Unit 10 Organizer: The 1920s

The Big Picture:

The end of World War I led America into a decade of wealth, prosperity, and social change known as the “Roaring Twenties.” America’s “return to normalcy” meant a retreat into
neutrality and return of laissez-faire policies and encouragement of business growth. Mass production and new technologies led to an increase in consumer goods, urbanization, new forms
of transportation such as the automobile and airplane, new forms of entertainment such as radios and “talking” movies, and an increase in standard of living for most
citizens. African-Americans and women experienced new cultural opportunities. However, fears of such rapid social and cultural changes, especially changes in American cities, led
to an anti-socialist “Red Scare,” a rise in nativism and new immigration restrictions, and a commitment to religious fundamentalism.

Last Unit:

U.S. Foreign Policy & World War I
(1898—1919) /

Current Unit:

The 1920s
(1920—1929) /

Next Unit:

The Great Depression & New Deal
(1929-1941)
Activities, Skills and Assessments : / Key Terms and Phrases:
  1. Vocabulary
  2. Sequence and Chronology
  3. Political Cartoon Analysis
  4. Primary Sources
  5. Graphs/Charts Analysis
  6. Maps/Photos Analysis
  7. CER Writing
  8. Unit Summative Assessments
Text Pages
410-461 / 1. KARL MARX 2. A. MITCHELL PALMER 3. NICOLA SACCO 4. BARTOLOMEO VANZETTI 5.NATIVISM
6. ISOLATIONISM 7. COMMUNISM 8. REDS 9. ANARCHISTS 10. RED SCARE 11. PALMER RAIDS
12. QUOTA SYSTEM 13. EMERGENCY QUOTA ACT OF 1921 14. WARREN G. HARDING 15. OHIO GANG
16. TEAPOT DOME SCANDAL 17. CALVIN COOLIDGE 18. HENRY FORD 19. MODEL T/TIN LIZZY
20. INSTALLMENT PLAN 21. ROUTE 66 22. URBAN SPRAWL 23. AL CAPONE 24. CHARLES DARWIN
25. JOHN T. SCOPES 26. CLARENCE DARROW 27. WILLIAM JENNINGS BRYAN 28. SPEAKEASIES 29. BOOTLEGGERS
30. FUNDAMENTALISM 31. SECULAR 32. EVOLUTION 33. CREATIONISM 34. 18TH AMENDMENT 35. PROHIBITION
36. 21ST AMENDMENT 37. SCOPES TRIAL 38. FLAPPER 39. DOUBLE STANDARD 40. BABE RUTH
41. CHARLES LINDBERGH/SPIRIT OF ST. LOUIS/ TRANSATLANTIC FLIGHT 42. GEORGE GERSHWIN
43. F. SCOTT FITZGERALD/THE GREAT GATSBY 44. ERNEST HEMINGWAY/A FAREWELL TO ARMS
45. AMELIA EARHART 46. THE JAZZ SINGER 47. STEAMBOAT WILLIE 48. TALKIES 49. NAACP 50. UNIA
51. HARLEM RENAISSANCE 52. MARCUS GARVEY 53. LANGSTON HUGHES 54. DUKE ELLINGTON
55. COTTON CLUB 56. PAUL ROBESON 57. LOUIS ARMSTRONG 58. CAB CALLOWAY 59. BESSIE SMITH 60.HARLEM
Essentials Questions:
1.Was American foreign policy during the 1920s isolationist or internationalist?
2.Was the decade of the 1920s a decade of innovation or conservatism?
3.Did the Nineteenth Amendment radically change women’s role in American life?
4 Did women experience significant liberation during the 1920s?
5. Did the role of women in American life significantly change during the 1920s?
6. Should the United States limit immigration?
7. Should the United States have enacted the Prohibition Amendment?
8. Was the decade of the 1920s “roaring”? / Text Pages
7.1 Growing Crisis of Industrial Capitalism and Responses
I can evaluate the key events and decisions surrounding the causes and consequences of the global depression of the 1930s and World War II.
7.1.1 The Twenties – I can identify and explain the significance of the struggle between traditional and modernizing trends in the ‘Roaring Twenties’ including:
• cultural movements, such as the Harlem Renaissance and the “lost generation”
• the struggle between “traditional” and “modern” America (e.g., Scopes Trial, immigration restrictions, Prohibition, role of women, mass consumption)
• NAACP legal strategy to attack segregation
Guided Questions:
  1. How did changes in the economy, technology, and mass production give the era from 1920 to 1929 the title,
    the “Roaring Twenties”?
  2. How did entertainment, literature, and the media change in the 1920s? ?
  3. How were African-Americans and women impacted by changes of the 1920s?
  4. How did immigration restrictions, prohibition, the “Red Scare,” and the Scopes trail reveal a cultural clash between
    rural and urban Americans?

