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1920s
American Studies
Dr. Weiselberg
1920s Outline
Main Themes:
1. Older, rural vs. newer, urban America.
2. Expansion and Limits to democracy.
American Foreign Policy, 1920-1933
Women's International League for Peace and Freedom
Dawes Plan
Washington Naval Disarmament Conference
Kellogg-Briand Pact
World Court
“Normalcy”
Impact of WWI at Home
Returning soldiers:
Women:
African-Americans:
Economy, at end of war:
Republican Presidents
Warren G. Harding
Calvin Coolidge
Herbert Hoover
Business Boom or False Prosperity?
Greed and Scandal Under Harding
Vets bureau theft
Teapot Dome Scandal
Coolidge Prosperity - Pro-Business Policies
Taxes:
Tariff rates:
Regulatory agencies' attitude towards businesses:
Andrew Mellon, secretary of the treasury
Supreme Court takes attitude:
Coolidge Prosperity By-Passes Many
Labor
Native Americans
African Americans
Farmers
The Stock Market and Speculation
Stocks Buying on Margin
Stock Market Bull Market
Speculation Bear Market
Confidence
Age of Mass Consumption
Automobiles, Installment Buying, Appliances
Entertainment: Radio, Motion Pictures, Fads, Advertising
Popular Heroes - Babe Ruth, Amelia Earhart, Charles Lindbergh
Cultural Homogenization
Cultural Values
Morals and Manners
Freud
Flappers
Jazz; Louis Armstrong
Women's Changing Roles
1848 Seneca Falls Convention
WWI's effect
Suffragists
19th Amendment
Literary Scene
Sinclair Lewis, Ernest Hemingway, Edith Wharton, Willa Cather, F. Scott Fizgerald
Harlem Renaissance
Langston Hughes, Duke Ellington, Cotton Club, Bessie Smith, Aaron Douglas, William Johnson, Zora Neale Hurston, Alain Locke, WEB DuBois,
Constitutional and Legal Issues
Red Scare
Palmer Raids, 1919
Sacco and Vanzetti Case, 1927
Ku Klux Klan
Immigration Restrictions
Immigration Act of 1924
Prohibition, Volstead Act
Scopes Trial, 1925
Clarence Darrow
William Jennings Bryan
Guiding Questions:
In what ways is the period of the 1920s a watershed between an older America and a new, modern America? (between a rural, agrarian culture and an urban, consumer-oriented culture?)
In what ways did democracy expand during the 1920s?
What factors and events prevented the growth of democracy in the 1920s?
What important changes took place both during and after WWI?
What did the American public perceive “normalcy” to mean?
(Apply the concept to both foreign and domestic affairs).
What are the causes and effects of the South-to-North migration during this time period?
How did the economic policies of the 1920s contribute to the Great Depression?
What scandals arose during the Harding administration? What scandals have plagued subsequent
administrations?
How did the growth of the automobile industry stimulate the growth of other industries? How did the growth of the automobile influence US politics and lifestyles?
Compare the attitudes of the 1920s with those of the 1950s in terms of: restrictions on immigration, anti-communist hysteria, religion and morality, role of women, civil rights, new forms of entertainment, growth of suburbia, transportation improvements, consumer attitudes.
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