Name: _____________________________
AP US II
Date: __________________
1920s: The “Bright” and “Dark” Decade (35 pts)
In lieu of our traditional DQ assignments, we still study the era of 1920s by examining
several aspects of this transformative decade. America was, indeed, entering the “Modern
Era”, but at what cost? Your group will examine BOTH the “Bright” and “Dark” aspects
of one of the topics below.
Topics:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
The “New” Negro
The “New” Woman
Prohibition – the Urban Culture
Advancements in Science and Education
Consumerism - in the American home and garage (Model T)
Directions:
1) Please read and annotate the 1920s overview found on the back of this worksheet
2) Continue your research on your assigned topic by using Ch 24 Brinkley, your review
book, and other credible internet sources (.edu, .org, etc.) – a Works Cited Sheet must be
attached to the copy of the powerpoint you hand in the day you present to class.
3) With your group, develop a powerpoint of images reflective of BOTH the “bright” and
“dark” aspects of your assigned topic(s). Please include 10-15 images (20 pts).
4) Your last slide should be a 2-column summary (list) of the “bright” and “dark” aspects of
your topic(s).
5) Please post your PP on the GOOGLE DRIVE ACCOUNT for your class
EX: The “Bright” and “Dark” of the 1920s – Block 1A
These powerpoints will serve as study guides for the classes – post the day you present
Presentation:
HAND IN THE DAY YOU PRESENT:
1. One copy of your powerpoint (printed out in “Handouts” format – 3 slides/page)
-Make sure all group members’ names and the topics are the first frame of the PP
2. Works Cited Page (MLA format) stapled to the back. (5 pts)
3. Group Presentation: all members are expected to contribute (10 pts)
Turn over………..
The Jazz Age: The American 1920s
The 1920s - An Overview
Period: 1920s
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."