UNIT 6: 1920’s

Daily Essential

Questions:What was the first Red Scare?

How did the booming economy of the 1920s lead to changes in American life?

How did Americans differ on major social and cultural issues?

What new technological and social changes occurred during the 1920s?

What was the Harlem Renaissance and what was its impact?

1. It was the deportation of several hundred immigrants of

radical political views by the government in 1919 and

1920.

2. Caused by fears of subversion (rebellion) by socialists and

communists in the US.

3. Example: A series of mail bombs targeted industrialists and

government officials - One mail bomb was sent to Attorney

General A. Mitchell Palmer, who launched the Palmer

Raids in 1920.

• Significance:

• Police arrested 1000+ people.

• Hundreds of people were deported without a trial – some were

innocent.

EQ 1: What was the first Red Scare?

1. They were Italian anarchists charged with committing

murder during a robbery in Massachusetts.

2. Witnesses claimed the

robbers “looked Italian.”

3. Despite little real evidence

against them, Sacco and

Vanzetti were convicted and

executed.

Who were Sacco and Vanzetti?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vU0LdSYB84

4. Example of the Red Scare. Why? Americans were

extremely xenophobic - fearful of foreigners or

anyone involved with socialism, anarchy, or

communism.

EQ #2. How did the booming economy of the 1920s lead to changes in

American life?

1. Mass production – the rapid, large-scale manufacture of

identical products – helped propel the economy.

2. Automobiles

3. Consumer Revolution

4. Stock Market grew.

5. Cities became more populated.

What are some observations

that you can make about

these charts?

What are some observations that

you can make about these

charts?

1. Innovative manufacturing techniques such as:

mass productionassembly linescientific management

The time to assemble a Model T dropped from 12 hours to just 90 minutes.

2. As a result the affordable Model T became a car for the people. By 1927, 56% of American families owned a car.

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=

cTZ3rJHHSik Model T Ford Assembly

Line 4min

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=

MLMS_QtKamg

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=

QfK1o1HvNeU BMW

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=

NtOcAOCH37A Take a ride in a

Model T.

How did Henry Ford increase the production and sale of automobiles?

1. Road construction boomed, and

new businesses opened along the

routes.

2. Other car-related industries

including steel, glass, rubber,

asphalt, gasoline, and insurance

prospered.

3. Workers could live farther away

from their jobs.

4. Families used cars for leisure trips

and vacations.

5. Fewer people used trolleys or

trains.

How did the Automobile change America?

Using installment

buying, people could

buy more.

New products flooded

the market.

Advertising created demand.

What was the consumer revolution that took place in the 1920s?

“Oooh, I want that even though I don’t have all the money for it!”

• Throughout the 1920s, a bull market meant stock prices

kept going up. By 1929, around four million Americans

owned stocks.

• Investors were buying on margin, purchasing stocks on

credit.

• Why might this be a bad idea?

Why and how did people invest in the stock market?

EQ #3: How did Americans differ on major social and cultural

issues?

In 1920, for the first time, more Americans lived in cities than in rural

areas. This led to different values. Examples:

1. Education - Farmers believed “book learning” interfered with

farm work – in the city, people needed an education to get a

job.

2. Modernism vs. Fundamentalism.

3. Discrimination toward immigrants, African Americans and other

minorities. – leads to new immigration laws.

4. Prohibition of Alcohol - Wets vs. Drys

Modernism

emphasized science and secular (non-religious)

values.

(typically city people)

Fundamentalism

emphasized Protestant Christian teachings and belief in the Bible as the literal truth.

(typically rural country folk)

What is the difference between modernism

and fundamentalism?

• Tennessee made it illegal to teach

evolution in public schools.

• Biology teacher John Scopes

challenged the law.

• His defense attorney tried to use

science to cast doubt on religious

beliefs.

• Scopes was found guilty of teaching

evolution

and fined.

