United States History
Unit 5 – The Roaring Twenties
Mr. Hughes
Anaheim High School
Postwar Issues
In this section, we will look at the American desire for normalcy
after WWI and a fear of communism and “foreigners led to
postwar isolationism.”
Postwar Trends

World War I left the American public exhausted.




The League of Nations further divided Americans.
Soldiers were returning to unemployment or forced others
out of a job.
The economy slowed due to diminished orders after the war.
Two major trends engulfed the American people.


Nativism: the prejudice against foreign-born people.
Isolationism: a policy of pulling away from world affairs.
Fear of Communism

One perceived threat to American life was the threat of
Communism.



Communism was symbolized by their red flag and cried
out for the end of capitalism everywhere.
A Communist party was formed in the United States.



The panic began in 1919 after revolutionaries overthrew the
Czarist regime in Russia.
It had a group of 70,000 people, many of whom came from the
Industrial Workers of the World (IWW)
When bombs were being mailed to government leaders the
public became fearful.
US Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer took action
against this “Red Scare”.
Palmer Raids

In 1919, Palmer hunted
down suspected
communists, socialists, and
anarchists.



They trampled people’s civil
rights in the process.
Hundreds of foreign born
radicals were deported
without trials.
His raids failed to produce
anything and the public
began to turn against
Palmer.
Test Question 1
United States Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer was
controversial because he?
a) Criticized democracy and the capitalistic nature of the
U.S.
b) Secured people’s civil rights.
c) Assassinated Sacco and Vanzetti.
d) Trampled on the Bill of Rights hunting down suspected
communists and anarchists.
d) Trampled on the Bill of Rights hunting down suspected
communists and anarchists.
The Trial of Sacco & Vanzetti

In May 1920, Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were
charged with the robbery and murder of a factory
paymaster.


They provided alibis, the evidence was circumstantial, and
the judge made racial remarks.


Witnesses had said the criminals appeared to be Italians.
The jury still found them guilty and sentenced them to death.
Protests rang out against the court decision.


They were executed on August 23, 1927.
In 1961, ballistic tests proved the gun used against the guard
did belong to Sacco.

They however had no proof that he pulled the trigger.
Test Question 2
The significance of the Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti
trial was that?
a) They were not convicted of robbery or murder.
b) Their ethnicity and immigrant status played an important
role in their conviction.
c) The jury received bribes.
d) They became the first immigrants to be convicted of
treason.
b) Their ethnicity and immigrant status played an important role
in their conviction.
Limiting Immigration

During the Nativist
movement, the prevailing
attitude was “Keep
America for Americans.”


Problems in the economy
after WWI fueled these
opinions.
There were 2 major
occurrences during this
time that helped shape
America.
The Ku Klux Klan

As a result of the “Red
Scare” and increase in
anti-immigrant feelings, the
Klu Klux Klan rose again.


By 1924, they had a
membership of 4.5 million.
There goal was to keep
African-Americans “in
their place” and to drive
Roman Catholics, Jews,
and foreign-born people
out of the country.
Test Question 3
The KKK in the 1920’s opposed all of the following except?
a) Nativists.
b) African Americans.
c) Jews.
d) Roman Catholics.
a) Nativists
The Quota System

From 1919 to 1921, the number of immigrants jumped 600
percent.


From 141,000 in 1919 to 805,000 in 1921.
In response to Nativist pressure, Congress passed the
Emergency Quota Act of 1921.


They purposely limited immigrants from southern and eastern
Europe.
They limited to number of people admitted to 2 percent of the
people in the U.S. in 1890.



This discriminated against Roman Catholics and Jews.
Japan was also very upset of the new law.
It did not put a limit on immigrants from countries in the
Western Hemisphere

As a result, 1 million Canadians and 500,000 Mexicans crossed the
nations borders.
Test Question 4
The Emergency Quota Act passed by Congress in 1921
mainly tried to limit immigration from?
a) Western Europe.
b) Southern and Eastern Europe.
c) Asia and the Middle East.
d) Latin America.
b) Southern and Eastern Europe
Women’s Suffrage

As men were off to fight
in WWI, women moved
into their jobs left behind.