Reading Guide: The 1920s

Chapter 12, Section 1

  1. Define ISOLATIONISM:
  2. What economic theory called for the elimination of private property in favor of government ownership?
  3. The “Palmer Raids” were directed against what groups of Americans?
  4. Why was the trial of Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were such an important event in the 1920s?
  5. What 1920s group was dedicated to “keeping blacks in their place, destroying saloons, opposing unions, and driving Roman Catholics, Jews and foreign–born people out of the country?”
  6. The Emergency Quota Act of 1921 was an attempt to limit immigration from:

Chapter 12, Section 2

  1. What did President Harding mean when he said that America needed “normalcy” in 1921?
  2. Why was Russia not invited to participate in the Washington Naval Conference of 1921?
  3. The Dawes Plan called for loans to Germany to help pay reparations to France and Great Britain, which then used the reparations to repay debts owed to the United States – what country loaned the money to Germany?
  4. Why was the Teapot Dome scandal so scandalous?

Chapter 12, Section 3

  1. What product became the “backbone” of the American economy in the 1920s?
  2. Which political party controlled the executive branch from 1921 until 1932 (Presidents Harding, Coolidge and Hoover)?
  3. What product “changed the American landscape” providing increased mobility to all Americans?
  4. During the 1920s, the people of the United States controlled about what percentage of the world’s wealth?
  5. Why were prices farmers received for their products dropping during the 1920s?
  6. How were many American consumers able to purchase products they couldn’t afford?

Chapter 13, Section 1

  1. What percentage of Americans lived in urban areas (2,500 or more in population) in 1920?
  2. Support for Prohibition came primarily from what two parts of the United States?
  3. What act of Congress was enacted in 1919 in order to enforced the Eighteenth Amendment?
  4. What was a “speakeasy?”
  5. What were the three main sources of bootleggers’ liquor?
  6. Al Capone, the crime boss of Chicago, was jailed for what crime?
  7. What was the focus of the Scopes trial in 1925 and what argument did William Jennings Bryan make during this case?

Chapter 13, Section 2

  1. What was a “flapper?”
  2. The “double standard” faced by women in the 1920s involved was area of a woman’s life?
  3. According to men, women were temporary workers, and that their real jobs were – where?

Chapter 13, Section 3

  1. About how many students attended American high schools in 1926?
  2. What was the “most powerful communications medium” to emerge during the 1920s?
  3. Who was the first to fly non-stop across the Atlantic Ocean, becoming the world’s greatest celebrity?
  4. Why was the film The Jazz Singer so revolutionary?
  5. Why did some writers of the 1920s call themselves the “Lost Generation?” What was the focus of their literature?

Chapter 13, Section 4

  1. Who established the Universal Negro Improvement Association?
  2. What was the “Harlem Renaissance?”
  3. Who was the best known poet of the Harlem Renaissance?
  4. Paul Robeson, an African–American actor during the Harlem Renaissance period, left the United States because of racism and because he supported a country not popular in the United States – what country?
  5. In what city was jazz “born?”
  6. Who were some of the influential leaders in jazz?