AMERICAN HISTORY 1920’S PROJECT
REQUIREMENTS:
1. Prepare a five to ten minute lesson/presentation on the topic selected. Give a
good demonstration or overview of your topic to the class. Be creative! Please
no standard power points! Check out this site for multimedia ideas:
http://thwt.org/multimedia/presentations/
This is the one assignment that you will be evaluated on creativity and your
use of multimedia
2. Must have:
a. bibliography (MLA format) minimum of 3 sources
b. visual aids (critical for this assignment)
c. a minimum of TWO primary sources (song, poem, advertisement, painting,
movie clip, etc.)
Remember that a primary source is an original source created from that time
period.
d. one page (minimum) summary fact sheet for the class. This should be a
summary of the facts in your presentation
3. Due Date: January 20 (30 Points)
4. Be sure and use your textbook as one of your sources
Here are some suggested websites for you to use:
http://www.besthistorysites.net/index.php/american-history/1900/roaring-20s
(definitely check out this one because it has multiple topics listed)
http://ehistory.osu.edu/osu/mmh/clash/default.htm
(clash of cultures 1910’s -1920’s)
http://www.newspaperarchive.com/KeywordLaunch.aspx?key=years&gclid=CMTDrqvh
xpgCFQFvGgodSVoB1g
(newspaper archives)
http://www.paulsann.org/thelawlessdecade/20_s.html
(The Lawless Decade)
http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/scopes/scopes.htm
(Scopes Monkey Trial)
Inquiry Question: How did __(insert your topic here)____impact America (socially,
politically, economically in the 1920’s?
TOPIC SELECTIONS:
1. Henry Ford and the Model T. The impact of the automobile on American society
(include both Henry Ford’s factory and the making of the model T, as well as the
impact of the automobile on Am. society
2. 1920’s Inventions (labor saving devices and new consumer products that came
out for the first time)
3. Men’s and Women’s fashion of the 1920’s compared to the late 1800’s (be sure to
compare the two time periods)
4. Jazz Music and Musicians of the 1920’s (the origins of jazz, how it differed from
previous music and some famous male and female jazz musicians) Can focus on
the Harlem Renaissance
5. Movies (transforming from silent film to talkies, actors and actresses of the
1920’s )
6. Prohibition and the rise of organized crime in the 1920’s (look closely at how
prohibition came about, speakeasies, organized crime, Al Capone, St. Valentine’s
Day Massacre,
7. Sports legends/Heroes of the 1920’s. ( baseball, football, tennis, golf,
swimming, boxing, aviation) Explain the role of sports on society in the 1920s
and then look closely at some of these heroes)
8. Popular fads of the 1920’s (what did people do for fun?)
9. The advertising industry of the 1920’s (show how advertising became a multi
million dollar business in the 1920’s. what strategies were used to get people to
buy?)
10. Scopes Monkey Trial (Butler Act, ACLU, Evolution vs. Creationism: how does
this topic reflect a clash in rural and urban America and science vs. religion)
11. Art and artists of the 1920’s (show how this differed from the decades before the
1920’s)
12. Poets and writers of the 1920’s (Langston Hughes, Edna St. Vincent Millay,
Countee Cullen, Zora Neale Hurston, H.L. Mencken, the Lost GenerationFitzgerald, Hemmingway) performing artists such as Paul Robeson
Consider using some of these formats for presenting information:
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Talk show format (interviewing famous people)
Academy awards show
Fashion show
Cotton Club nightclub reenactment
Game show
Courtroom trial reenactment
Art gallery
Invention Expo
Ford Museum