This helped the push for
Women’s Suffrage.
In 1919, Congress passed
the 19th Amendment,
granting women the right
to vote.

In 1920, the amendment
was ratified by the states.
Test Question 5
What effect did the World War I have on the Women’s
Suffragist movement?
a) It led to the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment.
b) It had little effect.
c) It caused a split within the NAWSA.
d) It delayed action as attention turned to the war effort.
a) It led to the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment.
The Teapot Dome Scandal

One of the most spectacular
forms of corruption in the US
government.


The oil reserves were moved from
the Navy to the Interior
Department.


The government had set aside oilrich public lands at Teapot Dome,
WY And Elk Hills, CA.
Secretary of the Interior, Albert B.
Fall suddenly received $400,000 in
“loans, bonds, and cash.”
Fall was later found guilty of
bribery and was the first American
to be convicted of a felony while
holding a cabinet post.
The Presidency of Warren G. Harding
Test Question 6
The Teapot Dome Scandal was an example of?
a) The failure of the gold standard.
b) Kickbacks to favored railroad magnets.
c) Corruption within President Harding’s cabinet.
d) Corporate greed.
c) Corruption within President Harding’s cabinet.
The Business of America
This section will document how consumer goods fueled the
business boom of the 1920’s as America’s standard of living
soared.
American Industries Flourish

President Calvin Coolidge fit right into the business
beliefs of the 1920’s

He believed the government should stay out of business.

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
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His predecessor, Herbert Hoover, also shared this belief.
This would allow for the business to flourish and Americans to profit.
They kept tariffs on foreign goods high which further helped
American manufacturers.
At the same time, wages were rising due to new
technology.

That resulted in higher productivity as well.
The Impact of the Automobile

The automobile industry changed
the American landscape.

The biggest impact was the
creation of paved roads.


The popularity of the automobile
brought many other things into
the American landscape.


This allowed for travel in all types of
weather conditions.
Gas stations, repair shops, public
garages, motels, tourist camps, and
shopping centers all came to be
because of the car.
The automobile also liberated the
rural family.

They could travel to the city for
shopping and entertainment.
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Test Question 1
The popularity of the automobile led to?
a) A decrease in the number of jobs in American society.
b) The transition of paved roads to dirt roads.
c) Travel by train becoming more popular.
d) The liberation of the isolated rural family.
d) The liberation of the isolated rural family.
Test Question 2
Mass production techniques were used most successfully in
the early 1900’s in?
a) The mining industry.
b) The automobile industry.
c) The steel industry.
d) The airplane industry.
b) The automobile industry.
Standard Of Living Soars

The 1920’s were a prosperous
time for the United States.

Americans owned about 40
percent of the world’s wealth.


This changed the way Americans
lived.
Gasoline powered much of the
boom of the 20’s.

Electricity is what really
changed the nation.


Families could now have
refrigerators, cooking ranges, and
toasters in their houses.
It made the lives of housewives
easier and allowed time for
more activities outside the
home.
Dawn of Modern Advertising

With an influx of goods
on the market, advertising
now focused on luring
people to their product.


Companies went so far as
to hire psychologists to
study how to appeal to
people’s desires.
Brand name goods now
were becoming familiar
from coast to coast.

Luxury items were now
considered necessities.
Test Question 3
The dawn of modern advertising in the 1920’s occurred
because?
a) Printing paper was cheaper.
b) People had less money to spend.
c) Of the invention of the airplane.
d) Of an influx of new consumer goods flooded the
market.
d) Of an influx of new consumer goods flooded the market.
A Superficial Prosperity

Many believed that prosperity would go on forever in the
1920’s.


