

Modern Narratives use structures and general trends. There is a pattern to them. Historians want to know why and exactly why an event occurred. This would fit into more of Micro-history which I've discussed in an earlier blog post.

Voice uses 3rd person to describe events.

The one act I want to focus on for this blog post is the Maternity Act. It amazes me how far society has come in terms of women's rights but at the same time, I know that society still has a long way to go before there is truly equality achieved.

(Pictured above: Nurse visiting a family and checking on a baby during Maternity Act period)

The Maternity Act or the Sheppard-Towner Act benefited women who were unable to get the healthcare they needed and it only lasted a few years before it was killed off. Women were then unable to get the healthcare they needed for a healthy pregnancy. 

To this day, women are still be denied certain rights and it's almost like society is stuck in the 1920s. There are furious debates about whether or not it should be legal to get an abortion and whether birth control should be covered by health insurance. I would think that after about 80s, society would've opened it's eyes and realize that we're not in the 1920s, times have changed.

President Warren Harding and Calvin Coolidge

President Warren Harding

 There isn't much that is spoken about President Warren Harding. There is not a particular Historical Narrative that is really spoken about him.  However he was very much the president that was Anti-Wilson. He was everything that President Wilson was not.

Wilson was egotistical, a thinker ahead of his time and someone didn't really care about being well liked in the country. He was the kind of man who made sure things were going to go his way and Harding wasn't like that at all. He was well-liked and over all he tried to portray himself as the average American man.

He won the nation over by the promise of normalcy. To return the nation to just focus upon itself instead of worrying about foreign powers and foreign issues. 

However, his good nature and intentions were soon found out after his sudden death in California. It was after his death that many scandals were discovered. The scandals are as follows.

The Teapot Dome Scandal was a bribery incident which leased Navy petroleum reserves at Teapot Dome in Wyoming and two other locations in California to private oil companies at lower costs without bidding from competitors.

The scandal wasn't discovered until after his death and even if he was caught, at the time it was not normal to impeach a president. Plus during his presidency, the economy was doing fairly well.

During Harding's Presidency, the position of Vice President was being taken more seriously and it was being reevaluated at this time as well.

President Calvin Coolidge

President Calvin Coolidge's presidency was very much overshadowed by the roaring 20s. There was not a lot that he could do.  The government was very much laizze-faire at the time and was hands off government.

Calvin Coolidge was more worried about being well liked, being respectable and dignified than he was concerned with affairs that were going on in the nation. It just seemed like everything was doing well. The reality of it was that after the war, there were industries that were not doing well such coal mining due to oil being used, ship building, agriculture was greatly in debt and instead of using railroads people were using automobiles.

In class we discussed a few more things such as Historical Scale, Macro-history, Micro-history and Historical Simultaneity. 

Historical Scale is the level in which history is presented.

Macro-history is the big picture. It is the story that high school teachers give their students. An example of Macro-history would be a book on the history of the world.

Micro-History is very detailed, it's condensed and it can tell people larger things about events. An example of this would be a dissertation where one just focuses on something very specific.

History Simultaneity is when two major events occur at the time but are not necessarily related. One does not necessarily cause the other to occur.



I believe that both presidents were very much overshadowed by the period of time they lived in. While Harding's scandals weren't discovered until after he passed away, he was well liked by the public like his successor Calvin Coolidge.  They both presented themselves as dignified and unfortunately is due to the overshadowing of the roaring 20s that they were sort of pushed into the background of the decades.

People didn't want to hear about how virtuous or how dignified a president was, they wanted to hear about the gangsters and the bootlegging which were prominent during this time as well. I'll discuss gangsters and bootlegging in a later blog.

The Red Scare Part 2

The Second Half of the Red Scare

Sedition Act of 1918 and Espionage Act of 1917


 In class we discussed the second half of the Red Scare and two acts which we discussed in detail during the class. 

The Sedition Act of 1918 forbid the use of disloyal, profane,and abusive language about the United States government while the Espionage act of 1917  and it prohibited the interference of military operations or recruitment.

During the second half of the red scare, congress was very drastic with it's measures and congress instead were restricting freedoms because they believed it would serve the greater good.

An example given in class about this was as follows.

People who walk at night around the quad have been getting robbed and instead of stopping the crime, the university decides to punish the people instead of punishing the crime itself.

It became easier to round up sedition actors then it was to round up the National Guard. and there were those people who wanted to take the sedition act even further and become more specific on what they could and could not do.

Senator of Tennessee stated, "If we cannot reason with men to be loyal, it is high time we forced them to be loyal."

There were only a few people who benefited from the Red Scare such as politicians and even psychologists since psychology was in it's infancy during this time.

 There was however an original Sedition Act which was passed in 1776 right after the American Revolution.

In this case, the newly formed country had every right to pass such an act due to the fact that America was a brand new country at the time. There was much fear that a new revolution would soon take hold in America because we just come out of the Revolutionary War.

There was massive immigration during this time as well and in a twisted sense it created unity within the nation. People were coming together during this time and trying to eradicate the red menace.

Shockingly enough, the House approve the Sedition Act of 1918 in a staggering vote of 293 to 1 but then again 1918 was a reelection year as well.

The Espionage Act of 1917 conflicted with the first amendment and it attempted to deny freedom of speech and freedom of the press.


Another thing was there was no really strong political view or person during this time compared to years prior like in 1798 with men like Thomas Jefferson and John Adams.

 There was no one to really take a stand against the two acts, one of which is still in place to this very day and that would be the Espionage Act of 1917.


I feel like Congress proved their point to the country itself and then killed the Red Scare out, that's why it ended so quickly. There was just so many events which lead up to the destruction of the first Red Scare and the killing of the Sedition Act of 1918.

I believe that Congress used the acts to instill fear and control over the country before deciding enough was enough and killing off one of the Acts. It was a way for Congress to stay in power and for Congress to show America and the world who exactly was in control at that particular time.