Upload
flora-rose
View
216
Download
0
Tags:
Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
The Roaring 20s: Changing Ways
•1920 census indicates majority of Americans live in urban areas
•New urban based lifestyle quickly clashes with traditional rural culture:
–Slow paced vs. fast paced
–Industrial vs. agricultural
–Strangers vs. families
–Religion based culture vs. new looser culture
–Ethnically similar vs. melting pot
Prohibition Era
Prohibition
By far the biggest culture clash of the 1920s was prohibition
January 1920, 18th Amendment goes into effect which bans sale, manufacture, or transport of alcohol
Much of the support for this comes from the rural areas. Alcohol seen as the primary cause of many social ills
Prohibition
Volstead Act creates Prohibition Dept. to enforce the laws, however this is doomed to fail due to under-funding and being understaffed
Ways people got around laws: Bootlegging, making their own, relied on organized crime
for speakeasies, and bribing officials
Prohibition Figures:The Bad Guys
Prohibition Era:The Good Guys
End of Prohibition
By mid 1920s fewer than 20% of Americans support Prohibition
1933, 21st Amendment will repeal the 18th
Outcomes of Prohibition Era: Increased disrespect for law, all criminals were given a
new source of almost unlimited income, rise of organized crime in US
Fundamentalism
• Another example of the culture clash in America was based on fundamentalism• Protestants who interpreted and followed the Bible
literally
• This group quickly come into conflict with the new urban thinkers who embrace new scientific ideas and principles
Scopes Monkey Trial
This reached a boiling point in 1925 when Tennessee passes a law forbidding the teaching of evolution in public schools
John Scopes violates law, goes to trial ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) sends Clarence Darrow to defend him
Scopes Monkey Trial
William Jennings Bryan will prosecute in the first Trial of the Century (Scopes-Monkey Trial)
During the trial, Bryan admits to flaws in his argument
However, Scopes is still convicted but it is later overturned
Shift to an urban society brings about a culture clash between city dwellers and traditional rural folks that will affect many Americans!