Chapters 12 & 13 – The Roaring Twenties
Chapter 12 – Politics of the Roaring Twenties
Chapter Objective: To trace the political and social changes after World War I and throughout the decade of the 1920s.
Section 1: Americans Struggle with Postwar Issues
Main Idea: A desire for normalcy after the war and a fear of communism and “foreigners” led to postwar isolationism
Objective: Summarize the reaction in the United States to the perceived through of communism.
Questions:
1. Why did America move toward isolationism?
2. How did Americans react to the perceived threat of communism?
3. Why were so many people upset about the Sacco and Vanzetti case?
Objective: Analyze the causes and effects of the quota system in the United States.
Questions:
4. Why did the United States limit immigration?
5. What were the main goals of the Ku Klux Klan at this time?
6. How did anti-immigration sentiment (nativsm) strengthen the Ku Klux Klan’s attack on ethnic and religious
minorities?
7. Why did Congress make changes in immigration laws during the 1920s? (quota system)
Objective: Describe some of the postwar conflict between labor and management.
Questions:
8. Why did conflict between labor and management increase after the war?
9. Why did labor union membership decline in the 1920s?
Section 2: The Harding Presidency
Main Idea: The Harding administration appealed to America’s desire for clam and peace after the war, but resulted in scandal.
Objective: Contrast Harding’s policy of "normalcy" with progressive era reforms.
Questions:
10. What was Harding’s attitude towards the reforms of the Progressive Era?
11. Why was the Kellogg-Briand Pact ineffective?
12. How did Harding’s tax policy on imports affect Britain and France and the war debt issue?
Objective: Identify scandals that plagued the Harding administration.
Questions:
13. How did Harding’s friends damage his administration? (Ohio Gang, Forbes, Miller, Fall)
14. How did the scandals of the Harding administration hurt the country economically? (Teapot Dome, Veteran’s
Bureau, Office of Alien Property)
Section 3: The Business of America
Main Idea: Consumer goods fueled the business boom of the 1920s as America’s standard of living soared.
Objective: Summarize the impact of the automobile and other consumer goods on American life.
Questions:
15. How did the automobile change American life?
16. What advances were made in the airplane industry during the postwar years?
Objective: Explain how prosperity affected different groups of Americans.
Questions:
17. What role did credit play in the American economy in the 1920s?
18. What role did mass advertising play in the American economy in the 1920s?
Objective: Explain in what ways the country’s prosperity was superficial.
Questions:
19. Why did some businesses not do well in the 1920s?
20. Why did American farmers suffer during the 1920s?
21. How did the installment plan fuel a superficial prosperity?
Chapter 13 – The Roaring Life of the 1920s
Chapter Objective: To understand such issues as Prohibition, the changing role of women, and the influence of the
Harlem Renaissance.
Section 1: Changing Ways of Life
Main Idea: Americans experienced cultural conflicts as customs and values changed in the 1920s.
Objective: Explain how urbanization created a new way of life that often clashed with the values of traditional rural
society.
Questions:
22. What was life like in the nation’s cities during the 1920s?
23. How did small-town life and urban life differ?
24. What were some of the causes and effects of Prohibition?
Objective: Describe the controversy over the role of science and religion in American education and society in the
1920s.
Questions:
25. What was the conflict between the fundamentalists and those who accepted the theory of evolution?
26. What were the main issues and outcomes of the Scopes Monkey Trial?
Section 2: The Twenties Woman
Main Idea: American women pursued new lifestyles and assumed new jobs and different roles in society during the 1920s.
Objective: Explain how the image of the flapper embodied the changing values and attitudes of young women in the
1920s.
Questions:
27. How did the flapper symbolize the changing attitudes of many young women in the 1920s?
28. How was women’s freedom still limited?
Objective: Identify the causes and results of eth changing roles of women in the 1920s.
Questions:
29. How did the nation’s booming economy provide great work opportunities for women?
30. What forms of inequality and discrimination did women face in the professional world?
31. How did family life change in the 1920s?
Section 3: Education and Popular Culture
Main Idea: The mass media, movies, and spectator sports played important roles in creating the popular culture of the 1920s – a
culture that many artists and writers criticized.
Objective: Describe the popular culture of the 1920s.
Questions:
32. How did schools change in the 1920s to better prepare students for the future?
33. How did various forms of media help to shape American culture in the 1920s?
Objective: Explain why the youth dominated decade came to be called the Roaring Twenties.
Questions:
34. Which heroes and events inspired Americans during the 1920s?
35. What new styles did writers, artists, and composers experiment with in the decade?
36. How did the literature of the time express a clash of values within society?
Section 4: The Harlem Renaissance
Main Idea: African-American ideas, politics, art, literature, and music flourished in Harlem and elsewhere in the United States.
Objective: Identify the causes and results of the migration of African American to Northern cities in the early 1900s.
Questions:
37. What factors prompted many African Americans to move to Northern cities?
38. What ways did African-American leaders propose to combat discrimination and violence?
Objective: Describe the prolific African-American artistic activity that became known as the Harlem Renaissance.
Questions:
39. What ideals did the Harlem Renaissance writers promote?
40. How did African-American performers and musicians popularize black culture?