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As the number of businesses grew, so did the income gap
between workers and managers.
Industries like iron, railroads, and farming were not very
prosperous during this time.


The national income had grown from $64 billion in 1921 to $87
billion in 1929.
Farms overproduced goods causing food prices to go down.
A new form of buying goods, installment plans or credit, were
introduced to further encourage people to buy goods.

This was extending people beyond their economic means.
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Test Question 4
During the 1920’s most of the nation’s wealth was in the
hands of?
a) A few large corporations.
b) Farmers and workers.
c) Labor unions.
d) Small business.
a) A few large corporations.
Changing Landscape

With new opportunities many African Americans left
farms in the south for cities in the north.

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
Reasons for the Great Migration.




This was known as the Great Migration.
It started toward the end of the 1800’s but turned into a tidal
wave in the early 1900’s.
Escaping racial discrimination.
Poor farming conditions.
More job opportunities.
Racial prejudice did also exist in the north.

The movement of African Americans did intensify the tension
in northern cities.
Test Question 5
The Great Migration of 1910 to 1920 was?
a) The march of penguins in the South Pole to the North
Pole.
b) When thousands of immigrants arrived in California
from Mexico and Asia.
c) The movement of African-Americans from northern
cities to southern cities.
d) The movement of African-Americans from the south to
northern cities.
d) The movement of African-Americans from the south to
northern cities.
The Roaring 20’s
This section will address the new lifestyles, new jobs, and
different roles in society during the 1920’s.
Changing Ways of Life
During the 1920s,
urbanization continued
to accelerate
 For the first time,
more Americans lived in
cities than in rural areas

New York City was
home to over 5 million
people in 1920

Chicago
million
had nearly 3
Urban vs. Rural
Throughout the 1920s,
Americans found themselves
caught between urban and rural
cultures
 Urban life was considered a
world of anonymous crowds,
strangers, moneymakers, and
pleasure seekers
 Rural life was considered to be
safe, with close personal ties, hard
work and morals

Prohibition
One example of the
clash between city & farm
was the passage of the 18th
Amendment in 1920
 This Amendment
launched the era known as
Prohibition
 The Volstead Act made it
illegal to make, sell or
transport liquor

Support for Prohibition
Reformers had long believed
alcohol led to crime, child & wife
abuse, and accidents
 Supporters were largely from
the rural south and west
 The church affiliated AntiSaloon League and the Women’s
Christian Temperance Union
helped push the 18th Amendment
through

Test Question 1
The Eighteenth Amendment?
a) Overturned Plessy v. Ferguson.
b) Excluded women from saloons.
c) Gave women the right to vote.
d) Banned the manufacture, sale, and transportation of
alcoholic beverages.
d) Banned the manufacture, sale, and transportation of
alcoholic beverages.
Test Question 2
The main reason the Volstead Act was unsuccessful was
because?
a) Organized crime controlled most major police forces
b) The Canadian government refused to arrest smugglers
at the U.S. – Canadian borders.
c) President Harding came out publicly against it.
d) The government agency in charge of enforcing the act
was underfunded and did not have enough men.
d) The government agency in charge of enforcing the act
was underfunded and did not have enough men.

Speakeasies and Bootleggers
Many Americans did not
believe drinking was a sin
 Most immigrant groups
were not willing to give up
drinking
 To obtain liquor illegally,
drinkers went underground
to hidden saloons known as
speakeasies
 People also bought liquor
from bootleggers who
smuggled it in from Canada,
Cuba and the West Indies

Organized Crime
Prohibition contributed to
the growth of organized crime
in every major city
 Chicago became notorious
as the home of Al Capone – a
famous bootlegger
 Capone took control of the
Chicago liquor business by
killing off his competition

Test Question 3
Al Capone became notorious mainly because he?
a) Lived in New York and drank whiskey.
b) Believed alcohol led to crime and teacher abuse.
c) Made speakeasies illegal.
d) Made millions bootlegging whiskey into Chicago from
Canada.
d) Made millions bootlegging whiskey into Chicago from
Canada.
Government Fails To Control Liquor
Eventually, Prohibition’s
fate was sealed by the
government, which failed to
budget enough money to
enforce the law
 The task of enforcing
Prohibition fell to 1,500
poorly paid federal agents.


