Name: _______________________
Influences of the 1920s DBQ
DBQ Essay Prompt:
The 1920s have been characterized as a decade of economic, social, and cultural change. Evaluate the
extent to which the First World War and consumerism affected United States society during this period.
1. Circle the task verb, underline the subject, and draw a square around each topic to discuss.
2. Rewrite the prompt (without the leading statement) in your own words.
Documents
Document A:
“As a race, we gave the country our best sons to make the supreme sacrifice in order to make the world free from German
oppression. These same boys should be willing to make this country free from American oppression against their race. I
know they are willing and ready. Some may say this is madness. If it is, let me reassure them that the entire race must be
made, for this is the language they speak today and the only thing they will listen to.”
Source: Bishop John L. Hurst, “Fight,” from The Crisis, the journal of the National Association for the Advancement of
Colored People, 1919.
What part of the prompt does this document address (underline)? ECONOMIC SOCIAL POLITICAL
Is this a result of World War I or consumerism and WHY?
Analysis point
Historical
context
Purpose
Explanation (analysis)—how do you know this? BE
SPECIFIC.
Related outside
information/terms
Document B:
“It is evident now…that no part of Europe is better off for America’s having taken part in the great war. So also it is
evident that the Americans are all the worse off for it…The Republic has come through this era of spiritual dilapidation
with an unbalanced budget and an increased armament by use of which to “safeguard American interests”—that is to say,
negotiate…a system of passports, deportations, and restricted immigration…The State constabularies [police] have been
augmented [increased]; the right of popular assembly freely interfered with…the Ku Klux Klan has been reanimated and
reorganized for extra-legal intimidation of citizens…Meantime the profiteers do business as usual and the Federal
authorities are busied with a schedule of increased protective duties designed to enhance the profits of their business.
Those traits in this current situation wherein it is different from the relatively sober state of things before the war, have
been injected by America’s participation in the war.
Source: Thorstein Veblen, “Dementia Praecox” (literally, “Precocious Madness”), The Freeman, 1922.
What part of the prompt does this document address (underline)? ECONOMIC SOCIAL POLITICAL
Is this a result of World War I or consumerism and WHY?
Analysis point
Audience
P.O.V.
Explanation (analysis)—how do you know this? BE
SPECIFIC.
Related outside
information/terms
Document 3:
Source: Orr, “Close the Gate,” Chicago Tribune, 1919.
What part of the prompt does this document address (circle)? ECONOMIC SOCIAL POLITICAL
Is this a result of World War I or consumerism and WHY?
Analysis point
(choose 2)
Historical
context
P.O.V.
Explanation (analysis)—how do you know this? BE
SPECIFIC.
Related outside
information/terms
Document 4:
“The present era of ‘prosperity’ may not be enduring. But the movie, radio, cheap reading and motor car with
all they stand for have come to stay. That they did not originate in deliberate desire to divert attention from
political interests does not lessen their effectiveness in that direction. The political elements in the constitution
of the human being, those having to do with citizenship, are crowded to one side…let there be introduced the
topic of the mechanism and accomplishment of the various makes of the motor cars or the respective merits of
actresses, and the dialogue goes on at a lively pace.”
Source: John Dewey, The Public and Its Problems, 1927.
What part of the prompt does this document address (circle)? ECONOMIC SOCIAL POLITICAL
Is this a result of World War I or consumerism and WHY?
Analysis point
(choose 2)
Historical
context
P.O.V.
Explanation (analysis)—how do you know this? BE
SPECIFIC.
Related outside
information/terms
Document 5:
“We were physically uprooted…plucked from our own soil…and dumped, scattered among strange people…We were
fed, lodged, clothed by strangers, commanded by strangers…Then, as suddenly as it began for us, the war ended. When
we first heard of the Armistice we felt a sense of relief too deep to express…We had come through, we were still alive,
and nobody would be killed tomorrow. The composite fatherland for which we had fought and in which some of us
believed—France, Italy, the Allies, our English homeland, democracy, the self-determination of small nations—had
triumphed. We danced in the streets…But slowly, as the days went by, the intoxication passed, and the tears of joy; it
appeared that our composite fatherland was dissolving into quarreling statesmen and oil and steel magnates.”
Source: Malcolm Cowley, Exile’s Return, autobiography published 1934.
What part of the prompt does this document address (circle)? ECONOMIC SOCIAL POLITICAL
Is this a result of World War I or consumerism and WHY?
Analysis point
(choose 2)
Audience
Purpose
Explanation (analysis)—how do you know this? BE
SPECIFIC.
