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23. The Modern Era of the 1920s

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

1. Examine the characteristics of the economic policies of Harding and Coolidge.

2. Identify the factors that led to Hoover’s victory in 1928.

3. Summarize the factors that led to the prosperity of the 1920s.

4. Which groups in American society were not prospering?

5. Examine the ways American culture was changing in the 1920s.

6. Identify the factors that led to development of a consumer culture.

7. Analyze the ways the role and status of women were changing in the 1920s.

8. What were the characteristics of the Harlem Renaissance?

9. Examine the causes of cultural conflict in the 1920s.

10. Summarize the main features of US foreign policy in the 1920s.

KEY TERMS BY THEME(KTBT), p 469. Select YOUR TOP KTBT from the lists. ID and significance of each.

1. Warren Harding
2. Fordney-McCumber Tariff Act (1922)
3. Teapot Dome Scandal
4. Calvin Coolidge
5. Herbert Hoover
6. business prosperity
7. Henry Ford and the Model T
8. Assembly Line
9. open shop
10. welfare capitalism
11. Jazz Age
12. Consumerism: autos, radio, movies
13. Charles Lindberg
14. Sigmund Freud
15. Margaret Sanger
16. modernism
17. fundamentalism
18. revivalists; Billy Sunday
19. Lost Generation
20. F. Scott Fitzgerald
21. Ernest Hemingway
22. Sinclair Lewis
23. T. S. Eliot
24. Frank Lloyd Wright
25. functionalism / 26. Edward Hopper, Georgia O’Keefe
27. Harlem Renaissance
28. Langston Hughes, Claude McKay
29. Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong
30. Marcus Garvey
31. Scopes Trial
32. Clarence Darrow
33. Prohibition; Volstead Act (1919)
34. organized crime
35. Immigration Act of 1921
36. Immigration Act of 1924
37. Sacco and Vanzetti
38. Ku Klux Klan
39. Washington Naval Conference (1921)
40. Kellogg-Briand Treaty (1928)
41. war debts and reparations
42. Dawes Plan (1924)
Andrew Mellon -- An American financier, he was appointed Secretary of the Treasury by President Harding in 1921 and served under Coolidge and Hoover. While he was in office, the government reduced the WW I debt by $9 billion and Congress cut income tax rates substantially. He is often called the greatest Secretary of the Treasury after Hamilton. / Buying on Margin -- This technique of buying stocks that was very risky and was usually only used by poor and middle class people. They would buy the stock, but only pay for part of it and borrow money from the stockbrokers to pay the rest. Then when they sold the stock for a higher price, they would pay the broker off and keep the rest of the profit. Of course, the stock could just as easily go down. This practice helped lead to the Stock Crash of ’29.
Leopold and Loeb case - Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb were convicted of killing a young boy, Bobby Franks, in Chicago just to see if they could get away with it. Defended by Clarence Darrow, they got life imprisonment. Both geniuses, they had decided to commit the perfect murder. The first use of the insanity defense in court.

HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVES: How Conservative were the 1920s? p489

Historian / Views & Evidence
1920s
Revisionists
Brinkley
Marchand

Multiple-Choice Questions, p 491-3

Question & Letter Answer / Response Answer / Document Significance
1. Which of the following most directly supports the argument found in the excerpt? / Doc. 1-3
2.Which of the following cites an event that mostly clearly challenges the interpretation expressed in the excerpt?
3. The administration of which of the following presidents who served between 1865 and 1900 most closely resembles the corruption of the Harding administration?
4. Which of the following trends of the 1920s is most clearly portrayed in this advertisement? / Doc. 4-6
5. Many historians criticize the economy that developed during the 1920s. Which of the following statements best supports that point of view?
6. Which of the following groups faced the most difficult economic conditions during the 1920s?
7. Which of the following developments in the 1920s would most directly support the author’s sentiments in the excerpt? / Doc. 6-7
8. Which of the following most influenced thinking about sexual behavior during the 1920s?

Short Answer. Bullet point answer. Use KTBT whenever possible in responses. Highlight ALL KTBT terms in response. P. 494-6

1a. Briefly explain ONE way the Harlem Renaissance supported the point of view in the excerpt.
1b. Briefly explain ONE example of an African American artist’s achievement from the era that would support this excerpt.
1c. Briefly explain what the author most likely meant by “the very core of prejudice” faced by African Americans in the 1920s.

2. Answer a, b, c

2a. Briefly explain ONE example of how religion and science were a source of conflict in American society during the 1920s.
2b. Briefly explain ONE development during the 1920s that changed attitudes toward Prohibition.
2c. Briefly explain ONE important difference in the immigrant legislation of the 1920s in comparison to earlier periods.

3. Answer a, b, c

3a. Briefly explain ONE example of how the media of the 1920s contributed to development of a shared national culture.
3b. Briefly explain ONE development that caused the disillusionment among writers of the 1920s.
3c. Briefly explain ONE important artistic response during the 1920s and 1930s to industrial development or urban experience.

4. Using the excerpts answer a, b, c

4a. Briefly explain ONE social development in the 1920s that supports the Fitzgerald quote.
4b. Briefly explain ONE economic development of the 1920s that supports the Leuchtenburg argument.
4c. Briefly explain ONE argument that supports that the 1920s made a positive contribution to the long-term prosperity of the United States.

Thinking as a Historian: Adding details for contextualization. Which 3 sentences best demonstrate the use of contextualization?