The Roaring Twenties
Changing Ways of Life
- During the 1920s urbanization continued to accelerate
- 1st time, more Americans lived in urban areas than rural
- NYC home to over 5 million people in 1920
- Chicago had nearly 3 million
Modernism and Traditionalism
Modernists
- A person who embraces new styles ideas and social trends
- Typically younger
- Urban
- Believe that traditional values restrict freedom and happiness
Traditionalists
- A person with a deep respect for long held cultural and religious values
- Older
- Traditional families
- Rural
- Believe that these values anchor order and stability in society
Urban vs. Rural
- Throughout 1920s, Americans found themselves caught between urban & rural cultures
- Urban life was considered a world of anonymous crowds, strangers, moneymakers & pleasure seekers ( modernists )
- Rural life was considered to be safe, with close personal ties, hard work and morals ( TRADITIONALISTS )
The Roaring 20s: A Cultural Shift
- Althought he 1920s are foten called the “Roaring Twenties”, it was not a good time for all Americans
- The standard of living rose as new technology, such as automobiles, airplanes, radio, and movies that were massed produced on assembly lines became available.
- New appliances and an increased reliance on electricity to run them also changed the daily lives of many americans particularly White women.
Prohibition
- One example of the clash between city & farm was the passage of the 18th ammendment in 1920
- This Amendment launched the era known as Prohibition
- The new law made it illegal to make, sell or transport liquor
- The new law made it illegal to make, sell or transport liquor
Support for Prohibition
- Reformers had long believed alcohool led to crime, child & wife abuse, and accidents
- Supporters were largely from the rural south and west
- The church affiliated Anti-Saloon League and the Women’s Christian Temperance Union helped push the 18th Amendment through
Speakeasies & Bootleggers
- Many Americans did not believe drinking was a sin
- Most immigrant groups not willing to give up drinking
- To obtain liquor illegally, drinkers went underground to hidden saloons, speakeasies
- People bought liquor from bootleggers, smugglers of liquor, from Canada, Cuba & the West Indies
Organized Crime
- Prohibtiion contribued to the growth of organized crime in every major city
- Chicago became notorious as the home of Al Capone - a famous bootlegger
- Capone took control of the Chicago liquor business by killing off his competition
- Al Capone was finally convicted on tax evasion charges in 1931
Government Fails to Control Liquor
- Eventually prohibitions fate was saeled by the government, which failed to budget enough money to enforce the law
- The task of enforcing Prohibition fell to 1,500 poorly paid federal agents --- clearly an impossible task
Support Fades, Prohibition Repealed
- By the mid-1920s, only about 19% of Americans supported Prohibition
- Many felt Prohibition caused more problems than it solved
- 21st Amendment repealed Prohibition in 1933
Segregation
- Segregation was not enforced by law in the northern cities, but was widely practiced
- African Americans were often the last hired and the first fired.
- After World War 1, some riots in the cities targeted African Americans due to unemployment and racial tensions and racial terrorism.
- White Americans in both North and South were determined to reduce African American dreams of equality even though they had fought in the “war to make the world safe for democracy.”
Nativism in the 1920s
- Anti-Immigrant feelings twoards Catholics and Jewish immigrants from the southern and eastern aprts of Europe became targets of a new Ku Klux Klan.
- Immigration quotas were designed to limit the number of immigrants from eastern and southern Europe.
Science & Religion Clash
- Another battlgeround during the 1920s was between fundamentalist religious groups & secular thinkers over the truths of science
- Protestant movement grounded in the literal interpretation of the bible is known as fundamentalism
- Fundamentalists found all truth in the bible – including science and evolution
Scopes Trial
- In March 1925, Tennessee passed the nation’s first law that made it a crime to teach evolution
- The ACLU promised to defend any teacher willing to challenge the law – John Scopes did
- Scopes was a biology teacher who dared to teach his students that man derived from lower species
Scopes Trial II
- The ACLU hired Clarence Darrow, the most famous trial lawyer of the era, to defend Scopes
- The prosecution countered with William Jennings Bryan, the three-time Democratic presidential nominee
Scopes III.
- Trial opened 7/10/1925 became national sensation
- In an unusual move, Darrow called Bryan to the stand expert on the bible - key question: Should the bible be interpreted literally?
- Under intense questioning, Darrow got Bryan to admit the bible can be interpreted in different ways
- Nonetheless, Scopes was found guilty & fined $100