Clearly an impossible task
Support Fades, Prohibition Repealed
By the mid-1920s, only
19% of Americans
supported Prohibition
 Many felt Prohibition
caused more problems
than it solved
 The 21st Amendment
finally repealed
Prohibition in 1933

Test Question 4
All of the following were effects of Prohibition EXCEPT?
a) Disrespect for the law increased ( smuggling &
bootlegging)
b) The growth of organized crime.
c) Criminals found a source of income.
d) Consumption of alcohol dramatically increased.
d) Consumption of alcohol dramatically increased.
Science and Religion Clash
 Another
battleground
during the 1920s was
between fundamentalist
religious groups and secular
thinkers over the truths of
science
 The Protestant movement
grounded in the literal
interpretation of the bible is
known as fundamentalism
 Fundamentalists found all
truth in the bible – including
science & evolution
Scopes Trial
In
Scopes was a biology teacher who
dared to teach his students that man
derived from lower species
March 1925,
Tennessee passed the
nation’s first law that
made it a crime to teach
evolution
 The ACLU promised to
defend any teacher willing
to challenge the law –
John Scopes did
Scopes Trial
The ACLU hired Clarence
Darrow, the most famous
trial lawyer of the era, to
defend Scopes
 The prosecution
countered with William
Jennings Bryan, the threetime Democratic presidential
nominee

Darrow
Bryan
Scopes Trials
Trial opened on July 10,1925 and became a national sensation
 In an unusual move, Darrow called Bryan to the stand as an expert on the
bible – key question: Should the bible be interpreted literally?
 Under intense questioning, Darrow got Bryan to admit that the bible can be
interpreted in different ways
 Nonetheless, Scopes was found guilty and fined $100

Bryan
Darrow
Test Question 5
The central issue of the Scopes Trial of 1925 was whether
or not?
a) Fundamentalism could be taught in schools
b) The bible was supreme authority on scientific issues.
c) The theory of evolution could be taught.
d) Jim Crow laws were illegal.

c) The theory of evolution could be taught.
The Flapper
During the 1920s, a new
ideal emerged for some
women: the Flapper
 A Flapper was an
emancipated young woman
who embraced the new
fashions and urban
attitudes

Test Question 6
An emancipated young woman who embraced new fashions
in the 1920’s was known as a?
a) Conservatist.
b) Fundamentalist.
c) Flapper.
d) Femi-Nazi.
c) Flapper
Popular Culture of the 1920’s
This section will look at how the mass media, movies, and
spectator sports played an important role in creating the
popular culture of the 1920’s – a culture that many artists
criticized.
Education and Popular Culture

During the 1920s,
developments in education
had a powerful impact on the
nation


Enrollment in high schools
quadrupled between 1914 and
1926
Public schools met the
challenge of educating
millions of immigrants
Expanding News Coverage


As literacy increased,
newspaper circulation
rose and masscirculation magazines
flourished
By the end of the
1920s, ten American
magazines -- including
Reader’s Digest and Time
– boasted circulations
of over 2 million
Radio Comes of Age

Although print media was
popular, radio was the
most powerful
communications medium
to emerge in the 1920s


News was delivered faster
and to a larger audience
Americans could hear the
voice of the president or
listen to the World Series
live
American Heroes of the ‘20s

In 1929, Americans spent $4.5
billion on entertainment
(includes sports)


People crowded into baseball
games to see their heroes
Babe Ruth was a larger than
life American hero who played
for Yankees

He hit 60 homers in 1927
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Lindbergh’s Flight

America’s most beloved
hero of the time wasn’t an
athlete but a small-town
pilot named Charles
Lindbergh


