US History II
The 1920s
1
The 1920s – An Overview
In 1931, a journalist named Frederick Lewis Allen published a volume of informal history that did
more to shape the popular image of the 1920s than any book ever written by a professional
historian. The book, Only Yesterday, depicted the 1920s as a cynical, hedonistic interlude between
the Great War and the Great Depression--a decade of dissipation, jazz bands, raccoon coats, and
bathtub gin. Allen argued that World War I shattered Americans' faith in reform and moral crusades,
leading the younger generation to rebel against traditional taboos while their elders engaged in an
orgy of consumption and speculation.
The popular image of the 1920s, as a decade of prosperity and riotous living and of bootleggers and
gangsters, flappers and hot jazz, flagpole sitters, and marathon dancers, is indelibly etched in the
American psyche. But this image is also profoundly misleading. The 1920s was a decade of deep
cultural conflict. The pre-Civil War decades had fundamental conflicts in American society that
involved geographic regions. During the Gilded Age, conflicts centered on ethnicity and social class.
Conversely, the conflicts of the 1920s were primarily cultural, pitting a more cosmopolitan,
modernist, urban culture against a more provincial, traditionalist, rural culture.
The decade witnessed a titanic struggle between an old and a new America. Immigration, race,
alcohol, evolution, gender politics, and sexual morality--all became major cultural battlefields during
the 1920s. Wets battled drys, religious modernists battled religious fundamentalists, and urban
ethnics battled the Ku Klux Klan.
The 1920s was a decade of profound social changes. The most obvious signs of change were the rise
of a consumer-oriented economy and of mass entertainment, which helped to bring about a
"revolution in morals and manners." Sexual mores, gender roles, hair styles, and dress all changed
profoundly during the 1920s. Many Americans regarded these changes as liberation from the
country's Victorian past. But for others, morals seemed to be decaying, and the United States
seemed to be changing in undesirable ways. The result was a thinly veiled "cultural civil war."
Digital History: http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/database/article_display.cfm?HHID=437
Americans Struggle with Postwar Issues
Main Idea: A desire for normality after the war and a fear of communism and “foreigners” led to
postwar isolationism.
Americans today continue to debate political isolationism and immigration policy.
Key Terms & Important People:

Nativism

Isolationism

Communism

Anarchists

Sacco & Vanzetti

Quota System

Red Scare

Palmer Raids
US History II
The 1920s
2
World War I had left much of the American public exhausted. The debate over the League of
Nations had deeply divided America. Further, the Progressive Era had caused numerous wrenching
changes in American life. The economy, too, was in a difficult state of adjustment. Returning
soldiers faced unemployment or took their old jobs away from women and minorities. Also, the
cost of living had doubled. Farmers and factory workers suffered as wartime orders diminished.
Nativism –
Isolationism –

Why did America move toward isolationism?
Communism –
The Red Scare –

Why was it called the “Red Scare”?

How did Americans react to the perceived threat of
communism?
“The blaze of revolution was sweeping over every
institution of law and order…eating its way into
the homes of American workman, its sharp tongues
of revolutionary heat…licking the altars of the
churches, leaping into the belfry of the school bell,
crawling into the scared corners of American
homes,…burning up the foundation of society.”
—A. Mitchell Palmer, “The Case Against the Reds”
ROOTS OF COMMUNISM
The first Communist government in
Russia was based on the teachings
of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels.
In 1848 these two had published The
Communist Manifesto, which outlined
a theory of class struggle. It said that
a class that had economic power also
had social and political power. It also
said that two classes, the “haves” and
the “have-nots,” have struggled for
control through out history. During
the
Industrial
Revolution,
Communists believed, the struggle
was between the capitalists, who
owned capital—land, money, and
machinery—and workers, who owned
only their labor. Marx and Engels
urged workers to seize power and the
means of production. Ultimately, they
believed, laborers would overthrow
capitalism in all industrialized nations.
Funny Website! Does not include factual information.
The American Children’s Guide to Communism:
http://www.swingmachine.org/issue6/communism.htm
US History II
The 1920s
3
Americans Struggle with Postwar Issues: The Red Scare
A. Mitchell Palmer –
The American Communist Party
firmly believed in the possibility
of a revolution in the United
States.
Ambitious politicians
used the perceived threat of
communist revolt as justification
for their attacks on radicals and
labor activists. Such attacks,
which created a climate of fear
and repression, served to
maintain the status quo.
The Palmer Raids
The Palmer Raids occurred between
1919 and 1920. After Palmer’s house
was bombed on June 2, 1919, the
raids intensified. Union offices and
headquarters of communist and
socialist organizations were targets.
Attorney General Palmer also focused
on aliens, since they had fewer rights.
The most famous raid took place in
December 1919, when 249 resident
aliens were rounded up and placed on
board the ship Buford, headed for the
Soviet Union.
J. Edgar Hoover –
Anarchist –
If the government is acting out of societies “best interests” do you feel that it is okay to
loose some of your civil liberties? Explain your answer.
US History II
What Can You Infer?
(Symbols & Sentiment)
The 1920s
Contextual Information or
Key Terms
Questions
4