Cambridge AS Chapter 29A

Bolshevik Revolution

The 1917 Communist revolution in Russia that overthrew the Tsarist regime, leading to the creation of the USSR and sparking intense fear of radicalism and communism (the Red Scare) in the United States.

Red Scare

A period of intense anti-communist fervor and hysteria in the U.S. (1919-1920) characterized by the persecution of radicals and the deportation of suspected 'subversives' during the Palmer Raids.

Criminal Syndicalism Laws

State-level legislation passed during the Red Scare that made it illegal to advocate the use of violence or unlawful methods to achieve social or political change.

American Plan

A strategy adopted by business leaders in the 1920s to combat labor unions by promoting the 'open shop' as a patriotic alternative to the union-mandated 'closed shop'.

Immigration Act of 1924

A restrictive federal law that established immigrant quotas based on the 1890 census; it favored Northern and Western Europeans, strictly limited Southern and Eastern Europeans, and completely barred Japanese immigration.

18th Amendment

Ratified in 1919, this constitutional amendment prohibited the manufacture, sale, and transportation of intoxicating liquors, effectively beginning the Prohibition era.

Volstead Act

The 1919 federal law passed to provide the legal framework and enforcement mechanisms required to uphold the 18th Amendment.

Racketeers

Individuals associated with organized crime who engaged in illegal business activities—such as bootlegging, gambling, and extortion—often thriving due to the black market created by Prohibition.

Bible Belt

The region of the American South where Protestant Fundamentalism and a literal interpretation of the Bible were most deeply entrenched in both culture and law.

Fundamentalism

A conservative Protestant movement that rejected modern science and secularism, insisting on the literal truth of the Bible, particularly regarding the creation story.

Scientific Management

Also known as 'Taylorism,' this system focused on improving industrial efficiency by breaking down tasks into simple, standardized motions to increase worker productivity.

Fordism

A system of large-scale mass production combined with higher wages for workers, centered around the moving assembly line perfected by the Ford Motor Company.

United Negro Improvement Association

An organization founded by Marcus Garvey that promoted Black nationalism, economic self-reliance, and the 'Back to Africa' movement for resettlement.

Modernism

A cultural and intellectual movement of the early 20th century that broke from traditional artistic and social standards in response to industrialization and the trauma of World War I.

Lost Generation

A group of disenchanted American writers and artists living in post-WWI Europe who felt alienated from the materialistic and provincial values of 1920s America.

Harlem Renaissance

A flowering of African American creative expression in literature, music, and art centered in Harlem, New York, which celebrated Black culture and racial pride.

Alexander Mitchell Palmer

The U.S. Attorney General who orchestrated the 'Palmer Raids' in 1919-1920, resulting in the mass arrest and deportation of suspected radicals, anarchists, and communists.

Nicola Sacco

An Italian-born anarchist convicted of murder and executed in 1927; his case is widely cited as an example of anti-immigrant and anti-radical prejudice in the American legal system.

Bartolomeo Vanzetti

An Italian anarchist executed alongside Nicola Sacco; his controversial trial and execution sparked international protests against perceived injustice.

Horace Kallen

A philosopher who opposed the 'melting pot' theory and advocated for 'cultural pluralism,' arguing that the U.S. should be a federation of diverse ethnic groups retaining their distinct heritages.

Randolph Bourne

An intellectual who criticized forced assimilation and envisioned a 'trans-national' America where different cultures would intertwine to create a pluralistic society.

Al Capone

A notorious Chicago gangster who led a massive organized crime syndicate, earning millions through illegal bootlegging and 'racketeering' during Prohibition.

John T. Scopes

A Tennessee high school teacher prosecuted in 1925 for teaching evolution, leading to the 'Monkey Trial' which symbolized the conflict between Modernism and Fundamentalism.

Frederick Taylor

An engineer known as the 'Father of Scientific Management' for developing time-and-motion studies to optimize industrial labor and efficiency.

Henry Ford

Industrialist and founder of the Ford Motor Company who pioneered the moving assembly line and made the automobile affordable for the masses through the Model T.

Charles A. Lindbergh

An aviator who became an international hero after completing the first solo nonstop transatlantic flight from New York to Paris in 1927.

Margaret Sanger

A nurse and leading birth control activist who advocated for reproductive rights and founded the American Birth Control League (the predecessor to Planned Parenthood).

Sigmund Freud

The Austrian founder of psychoanalysis whose theories on the unconscious mind and sexuality significantly influenced 1920s American thought and social behavior.

F. Scott Fitzgerald

A prominent author of the Jazz Age whose works, such as The Great Gatsby, explored themes of wealth, ambition, and the disillusionment of the American Dream.

Ernest Hemingway

A 'Lost Generation' writer known for his sparse prose style and novels like A Farewell to Arms that reflected the psychological toll of World War I.

T. S. Eliot

A poet who moved to England and wrote The Waste Land (1922), one of the defining works of Modernist literature portraying the fragmentation of post-war society.

William Faulkner

A Southern Modernist novelist known for using experimental techniques, such as stream-of-consciousness, to explore the history and burdens of the American South.

Langston Hughes

A central poet and writer of the Harlem Renaissance whose work captured the struggles, joys, and rhythms of African American life through 'jazz poetry'.