Roaring 20s STEM ECHS

Warren G. Harding

Ran under the slogan "Return to Normalcy", promising to end the progressivism of the Wilson administration. Office became corrupt: allowed drinking in prohibition, had an affair, surrounded himself w/ cronies (used office for private gain). Ex) Sec. of Interior leased gov't land w/ oil for $500,000 and took money himself. Died after 3 years in office, VP: Coolidge took over

Calvin Coolidge

Advocated for Small Government; laissez faire ideology; in favor of immigration restriction (Immigration Act); reduced the tax burden; the Bonus Bill was passed over his veto; Revenue Act of 1924; Kellogg-Briand Pact. Business prospered under him, everything was "cool with ------------!"

Bolsheviks

Radical Marxist political party founded by Vladimir Lenin in 1903. The Russian communist party that took over the Russian government during WWI and it became the Soviet Union.

communism

A political system characterized by a centrally planned economy with all economic and political power resting in the hands of the central government

Red Scare

A social/political movement designed to prevent a socialist/communist/radical movement in this country by finding "radicals," incarcerating them, deporting them, and subverting their activities

Schenck v. U.S.

1919 Supreme Court case after the conviction of a socialist who had urged young men to resist the draft during WWI. Justice Holmes declared that gov't can limit speech if the speech provokes a "clear and present danger" of substantive evils.

A. Mitchell Palmer

attorney general who authorized anti-radical raids and deportations

Palmer Raids

A 1920 operation coordinated by Attorney General Mitchel Palmer in which federal marshals raided the homes of suspected radicals and the headquarters of radical organization in 32 cities

Sacco & Vanzetti

A controversial trial in 1920 charging two Italian anarchist immigrants with the robbing of a shoe factory and the killing of two men within, with the two men arrested several weeks later. Massive protests resulted with the overall opinion that the men were arrested because they were radical immigrants, and while appeals continued to be raised, they were sentenced to death in 1927.

Isolationism

A policy of nonparticipation in international economic and political relations
A national policy of avoiding involvement in world affairs

Nativism

feelings of hostility for immigrants. It favored people or products that were American.

Quota

In reference to migration, a law that places maximum limits on the number of people who can immigrate to a country each year.

National Origins Act

Very restrictive immigration legislation passed in 1924, which lowered immigration to 2 percent of each nationality as found in the 1890 census. This lowered immigration dramatically and, quite intentionally, almost eliminated immigration from Eastern and Southern Europe.

Tea Pot Dome Scandal

biggest scandal of Harding's administration; Secretary of Interior Albert Fall illegally leased government oil fields in the West to private oil companies; Fall was later convicted of bribery and became the first Cabinet official to serve prison time (1931-1932).

Laissez Faire Economics

Theory that opposes governmental interference in economic affairs beyond what is necessary to protect life and property. Government stays out of the economy; creates competition between businesses; results in lower prices and higher profits.

Consumer economy

An economy that depends on a large amount of spending by consumers

Installment Loan

an arrangement in which a purchaser pays over an extended time, without having to put down much money at the time of purchase

Gross National Product

The total value of goods and services, including income received from abroad, produced by the residents of a country within a specific time period, usually one year.

Henry Ford

United States manufacturer of automobiles who pioneered mass production and the assembly line (1863-1947).

Model T

A cheap and simple car designed by Ford. It allowed for more Americans to own a car.

Assembly line

In a factory, an arrangement where a product is moved from worker to worker, with each person performing a single task in the making of the product.

Speculation

An involvement in risky business transactions in an effort to make a quick or large profit.

Buying on margin

Buying stock with a little money down with the promise of paying the balance sometime in the future when the stocks gain in value

Causes of the stock market crash 1929

1. Buying on margin or credit.
2. Overproduction and Underconsumption of consumer goods and farm products.
3. An Overproduction of goods, easy credit with installment loans.
4. Bank failures.
5. Problems of farmers with overproduction and loans.

Return to Normalcy

The name for Warren Harding's plan that reversed many of the progressive policies of Roosevelt, Taft, and Wilson, which included reducing government intervention in the government, high tariffs and an isolationist foreign policy. America First.

Mass Production

Manufacturing of large numbers of identical products quickly and cheaply

19th amendment

Amendment to the U.S. Constitution (1920) extended the right to vote to women in federal or state elections.

Scopes Monkey Trial

1925 court trial. The trial that pitted the teaching of Darwin's theory of evolution against teaching Bible creationism. An example of the cultural divide between urban and rural America.

Prohibition

A ban on the manufacture and sale of alcoholic beverages

Lost Generation of Writers (Ernest Hemingway)

Generation of writers who had their coming of age during the war, and shared the belief that they were lost in a greedy, materialistic world that lacked moral values and often choose to flee to Europe to criticize American culture.

Langston Hughes

African American poet who described the rich culture of african American life using rhythms influenced by jazz music. He wrote of African American hope and defiance, as well as the culture of Harlem. Also had a major impact on the Harlem Renaissance.

The Great Migration

The migration of thousands of African-Americans from the South to the North after World War I. African Americans were looking to escape the problems of racism in the South and felt they could seek out better jobs and an overall better life in the North.

Ku Klux Klan 1920s

Originally a racist segregationist organization that targeted blacks, it became a white supremacy, nativist, reactionary group that was against foreigners, Catholics, Jews, and blacks. They had 5 million members by 1924 and dominated the political scene in the south.

William Jennings Bryan

He helped prosecute John Scopes during the Scopes "Monkey" Trial for the teaching of evolution.

Glenn Curtiss

The first person to fly a publicly viewed flight. He also manufactured airplanes, built the largest fleet during WWI.

Clarence Darrow

He defended John Scopes during the Scopes "Monkey" Trial challenging William Jennings Bryan's testimony in 1925.

Eugenics

Based on the concept of Social Darwinism, this policy led to the sterilization of over 64,000 Americans in order to keep the U.S. a superior race. It specifically targeted the mentally ill. Was eventually borrowed by and made the official policy of the Third Reich under Adolf Hitler

Flappers

This term was used to describe women who rejected traditional female clothing and behaviors exercising their independence, smoking in public and wearing shorter dresses.

Marcus Garvey

He advocated racial pride and supported a Back-to-Africa movement for African-Americans since racial equality was not possible in the United States. Often dressed in ostentatious militaristic clothing.

Harlem Renaissance

An effect of the Great Migration, this is the term for the development of African-American art, literature and music. Key people included Langston Hughes, Alain Locke and Zora Neale Hurston

Charles Lindbergh

He became famous for the first non-stop flights across the Atlantic and became one of the most well known celebrities of the 1920's. He eventually became a supporter of eugenics, racial superiority, and Hitler's Third Reich

Tin Pan Alley

This section of New York city where musicians and song-writers formed the beginnings of American music including blues, jazz and ragtime.