History: The Roaring 20s

Describe the most significant long-term effects of the Harlem Renaissance.

African-American culture becomes more mainstream. Now, Jazz and African-American literature is widespread.

The "Lost Generation"

American writers of the 1920s marked by disillusion with World War 1 and a search for a new sense of meaning.

Langston Hughes

An influential poet and writer who thought of his work as a means to communicate the experiences of blacks in the United States.

quota system

Arrangement that limited the number of immigrants who could enter the United States from specific countries.

Charles Lindbergh

Aviator who completed the first nonstop solo airplane flight across the Atlantic.

How did buying on margin and installment buying affect how many Americans acted as consumers?

Before these, many Americans were too poor to afford to buy things because they were sold in lump sums. However, the introduction of buying on margin and installment buying allowed more people to buy things because they could buy now and pay little bits until they were paid in full.

Sigmund Freud

Believing that the subconscious was what drove people to do much of what they did, he developed psychoanalysis.

Henry Ford

Carmaker who was instrumental to this industry because of his invention and use of many technologies and ideas. His methods and ideas revolutionized production, wages, working conditions, and daily life.

Eighteenth Amendment (1919)

Constitutional amendment banning the manufacture, distribution, and sale of alcohol in the United States.

Palmer Raids

A series of raids in 1920 involving indiscriminate arrests and deportations of thousands of immigrants from southern or eastern Europe, who were suspected of being Communist radicals.

Volstead Act (1919)

Law enacted by Congress to enforce the Eighteenth Amendment

Ku Klux Klan (KKK)

Organization that promotes hatred and discrimination against specific ethnic and religious groups.

Bootleggers/Speakeasies

People/places who sold illegal alcohol

Ernest Hemingway

Wrote similarly, but also differently; he felt betrayed, not only by the American dream, but also by literary language itself. he felt that nohing was sacred, nothing glorious, nothing sacrificed.

mass production

making many identical products very quickly. Since the invention by Henry Ford in the early 20th century, it has been evolved to make things from automobiles to typewriters.

What economic events led to America becoming a creditor nation for Britain and France?

Britain and France were the major world powers before the war. During the War, they faced battle on the homefront and took losses. America didn't.

Model T

(The first) reliable and affordable American car that the public embraced.

Explain two ways in which today's urban, suburban, and rural life is similar to life in the 1920s. Then explain a way life has changed.

1. People can still buy on margin or installments. 2. Oil is used to make gasoline for automobiles.

Describe at least two ways the Model T stimulated the economy.

1. The introduction of the assembly line revolutionized the cost and labor that it took to manufacture many things, from cars to typewriters. 2. It led to an increase in costs of many things from asphalt from roads to rubber for times.

Washington Naval Disarmament Conference

1921/22 meeting where world leaders agreed to give up ship-building to a certain extent.

Kellogg-Briand Pact

1928 agreement in which many nations agreed to outlaw war.

Claude McKay

A Jamaican-born poet and novelist whose influential work during and after the Harlem Renaissance sought to define a distinctive black identity.

Bessie Smith

A blues vocalist widely known as the Empress of the Blues.

installment buying

A consumer would pay a small down payment and then pay a little bit annually until they were paid off in full. Revolutionary because it allowed people who couldn't afford the lump sum to pay only when they could.

National Origins Act of 1924

A law that severely restricted immigration by establishing a system of national quotas that blatantly discriminated against immigrants from southern and eastern Europe and virtually excluded Asians. The policy stayed in effect until the 1960s.

William Jennings Bryan

A long-time defender of rural values. One of the greatest orators of his day. Defended the idea of Creation.

Jazz

A musical form based on improvisation. Jazz musicians creatively recombine different forms of music, including African-American blues and ragtime. European-based popular music

Scientific Management

A new method of improving efficiency through the analysis of a manufacturing process in order to shorten the time it took, reduce the effort that goes in to make a product, and the expense it takes to buy materials to make parts.. This utilized "time and motion study", an idea suggested by Frederick Winslow Taylor.

Harlem Renaissance

A period during the 1920s when African American novelists, poets, and artists celebrated their culture.

bull market - A period when stocks rise quickly buying on margin - Also known as buying on credit. By purchasing on margin, a buyer paid at least 10 percent upfront for stock. The buyer then paid the seller little bits over time. The stock served as collateral for the broker's loan. As long as the price for stock rose, the buyer paid the seller. But if the price fell, the buyer was still obligated to pay off the loan.

A period when stocks rise quickly buying on margin. Also known as buying on credit. By purchasing on margin, a buyer paid at least 10 percent upfront for stock. The buyer then paid the seller little bits over time. The stock served as collateral for the broker's loan. As long as the price for stock rose, the buyer paid the seller. But if the price fell, the buyer was still obligated to pay off the loan.

consumer revolution

A phenomenon that involves an influx of new and affordable goods made available to average people. The widespread availability of electric power supported the consumer revolution of the 20s.

Babe Ruth

A professional baseball player known for his showmanship and ability to hit homeruns. A member of the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Red Scare

A wave of widespread fear of suspected communists and radicals thought to be plotting revolution within the United States. Real revolutionary activity inside America gave substance to the scare. Authorities discovered bombs mailed to important industrialists and government officials, including Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer. Suspected anarchists, members of a radical political movement, exploded bombs in cities across America, including one that killed about 40 people on Wall Street in 1920.

