Unit: 1920s
Big Idea: America’s post-war “return to normalcy” and traditionalism comes into conflict with the
modernity of the “roaring twenties” and progress.
Unit Description:
The Sacco-Vanzetti case exemplifies the divisions within the larger society. Nativists dwelled on
the defendants’ immigrant origins. Conservatives insisted that these alien anarchists must die,
despite the lack of evidence. By contrast, prominent liberals, such as the future Supreme Court
justice Felix Frankfurter and the Socialist Eugene Debs, rallied around the convicted men.
Despite these divisions, the 1920s was a decade of economic prosperity for many, as the
business of America became business. The unit looks at the decline of labor, the shift in the
women’s movement after the Nineteenth Amendment, and the predominance of the Republican
Party overseeing business prosperity and economic diplomacy. The birth of civil liberties is
explored next, discussing Hollywood, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), and the
Supreme Court. Meyer v. Nebraska gave a tremendous boost to the civil liberties that had been
lost during World War I. However, the decade was still rife with social divisions, as seen within
the context of the culture wars. The fundamentalist revolt is seen most vividly through the
Scopes trial. In the wake of the anti-immigrant hysteria of World War I, the Ku Klux Klan
emerged again, targeting Catholics and Jews as well as blacks. The anti-immigrant sentiment is
capped with the 1924 Immigration Act, which strictly limited immigration. On the other hand,
cultural pluralism and the Harlem Renaissance celebrated the diversity and pluralism of America.
Widespread disillusionment with World War I, Europe’s post-war problems and communism in
the Soviet Union made Americans fearful of being pulled into another foreign war but did not
retreat into full isolationism. Instead, the US actively pursued arrangement in foreign affairs that
would advance American interests while also maintaining world peace.
 Key Concept/Questions(s):
 Why was 1919 such an important year in U.S. history?
 How did new technologies and manufacturing techniques focus the U.S. economy on the
production of consumer goods, contribute to improved standards of living, greater
personal mobility, and better communications systems? Who benefitted and who
suffered in the new consumer society?
 By 1920, a majority of the U.S. population lived in urban centers. What economic,
political and social impact did this have on women, international migrants, and internal
migrants?
 What were the causes of effects of the Harlem Renaissance? In what manner were ethnic
and regional identities expressed via the movement?
 What were the causes and effects of the era’s Red Scare? To what extent were the fears
of radicalism legitimate?
 What were the justifications and the various Congressional laws regarding immigration?
 To what extent did U.S. foreign policy contradict itself when it came to isolation and
intervention?
 In the 1920s, what cultural and political controversies emerged as Americans debated
gender roles, modernism, science, and religion?
Key Terms by Historical Theme: (Some are these are in Foner; others are important according to
the people in charge of this whole AP adventure.
(WXT) – Work, Exchange, Technology
Strikes of 1919
business prosperity
welfare capitalism
Boston police strikes
standard of living
open shop
consumerism
(POL) - Politics
Warren Harding
Charles Evans Hughes
Andrew Mellon
Albert Fall
Teapot Dome
Fordney-McCumber Tariff Act
Calvin Coolidge
Herbert Hoover
Alfred Smith
Volstead Act
21st Amendment
Red Scare
Palmer raids
quota laws of 1921 & 1924,
(CUL) - Culture
Jazz age
radio/phonographs
national networks
Hollywood
Lost Generation
Gertrude Stein
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Ernest Hemingway
Edward Hopper
Grant Wood
George Gershwin
Great Migration
Harlem Renaissance
Countee Cullen
Langston Hughes
Duke Ellington
Louis Armstrong
Bessie Smith
Paul Robeson
Marcus Garvey
Back to Africa movement
Modernism
fundamentalism
Billy Sunday
Aimee Semple McPherson Scopes trial
Clarence Darrow
Al Capone
Saco & Vanzetti Case
KKK
Xenophobia
race riots
(WOR) – America in the World
Disarmament
Washington Conference (1921) Latin America policy
Kellogg-Briand Treaty (1928 Dawes Plan (1924)