chapter 30 - american life in the roaring '20s

bolshevik revolution

• 1917 uprising in russia led by vladimir lenin

• established a communist government and withdrew russia from ww1

red scare

• a period of general fear of communism 

• resulted after ww1 due to the bolshevik revolution in russia

criminal syndicalism laws

• laws passed by many states during the red scare

  • outlawed the mere advocacy of violence to secure social change

• stump speakers for the international workers of the world were special targets

american plan

• a business-oriented approach to worker relations popular among firms in the 1920s to defeat unionization

• managers sought to strengthen their communication with workers and to offer benefits like pensions and insurance

  • insisted on an “open shop” in contrast to the mandatory union membership through the “closed shop” that many labor activists had demanded in the strike wave after ww1

immigration act of 1924

• abolished the national origins system

• increased annual immigration admission to 170,000 and put a population cap of 20,000 on immigrants from any single nation

national origins quota system

• limited europe immigration in 1924 and banned all asian immigrants from coming into the united states

  • widely supported by rural areas

• affected the flow of immigrants into the united states and hurt diversity

  • considered the most enduring of the rural counter attacks → lasted until 1960s

eighteenth amendment

• prohibited the manufacture, sale, and distribution of alcoholic beverages in the united states

volstead act

• bill passed by congress to enforce the language of the 18th amendment

  • made the manufacture and distribution of alcoholic beverages illegal in the united states

racketeers

• people who obtained money illegally by fraud, bootlegging, gambling, or threats of violence

  • invaded the ranks of labor during the 1920s → time when gambling and gangsterism were prevalent

bible belt

• the region of the american south where protestant fundamentalism and belief in literal interpretation of the bible were traditionally the strongest

  • extending roughly from north carolina west to oklahoma and texas

fundamentalism

• broad movement in protestantism in the united states in which it tried to preserve what it consider the basic ideas of christianity against criticism by liberal theologies

  • stressed the literal truths of the bible and creation

scientific management

• a management theory using efficiency experts to examine each work operations and find ways to minimize the time needed to complete it

fordism

• system of standardized mass production

  • attributed to henry ford

united negro improvement association (UNIA)

• a group founded by marcus garvey to promote the settlement of black americans in their own “african homeland”

modernism

• an artistic and cultural movement that revolted against traditionalist beliefs and accepted change, chance, contingency, uncertainty, and fragmentation

“lost generation”

• a creative circle of american artists and writers who found shelter and inspiration in post ww1 europe

  • fitzgerald, hemingway, and eliot

harlem renaissance

• a period in the 1920s when african american achievements in art, music, and literature flourished

a. mitchell palmer

• attorney general who rounded up many suspects who were thought to be un-american and socialistic → mass arrests of radicals became known as palmer raids

• helped to increase the “red scare”

• nicknamed the “fighting quaker” until a bomb destroyed his home

  • had a nervous breakdown and then became known as the “quaking fighter”

nicola sacco

• italian anarchic immigrant that was convicted and executed for murder despite sparse evidence against them

bartolomeo vanzetti

• italian anarchic immigrant that was convicted and executed for murder despite sparse evidence against them

horace hallen

• defended the immigrants and said they needed their different cultures because they were unique 

• stressed the preservation of identity

randolph bourne

• advocated greater cross-fertilization between immigrants

  • so america would become a multicultural nation

al capone

• a mob king in chicago

  • controlled a large network of speakeasies with enormous profits

• his illegal activities convey the failure of prohibition in the 1920s and the problem with gangs

john dewey

• a philosopher who believed in “learning by doing”

  • formed the foundation of progressive education 

• believed that the teachers’ goal should be “education is life and that the workbench is just as important as the blackboard”

john t. scopes

• educator in tennessee who was arrested for teaching evolution

• his trial demonstrated the fundamentalist vs. modernist debate

  • placed a negative image on the fundamentalists → showed a changing america

william jennings bryan

• united states lawyer and politician who advocated free silver

• prosecuted john scopes for teaching evolution in a tennessee high school

clarence darrow

• a famed criminal defense lawyer for scopes

  • caused william jennings bryan to appear foolish when questioned about the bible

andrew mellon

• secretary of treasury under president harding, coolidge, and hoover

• instituted a republican policy of reduced government spending, lower taxes to the wealthy, and higher tariffs

bruce barton

• founder of the “new profession” of advertising 

  • used the persuasion ploy, seduction, and sexual suggestion

• prominent new york partner in a madison avenue firm

• published a best seller in 1925

  • The Man Nobody Knows → suggesting that jesus was the greatest advert of all time

    • praised jesus’ “executive ability”

  • encouraged any advertising man to read the parables of jesus

babe ruth

• “home run king” in baseball

• provided an idol to young people and a figurehead for america

jack dempsey

• united states prizefighter who was world heavyweight champion

frederick w. taylor

• engineer, inventor, and tennis player

• sought to eliminate wasted motion

• famous for scientific-management 

  • especially time-management studies

henry ford

• american businessman

  • founder of ford motor company

• father of modern assembly lines

• an inventor credited with 161 patents

charles a. lindbergh

• united states aviator who made the first solo nonstop flight across the atlantic (1927)

d. w. griffiths

• the “inventor of hollywood”

  • american film director

• pioneered modern film techniques

• directed “Birth of A Nation” → pro KKK

margaret sanger

• american leader of the movement to legalize birth control during the early 1900s

  • as a nurse in nyc, she had seen the suffering caused by unwanted pregnancy

• founded the first birth control clinic in the united states and the american birth control league (later became planned parenthood) 

sigmund freud

• austrian physician

• focused on the unconscious causes of behavior and personality formation

  • founded psychoanalysis

“jelly roll” morton

• african american pianist, composer, arranger, and band leader from new orleans

• bridged the gap between the piano styles of ragtime and jazz

  • first important jazz composer

h. l. mencken

• attacked patriotism, prohibition, and other timely topics in his monthly magazine, “The American Mercury”

f. scott fitzgerald

• wrote literature opposing society

• not famous then but is greatly known for his works such as The Great Gatsby

ernest hemingway

• “lost generation” writer

• spent much of his life in france, spain, and cuba during ww1

• notable work: A Farewell to Arms

sinclair lewis

• american novelist who satirized the middle-class america in his 22 works

  • Babbitt, Elmer Gantry

• first american to receive a nobel prize for literature

zora neale hurston

• african american writer and folklore scholar who played a key role in the harlem renaissance

claude mckay

• a poet who was a major figure in the harlem renaissance movement

• wrote the poem, “If We Must Die,” after the chicago riot of 1919

t. s. eliot

• poet who wrote “The Waste Land”

william faulkner

• novelist who used the stream-of-consciousness technique in The Sound of Fury 

  • whose intense drama is seen through the eyes of an idiot

langston hughes

• african american poet

• described the rich culture of african american life using rhythms influenced by jazz music

  • wrote of african american hope and defiance, as well as the culture of harlem

• had major impact on the harlem renaissance

marcus garvey

• african american leader who founded the universal negro improvement association (UNIA)

  • advocated mass migration of african americans back to africa

• deported to jamaica in 1927

edith wharton

• pulitzer prize-winning american author who wrote Ethan Frome

willa cather

• female american author who achieved recognition for her novels of frontier life on the great plains

  • O Pioneers!, My Antonia, and The Song of the Lark

• awarded the pulitzer prize in 1923 for “One of Ours” → novel set in ww1