American Yawp Chapter 22 The New Era

Return to Normalcy

Warren G. Harding's campaign promise to restore stability and normalcy to the United States after the turmoil of World War I and the Red Scare.

Teapot Dome Scandal

A corruption scandal during Harding's presidency in which government land in Wyoming was leased to oil companies in exchange for cash, leading to the resignation and conviction of several officials.

Calvin Coolidge

Vice President who succeeded Harding as president after his sudden death in 1923. Coolidge continued Harding's economic approach and supported business interests.

Herbert Hoover

Republican candidate who won the presidency in 1928. He focused on economic growth and prosperity, but his claims were overshadowed by the onset of the Great Depression.

Consumer Culture

The rise of consumerism in the 1920s, fueled by industrial expansion, department stores, mail-order catalogs, and the automobile industry.

Popular Culture

The emergence of a vibrant popular culture in the 1920s, characterized by the influence of automobiles, Hollywood films, jazz music, and radio broadcasts.

Escape from Society

The desire of many Americans in the 1920s to challenge and escape the constraints of a rapidly industrializing society, as reflected in literature and the pursuit of leisure activities.

Roadside Culture

The development of gas stations, diners, motels, and billboards along the roadside to cater to the growing number of drivers and travelers in the 1920s.

Roaring Twenties

A term used to describe the transformative and tumultuous decade of the 1920s, characterized by economic growth, social change, and cultural conflicts.

United States film industry dominance

By 1930, a few film companies controlled the global film industry, with immigrants, mostly of Jewish heritage, playing a significant role in founding and leading these companies.

Hollywood

Immigrants from central and Eastern Europe, particularly Jewish immigrants, played a crucial role in establishing Hollywood as the center of the American film industry.

American values in films

Immigrant filmmakers purposefully produced films that portrayed American values of opportunity, democracy, and freedom to counter the perception of cinema as lower-class entertainment.

Rise of longer and higher-quality films

Film moguls produced longer and higher-quality films to attract middle and upper-class audiences who had previously shunned the film industry.

Picture palaces

Moguls and entrepreneurs constructed luxurious theaters, known as picture palaces, to enhance the movie-watching experience and attract a wider audience.

Rise of radio

Radios became available in American homes around 1920, bringing entertainment directly into people's living rooms and spreading popular culture on a national level.

Jazz and radio

Jazz, a uniquely American musical style, spread primarily through radio stations and records, becoming a national sensation and enjoyed by both white and Black Americans.

Professional sports and radio

Play-by-play radio broadcasts of major sporting events, such as boxing matches and football games, marked a new era for sports and increased their popularity.

Babe Ruth

Babe Ruth, a baseball player, became a national icon and symbol of defying convention and breaking boundaries through his exceptional performance and home runs.

Charles Lindbergh

Charles Lindbergh's solo transatlantic flight in 1927 made him a hero and restored faith in individual effort and technological advancement.

The flapper

The flapper, characterized by bobbed hair, short skirts, makeup, cigarettes, and a carefree spirit, represented a new morality that permitted women greater independence, freedom of movement, and access to urban pleasures.

Contradictions in gender roles

The 1920s saw contradictions in gender roles, with increased opportunities for some women to work outside the home, but limitations and expectations still existed based on race, class, ethnicity, and marital status.

Changing workplace dynamics

Women entered lower-level jobs, such as clerical work, but faced a clear ceiling in terms of advancement and higher-level positions remaining dominated by men.

Impact of social changes on married women

Married women were expected to remain in the domestic sphere, and while they gained more power and autonomy through consumption, new household technologies and expectations tied them further to the home.

Changing attitudes towards sex

Attitudes towards sex continued to change in the 1920s, with an increase in premarital sexual activity among young, college-educated white women.

LGBTQ+ community in the 1920s

The gay community flourished in urban centers, although gay males faced increased policing, and increased sexualization of women brought new scrutiny to same-sex female relationships.

Jim Crow segregation

The system of racial segregation and discrimination against Black Americans in the United States, particularly in the South, from the late 19th century to the mid-20th century.

Lynching epidemic

The widespread and brutal extrajudicial killings of Black Americans, often by white mobs, primarily in the Southern states during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Red Summer

Refers to the summer of 1919, when racial violence and riots erupted in numerous cities across the United States, primarily targeting Black communities.

Black Wall Street

The nickname for the Greenwood District in Tulsa, Oklahoma, which was a prosperous and predominantly Black neighborhood known for its thriving businesses and economic success.

Harlem Renaissance

A cultural and intellectual movement that took place in Harlem, New York, during the 1920s, characterized by a flourishing of African American art, literature, music, and theater.

New Negro Movement

A term used to describe the cultural and intellectual awakening among African Americans during the 1920s, particularly in northern cities like New York City, where they sought to challenge racial stereotypes and assert their own identity and pride.

Marcus Garvey

A Jamaican-born leader and founder of the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA), who advocated for Black nationalism, racial pride, and economic independence for African Americans.

National Origins Act

A law passed in 1924 that established country-of-origin quotas for immigration to the United States, heavily favoring immigrants from northern European countries and effectively restricting immigration from other regions, particularly southern and Eastern Europe.

Christian fundamentalism

A religious movement that emerged in the early 20th century, characterized by a strict adherence to traditional Christian beliefs and a rejection of modernist interpretations of the Bible and secular culture.

Scopes Trial

A highly publicized trial that took place in 1925 in Dayton, Tennessee, in which a high school teacher, John T. Scopes, was prosecuted for teaching evolution in violation of a state law. The trial became a symbol of the clash between religious fundamentalism and modern scientific theories.

Clarence Darrow

An agnostic attorney and liberal mind from Chicago who volunteered to aid the defense in the Scopes Trial.

William Jennings Bryan

The three-time presidential candidate who defended biblical literalism in the Scopes Trial.

Scopes Trial

A trial that dealt with questions of religious liberty, academic freedom, parental rights, and the moral responsibility of education.

Evolutionary theory

The theory of evolution, which emphasizes the survival of the fittest and was a central topic in the Scopes Trial.

Ku Klux Klan (KKK)

A white supremacist organization that expanded beyond its anti-Black politics to claim to protect American values and the American way of life.

Leo Frank

The lynching of Leo Frank in 1915, which inspired the rebirth of the Ku Klux Klan.

The Birth of a Nation

A popular film released in 1915 that valorized the Reconstruction Era Klan and contributed to the rebirth of the Ku Klux Klan.

Women of the Ku Klux Klan

The women's auxiliary of the Ku Klux Klan, which mirrored the KKK in practice and ideology.

Second Ku Klux Klan

The "second" Ku Klux Klan, organized by Colonel William Joseph Simmons in Georgia in 1915 and later expanded across the country.

Great Depression

The economic downturn that followed the Roaring Twenties and brought about widespread poverty and despair.