CHAPTER REVIEW

Rapid Review Guide

To achieve the perfect 5, you should be able to explain the following:

• A consumer economy was created in the 1920s on a level unprecedented in American history.

• Advertising, newspapers, radio, and motion pictures provided new forms of entertainment in the 1920s and helped to create a uniform national culture.

• The changes of the 1920s were resisted by many in small-town/rural America, creating many of the cultural conflicts of the decade.

• Assembly line techniques and the ideas of scientific management of Frederick W. Taylor helped to make industrial production in the 1920s quicker and more efficient, ultimately creating cheaper goods.

• Installment buying helped to fuel consumer buying in the 1920s.

• The Republican party controlled the White House, the Congress, and the Supreme Court in the 1920s, generally sponsoring government policies friendly to big business.

• The scandals of the Harding administration were among the worst in history.

• Resentment against blacks existed in both the American South and North in the years after World War I, resulting in race riots in the North and lynchings and the rebirth of the Ku Klux Klan in the South.

• The Red Scare of 1919 and 1920 resulted in the suspension of civil liberties and deportation of hundred of immigrants, the vast majority of which had committed no crime.

• Nativist fears also resulted in restrictive quota legislation passed in the early 1920s.

• Cultural conflicts between urban and rural American also developed over the issues of Prohibition and the teaching of evolution in schools (resulting in the Scopes Trial).

• During the Jazz Age many Americans rejected the prominent business values of the decade and turned to jazz, alcohol, and looser sexual mores for personal fulfillment.

• The flapper was the single most prominent image of the Jazz Age.

• Writers of the Lost Generation expressed extreme disillusionment with American society of the era; writers of the Harlem Renaissance expressed the opinions of American blacks concerning American culture.

Time Line

1917: Race riots in East St. Louis, Missouri

1918: Armistice ending World War I

1919: Race riots in Chicago

Major strikes in Seattle and Boston

Palmer Raids

1920: Warren Harding elected president

First broadcast of radio station KDKA in Pittsburgh

Publication of Main Street by Sinclair Lewis

Arrest of Sacco and Vanzetti

Prohibition takes effect

1921: Immigration Quota Law passed

Disarmament conference held

1922: Fordney-McCumber Tariff enacted

Publication of Babbitt by Sinclair Lewis

1923: Teapot Dome scandal

Death of Harding; Calvin Coolidge becomes president

Duke Ellington first performs in New York City

1924: Election of Calvin Coolidge

Immigration Quota Law enacted Ku Klux Klan reaches highest membership in history Women governors elected in Wyoming and Texas

1925: Publication of The Man Nobody Knows by Bruce Barton

Publication of The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Scopes Trial held in Dayton, Tennessee

1926: Publication of The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway

1927: The Jazz Singer, first movie with sound, released

Charles Lindbergh makes New York to Paris flight

Execution of Sacco and Vanzetti

15 millionth car produced by Ford Motor Company

$1.5 billion spent on advertising in United States

Babe Ruth hits 60 home runs

1928: Election of Herbert Hoover

1929: Nearly 30 million Americans have cars Stock market crash

Review Questions

1. Many in rural/small-town America would support legislation that

A. increased immigration from Eastern Europe

B. mandated the teaching of creationism in schools

C. lessened the penalties for those that sold illegal alcohol

D. made it harder to deport immigrants who might have “Red” ties

E. None of the above

(Correct Answer: B. All of the other “causes”—more immigration, the lessening of Prohibition, and the lessening of methods to deport potential communists—were vehemently opposed by most in small-town America. They would, however, support the elimination of the teaching of evolution, and the continued teaching of creationism in American schools.)

2. The novel that supported the business philosophy of the 1920s most definitively was

A. Main Street

B. The Great Gatsby

C. The Man Nobody Knows

D. Babbitt

E. None of the above

(Correct Answer: C. All of the other novels are unsympathetic to the world of business—both A and D are by Sinclair Lewis. In The Man Nobody Knows, Jesus Christ was portrayed as a businessman.)

3. In 1928 in most Eastern cities one could find

A. a speakeasy

B. a continual flow of immigrants from Northern, Southern, and Eastern Europe

C. large numbers of supporters of the Ku Klux Klan

D. the first bread lines

E. a large number of political supporters of William Jennings Bryan

(Correct Answer: A. The influx of immigrants had been greatly reduced by immigration legislation passed in the first half of the decade. Supporters of the KKK were largely not city dwellers; the KKK had also lessened in importance by 1928. Bread lines were not found until the beginning of the Great Depression. Few supporters of William Jennings Bryan came from eastern urban centers.)

4. Republican leaders of the 1920s believed all of the following except

A. “the business of government is business”

B. the government should do as little as possible

C. labor unions should be strengthened through legislation

D. taxes for the wealthiest should be reduced

E. All of the above

(Correct Answer: C. All of the other answers are solid beliefs of Republican leaders of the 1920s. Republicans did very little for labor unions in the decade.)

5. The election of Herbert Hoover in 1928 demonstrated all of the following except

A. Americans were attracted to self- made businessmen

B. most Americans believed that Republican policies had been responsible for the prosperity of the 1920s

C. fewer divisions existed between the urban and rural populations than had existed at the beginning of the decade

D. Prohibition was still a “hot-button issue” for many Americans.

E. All of the above

(Correct Answer: C. Hoover’s overwhelming election demonstrated the appeal of his business background and the fact that many Americans credited the Republicans for prosperity. The fact that Al Smith was stomped in this election demonstrated that his anti-Prohibition statements definitely hurt him. However, many in urban centers voted for him; this demonstrated that the divisions between urban and rural America were still wide at the end of the decade.)