The Roaring Twenties Vocab

Clemency

the act of lessening a punishment

Sacco and Vanzetti Trial

a hotly protested criminal trial, held from 1920 to 1927, in which Italian immigrants Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were convicted of robbing and murdering two men and sentenced to death; many people believed that the trial was unfair and that the defendants were prosecuted because they were anarchists, not because they were guilty

Demobilization

the act of discharging forces from military service or use

recession

a period in which there is a decline in economic activity and prosperity

general strike

a strike, or worker stoppage intended to achieve a particular objective, conducted by the majority or workers in all of a region’s industries

communism

an economic or political system in which the state or the community owns all property and the means of production, and all citizens share the wealth

Red Scare

lasting from 1919 to 1920, a campaign launched by US Attorney General Mitchell Palmer and implemented by Justice Department Attorney J. Edgar Hoover to arrest communists and other radicals who promoted the overthrow of the US government, revived during the Cold War by Senator Joseph McCarthy during a period of anticommunism lasting from 1950-1957

Palmer Raids

conducted by Justice Department Attorney J. Edgar Hoover at the instruction of US Attorney General Mitchell Palmer, a series of unauthorized raids on homes, businesses, and meeting places of suspected subversives that resulted in the arrest of 6000 radicals, often without any evidence against them.

civil liberties

a basic right guaranteed to individual citizens by law

quota system

established by the Emergency Immigration Act of 1921, a system limiting immigration to the United States by permitting no more immigrants from a country than 3 percent of the number of that country’s residents living in the United States in 1910; the Immigration Act of 1924 reduced the quota to 2 percent of the number of a country’s residents living in the US in 1890

American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)

an organization founded in 1920 to defend Americans’ rights and freedoms as given in the Constitution

Back to Africa movement

a movement, led by Marcus Garvey during the 1910s and 1920s, that promoted the return of blacks living all over the world to Africa

anti-Semitism

policies, views, and actions that discriminate against Jewish people

Anti-Defamation League (ADL)

an organization founded in 1913 to halt the defamation, or attack on a person’s or group’s reputation or character, of the Jewish people and to ensure the fair treatment of all Americans

Normalcy

the concept of life as it was before WWI, when the nation could focus on its own domestic prosperity, which Republican candidate Warren G. Harding promoted during the 1920 presidential election campaign which helped him win the presidency

free enterprise system

an economic system that relies on private ownership of property, competition for profits, and the forces of supply and demand to produce needed goods and services and that discourages government regulation; also known as capitalism

fiscal policy

the approach of a government to taxes and government spending

Teapot Dome Scandal

a political scandal in which US Secretary of the Interior Albert Fall leased national oil reserves in Elk Hills, California, and Teapot Dome, Wyoming, to two companies that had bribed him

inheritance tax

a tax charged on assets inherited from someone who has died

isolationism

a government policy of not taking part in economic and political alliances or relations with other countries

disarmament

the process of reducing the number of weapons in a nation’s arsenal or the size of its armed forces

Washington Naval Conference

a 1921 international conference, including representatives of Britain, France, Italy, and Japan and hosted by the United States in Washington DC to discuss naval disarmament and resulting in agreements to discuss power conflicts in the Pacific, to reduce or limit the size of each nation’s navy, to regulate submarine use, and to end poison gas use

Kellogg-Briand Pact

an agreement made amongst most nations of the world in 1928 to try to settle international disputes by peaceful means rather than war

Dawes Plan

developed by banker Charles Dawes, a plan for Germany to pay reparations after WWI by receiving loans from the US

Consolidation

the merging of two businesses

holding company

a corporation that owns or controls other companies by buying up their stock

Florida Land Boom

a 1920s get-rich-quick scheme in which real estate developers sold many Florida coast lots, some undesirable, to speculators in other parts of the country, causing prices to rise rapidly

Speculator

a person who takes the risk of buying something in the hope of reselling it at a higher price

Dow Jones Industrial Average

a commonly used daily measure of stock prices

gross national product (GNP)

the total value of goods and services produced in a country in a year

Charleston

a dance that originated as an African American folk dance in the South and became popular throughout the US and Europe during the Roaring Twenties

Roaring Twenties

a nickname given to the 1920s because of the decade’s prosperity, technological advances, and cultural boom

consumer culture

a culture that views the consumption of large quantities of goods as beneficial to the economy and a source of personal happiness

credit

an arrangement for buying something now with borrowed money and paying off the loan over time

installment buying

an arrangement in which a buyer makes a down payment on a product to be purchased and the seller loans the remainder of the purchase price to the buyer; the purchaser must pay back the loan over time, in monthly installments, or the seller can reclaim the product

popular culture

the culture of ordinary people, including music, visual art, literature, and entertainment, that is shaped by industries that spread information and ideas, especially the mass media

League of Women Voters

formed in 1920, a grassroots organization created to influence government and public policy by educating voters about public issues

grassroots organization

an organization created and run by its members, as opposed to a strong central leader

equal rights amendment (ERA)

a proposed but unratified Constitutional amendment first introduced in 1923 by Alice Paul for the purpose of guaranteeing equal rights for all Americans regardless of sex

jazz

a music form developed by African Americans beginning in the 1910s and influenced by blues, ragtime, and European and African musical traditions

Jazz Age

the era during the 1920s in which jazz became increasingly popular in the US

Improvisation

a process by which musicians make up music as they play rather than relying solely on printed scores

Harlem Renaissance

an era of heightened creativity among American American writers, artists, and musicians who gathered in Harlem during the 1920s

Lost Generation

a group of young Americans, including E.E. Cummings, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, John Dos Passos, and Sherwood Anderson, who established themselves as prominent postwar writers during the 1920s

spectator sports

a sport that attracts a large number of fans

Traditionalists

a person who has deep respect for long held cultural and religious values

Modernists

a person who embraces new ideas, styles, and social trends

consumer price index

a measure of the cost of basic necessities such as food as housing

fundamentalism

the belief that scripture should be read as the literal word of God and followed without question

flappers

during the Roaring Twenties, a young woman who broke the traditional expectations for how women should dress and behave

Volstead Act

law passed by Congress in 1919 to enforce the 18th amendment, which prohibited the manufacture and sale of alcoholic beverages

Speakeasies

a secret club that sold alcohol during the era of prohibition

Bootlegging

the production, transport, and sale of illegal alcohol

theory of evolution

developed by naturalist Charles Darwin in the mid-1800s, a scientific theory that all plants and animals, including humans, evolved from simpler forms of life over thousands or millions of years

creationism

the belief that God created the universe

eugenics

the idea that the human species should be improved by permitting only people with certain characteristics judged desirable to reproduce

Scopes Trial

a criminal trial held in Dayton, Tennessee in 1925 that tested the constitutionality of a Tennessee law that banned the teaching of Darwin’s theory of evolution in schools; science teacher John Scopes was found guilty and fined for his conduct, leaving the Tennessee law intact.