US History
Chapter 13: The Roaring Life of the 1920s
Reading Questions
Section 1: Changing Ways of Life
1. What was the 18th Amendment?
2. What were 3 differences between rural and urban life in the 1920s?
3. Which groups of people tended to support Prohibition?
4. Why were Prohibition laws extremely difficult to enforce? Be sure to provide the
2 main reasons.
5. How did criminals like "Scarface" Al Capone take advantage of Prohibition?
6. What was the 21st Amendment?
7. Copy and study the chart on the bottom of pg. 437 listing the causes and effects of
Prohibition.
8. What is religious fundamentalism? Why did it become popular in the 1920s?
9. What groups of people tended to support religious fundamentalism?
10. What was the Scopes trial about? What was the final outcome?
Section 2: The Twenties Woman
11. What was the profile of the typical "flapper" of the Roaring 20s?
12. How was the flapper different from her mother?
13. What was the social "double standard" of the 1920s?
14. What were some of the new job opportunities opened to women during the
1920s?
15. Identify 2 ways that women were discriminated in the workplace during the
1920’s.
16. What were some of the changes that affected the family in the 1920s?
Section 3: Education and Popular Culture
17. How did high school change during the 1920s? What were some of its new
challenges?
18. What changes were made in the mass media in the 1920s? What were the results
of these changes?
19. Why was Charles Lindbergh seen as the first modern international hero?
20. What role did the moves play in American life in the 1920s?
21. What did playwrights, composers, and artists try to portray in their work?
22. What topics were discussed by such famous American writers of the 1920s as F.
Scott Fitzgerald, Edith Wharton, Willa Cather, and Ernest Hemingway?
23. Why were some writers of the 1920s considered to be part of the "Lost
Generation?"
Section 4: The Harlem Renaissance
24. What changes did the move of African Americans to the North cause in 1920s
America?
25. What do the Great Migration and the growth of the NAACP and UNIA reveal
about the African American experience in the 1920s?
26. Identify Marcus Garvey and explain the role of UNIA. How was Garvey's
approach to racial equality different from earlier black leaders like DuBois and
Washington?
27. Explain the term "Harlem Renaissance".
28. What were some of the important themes of the Harlem Renaissance writers?
29. Where did Jazz music originate? Briefly summarize the career of the 3 musicians
listed in bold in your book.