1920s Study Guide
Technology extended progress into all areas of American life,
including neglected rural areas.
Cars Cost Less
Key Question: What were the results of
more affordable automobiles?
1. Greater mobility
2. Creation of jobs (road construction, oil,
steel, automobiles, travel industry)
Movement
http://www.curbsideclassic.com/automotive-histories/automotive-history-trying-tomake-business-coupe-sense-of-the-gremlin/
Key Question: Where did people move in
the 1920s?
1. Improved transportation allowed
people to move to the suburbs
Communication
Key Question: What communication changes occurred in the 1920s?
1. Telephones improved communication
2. Radio and the broadcast industry brought home entertainment
3. Movies created a new entertainment industry
Electricity
Key Question: How did electricity change the standard of living in the United States?
1. Electric lighting changed sleeping/working patterns
2. Radios entertained Americans
3. Washing machines, electric stoves, and water pumps saved Americans a lot of labor
Airplane
Key Question: Who invented the airplane?
The Wright brothers
People and Factories Show an Increase in Productivity
Key Question: What helped make labor and factories more productive?
1. Assembly line; perfected by Henry Ford
2. Machines replaced humans: mechanization
3. Factories could make products more quickly and with lower cost so products sold for lower
prices.
Prohibition
Key Question: What was Prohibition?
1. 18th Amendment: illegal to manufacture, transport, or sell alcohol
2. Laws cannot force all people to behave in certain ways and this law was almost universally
ignored
Results of Prohibition
Key Question: What happened as a result of Prohibition?
1. Speakeasies served illegal alcohol
2. Bootleggers made and smuggled alcohol and promoted organized crime
3. 21st Amendment repealed Prohibition
Great Migration North and Midwest
Key Question: Why did African Americans migrate to Northern cities?
1. Jobs in the South were scarce and low paying, so African Americans moved to North and
Midwest in search of better employment opportunities.
2. African Americans faced discrimination and violence in the South
3. African Americans faced discrimination and violence in the North and Midwest.
Harlem Renaissance (rebirth of African American culture)
Key Question: What is the Harlem Renaissance?
1. African American artists, writers, and musicians based in Harlem revealed the freshness
and variety of African American culture.
2. The popularity of the Harlem Renaissance spread beyond Harlem to the rest of society
and its leaders established themselves as powerful forces of change.
http://musicians.allaboutjazz.com/musician.php?id=6521
Key Leaders
Key Question: Who were the key leaders of the
Job?
Harlem Renaissance?
1.Jacob Lawrence
Painter who chronicled the Great Migration
2.Langston Hughes
Poet who combined the experiences of African
and American cultural roots
3.Duke Ellington
Jazz composer
4.Louis Armstrong
Jazz composer
5.Bessie Smith
Blues Singer
Leaders in Art, Literature, Music 1920s-1930s
Key Question: Who were the leaders?
Job?
1. Georgia O’Keefe
Artist who painted urban and Southwestern
scenes
2. F. Scott Fitzgerald
Novelist who wrote about the jazz age
3. John Steinbeck
Novelist who wrote about the strength of poor
migrant workers in the 1930s
4. Aaron Copland
Created uniquely American music
5. George Gershwin
Created uniquely American music