The Transition to Modern America

The Transition to Modern America

US History/Napp Name: ______

Do Now: “The 1920s were marked by rapid economic and urban growth as well as rapid social change, inspiring tensions as rural America resisted the ensuing changes.”

~ America: Past and Present

Analyze the chart

The Second Industrial Revolution / City Life in the Jazz Age
(The Rapid Rise of the City) / The Politics of the 1920s

The automobile industry was an important industry

* Henry Ford’s revolutionary application of the assembly line in his manufacturing process allowed prices to fall
* Ford’s assembly linereduced the time it took to build a car from more than 12 hours to two hours and 30 minutes.
* Most American families could now afford a car

The corporation

* Dominated the businesses of the 1920s
* A corporation is a business owned by stockholders

The entertainment industry boomed in the 1920s as a result of radio and cinema

A consumer-oriented economy was driven by the new ideas of marketing

The cultural revolution known as the “Roaring Twenties” occurred

* More Americans lived in cities than on farms
* The nation’s total wealth doubled; people had more money for consumer goods
* Advertising encouraged people to buy the same products and more products
* The flapper was a young woman with short hair and short skirts who drank, smoked and wassomewhat sexually “free”
* However, most women were not flappers
* Yet women did gain the right to vote with the Nineteenth Amendment

The Harlem Renaissance

* A movement of great artistic creativity in the African American community

The Red Scare

* Tradition-minded Americans feared the specter of communism /

Rural-urban tensions dominated the politics of the 1920s

* Republicans dominated the White House: Harding, Coolidge, and Hoover
* Favored higher tariffs, lower taxes, and spending cuts
* But Democrats were gaining strength among the new immigrant voters of the big cities
* The election of 1928 symbolized the decade, pitting Democrat Al Smith, a Catholic, urban, “wet” son of immigrants, against Republican Herbert Hoover, an old-stock, “dry” Protestant from Iowa
- Hoover easily won and then presided over the worst depression in American History

While Americans achieved greater prosperity, the prosperity was unevenly distributed

* Further, outbursts of nativism, ethnic and racial bigotry, and intolerance frequently occurred

Questions:

1-What was the most important industry of the 1920s? ______

2-What manufacturing process did Henry Ford create? ______

3-How did the assembly line change the production of automobiles? ______

4-Why did the use of the assembly line in manufacturing lead to an increase in automobile sales in the United States? ______

5-Define a corporation. ______

6-Why did the entertainment industry boom in the 1920s? ______

7-What is a consumer-oriented society? ______

8-What increased consumption of manufactured goods in the United States in the 1920s? ______

9-Where did most Americans live in the 1920s? ______

10-Why were Americans able to buy more consumer goods in the 1920s? ______

11-What did some individuals call the 1920s? ______

12-Describe a flapper. ______

13-Although most American women were not flappers, all American women were affected by a new Amendment to the Constitution. What Amendment changed the lives of American women and what did women gain as a result of the Amendment? ______

14-What was the Harlem Renaissance? ______

15-What was the Red Scare? ______

16-Why do you think many Americans feared communism? How does communism differ from American values? ______

17-Many Americans associated alcohol with immigrant cultures and the new urban ways. What is the movement to ban alcohol known as? ______

18-Nativists had anti-immigrant sentiments. What, therefore, did nativists want to restrict? ______

19-Americans were also divided over the teaching of evolution. Some Americans believed in fundamentalist Christianity and did not believe in evolution. Some Americans believed in evolution and wanted evolution taught in public schools. John Scopes was a biology teacher who was arrested for teaching evolution. So, what is evolution? ______

20-What political party dominated the United States in the 1920s? ______

21-What did Presidents Harding, Coolidge, and Hoover favor (regarding government policies)? ______

22-Among what groups were Democrats gaining supporters? ______

23-Can you describe the “New Immigrants”? From what countries were the New Immigrants from? ______

24-Describe the election of 1928. ______

25-What happened to Herbert Hoover? ______

26-What problems existed in the United States in the 1920s? ______

After World War I, one way in which the Red Scare, the passing of the Quota Acts, and the growth of the Ku Klux Klan were similar is that they all

(1) exploited fears about people who were considered un-American
(2) encouraged the assimilation of new immigrants into American society
(3) supported the goals of the suffrage movement
(4) exhibited prejudice against African Americans

The division in public opinion over the Scopes trial and Prohibition demonstrates which characteristic of the 1920s?