Zora Neale Hurston

A writer associated with the Harlem Renaissance who was trained as an anthropologist and went on to teach for a number of years.

The invention of the Model T had several effects on how people lived. In your opinion, what was the most significant social effect of the Model T? Cite evidence to support your conclusion.

It created a way for automobiles to be accessible to middle-class consumers, a trend which would change the world.

Assembly Lines

On an assembly line, a product is built in part. Each worker is responsible for a small part. Over just two years, this new idea that Ford pioneered showed a dramatic decrease in the time and effort which it took to construct an automobile.

Louis Armstrong

One of the most influential artists in the jazz history. He was also a bandleader, singer and comedian.

F. Scott Fitzgerald

One of those. He explored the ideas of how wealth, success, and other things were sought to give emotional fulfillment. In This Side of Paradise, he wrote that his generation had "grown to find all Gods dead, all wars fought, and all faiths in man shaken." In The Great Gatsby (1925), his most accomplished work, Fitzgerald showed the American dream ending in nightmare.

Prohibition (18th amendment)

The forbidding by law of the manufacture, transport, and sale of alcohol.

Explain how the large numbers of soldiers returning from fighting in World War I affected the civil rights of women and African Americans.

The men returned home and found their jobs taken. Men wanted to return to normalcy, but women and African-Americans wanted to retain their new-found freedom.

Charlie Chaplin

The most popular silent film star. A British comedian who produced, wrote, and directed many films during his career.

Marcus Garvey

The most prominent new African-American leader to emerge in the 1920s was Marcus Garvey. Organized a black nationalist movement in Harlem. Promoted economic and cultural independence for African Americans.

fundamentalism

The opposite of Moderism, this emphasized Protestant beliefs. Fundamentalists looked to the Bible for moral and scientific answers. These ideals affected the whole of the country, but were particularly strong in rural America.

Eugenics

The since-discredited idea that intelligence and other favorable social traits were inheritable characteristics passed on by one's parents and more frequently found in some races than others. Related to Social Darwinism.

Modernism

The trend that was growing in the 1920s that emphasized science and secular values over traditional religion.

Flapper

Young 1920s woman who defied tradition. Characterized by short skirts, rouged cheeks, hair cropped close in a style known as a bob.

What were some of the negative effects of the inflation that occurred after World War I?

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Dawes Plan

agreement in which the United States loaned money to Germany, allowing Germany to make reparation payments to Britain and France

The Jazz Singer

an American musical released in 1927 that was the first feature-length movie with synchronized dialogue

Teapot Dome Scandal

Harding administration scandal in which the Interior Secretary leased government oil reserves to private oilmen for bribes.

Nicola Sacco

He and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were known anarchists who were charged and convicted of murdering two men during a hold-up at a shoe factory, despite the lack of evidence. Some had said that the conviction and eventual execution of the two anarchists was based more on their ethnicity and political commitments than on hard facts.

Bartolomeo Vanzetti

He and Nicola Sacco were known anarchists who were charged and convicted of murdering two men during a hold-up at a shoe factory, despite the lack of evidence. Some had said that the conviction and eventual execution of the two anarchists was based more on their ethnicity and political commitments than on hard facts.

Scopes Trial (1925)

In 1925. Caused by a ban on the teaching of evolution. The American Civil Liberties Union convinced a teacher to teach this (despite the law against it in Tennesee), and he was arrested. The case drew national attention as famous people gathered to debate the case.

Clarence Darrow (1857-1938)

Most well-known defense attorney in America. Defended the idea of Evolution.

Calvin Coolidge

President from 1923 to 1929. Continued many of the pro-business policies of the Harding era.

Herbert Hoover

President from 1929 to 1933. His administration's response to the Depression was widely criticized for its ineffectiveness.

creditor nation

Other countries owed the United States, a creditor nation, more money than the United States owed them. World War I shifted the economic center of the world from London to New York City.

Explain how the values in urban and rural areas changed during the 1920s.

People moved out of rural areas to urban areas due to more jobs, money, and higher quality of living.

What is the main idea of the song "Eleven Cent Cotton"?

People who were poor got much poorer during the Depression and it's early onset factors. The quality of living was virtually non-existant.

Warren G. Harding

President from 1921, advocating a "return to normalcy" after World War 1. Died during his first term in 1923.

Inflation

Rising prices. Caused by the scarcity of consumer goods along with widespread demand.

Andrew Mellon

Secretary of the Treasury from 1921 to 1932. Played a significant role in reforming the U.S. tax structure by lowering marginal tax rates for individuals and business.

Expansion of the KKK into the north

That happened because...?

Explain how Prohibition was related to the rise in organized crime of the 1920s.

The 1920s was the decade of "prohibition". No alcohol was allowed. However, people still wanted it, so they often chose underhanded ways of procuring it. This included bootlegging and moonshining. Although Prohibition was designed to be good for families, the spike in alcohol-driven organized crime caused much death and violence.