Related outside
information/terms
Document 6:
“The place of the woman of intelligence is not inevitably in the kitchen worrying about pot and pan trifles, not at the front
door every evening waiting tremulously for the step of her John and fearful lest the roast be…overdone. Her place is
where she can give the most service and get the most out of life…”
Source: Fannie Hurst, The New York Times, 1923.
What part of the prompt does this document address (circle)? ECONOMIC SOCIAL POLITICAL
Is this a result of World War I or consumerism and WHY?
Analysis point
Purpose
P.O.V.
Analysis—how do you know this? BE SPECIFIC.
Related outside info./terms
Document 7:
What part of the prompt does this document
address (circle)?
ECONOMIC SOCIAL POLITICAL
Is this a result of World War I or
consumerism and WHY?
Analysis point
(choose 2)
Historical
context
Purpose
Explanation (analysis)—how do you know this? BE
SPECIFIC.
Related outside
information/terms
ACTIVITY: Grade the DBQ
Using the rubric and guidelines set by the College Board for AP US History, complete the following in order to
learn how to write an effective DBQ and understand what graders look for in your essay.
Step 1:
 Underline the context in RED
 Underline the thesis statement in GREEN
 Underline the synthesis point in BLUE
Step 2:
Organization: Underline in YELLOW any problems with the paper:
 DO NOT laundry list the documents in your paper, “Document A says this, document B says this . . .
etc.” The citation should be at the end and be in parenthesis, since you paraphrased (Doc B).
 DO NOT quote documents, the readers know the documents, quoting may be appropriate for an
English paper, but is not appropriate for a history paper.
 DO NOT forget to explain each document using H, A, P, or P. and Y.
 DO NOT use first person (I, we, us) or active tense (are, will be)—this is a history essay!
Step 3:
COMPLETE the RUBRIC!
The Americans had just came out of the first World War and had entered a period known as the roaring 20's. They were
going though intense economic, social, and cultural changes that put them in a system of great consumerism and
isolationism. The first World War and spur of consumerism affected and changed American society to a large extent by
ensuing a period of uncontrolled economic growth and isolationism. This large event can be seen through cultural,
social, and economic lenses and through concepts such as consumerism, nativism, and crude economic practices.
American culture had been greatly changed in this time period. It had gone into a great period of consumeristculture in which people bought things if they money or not. This culture had developed because of a lack of government
regulation on the banks and thus the banks gave loans very easily and failed to check credit and thus consumeristculture was allowed to flourish. It can be seen in Document G that consumer-debt rose just as consumer spending for
recreation rose so it can be seen that Americans were willing to go into debt to purchase things that they didn't even
need. It can also be seen in Document G that people bought things they didn't need such as the latest alarm clock. This
change of culture wasn't the only culture that changed in the 20's. The Harlem Renaissance had started and Blackculture had also began to flourish. This led to the creation of homegrown American art and music and the new culture of
do what-ever-you-want-whenever-you-want certainly played a part in allowing the Renaissance to prosper. In Document
A, Hurst in 1919, explains that the men of color fought against the German oppression but how they didn't fight for their
own race. The Harlem Renaissance did in fact play a role in allowing Black prosperity and strengths.
There was also a great cause coming from the social sphere that greatly aided consumerism in affecting US
society. There was a huge push for nativism and the KKK certainly played a large part in this concept. They had wanted a
perfect-supremist-white-race controlling American and violently expressed their views. The government had even
passed laws to limit immigration from Southern and Eastern Europe while favoring Northern and Western Europeans.
They wanted to be nativist because they were afraid of the Southern and Europeans immigrants were going to
outnumber them and change their politics so thus this new law imposed quotas. Document C shows exactly this as it
showed an immigrant being restricted and being labeled as undesirable.
This social change of nativism coupled with American isolationism led to an economic problem of isolationism.
To spur the purchase of only American goods, the government raised the tariff rated incredible high, most notably with
the Hawley-Smoot tariff and international trade was destroyed, being a major cause of the Great Depression. The
government had embraced isolationism in order to prevent another World War (obviously it failed). In Document B,
Veblan explains that the government had horrible economic practices with an increased armament, unbalanced budget,
and most notably duties to enhance home business. These tariffs are a primary cause of the depression.
When all three aspects are put together, it can be seen that they directly affected American society by causing
one another and therefore causing the Great Depression. First, Americans entered the culture of consumerism and
increased their debt drastically. Next, Americans entered social change to pursue nativism. This nativism caused the
economic policy of isolationism and this policy of isolationism coupled with the initial consumerism were direct causes
to the Great Depression. So when all connected together, the first World War and the starting of consumerism greatly
affected society by completely destroying it in 1929 with the depression.