(1) discrimination against immigrants
(2) clash of cultural values
(3) fear of international communism
(4) opposition to the Ku Klux Klan

Which movement’s primary goal was the ratification of a constitutional amendment authorizing Prohibition?

(1) abolitionist
(2) Populist
(3) temperance
(4) settlement house

National attention was drawn to the Scopes trial of 1925 because the case

(1) Represented a conflict between science and religion
(2) Reversed a previous Supreme Court decision on free speech
(3) Upheld the right of veterans to protest in Washington, D. C.
(4) Revealed the extent of prejudice against Immigrants
9. During the 1920s, the United States changed its immigration policy by passing new laws that
(1) provided incentives to attract more
immigrants to factory jobs
(2) encouraged Chinese immigrants to enter the country
(3) allowed unrestricted immigration of war
refugees from Vietnam
(4) established quotas that reduced the number of immigrants from certain countries
10. • Teapot Dome Scandal
• Harlem Renaissance
• Scopes trial
During which decade did these events occur?
(1) 1920s (3) 1940s
(2) 1930s (4) 1950s
11. The economic prosperity of the 1920s was mainly the result of the
(1) adoption of lower tariff rates
(2) stricter enforcement of antitrust laws
(3) success of most United States farmers
(4) development of new industries for consumer goods
12. Improved mass-production techniques affected the American economy of the 1920s by
(1) reducing prices of consumer goods
(2) lowering the quality of most products
(3) causing higher unemployment
(4) decreasing the quantity of manufactured
Products
13. The contributions of Langston Hughes and Duke Ellington illustrate the importance of the Harlem Renaissance to
(1) economic growth
(2) educational reform
(3) the creative arts
(4) political leadership / 5. The Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s most enhanced American culture by
(1) pressuring southern states to extend voting rights
(2) expanding African American access to
education
(3) popularizing African American contributions to the arts
(4) convincing the Supreme Court to allow
affirmative action
6. In the mid-1920s, the immigration policy of the United States was mainly designed to
(1) deport illegal immigrants
(2) continue the traditional policy of open
immigration
(3) establish quotas for immigrants from certain nations
(4) favor immigrants from southern and eastern Europe
7. National Prohibition, as authorized by the 18th amendment, stated that
(1) Americans must be 18 years old to purchase alcoholic beverages
(2) only imported alcoholic beverages would be sold
(3) alcoholic beverages could be sold only in
government-run stores
(4) the manufacture and sale of alcoholic
beverages was banned
8. The Harlem Renaissance promoted African American culture by
(1) increasing factory employment opportunities for minorities
(2) encouraging immigration from Africa
(3) focusing attention on artistic contributions
(4) bringing an end to legalized racial segregation
Mother to Son
Well, son, I’ll tell you:
Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.
It’s had tacks in it,
And splinters,
And boards torn up,
And places with no carpet on the floor—
Bare.
But all the time
I’se been a-climbin’ on,
And reachin’ landin’s,
And turnin’ corners,
And sometimes goin’ in the dark
Where there ain’t been no light.
So boy, don’t you turn back.
Don’t you set down on the steps
’Cause you finds it kinder hard.
Don’t you fall now—
For I’se still goin’, honey,
I’se still climbin’,
And life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.
—Langston Hughes, 1922
14. One purpose of this poem, written during the Harlem Renaissance, was to
(1) explain the advantages of inner-city life
(2) discuss ideas in the language used by
immigrant Americans
(3) ask African Americans to accept things as they are
(4) encourage African Americans to continue their struggle for equality
15. Which foreign policy did Warren G. Harding support when he used the phrase “return to normalcy” during his presidential campaign of 1920?
(1) appeasement (3) containment
(2) internationalism (4) isolationism

Analyze the following political cartoons from the 1920s:

Explain the meaning of the political cartoon. ______