Lindbergh made the first
nonstop solo trans-Atlantic
flight
He took off from NYC in
the Spirit of St. Louis and
arrived in Paris 33 hours
later to a hero’s welcome
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Test Question 1
Charles Lindbergh was bet known for?
a) Establishing an airline industry in the late 1920’s
b) Flying from Paris to San Francisco in record time.
c) Deliver transcontinental mail across Europe.
d) Being the first to fly nonstop across the Atlantic.
d) Being the first to fly nonstop across the Atlantic.
Entertainment and Arts

Even before sound, movies
offered a means of escape
through romance and comedy



Walt Disney's animated
Steamboat Willie marked the
debut of Mickey Mouse. It was a
seven minute long black and
white cartoon.
First sound movies: Jazz Singer
(1927)
First animated with sound:
Steamboat Willie (1928)
By 1930, millions of
Americans went to the
movies each week
Music and Art



Famed composer
George Gershwin
merged traditional
elements with
American Jazz
Painters like Edward
Hopper depicted the
loneliness of American
life
Georgia O’ Keeffe
captured the grandeur
of New York using
intensely colored
canvases
Gershwin
Hopper’s famous “Nighthawks”
Radiator Building, Night, New
York , 1927
Georgia O'Keeffe
Test Question 2
Beginning in the 1920’s, radio and movies encouraged a
national popular culture by?
a) Making it possible for ordinary people to work fewer
hours.
b) Allowing poor and rich from across the country share
the same entertainment.
c) Featuring only upbeat comedies and patriotic themes.
d) Portraying only characters from poor backgrounds.
Writers of the 1920’s


The 1920s was one of the
greatest literary eras in
American history
Sinclair Lewis, the first
American to win the Nobel
Prize in literature, wrote the
novel, Babbitt

In Babbitt the main character
ridicules American conformity
and materialism
Writers of the 1920’s

Writer F. Scott Fitzgerald
coined the phrase “Jazz
Age” to describe the
1920s


Fitzgerald wrote Paradise
Lost and The Great Gatsby
The Great Gatsby reflected
the emptiness of New
York elite society
Writers of the 1920’s


Edith Wharton’s Age of
Innocence dramatized the
clash between traditional
and modern values
Willa Cather celebrated
the simple, dignified lives
of immigrant farmers in
Nebraska in My Antonia
Writers of the 1920’s

Ernest Hemingway, wounded in
World War I, became one of
the best-known authors of the
era


Hemingway - 1929
In his novels, The Sun Also Rises
and A Farewell to Arms, he
criticized the glorification of war
His simple, straightforward
style of writing set the literary
standard
The Lost Generation

Some writers were so
soured by American
culture that they
chose to settle in
Europe


Hemingway and John
Dos Passos are
examples.
In Paris they formed a
group that one writer
called, “The Lost
Generation”
John Dos Passos self – portrait. He was
a good amateur painter.
Test Question 3
__________________ wrote books such as The Sun Also
Rises that criticized the war.
a) F. Scott Fitzgerald
b) Ernest Hemingway
c) Georgia O’Keefe
d) George Gershwin
b) Ernest Hemingway
Test Question 4
Which of the following attitudes would be attributed to the
writers of the Lost Generation?
a) Beliefs in atheism and disillusionment of communal
society.
b) Support for laissez-faire and capitalism.
c) A spirit of patriotism.
d) Ridiculing Americans for their greed and materialism.
d) Ridiculing Americans for their greed and materialism.
The Harlem Renaissance
This section will document the growth of African–American
ideas, art, politics, literature and music that flourished in Harlem
and elsewhere in the United States.
THE HARLEM RENAISSANCE


Migration of the Negro by
Jacob Lawrence
Between 1910 and 1920,
the Great Migration saw
hundreds of thousands of
African Americans move
north to big cities
By 1920 over 5 million of
the nation’s 12 million
blacks (over 40%) lived in
cities
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AFRICAN AMERICAN GOALS

