United States History 1920s Unit
Name: ______Per: ____ Date: ______
EQ: Were the 1920s a time of conservativism or change?
Directions: Using your problem solving and technology skills, research and respond to the following questions. Please do not use Wikipedia. When the question asks for images, please cut and paste the images in a word document and print the images out at the end of your quest.
1) Explain the Red Scare in America after World War One. Were fears of “reds” legitimate?
2) What was the Sacco and Vanzetti case about? Find a photograph from the Sacco and Vanzetti case.
3) Find an image of the rise of the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s. Describe it. What does the image portray? Why do you think the Ku Klux Klan gained popularity in this decade?
4) Find a political cartoon of the Teapot Dome Scandal –cut and paste it– and explain in your own words the meaning of the cartoon.
5) Google Warren Harding, Calvin Coolidge, and Herbert Hoover, and then identify who was the most change oriented and then who is the most conservative out of the three. Why? (Include an image of each president)
6) Find an image of the any 1920s automobile –cut and paste– and then describe the impact of the automobile on America in the 1920s.
7) What were some of the new consumer appliances that Americans could purchase in the 1920s? Google some images and take a look and cut and paste. How did these technologies change daily life for American men, Women, and children?
8) Describe the issues around Prohibition (bootleggers, speakeasies, etc). Do you think prohibition was a success or failure? Why? Was Prohibition more of a conservative or change oriented initiative?
9) Find a political cartoon or image surrounding the Scopes trial – print it out! – and then describe its meaning. What was the trial about?
10) Find an image of a flapper. Flappers are one of the enduring images of the 1920s – why do you think they have come to represent the era?
11) What new careers were available to women in the 1920s?
12) Find an image of the Spirit of St. Louis and describe its significance.
13) Find images of 3 top book jackets from the era (F. Scott Fitzgerald, Edna Millay, Ernest Hemingway, Sinclair Lewis). Do you recognize any of these titles? What is the symbolism used on the jackets?
14) What was the Harlem Renaissance? Find a Harlem Renaissance poem from Langston Hughes, a painting by Jacob Lawrence, and a song by Louis Armstrong, “Duke” Ellington, or Bessie Smith. Cut and paste.
15) Find an image of the Great Migration. Describe it.
16) What was the Emergency Quota Act of 1921? Was this act symbolic of change or conservatism? Why?
17) Find a graph which gives you an idea of the economy in the 1920s. Cut and paste. In the space below, interpret what the graph says about the state of the economy in the 1920s.
Answering the EQ: Based on your web quest research, do you think the 1920s was a time of conservatism or a time of change? Take a position, write a clear thesis and defend your response with evidence. ______
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