Document 1
This excerpt comes from an article in a small town newspaper, the Elizabethton,
Tennessee Star, April 18, 1925 (Found in SIRS, National Archives 1920s unit).
Edward J. Tobin, superintendent of Cook county schools and in that capacity supervisor over
the schooling of 100,000 children, believes that “a young couple, a bottle of moonshine and an
automobile are the most dangerous quartet that can be concocted for the destruction of human
society.”
What products of the 1920s would Mr. Tobin blame for the “destruction of human society”?___
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What is Mr. Tobin’s view of the younger generation and their material possessions? __________
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Document 2
One of the most engaging histories of the 1920s is Only Yesterday: An Informal History
of the 1920s by Frederick Lewis Allen (Harper & Row, 1929,1964). The following excerpt
from this book (p.168) describes the 1925 case of John Scopes, a young biology teacher in
Dayton, Tennessee, who was charged with violating the state law prohibiting the teaching of
evolution.
There was something to be said for the right of the people to decide what should be taught in
their tax-supported schools, even if what they decided upon was ridiculous...In the eyes of the
public, the trial was a battle between Fundamentalism on the one hand and twentieth century
skepticism (assisted by Modernism) on the other...
It was a strange trial. Into the quiet town of Dayton flocked gaunt Tennessee farmers and
their families in mule-drawn wagons and ramshackle Fords; quiet, godly people in overalls
and gingham and black, ready to defend their faith against “foreigners,” yet curious to know
what this newfangled evolutionary theory might be.
What were the two sides in the Scopes trial? __________________________________________
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What groups, ideas and behaviors do you think the Tennessee farmers grouped into the category
of “foreigners”? ________________________________________________________________
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Document 3
This is a quote from the novel, This Side of Paradise, by F. Scott Fitzgerald published in
April, 1920.
None of the Victorian mothers —and most of the mothers were Victorian — had any idea how
casually their daughters were accustomed to be kissed.
Why might the Victorian mothers not have been aware of how “accustomed to be kissed” their
daughters had become? __________________________________________________________
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In addition to kissing, what other behavior might the Victorian mothers have found shocking if
they were aware of them? ________________________________________________________
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Document 4
This cartoon was published in the Chicago Daily Tribune, August 23, 1924.
What are some of the “everything in the world” that the generation of the 1920s had? How did
these items affect their lives? ______________________________________________________
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What is the cartoonist implying about “This Generation”?_______________________________
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The 1920s
Mr. Knisely
The Roaring Twenties was a time of contrast following on the heels of the Great War and
the 1919 Pandemic. The 1920s was also a time of dramatic changes in the way people lived,
worked and entertained themselves. It was a new age for women after the reforms of the early
century and obtaining the right to vote in 1919. The prosperity of the cities was contrasted to
the decline and despair of the rural countryside. Traditional values were being assaulted by
jazz, materialism, immorality and subverted by new modern values. It seemed as if
automobiles, radios, movies, advertising, consumer credit and other new realities were
destroying traditional American values. Outside assaults on our way of life seemed to threaten
from Europe as well.
The following terms are from our readings on this era. They are grouped into six
categories. You are required to use two items from each category (underline them in your
essay, one point each) and the following documents to answer the following question:
Describe how the 1920s were a period of dramatic change and clashes over issues of
values and beliefs.
Sacco & Vanzetti
Palmer raids
Boston police strike
return to normalcy
Flapper
demographics
mass media
Jazz Age
Harlem Renaissance
Lost Generation
Harding
Coolidge
Hoover
isolationism
quota
Red Scare
Bootlegger
prohibition
speakeasy
Teapot Dome scandal
Laissez faire
installment plan
consumer economy
Fundamentalism
Scopes trial
Ku Klux Klan
Marcus Garvey