The Roaring 1920s

The Roaring Twenties was the period in the 1920s that sustained economic prosperity with a distinctive cultural edge. Jazz music blossomed, the flapper redefined the modern look for women, and Art Deco peaked. This era saw the large-scale use of automobiles, telephones, motion pictures, radio, aviation and electric appliances. Not everything roared though, as this era dealt with issues stemming from Prohibition, the Red Scare, race relations, and

eugenics. 

Recall Warm-UpRead the paragraph and analyze the images above to jog your memory. Describe the major economic, social, and political issues from this era.

Economic Social Political

The Roaring 1920sNeed to Know Terms/People1.) Return to Normalcy- After World War I, when Harding was President, the US and Britain returned to isolationism. The US

economy "boomed" but Europe continued to struggle, return to big-business and laissez-faire economics 2.) Installment Buying- Consumers buys products by promising to pay small, regular amounts over a period of time/ credit, buying

on margin3.) Ford Model T- Henry Ford developed the mass-produced automobile, which sold at an affordable price. It pioneered the use of

the assembly line.4.) Speakeasies- Because of prohibition (18 th Amendment) , these were secret bars where alcohol could be purchased illegally 5.) Bootleggers- Smugglers of illegal alcohol during the Prohibition era, Prohibition caused organized crime (Al Capone)6.) Flappers - Young women that behaved and dressed in a radical fashion (changing role of women with 19 th Amendment )7.) Scopes Trial- Otherwise known as the “Monkey Trial”1925, the trial pitted the teaching of Darwin's theory of evolution against

teaching Bible creationism in schools (Clarence Darrow= modernist VERSUS William Jennings Bryan= traditionalists)8.) Harlem Renaissance- Period in the 1920s when African-American achievements in art and music (Jazz) and literature

flourished such as the poetry produced by Langston Hughes 9.) Red Scare- Caused hysteria and Intense fear of communism and other politically radical ideas in America (led to immigration

quotas and deportations)10.) Palmer Raids- A 1920 operation coordinated by Attorney General Mitchel Palmer in which federal marshals raided suspected

radicals’ (communists, anarchists) homes and organizations 11.) Tea Pot Dome Scandal – Political scandal, Harding Administration secret leasing of oil-rich public land in Teapot, Wyoming to

private companies in return for money and land. Public angry because of corruption in government12.) Eugenics- Belief that non-white races were threatening the white race and controlled breeding could fix the issue (“selective

breeding”), Social Darwinism, Ku Klux Klan, Nativism= Immigration quotas, 13.) Marcus Garvey- Supporter of Black Nationalism in Jamaica and US, leader of mass movement called Pan-Africanism, supported

racial segregation, promoted the return of the African diaspora to their ancestral lands 14.) Charles Lindberg- American aviator, first solo non-stop transatlantic flight in 1927 at age 25= national hero/celebrity, 33 ½

hours, 3,600 miles alone in a single-engine plane called Spirt of St. Louis

“Culture War”Compare and contrast Traditionalists and Modernist by bullet-pointing economic, social, and political tensions that divided Americans in the 1920s in the Venn Diagram below (example: Flappers).

Traditionist Modernist

Roaring 1920s: STAAR Questions

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5. Charles Lindbergh gained international fame and became a national hero in the US when he…