The Roaring Twenties

Scopes Trial

1925 court case in which Clarence Darrow and William Jennings Bryan debated the issue of teaching evolution in public schools

Clarence Darrow

A famed criminal defense lawyer for Scopes, who supported evolution. He caused William Jennings Bryan to appear foolish when Darrow questioned Bryan about the Bible.

Lost Generation

A group of American writers that rebelled against America's lack of cosmopolitan culture in the early 20th century. Many moved to cultural centers such as London in Paris in search for literary freedom. Prominent writers included T.S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, and Ernest Hemingway among others.

Prohibition

A law forbidding the sale of alcoholic beverages

Al Capone

A mob king in Chicago who controlled a large network of speakeasies with enormous profits. His illegal activities convey the failure of prohibition in the twenties and the problems with gangs.

Harlem Renaissance

A period in the 1920s when African-American achievements in art and music and literature flourished

Edward Hopper

A twentieth-century American artist whose stark, precisely realistic paintings often convey a mood of solitude and isolation within common-place urban settings. Among his best-known forks are Early Sunday Morning and Nighthawks.

Marcus Garvey

African American leader during the 1920s who founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association and advocated mass migration of African Americans back to Africa. Was deported to Jamaica in 1927.

Langston Hughes

African American poet who described the rich culture of african American life using rhythms influenced by jazz music. He wrote of African American hope and defiance, as well as the culture of Harlem and also had a major impact on the Harlem Renaissance.

What did Coolidge mean when he said, "The chief business of the American people is business?"

America was focusing its efforts of expanding big businesses and making money.

What was the Kellogg-Briand Pact?

An agreement between nations not to use war to settle their differences, "outlawed war".

John T. Scopes

An educator in Tennessee who was arrested for teaching evolution. This trial represented the Fundamentalist vs the Modernist. The trial placed a negative image on fundamentalists, and it showed a changing America.

How did the quota system affect immigration to the United States?

Because there was not enough money to go around, the US began to close its borders to immigrants. The Depression severely impacted the country as a whole.

Zora Neale Hurston

Black writer who wanted to save African American folklore. She traveled all across the South collecting folk tales, songs & prayers of Black southerners. Her book was called Mules and Men.

What practice in the stock market involved using borrowed money to buy stock?

Buying on margin.

Fundamentalism

Conservative beliefs in the Bible and that it should be literally believed and applied

Racial Tensions in the 1920's

Distinctions between whites and blacks. There was still segregation and discrimination as many blacks were moving to the north during the 20's.

Rural-Urban Split

Diversity caused a major split between the two types of society. Urban life was up and changing while rural stayed almost the same

What are installment plans?

Early form of credit

Amelia Earhart

First female pilot to cross the Atlantic. She disappeared while trying to fly around the world.

What impact did Henry Ford have on the 1920s?

Ford introduced the assembly line in his production of automobiles. His workers worked a 40-hour week and had weekends off, something previously unheard of.

What contributed to Herbert Hoover being elected in 1928?

He was very friendly, "a people person". He promised to move away from Progressive ideas and return to 'normalcy'.

How did laissez faire economics promote economic growth?

Laissez faire works best for economic growth because it provides individuals with the greatest incentive to create wealth. Capitalism (or laissez faire) feeds and clothes and houses more people at higher levels than any other system.

Louis Armstrong

Leading African American jazz musician during the Harlem Renaissance; he was a talented trumpeter whose style influenced many later musicians.

Jazz Age

Name for the 1920s, because of the popularity of jazz-a new type of American music that combined African rhythms, blues, and ragtime

bootleggers

People who produced, smuggled, or sold alcoholic beverages illegally during the era of Prohibition

Speakeasies

Secret bars where alcohol could be purchased illegally during Prohibition.

mass media

Television, radio, newspapers, magazines, the Internet, and other means of popular communication.

Volstead Act (1919)

The adoption of the prohibition amendment, which banned the sale of alcohol, led to this act.

What events prompted the Red Scare?

The international event that led to the first Red Scare, which lasted from 1917 through the early 1920s, was the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia. The Bolsheviks overthrew the existing Russian government and established their own, eventually becoming the Soviet Union. Americans thought that with immigrants coming to the US, they would bring Communism with them.

What was welfare capitalism?

The system of labor relations that stressed management's responsibility for their employees' well-being.

What warning signs existed in the 20s to point future economic problems?

Too much buying on credit, people spending way more money than they had and not paying it back.

Charles Lindbergh

United States aviator who in 1927 made the first solo nonstop flight across the Atlantic Ocean (1902-1974)

Duke Ellington

United States jazz composer and piano player and bandleader (1899-1974)

William Jennings Bryan

United States lawyer and politician who advocated free silver and prosecuted John Scopes (1925) for teaching evolution in a Tennessee high school (1860-1925)

Babe Ruth

United States professional baseball player famous for hitting home runs (1895-1948)

What did President Harding do differently than Wilson?

While Harding was serving in the Senate, the Republican party nominated him as their presidential candidate for the election of 1920. Harding's campaign promised a return to "normalcy," rejecting the activism of Theodore Roosevelt and the idealism of Woodrow Wilson. He promised to move away from progressive ideals.

Women working and voting

Women began to take 'pink collar jobs', referring to someone working in the care-oriented career field or in jobs historically considered to be "women's work." This may include jobs in nursing, teaching, secretarial work, waitressing, or child care.

What is isolationism? What did it have to do with the 1920s?

a policy of remaining apart from the affairs or interests of other groups, especially the political affairs of other countries. After World War 1, Americans wanted to stay out of any other country's business.

Tea Pot Dome Scandal

biggest scandal of Harding's administration; Secretary of Interior Albert Fall illegally leased government oil fields in the West to private oil companies; Fall was later convicted of bribery and became the first Cabinet official to serve prison time (1931-1932).

Flapper

carefree young women with short, "bobbed" hair, heavy makeup, and short skirts. The flapper symbolized the new "liberated" woman of the 1920s. Many people saw the bold, boyish look and shocking behavior of flappers as a sign of changing morals. Though hardly typical of American women, the flapper image reinforced the idea that women now had more freedom.

What is nativism?

favoritism toward native-born Americans

Nineteenth Amendment

granted women the right to vote in 1920

Great Migration

movement of over 300,000 African American from the rural south into Northern cities between 1914 and 1920

Demographics

the characteristics of a population with respect to age, race, and gender.

African Americans in the North

were restricted from employment opportunities, excluded from unions, and experienced housing segregation and racial violence

F. Scott Fitzgerald

wrote The Great Gatsby

Flapper Movement

"Flappers" in the 1920s was a term applied to a "new breed" of young Western women who wore short skirts, bobbed their hair, listened to jazz, and flaunted their disdain for what was then considered acceptable behavior. Flappers were seen as brash for wearing excessive makeup, drinking, treating sex in a casual manner, smoking, driving automobiles and otherwise flouting social and sexual norms.

Eighteenth Amendment

"Prohibition Law" declared it illegal to make, transport, or sell alcohol in the United States.