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9IO4dj_BqQ

Scopes Monkey Trial 3.30min

What was the 1925 Scopes Trial and how does it reveal modernist vs.

fundamentalist values?

Significance: The conflict over teaching

evolution in public schools continues today.

Great example of Modern vs. Fundamental!

A quota system was set for immigrants.

• For each nationality, the quota

allowed up to 2 % of 1890’s total

population

of that nationality living in the U.S.

• This limited the ability of many

immigrants to enter the country.

Why did the US want to limit

immigration?

How was immigration limited by the 1924 National Origins Act ?

How did trends such as urbanization, modernism, and

increasing diversity cause some people to respond?

1. 1915 - the Ku Klux Klan resurged and

promoted hatred of African Americans,

Jews, Catholics, and immigrants.

• Movies like Birth of a Nation (1915)

encouraged and influenced this. (Star

Wars of its day… about the Civil War

and Reconstruction, highly racist movie)

2. Groups such as the NAACP and the

Jewish Anti-Defamation League worked to

counter the Klan and its values

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBzDH-Vwzy4

Birth of a Nation Clip 3min

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXi2lM7-NB8

NAACP History 4min

According to a recent NPR article, The Birth of a Nation is three hours of racist

propaganda — starting with the Civil War and ending with the Ku Klux Klan riding

in to save the South from black rule during the Reconstruction era.

It was considered to be historically accurate in it’s time.

http://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2015/02/08/383279630/100-years-later-whats-the-legacy-of-birth-of-a-nation

How were alcoholic beverages a divisive issue in the 1920s?

In 1919, the 18th Amendment

banned alcohol. Prohibition

became law in the US.

WETS argued

that Prohibition encouraged

hypocrisy and illegal activity.

People bought alcohol from bootleggers

and at speakeasies. Prohibition

contributed to the rise of organized

crime – like gangsters like Al Capone!

DRYS believed

prohibition was good

for society.VS.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-K60XXaPKw Prohibition 4min

Technology?

1. Movies - In the 1920s, from 60 to 100

million people went to the movies each

week.

Movies were silent but in 1927, The Jazz

Singer became the first “talkie.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpjEyBKSfJQ

Charlie Chaplin Lion’s Cage 3.30min

2. Radio - first station -1920. Within 3 years,

there were 600 radio stations.

How did movies and radio influence mass

culture?

EQ #4: What new technological and social changes occurred

during the 1920s?

Social? - How did women’s roles change in the 1920s?

1. Women married later, had fewer children, and generally lived

longer, healthier lives. More worked!

2. Labor-saving appliances, such as electric irons and vacuum

cleaners, allowed time for book clubs, charitable work, and new

personal interests for middle class and upper class.

3. BUT, many lower class women were still at home.

4. Flappers represented a “revolution in

manners and morals.”

• These young women rejected Victorian morality and

values.

• They wore short skirts, cut their hair in bobs, and

followed dance crazes such as the Charleston.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yNAOHtmy4j0

flappers dancing 2min

EQ #5: What was the Harlem Renaissance and what was its

impact?

New Orleans trumpet player Louis Armstrongwas the unofficial ambassador of jazz.

2. The Great Migration relocated

hundreds of thousands of African

Americans from the rural South to the

urban North.

3. Jazz music grew out of African

American blues and ragtime. Spread by

radio.

1.The Harlem Renaissance was a flowering of

African American arts and, literature that expressed

pride in AA culture. It began in Harlem, NY.

4. Key people of the Harlem Renaissance:

• Louis Armstrong – New Orleans Jazz Trumpet player

• Langston Hughes – more than 50 works of literature that captured diversity of AA life.

• Marcus Garvey – promoted universal black nationalism and the “Back to Africa” movement. (Heavily influenced Nation of Islam and Black Power movements of 1960s.)

• Sig: The artists of the Harlem Renaissance transformed African

American culture. But the impact on all American culture was

equally strong. For the first time, white America could not look

away.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3ozfYC9CZE

Harlem Ren. 3 3min videos