Founded in 1909,
the NAACP urged
African Americans
to protest racial
violence

W.E.B Dubois, a
founding member,
led a march of
10,000 black men in
NY to protest
violence
Test Question 1
The Harlem Renaissance refers to?
a) a struggle for civil rights led by the NAACP.
b) a population increase in Harlem in the 1920s.
c) a program to promote African-American owned
businesses .
d) a literary and artistic movement among AfricanAmericans centered in Harlem, NY.
d)A literary and artistic movement among AfricanAmericans centered in Harlem, NY.
Test Question 2
The NAACP did all of the following EXCEPT?
a) fight for legislation to protect Africans-Americans.
b) work with anti-lynching organizations.
c) propose that African-Americans move back to Africa.
d) become politically active.
c) Propose that African-Americans move back to Africa.
MARCUS GARVEY - UNIA




Garvey represented a more
radical approach
Marcus Garvey believed that
African Americans should
build a separate society
(Africa)
In 1914, Garvey founded the
Universal Negro Improvement
Association
Garvey claimed a million
members by the mid-1920s
He left a powerful legacy of
black pride, economic
independence and PanAfricanism
HARLEM, NEW YORK

Harlem, NY became the
largest black urban
community


Harlem suffered from
overcrowding,
unemployment and
poverty
However, in the 1920s it
was home to a literary
and artistic revival known
as the Harlem
Renaissance
AFRICAN AMERICAN WRITERS

The Harlem Renaissance
was primarily a literary
Mckay
movement


Led by well-educated blacks
with a new sense of pride in
the African-American
experience
Claude McKay’s poems
expressed the pain of life in
the ghetto
LANGSTON HUGHES


Missouri-born Langston
Hughes was the
movement’s best known
poet
Many of his poems
described the difficult lives
of working-class blacks

Some of his poems were
put to music, especially jazz
and blues
Test Question 3
Langston Hughes wrote about the struggle of ?
a) immigrants coming to America.
b) African American working class citizens.
c) slavery and Jim Crow laws.
d) women in a sexist America.
b) African American working class citizens
ZORA NEALE HURSTON

Zora Neale Hurston
wrote novels, short
stories and poems


She often wrote about the
lives of poor, unschooled
Southern blacks
She focused on the
culture of the people–
their folkways and values
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AFRICAN-AMERICAN PERFORMERS

During the 1920s, black
performers won large
followings


Paul Robeson, son of a
slave, became a major
dramatic actor
His performance in
Othello was widely
praised
LOUIS ARMSTRONG


Jazz was born in the early 20th
century
In 1922, a young trumpet
player named Louis
Armstrong joined the Creole
Jazz Band


Later he joined Fletcher
Henderson’s band in NYC
Armstrong is considered the
most important and influential
musician in the history of jazz
EDWARD KENNEDY “DUKE” ELLINGTON

In the late 1920s,
Duke Ellington, a jazz
pianist and composer,
led his ten-piece
orchestra at the
famous Cotton Club

Ellington was renown
as one of America’s
greatest composers
BESSIE SMITH

Bessie Smith, blues
singer, was perhaps the
most outstanding
vocalist of the decade

She achieved enormous
popularity and by 1927
she became the highestpaid black artist in the
world
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Test Question 4
An African-American renaissance flowered in New York
during the 1920s because of?
a) campaigns for equality in the North and racial
discrimination in the South.
b) pride in the African-American experience as expressed
by artists and writers centered in Harlem.
c) the strict adherence to old traditions in America.
d) popularity of baseball teams such as the Yankees, Giants
and Dodgers.
b) pride in the African-American experience as expressed
by artists and writers centered in Harlem.
Test Question 5
African Americans that flourished in the jazz revolution
included all of the following EXCEPT?
a) Cab Calloway.
b) Louis Armstrong.
c) Duke Ellington.
d) Marcus Garvey.
d) Marcus Garvey