AP U.S. History
Chapter 31: American Life in the "Roaring Twenties," 1919-1929
Focus Question
The 1920s were a period of tension between new and changing attitudes on the one hand and
traditional values and nostalgia on the other. What led to the tension between old and new AND
in what ways was the tension manifested?
Learning Objectives
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How did the Red Scare translate into the Ku Klux Klan and the anti-immigrant
movements in American society?
What were the arguments both for and against Prohibition and what were its
consequences? How did the Eighteenth Amendment come about?
What was it about the 1920s that made it Roaring?
Who were some of the major literary, artistic, and architectural figures, and how did the
literature reflect the mood of the 1920s?
In what ways did the emergence of “modernism” lead to a broader questioning of values
within society?
Questions
1. In what ways did Americans in the 1920s respond to the disillusioning experience of World
War I and its aftermath?
Seeing Red (700)
2. What provoked the red scare of 1919-1920? How did businessmen use the red scare to limit
or reverse the gains of unions?
3. Who was the most tenacious pursuer of radical elements during the red scare of the early
1920s?
Hooded Hoodlums of the KKK (701)
4. What policies did 1915-1925 Ku Klux Klan advocate? Against what did the Klan react?
5. What activities and rituals characterized the "second" Ku Klux Klan?
6. Why did the Ku Klux Klan virtually collapse after 1925?
See http://chnm.gmu.edu/courses/hist409/klan.html for more about the 1920s Klan.
Stemming the Foreign Flood (703)
7. Why did the federal government impose immigration restrictions in the 1920s? Against what
nationalities did the Immigration Act of 1924 discriminate?
8. Why, during the 1920s and afterward, did many American immigrant ethnic groups live in
neighborhoods with their own churches or synagogues, newspapers, and theaters?
9. How was ethnic diversity one of the primary obstacles to working class solidarity and
organization in America?
10. What did cultural pluralists like Horace Kallen and Randolph Bourne advocate with regard to
immigration?
The Prohibition "Experiment" (704)
11. From what groups did enforcement of the Volstead Act meet the strongest resistance?
12. How did Prohibition strain U.S. diplomatic relations with Canada?
13. What reasons do some historians provide in arguing that prohibition wasn't entirely a failure?
Makers of America (706)
14. What was the religion of almost all Polish immigrants to America?
15. From what sources did many Polish peasants learn about America?
The Golden Age of Gangsterism (708)
16. How did Chicago demonstrate the most spectacular example of lawlessness and gangsterism
in the 1920s?
17. How was top gangster Al Capone finally convicted and sent to prison?
18. Besides controlling the illegal liquor industry, how did American gangsters in the 1920s earn
rich profits?
Monkey Business in Tennessee (709)
19. According to John Dewey, what is a teacher's primary goal? Why is Dewey called the
"father of progressive education"?
20. Who were the main characters in the "Monkey Trial" held in Dayton, Tennessee? What was
the immediate outcome of the trial?
21. What happened to fundamentalist religion in the aftermath of the Scopes Trial?
The Mass-Consumption Economy (710)
22. What factors helped to make the prosperity of the 1920s possible?
23. What was the main problem faced by American manufacturers in the 1920s? Why did
consumer advertising expand greatly during the 1920s?
24. Who were major figures promoted by mass media image makers and the new sports industry
in the 1920s?
25. What were the results of the new system of buying on credit? What was a downside to the
prosperity that developed in the 1920s?
Putting America on Rubber Tires (711)
26. For what was Frederick W. Taylor best known?
27. What was Henry Ford's most distinctive contribution to the automobile industry?
The Advent of the Gasoline Age (712)
28. What industries prospered along with widespread use of the automobile?
29. How did automobile advertisements reach out to women? What were the major results of the
automobile revolution?
Humans Develop Wings (714)
30. How did the American airline industry in the 1920s make most of its early profits?
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31. Why did Charles Lindbergh's solo flight across the Atlantic make him an especially popular
American hero?
The Radio Revolution (715)
32. How was the American radio industry distinctive from radio in European nations?
Hollywood's Filmland Fantasies (715)
33. Why did D.W. Griffiths’ Birth of a Nation stir extensive protest by African Americans?
34. What was the first talkie motion picture?
35. How did automobiles, radios, and motion pictures contribute to the standardization of
American life?
The Dynamic Decade (716)
36. How did the 1920 census illustrate the changes that had taken place in America?
37. What factors characterized job opportunities for women in the 1920s?
38. For what was Margaret Sanger most well-known?
39. To what authority did many Americans point in justifying their new sexual frankness?
40. Where and by what group was Jazz developed?
41. What are the important factors characterizing the rise and fall of Marcus Garvey?
Examining the Evidence (717)
Cultural Liberation (720)
42. What were the targets of cultural critic H.L. Mencken?
43. What were the major works of Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Sinclair Lewis, and
William Faulkner?
44. Who were the prominent African American cultural figures of the 1920s? What was the
Harlem Renaissance?
Thinking Globally (722)
Wall Street's Big Bull Market (724)
45. What did it mean to buy stock "on margin"?
46. How did Secretary of the Treasure Andrew Mellon alter the income tax structure of the
United States?
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