Unit 2 Part 2 (11) Key Terms

Herbert Hoover

Secretary of Commerce in the 1920s who encouraged business self-regulation; later elected 31st U.S. President in 1928, serving at the onset of the Great Depression.

Teapot Dome scandal

A 1920s political bribery scandal involving Secretary of the Interior Albert Fall, who leased Navy oil reserves at Teapot Dome, Wyoming, to private oilmen in exchange for bribes.

Calvin Coolidge

30th U.S. President (1923–1929) known for his quiet demeanor ("Silent Cal") and strong pro-business, laissez-faire economic policies.

Washington Naval Disarmament Conference

A 1921–1922 international conference that resulted in naval power limits and treaties aimed at maintaining stability in the Pacific.

Kellogg-Briand Pact

A 1928 international agreement signed by 62 nations that outlawed war as an instrument of national policy, though it lacked enforcement mechanisms.

Dawes Plan

A 1924 financial plan where U.S. banks loaned money to Germany so it could pay reparations to Britain and France, who then repaid their wartime debts to the U.S.

modernism

A cultural movement growing in the 1920s that emphasized secularism, scientific reasoning, and new artistic forms, breaking away from traditional religious and social values.

fundamentalism

A Protestant Christian religious movement emphasizing the literal truth of the Bible and opposing modern secular viewpoints like evolution.

Scopes Trial

A famous 1925 Tennessee court case ("Monkey Trial") testing the law prohibiting the teaching of Darwinian evolution in public schools, highlighting the conflict between modernism and fundamentalism.

Clarence Darrow

A celebrated defense attorney who represented biology teacher John Scopes and defended modern scientific views during the Scopes Trial.

William Jennings Bryan

A fundamentalist leader, three-time presidential candidate, and former Secretary of State who acted as special prosecutor in the Scopes Trial.

Red Scare

A post-WWI wave of nationwide fear and paranoia that political radicals, anarchists, and Bolshevik (communist) revolutionaries were plotting to overthrow the U.S. government.

Palmer Raids

A series of 1919–1920 law enforcement actions directed by Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer that arrested and deported suspected foreign radicals without due process.

Nicola Sacco

Italian immigrant and self-proclaimed anarchists convicted and executed for murder in 1927 in a highly controversial trial influenced by anti-immigrant and anti-radical bias.

Bartolomeo Vanzetti

Italian immigrant and self-proclaimed anarchists convicted and executed for murder in 1927 in a highly controversial trial influenced by anti-immigrant and anti-radical bias.

eugenics

A now-discredited pseudo-science popular in the early 20th century that advocated selective breeding to improve the genetic quality of the human population, often used to justify racism and immigration restriction.

quota system

Post-WWI U.S. legislation (such as the Emergency Quota Act of 1921 and National Origins Act of 1924) establishing strict limits on the number of immigrants allowed into the U.S. from specific nations, primarily targeting Southern and Eastern Europeans.

Ku Klux Klan

A revived white supremacist group that expanded rapidly in the 1920s, targeting not only African Americans but also Catholics, Jews, and foreign-born immigrants.

Prohibition

The constitutional ban on the manufacture, sale, and transportation of alcoholic beverages in the U.S. from 1920 to 1933.

Eighteenth Amendment

The 1919 constitutional amendment that officially established nationwide Prohibition.

Volstead Act

The federal law passed by Congress to enforce the 18th Amendment, defining alcoholic beverages and establishing penalties for violations.

Bootleggers

Individuals who illegally manufactured, smuggled, or sold alcohol during Prohibition.

Charlie Chaplin

A iconic English silent film comedian and actor famous for his worldwide onscreen persona, "The Tramp."

The Jazz Singer

The 1927 film starring Al Jolson that marked the birth of "talkies"—the first feature-length motion picture with synchronized speech and sound.

Babe Ruth

Legendary New York Yankees baseball slugger whose record-setting home runs transformed him into a national sports superstar during the 1920s.

Charles Lindbergh

An American aviator who became an international hero in 1927 by making the first solo, non-stop transatlantic flight from New York to Paris in the Spirit of St. Louis.

flapper

A 1920s young woman who challenged traditional norms by wearing short skirts, bobbed hair, listening to jazz, and adopting independent social habits.

Sigmund Freud

Austrian neurologist whose theories on human psychology—specifically subconscious desires and repressions—profoundly shaped 1920s cultural attitudes toward art, behavior, and sexuality.

“Lost Generation”

A term coined by Gertrude Stein describing American writers of the 1920s (such as Fitzgerald and Hemingway) who felt disillusioned by WWI and rejected American materialism.

F. Scott Fitzgerald

A "Lost Generation" author whose novels, including The Great Gatsby, depicted the wealth, glamour, and empty materialism of the Jazz Age.

Ernest Hemingway

A "Lost Generation" writer whose sparse prose style and novels (e.g., A Farewell to Arms) reflected the disillusionment, trauma, and moral void left by WWI.

Marcus Garvey

A Jamaican-born activist who promoted Pan-Africanism, Black pride, Black nationalism, and the "Back-to-Africa" movement through his Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA).

jazz

An original American musical genre originating in New Orleans among African Americans, characterized by improvisation, syncopated rhythms, and blues influence.

Louis Armstrong

A pioneering jazz trumpet player and vocalist whose virtuoso solos and improvisational style fundamentally shaped the development of jazz music.

Bessie Smith

Known as the "Empress of the Blues," she was the most popular female African American blues singer of the 1920s.

Harlem Renaissance

A flowering of African American artistic, literary, and musical creativity during the 1920s centered in Harlem, New York City.

Claude McKay

A Jamaican-American poet and novelist of the Harlem Renaissance whose militant writings urged African Americans to fight against racial prejudice and discrimination.

Langston Hughes

A leading poet and writer of the Harlem Renaissance whose works celebrated working-class African American life and cultural pride.

Zora Neale Hurston

A celebrated novelist, folklorist, and anthropologist of the Harlem Renaissance, best known for her novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, which documented rural Black Southern culture.