Readings: Boyer, Paul S. et al. The Enduring Vision: A History of the American People

Chapter 23: The 1920s: Coping with Change

Discussion Questions:

1.  What accounts for the economic growth and prosperity of the 1920s? Who benefited most from that prosperity? Who did not share it and why?

2.  Sharp social conflicts existed in American society in the 1920s. These conflicts produced fear, intolerance, and attempts to "purify" the country by legislation and coercion. What were some of the attempts of government and private groups to bring back a more traditional and homogenous America?

3.  The 1920s were a time of changing manners and morals and of cultural ferment. What were some of the changes that took place in popular culture and among artists and intellectuals?

Identifications:

  Henry Ford

the open shop and the “American Plan”

Teapot Dome and the other scandals of the Harding administration

Fordney-McCumber (1922) and Smoot-Hawley (1930) tariffs

Robert La Follette and the Progressive party

Alice Paul and the National Woman's party

Charles A. Lindbergh

F. Scott Fitzgerald

Sinclair Lewis

Ernest Hemingway

George Gershwin

Harlem Renaissance

the Immigration Acts

Sacco and Vanzetti

Marcus Garvey and the Universal Negro Improvement Association

John T. Scopes and the “monkey trial”

Volstead Act, “wets,” and “drys”

Alfred E. Smith versus Herbert Hoover