To Begin…
• Get out the Unit 6 Outline
• What do you think made the 1920s
“Roaring”?
Back to Normalcy: Politics
and Economics of the 1920s
To what degree are the 1920s
a reaction to WW1?
2/7
“America's present need is not heroics, but
healing; not nostrums, but normalcy; not
revolution, but restoration; not agitation, but
adjustment; not surgery, but serenity; not the
dramatic, but the dispassionate; not
experiment, but equipoise; not submergence
in internationality, but sustainment in
triumphant nationality.”
-Warren G. Harding
May 1920
Vanzetti PD
• Discuss the Vanzetti PD with your neighbor.
What stands out to you? What questions do you
have?
• In one box on the white board:
▫ What do you infer about the 1920s from this
piece?
▫ How does the reading reveal the 1920s as a
reaction to WW1?
“I believe we should place them [the
reds] on a ship of stone, with sails of
lead, and that their first stopping place
should be hell.”
-Guy Empey
Politics
• Red Scare:
▫ Palmer Raids
▫ Sacco and Vanzetti
• Nativism
▫ Quotas
▫ Ku Klux Klan
• Isolationism
▫ Treaty of Versailles
▫ Disarmament
▫ High tariffs
“Hit the Trail” PD
• Discuss “Hit the Trail” with your neighbor.
What stands out to you? What questions do you
have?
• In one box on the whiteboard:
▫ What do you infer about the 1920s from this
piece?
▫ How does the reading reveal the 1920s as a
reaction to WW1?
“The chief business of America is
business… the man who builds a
factory builds a temple – the man who
works there worships there.”
- Calvin Coolidge
Economics
• Fiscal Policy
▫ Tax cuts
▫ Decreased regulation
• Anti-Labor
▫ Association with
Communism
▫ Boston Police Strike
• Consumerism
▫ Innovation
▫ Credit
▫ Advertising
1920’s Music
• After listening to the music samples, discuss
them with your neighbor. What do you notice?
• In one box on the whiteboard:
▫ What do you infer about the 1920s from these
pieces?
▫ How does the music reveal the 1920s as a reaction
to WW1?
Entertainment
• Mass Culture
▫ Movies
▫ Radio
• A Mobile Society
▫ Automobiles
▫ Planes
• Arts and Sports
▫ Baseball and boxing
▫ Feats of personal
strength
▫ Jazz, literature
Back to normal??
• Synthesizing the information provided by your
peers (and your own ideas), in what ways were
Americans in the 1920s trying to achieve
normalcy?
All of the following were notable trends and
movements of the 1920s EXCEPT
A.
B.
C.
D.
E.
Increase in union membership
Increase in productivity
Urbanization
Consumerism
Business prosperity
Which of the following best characterizes the
differences between the post-Civil War and the post1915 versions of the Ku Klux Klan?
A. The more modern version had less appeal among Americans
due to a greater sense of tolerance among the population as
a whole.
B. The more modern version widened its focus to include
virtually all groups that it perceived as violating “traditional”
ideals and social norms.
C. The more modern version had little appeal to women.
D. The more modern version made little effort to venture
beyond the Deep South.
E. The more modern version sought to operate in secret to as
great a degree as possible.
Which of the following was the most significant factor
in promoting American economic growth in the
1920s?
A. Government policies that emphasized national planning
and centralized control of the economy
B. A wide variety of technological innovations that spurred
growth in both production and consumption
C. The increasing globalization of the American economy,
encouraged by the government’s free-trade polices
D. The increasingly even distribution of wealth, which led to
balanced consumption by all groups in society
E. The success of businesses and agricultural leaders in
controlling production and thus avoiding conditions that
had led to previous recessions
Sacco and Vanzetti were
A. Leaders of the prohibition movement
B. Arrested and convicted for placing bombs on
Wall Street
C. Trade union leaders arrested by the
government for organizing illegal strikes
D. Anarchists who were controversially convicted
and executed for murder
E. Major League baseball players
…To End: practice thesis
• How did TWO of the following help to shape
American national culture in the 1920s:
advertising, mass production, entertainment?